Daily Bread

‘I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

When I read this passage, like much of John's gospel, I have to do so slowly because it can feel a bit tangly or complicated. The reason for this is the interchangeability of Jesus and the Father and the Spirit. For example, in this this passage Jesus explains that he will speak to us through the Holy Spirit, but then goes on to explain that 'all the Father has is mine' meaning that he and the Father are one. It's the whole paradox of the Holy Trinity! God is three and one.

Anyway, the point is that the Spirit that has been given to us — this love that has been poured into our hearts — will make known to us the truths about God's plans for the world. I can only explain how this 'feels' from my own experience, and that is that when I've opened my heart to God, and I listen to that love that is in me, it aches and burns for justice, for peace, for community, for restoration, for healing, for nature, for harmony, and for equity. It feels like a heady, deep sense of longing for the world to be 'right'. Along with this is an acute sense of when things are not just and peaceful, where there is disharmony or disconnect, exclusivity or division. It's a bit like Spiderman's 'spidey' sense of simply 'knowing' something in my heart of hearts.

If I'm honest, sometimes it feels overwhelming — to feel what God feels, or to see the world through God's eyes —  but as this divine love permeates my soul, it drives me forward, and I try to live my life by this sense of God's will. I also feel it warring with my own pride, and my conscience gets pricked when I think, say, or act in any way that contravenes God's will, or where I deviate from the path of God's love.

When we become a Christian or follower of Jesus, we are no longer our own, but God's, and we all become directly connected to the source of all love, a love that draws us all to work together for the good of humanity and for the world — and it is not easy. The tide of the world is very much towards serving human interests and away from harmony with creation and with each other, but I have this hope within me. Yes, sometimes it feels futile or ineffective, but I am not on my own, for there are not just hundreds, thousands, or even millions of us, but hundreds of millions of us, all working together, all connected to God, and all imagining what the world would be like if we surrendered to God's eternal love.

Holy God
Help me to surrender to
your way of divine love,
and not only see creation
as you see it
but be an agent for
peace and reconciliation
in a broken and hurting world.
Now and forever