Monday, July 12

The teacher is here and is calling for you. When Mary heard this, she got up quickly and went to him.
—John 11:38

The Holy One is always wooing us to come near. Sometimes, the call is as clear as Mary's, then we know to get up quickly and go. More often, the call is more subtle. We sense a lack of balance, that all is not right within us, that life seems fragmented and beauty has disappeared from view. 

Sometimes the din of work drowns out peace and the business of living creeps over our soul like a shroud. We feel a kind of angst, ambivalence, anxiousness about the pattern of our days.

In the moment that we recognize the imbalance, we open ourselves to the enticement of God. With that openness, we have a choice. We can robotically return to life as we know it, or we can get up quickly in our soul and go to God. 

What will we find there? We will find God gently coaxing us to leave our preoccupations behind and enter into that sacred space where time is without end, and where communion with the Unseen One is the nourishment that alone can move us into a life of meaning. It might actually be good to sprint toward God the very second you sense that God is calling for you.

Lighten my feet from the confines of earth, O Lord, that I may run to you without delay. Unleash me from all that holds me down, and I will come quickly to your side. There let me find rest in the timelessness of your love.

These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2003.