God cares for you and wants to be real in your life

"How will God be real in my life?", you ask.

"I donno, where do you need for Him to be real?".

Sometimes He wants to be real in our sorrows
Sometimes He wants to be real in our joys

I don't think He ever wants to be real in our constructs

one man constructs a cathedral of stone
with high, high ceilings
great tapestries
windows of art and glass
holy sculptures of silver and gold
holy robes, holy music
and he stands in the center of what man has made
and his heart says, "this, this is where God is!"

and he feels peace

but
what happens to peace when the cathedrals fall

one woman constructs a cathedral of rules
with high, high motives
great moral reasonings
seeing herself as "good"
because she keeps her rules
gnats of rules swirl around her life
touching the way she dresses
touching the way she eats
touching the way she makes love to her husband

surrounded by rules and those who keep them
and her heart says, "this, this is where God is!"
and she feels peace

but
rooted in pride over her choice of rules
she cannot love those
who don't love her rules

another man seeks peace in money

or maybe not money
maybe status and power
in these things he seeks peace

ahh -- my status, my power
I have security
I have serenity

and his heart says, "This, this is where peace is!"
and he believes himself to be God
needing nothing

yet
the serenity of the strength of power is a brief illusion
and the fear comes at night
there is never enough
to give real peace

there is peace in God, but how to find it
how to find it if peace is not in our constructs

-- this is difficult and this is easy

it is difficult because it calls us to do what we cannot do
it is easy because God does what we cannot do

for the cathedral man to love the one
who disdains cathedrals
for the rule lady to have compassion and mercy
for those who cannot keep the rules
for Mr. Status
to give status to the broken one who has no power

it is a matter of the heart
we cannot will ourselves to have mercy, where we have no mercy for ourselves
we cannot make ourselves care for the unlovely
when we only care for things

the bible sez, "where your treasure is there will your heart be also".

if our cathedral is one of stone
so is our heart

the difficult part is to have a changed heart
and we cannot

only with God is it possible to have a changed heart

When you die to your cathedral
because God makes room in your heart to love those who don't love your cathedral
God becomes real
and when your cathedral falls
you know His peace
because you KNOW him

Beloved friend,

isn't the way to know God
to have him construct his dwelling
in your heart with high, high ceilings

07/17/2002

Author's Note: I am finding the easy God

Posted on 07/17/2002
Copyright © 2024 Carl Walker