Looking in the mirror
By Paul Ravenhill

How much have we, in our generation, denied the spiritual dimension of man?
How much have we denied the vast areas of spiritual knowledge which can only be known as we walk them through the pain, longing, seeking and questioning of our own experiences?

It seems that today we have reduced all spiritual life down to a simple process of following the rules - and limited the immensity of the life of the soul to a process similar to that of laboratory mice running through a maze by tripping switches and opening doors.

It seems that today we are trading the glory for an escape from the pain - eager to avoid suffering no matter what we lose.

Without the true spiritual dimension life becomes a mere "jumping through the hoops" - something to be fulfilled through a series of mechanical acts, which grow in our consciousness until they become the reason for our existence.

What of the "dark night of the soul"?
What of the God of the Psalms? - the God who passed His own through fire and blood and the bitterness of utter emptiness and despair.
What of the God whose treasures are too valuable to be so lightly bestowed as we would like to believe?

God desires for us to know His glory, but also wants us to know that the path of the spirit cannot be learned through the mind or by any mechanical theory. God's world is a spiritual world and we begin to understand the spiritual pathway that leads there when we come to places where all our theories don't fit. Only as we reach the place where "only God is left" can we start to find that higher realm where He quickens and where He teaches.

"Thy Kingdom come on earth" is, I believe, not only (and not first) for the world around but for the earth which we are - our lives! When He sheds the Light of His Presence within then we can "arise, shine" in the world which surrounds us.

As our desire leads us to press on through the darkness of the things not yet made manifest, God will cause us to know deep within how sure is His grace, how certain is His fulfillment. What we are, and what our world is, will disappear as we find ourselves in Him. The God whom we have known "graven in words and theories" will disappear and we will find our wondering eyes beholding Him as He is.

Copyright © 1998 by Paul Ravenhill - http://www.ravenhill.org/