The lady’s torment, seemingly, was
the inability to experience God in prayer:
“Beholding
me rowing with laborious toil, the breath of Your divine operations turned in
my favor and carried me full sail over this sea of affliction.”
~Madame Guyon (1648–1717)
Of course, we can all relate.
Times when God mysteriously vanished from all sensation and view, we were
perplexed, really, as to what to do.
The presumption of Madame Guyon’s
affliction is her inability to pray with gifted ease; to not have possessed
yet, although still only in her teen years, what two spiritual mentors
possessed with aplomb. And although our afflictions vary, they are just as
tortuous, for they appear impossible for us to be released from.
God’s Miracles – A Truly Marvellous
Paradox
Try as we might, as hard as we
can, taking care never to give up, we may be farther from our objective than
ever. Such an experience is infuriating. We deserve the thing we a richly want,
‘says’ the human mind for things.
But the thinking of God and the
ways of God are worlds, even realms, different.
What Madame Guyon experienced, and
what we too may have experienced, is the inexplicable miracle of God’s instant gifting. When all efforts ceased and she just came, bereft in her
tears, sullen to all effort, and wanting nothing other than God, God gave.
God’s miracles are transformative
in a world where the transformative is pricelessly rare. Miracles escape the
perception of nearly everyone, let alone their grasp. And just like happiness,
God’s miracles elude us the instant we insist on them. If we cannot order
humanity around and get what we want, how are we to order God around to get
what we want? God desires a particular heart. When that heart comes, God gives.
Understanding this, then, helps us
as we come before God, to request of the divine operation that shall carry us
over this sea of affliction.
When We Want Nothing Other Than God
The vehicle that carries us over
the sea of affliction is God himself. There are no methods, no trinkets, and no
programs that do it; only God.
And as we give ourselves over to
the divine operation, having nothing of ourselves left over to steer our ship,
and even as we experience the temporary misfortune of stormy despair, God breathes through us. Almost as if we rested on the stilled
ocean bottom, completely hopeless, God resurrects us in our perfect willingness
to commune.
This is a very difficult place to
get to, seemingly. But once we have arrived, once-for-all-time do we know how
to get back there. We now have the ticket-to-ride. And strangely enough God
brings us back there, periodically, as a sweetly glorious reminder of his
Presence. This is prayer in its most basic form.
One image: of God there, in the
midst of our affliction, with us. This image, this experience, just once, transforms our lives
forever. No future affliction will we meet the same way. Fear gives way to
faith. And faith is our new way.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
Graphic Credit: Fitz
Hugh Lane.
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