PART TWO
God is never satisfied with just part of our heart. God always wants more, the whole thing! Love is not about a little bit. All the problems in prayer are rooted in this divine attitude. We often are willing, and even are enthused, to bring God into some of our life. God has no real interest in an eight-hour day. The divine program is twenty-four seven. This is wildly beyond our grasp at the beginning. It is a long journey for us to learn how to let go of our control. We want to be in charge of how much time and what part of our life we will give to God. Both the “when” and the “how” of this venture definitely must happen on our terms.Enough said: deep personal prayer is about falling in love and love, no doubt, is a wonderful thing. It is, however, very costly. It always calls for a serious change in our personal schedule.
What constantly happens is the art of compromise. We end up in a program with God that includes our negotiables but we withhold our non-negotiables. We eventually learn that God is very patient with us. But in the end, God will have the last word. This is the ultimate reality for every human being. We are made to be one with God. This is our destiny. This is clearly the answer to the “Where are we going” question. Most often, we have to learn that the hard way. Nevertheless, God’s desire for our whole heart is not going to change. God’s love is just too strong, too focused and too intense to let us get away. God made us to be loved and to be one with God. God will have it no other way, no matter how hard we try to distract and re-direct the program according to our self-interest.
All human efforts to answer that basic inquiry of human existence will all fall short of God’s clear purpose. No matter how good they may appear, all human ingenuity that does not include our destiny to be one with God will fall short. In one way or another, they are based on the denial of death. For God, death is simply a change in the everlasting quest for love that God has determined for us.
- The Gospels are filled with sayings that attack our very human tendency to compromise with God.
- “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” (Mk 8:34)
- “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” (Mk 8:35)
- “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Mt 10:39)
