Our sacred meeting place and essential purpose
(29.10.24)

Where do we go to find God? The bush? The chapel? The wilderness? An extended fast or pilgrimage?
No doubt God will find you in any or all of these places if you engage them with a seeking heart and a soft openness. However, it seems to me that the normal place that God meets us is always right where we are now. Yes, here in this ordinary and imperfect household, here in this ordinary job with all of its clunkiness and dysfunctionality of systems and people .
Right here in this nondescript neighbourhood and right here in the centre of my nondescript life. This of course is the meaning of the Incarnation – God comes to dwell with us in the life that we actually and already have. And God is not ashamed to dwell with us as we are, where we are, no need to tidy everything up and to pretend that we are calm, rationale and well-regulated folks, rather than the screaming mess we often or at least periodically actually are. Our very current situation (you know the one that we are trying to change or wishing would change) is in fact the perfect context for the current movement of God’s love towards and through us. So, it helps if we can turn towards our actual situation and circumstance in a spirit of loving hospitality and quiet faith. Acceptance. Embrace. Trusting that what God will do with us and in us and through us will be … just perfect.
But what is our purpose in life and how can we know it? Right now, my purpose in life is to craft this muse to the best of my ability. To be completely present to this message and to hold in my mind and heart those to whom I will send it. In an hour or so my purpose will be to prepare dinner for my household and to give my full attention and love to this small act of service. When the household gathers then my purpose in life is to be lovingly present to them. Following this other purposes will unfold and will include the quiet discipline of rest and sleep. Our purpose in life is, like Jesus, to be lovingly present to each person, task, invitation, and opportunity that comes our way as a result of travelling contemplatively along the backroads and byways of an ordinary life.
If, in the process of being our loving selves in everyday life, God decides to call us into a particular mission, an angel or two will appear to tell us about what the mission is. There will be no ambiguity. The bible is full of these kind of incidences from Moses to Mary, Ruth to Paul the apostle … if we are called in a particular direction the message will be clear and unmistakable. God likes to make it easy for us not hard. In the absence of the angels, assume that what you are doing and being right now is exactly what you are called to be doing and being right now. Embrace the simplicity and goodness of being you in an ordinary way. Peace will follow.
A message from the Author
