The Contemplative Ebb and Flow
The contemplative life takes us deeper into life with God, but there is always an ebb and flow force at work, a natural inward and outward rhythm of knowing God associated with our willingness to yield ourselves to his grace and truth. Our cultural tendency, and sometimes the tendency of the church, is to quickly pull people outward into “active duty” to find their “gift”, even before they have fully explored what it means to know God and to recognize his voice and call. Invariably, this random activity labeled as “service” leaves us wondering if this is all there is to the spiritual life. Can we truly know and be known by God through an over-active schedule? The book of James says that faith without works is dead, true, but the opposite is also true, that works without faith are dead.
And so we may begin to journey inward, slowing down to explore our own stories, ask questions, find our truth “in the inward parts”, as David says in Psalm 51. And as we uncover that truth, and find God loving us in the midst of it all, invariably we will feel the nudge outward again, into the greater world, but this time informed by the Spirit work where the love of God changes our perspectives.
Over and over again we make this journey. Honestly, it’s a mystery as to who or what is ebbing or flowing. Is it God flowing over us and then ebbing away to reveal hidden bits of life for our contemplation while he carries away those parts that we have yielded to him into the great sea of love? Or is the ocean our inner life and the flow to the beach our outward reach into the world?
How you interpret the metaphor is up to you. Bottom line is we are simply connected to the Divine force that moves within us, calling us in and calling us out until we realize they really are one an the same thing. Just as the ocean is not separate from land and beach, so too we experience a coexistent union with God in the forming, reforming and transforming wonder of life.
How do you see it? How and when do you experience a sense of ebb and flow? Where are you today in that cycle with God? How has contemplation lead you to an active life? How has the active life lead you inward to seek God within your own heart?
