Saint Paul (Philippians 2:7) spoke of Jesus emptying himself, voluntarily taking the form of a servant to conceal his divine glory. It is remarkable how much self-emptying we all experience as we grow older. If we have built ourselves up in the first half of our life, acquiring skills, lovers, possessions, reputation or power - whether on a small domestic or on a larger scale - the time comes when we start to mislay or shed them. We lose those we have loved, find that our knowledge or skills become obsolete, or our memories unsure. Our reputation, our possessions, our power may slip away from us. Saint John of the Cross, writing The Dark Night of the Soul, saw God's action in all this; as ego recedes, God can fill our hearts.
Trop est avare รก qui Dieu ne suffit. (You're too greedy if God is not enough for you.)
The reality is that whether you are a kid, a young adult, in the prime, or "over the hill"...life constantly provides experiences where we our hopes and expectations are pressed thin...peeled away. What then remains? Frustration and sadness...even anger and resentment...unless we lean totally towards God's presence in the midst of what is challenging us. God alone can move us into acceptance...abundant ease...contentment and even gratitude when what we want (and think we need)cannot be.
Impossible? For most of us, most of the time, it IS impossible to be "well" when life as we wish or hope it to be takes a sudden shift... When something is being taken from us, our tendency is to cling to whatever shred of what we value remains.
The more that we cling to whatever we have set our sites on, the more power our ego asserts to judge this or that situation as undesirable.
When we notice something being peeled away by illness, injury, or time's passage can we loosen our hold even more? It is about surrender...It is about looking gently at what is THERE (including grief over what has been removed) rather than what we thought would be there. Is God enough?
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