For many years, I have held a prayer in my heart that each person would one day wake up and see that the world is aflame with the love of God, the Mystery at the center of all life and all things. I’ve felt this love. I’ve experienced its transforming reality. Could this be the “There” there?
While traveling the spiritual journey, I have sometimes asked, “Will I ever get there?” Some seasoned travelers have said to me, “There is no “There” there. This life is a journey, and we will always be striving for greater faithfulness and spiritual growth. Only God is God, and we should be grateful just to be walking the path.”
I agree. I also think there is more to the story. I think that finding ourselves in the “There,” even momentarily, is essential to keep us traveling the road. I’d like to suggest that “There” is a fully awake state of being, a receptive, open, God-filled gift that enables us to see the flames of God’s love lighting up all the world around and within us.
A few years ago, I started creating paintings of what I call God Beams. They are my small attempt to make the experience of God’s love visible. Some of the paintings look like mandalas with words written within the image. Some of them are images of bright colored sun bursts painted on photographs with short sentences in the beams. “See Me”; “I love you”; “Feed my sheep.” One of the paintings is entitled, “I Am Everywhere.” Another is a photo of a Friends Meeting House with sun bursts as God Beams all around. That painting is entitled, “Find Me Among the Quakers.”
Often in my daily worship I have a strong sense of the Living Presence. It’s as if this Presence has a physical quality, is a tangible Substance. It seems that I can touch it, taste it, even grab it—or does it grab me? One morning when I settled back down to be with this Substance, I said to it, “Now where did we leave off?” On that morning I received several messages. “What are you doing to increase your relationship with the Divine Within? Worship me longer, stronger, purer. Receive the guidance, surrender, and live it.” This inward communication often opens me to find myself in the “There.” It opens my inward and outward eyes. I feel touched and I feel loved. “There” is a new way of seeing. “There” is a new way of being. “There” is filled with bliss and cares about the struggles and sorrows of the world. “There” is a gift. “There” is Love.
How do we get to this “There”? I’ve often viewed the passage in Matthew’s Gospel about the narrow gate as a description of experiential prayer that takes us to the Deep Place where we feel we are with God. When I am able to truly settle in worship and shed my barriers to this inward communion, I enter through that narrow gate. Such inward prayer seems to require patience, trust, and a lot of self-honesty. Often this inward prayer is accompanied with a gentle invitation to abide in this Deep Place, though it’s challenging to stay there. Fortunately, my deep hunger and expectancy keep bringing me back. I long to be in this “There” with the Living Presence, more than just momentarily.
The gate is narrow, yet there is One who can lead us to it time and time again. This same One can help us to shed our baggage, even our greatest obstacle, our fear, to go through that Gate. God gives each of us a deep long thread of guidance that can take us right to this gate. It is a love thread, a forgiveness thread, a wisdom thread, a self-honesty thread, a take-away-the-fear thread, an eternity thread! Then we can go through the gate like all the great poets, mystics, and artists of the world, and see all the joyful magic that is “There.”
So, in response to my question posed for this article, I respond, it is possible to be “There” sometimes. It is possible to see the world renewed. These experiences of “There” help to keep me on the path. “There” is not linear. “There” is the Eternal Now.