joys & hopes, griefs & anxieties

Come in, let us bow and bend low
let us kneel before the God who made us
for we are His people
the flock that is led by His hand
Psalm 94


Every week brings its own joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties. It is inevitable that we hope for a week of joy. We run from grief. We seek to avoid anxiety.

In a moment of reflection you might look back over your life. In the events and experiences, you notice a good dose of anxiety. But there has been joy too. On looking into these moments (with the unpressured perspective of hindsight) you notice that what seemed like a happy event at the time, did not deliver the life-long relief that it promised. Then you notice that the moments you called grief and anxiety, bore rich fruit.

This awareness is a moment of great hope for the human person.

If we are oblivious to this learning, we will become victims of our compulsions. Every word and action will be decided by what seems to promise the most satisfaction. We will be unavoidably driven to steer away from whatever has an appearance of suffering.

Such a life is not a life at all, for this is the existence of a robot. There is no freedom. My instincts and urges have free reign. My fears drive me. My moods are my master.

If you recognise something of yourself in these words, what are you to do? What is the best way to escape this captivity?

Many people who become aware of their lack of freedom seek counselling or therapy. This is a helpful step since it reveals the sincerity of the desire for freedom.

Others discover tools and techniques to retrain themselves in ways of thinking and behaving that are their own choice rather than the impositions of upbringing and culture. Again the depth of desire for freedom is revealed in this commitment to change.

But in these good and well-intentioned projects, it is possible to avoid the central and essential fact. Humans are powerless without God. While discipline and dedication can bring about change in thinking, speech and behaviour, the transformation we seek is a gift from the God who loves us, and who tenderly embraces us and carries us in every moment.

From our own human experience we know that real transformation is effected only by love. In this experience the heart is transformed. Freedom is given and received. Now I move and think, speak and love as one who knows s/he is loved by the ultimate and eternal lover.

If you want to know the extent to which you are dependant on God, just take a moment to find your pulse. Can you feel that beat? You are not doing that? Every breath you take (note 'take' meaning 'receive', you are being given by God.

This awareness is fundamental to human life. We may be able to survive and exist, to cope or to endure without savouring this divine gift, but it is not possible to live oblivious to the fact of this ultimate gift. It is not possible to consider this gift, without being drawn in love to The ONE who has chose to give me this gift.

This awareness is not a thought or a doctrine. It is not a technique or a tool. This life is a relationship with Jesus who is 'God-with-us'.

And this relationship changes everything. We are never alone. We are never unloved.

Now I am unafraid, even in the midst of my griefs and anxieties I have the depth of joy and hope that can never be achieved by humam endeavour. Now, only because of my awareness of this ultimate and real love, I am finally free.

The natural posture for the human person in this awareness is humility. We are delighted to have been invited to 'come in, to bow and bend low, to kneel before the God who made us. For we are His people, the flock that is led by His hand.