Dear All of Us,
My daughter caught a cold.
When nursing six month old
Ollie The Younger,
she puts on a mask.
A plus health-wise,
but not so otherwise.
Ollie loves being held
and nourished by his Mom.
He also delights
in looking at her
and her looking at him.
Love Look
So, Ollie started reaching up
trying to pull away the mask.
The wisdom of the pure.
With a significant twist,
there's a reverse parallel
in our spiritual lives.
We love being in
God's embrace.
We delight in our
Face to Face
Love Look
God to us, us to God.
But masks get in the way.
The terrible twist is that
God isn't masked at all,
but we too often
fabricate masks
that we then impose
on God or ourselves.
(Technically, well really,
it's idolatry - fashioning
our own version of God and
our presence and openness
to God as God "IS"
and we actually are ).
Those masks frustrate our
face to face love with God.
They come in all sorts of
sizes and compositions.
What kinds of masks
do we and our culture
put in front of God's face
or our face?
It would be freeing
to regularly look in
our spiritual mirrors.
Some examples:
- Civil Religion,
God masked in a flag.
- Dense Denims of "Ism" -
me-ism, militarism,
consumer/consumption-ism?
- Drapings of superficial,
surface preoccupation
and stimulation
in our life styles,
dulling to opaqueness.
- Framing God in overly dogmatic,
ritual laden religion.
- Self serving feel good religion.
Just a few mask types that block
Love Look
Let's take a radically real look
at how we and our culture
haze over God and our
readiness for clear channel
Love Look
Let's do as Ollie does -
pull away those maskings
that get in the way.
Then we can clearly see
to share in God's
Love Look
Love isn't a controlled or
camouflaged encounter.
Love is face to face
union and rapture
and
"God is love."
( 1 John 4:8 )
So we pray and follow
the lead of the psalmist:
"You have said,
"Seek my face."
My heart says to you,
"Your face Lord,
do I seek."
For sure!
( Psalm 27:8 )
The Lord bless us
and keep us;
The Lord make his face
shine upon us,
and be gracious to us;
The Lord lift
his countenance
upon us,
and give us peace"
(Adaptation of
Numbers 6:24-26)
John Frank
frankly speaking
spirituality for the street
johnfrankshares.blogspot.com
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