The Rain of God
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Authors
Gillick, Larry, S.J.
Issue Date
2015-03-31
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Keywords
Glimpses by Fr. Gillick
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Abstract
If, or better said, when, I have a problem with my computer, I call our Help Desk here at Creighton University and they fix it quite quickly and well. I counted eleven different radio and television programs which deal with various problems.|There are financial, relational, medical, programs all centered around solving things. Cars, gardening, home-improvement and computers also have specific problem- solving programs. Everything can get fixed it seems. I have not, however, heard of any programs dealing with the problem we humans have with God.|There does not seem to be an available Help Desk for our questions about certain aspects of God, such as God's Will, God's Justice/Mercy conflict, God's creationality, that is, why did God allow evil as well as good. So we can come up with various theologies and theories, but we continue to stumble around with the unsolved. We have problems of all kinds with God, especially why God doesn't become more clear about Who God is really and why does God hide in the mystery of infinity.|On the other hand, God has a problem with us, a problem that God created, that is, our freedom, our free will. At times we would wish that God would intervene and make this or that happen. We would wish that God would send us little secret
notes about what to do or not do. At other times we love making our own decisions.|We say that if God loves us, then all will end up well no matter how stupid we are about our process of deciding. God's basic problem with us is our free will and of course there is a problem about whether our wills can ever be free.|I am writing this early in the morning and a thunder storm is getting my attention. I love the sound of rain and I have had to stop typing at times, just to open my window and enjoy. Is this a distraction? I take it as an attraction and a delight. Lately I have found myself taking notice of and praying with what delights me. Falling raindrops and the smells they offer are just one of many, when and if I take the time to listen and smell. I can fuss about how things ought to be and how this or that problem can be fixed. I have spent lots of time praying at God's Help Desk, that's for sure. I am moving more to consider and reflect on my personal Delight- desk. The whole thing is about how is God going to get my attention and draw me closer in the relationship which seems both important to God and problematic.|The gift God gave us of our own wills prevents the same God from forcing us to do or not do. As I mentioned above, I have been attending God's delight-desk during my prayer-time. If God wills my attentive relationship with God, then God has to send rain with its smells and sounds to me. Perhaps those do not delight you. So each of us has to pay attention to the things that delight us and allow them to form a personal pattern of God's will taking shape in our lives. We have five outward senses which deal with the taking in of things. Thousands of sense-bites are being sorted out by our bodies every day. I am finding myself nourished and enlivened by the ones which get my attention and lighten my spirit. If I can take in enough, I tend to be moved to want to live a little longer and deeper. I love being delighted.|Now you might be wondering about whether this sort of prayer is self-centered. God is centered on each one of us and comes courting us the same way a young lad attempts to get the awareness of his heart's-desired lovely lass. God comes to us according to how we get "come-to". This kind of prayer moves from our being selfish to our being more available to be a way that God delights others through us. See, the object of God's delighting us is our sharing in God's delighting others. Listening to the rain has assisted me in attempting to delight you. It is only a glimpse and darn, the rain has stopped.
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Creighton University, Online Ministries