Child like simplicity

Matthew 11: 25 - 27

....revealed them to babes....

Many of my friends who are at midlife...the afternoon of our lives....say that they find themselves being led to a place of 'letting go'. We know this is true of many things in life, like our material possessions, our careers and relationships and so on. But at midlife, it includes letting go of the way that God wants to meet us. Several people have told me that their spiritual approach is moving in a quieter direction. They are praying with fewer words, they are finding nourishment in just 'being' with God, rather than 'doing' for God, and are faced with paradoxes in the spiritual realm......previously there was greater nourishment from using the 'mind' and 'felt feelings' in prayer and spiritual disciplines. This is not to say we have stored away our mind and emotions - but that these are no longer the primary ways that we are invited to relate with God.

There is a struggle in all this if we do not understand the meaning behind these changes. We prefer to cling to what worked before and struggle to get back to that stage. But God in his wisdom invites us to let go of all created things that mediate his presence and trust his meeting us in the depths of our hearts.

Jesus often reminded those who were full of 'religion' - the 'wise and learned' - that they may lose out in the end because there is only that far that their fullness goes. No mind/ heart can fully grasp or contain God. And the story is told of a learned man who went to a Zen master to seek wisdom. The master invited him to tea and started pouring into his cup. The master poured and poured until the tea overflowed. The learned man protested......The master used it as an object lesson - that when we are overfull - we cannot contain any more. Babes will feed when they are hungry - no more, no less. They trust their mother to feed what they need, to give what will satisfy. Jesus asks for babe - like receptiveness to spiritual things. We who have long outgrown diapers have to humbly embrace (spiritual) dependence again in order to receive true nourishment.