Hunger

I was talking with a friend a few days ago, and she was in tears. She explained that she was working so hard on her spirituality and growth, but that God did not seem to be there for her. She said, “I so deeply yearn for His Presence, yet He is not there.”

As I was listening, my mind was also jumping around all over (which it usually does). I recalled some of the writings of the German mystic Meister Eckhart. One of the ways to God he described was called the “Via Negativa,” literally the “negative road.” He explained that on this path or this part of the path God expressed His presence through His absence. No, he was not doing double talk. What I think he was saying is that God is expressing His presence through the power of our yearning.

That is exactly what I told my friend, “Sometimes God expresses Himself through the deepest yearnings of your heart,” and she got it.

 

I think she got it because she knew I wasn’t just spouting off words. She knew that I knew that truth from experience as well.

There are times in my life when God is a hunger and the most important thing in my life, and then there are other times when I take that loving presence and that infinite grace for granted, and so far it is in the hunger that I do my best learning.

Can I yearn for God as much when I am full as when I am empty?

 

 

 
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