Only You
(Psalm 139)

OBSERVATION

"C.S. Lewis, in his book, 'The Problem of Pain', compares the process by which God transforms a human being through the life of faith to the domestication process of a dog. By nature a dog is wild, greedy, dirty, and undisciplined. We have to train him to live within a human family, to teach him a whole new set of signals and reactions. And,if the process is slow and painful to the trainer, it is a deeper agony for the puppy, who doesn't see the serious criminality of chewing the sofa cushion or wetting oriental rug.

The whole domestication process seems counter to his nature, but patience has its rewards and eventually there is effected a permanent elevation of his habits. In the end, he acts more like a human than a dog. He seems to be capable of affection; he is faithful, and even, in his own way, sociable. He seems to acquire the human qualities, the human traits that persevering training inculcates. It seems almost more natural for him to act like a human than like a dog. All the painful aspects of his training, especially the freightening and painful sessions in the tub of soap and water, are nothing compared to a new world of human enjoyments opened up to the little mongrel by human patience and sharing.

In a similar way, God's persevering efforts in us and in our lives have many painful moments, many baptisms of fire, sicknesses, loneliness, losses and failures (and mundane, routine, tedious details!) which we must pass through before we can enter into life, before a whole new world is opened up to us. There are moments when we feel just as miserable in the effort to be faithful to charity and prayer as the little puppy feels in the tub. We are often frightened and tremulous, and we really wonder and question what God is doing with us and our lives.

Jesus encouraged us to be vigilent, to wait for the hour of God that will come and will be repeated in our lives. 'Watch and pray,' he said, 'because no man knows the hour of God.' The loving hand of God is forever touching our lives, but there are special moments, the 'hours of God,' in which he touches us in a very special way and raises us to new heights of love, if we are open and willing.

One of the English Jesuit martyrs, on the eve of his martyrdom, said that 'the hour of God seems to come sometimes at the limit of human endurance.'"
(John Powell; "A reason to live! A reason to die!"; Tabor: California; 1972; pg. 127-128) (parenthesis mine)

UNDERSTANDING

Oh! How I long for the day when it is more natural for me to act like God, who is love, than to act like men; that I could see God working in me the miracles of gentleness, faithfulness, unselfishness, innocence, joy, and peace. And I know He does it through the long and slow process of faith that would transfigure me.

"The length and difficulty of the process by which a human being is transformed through the life of faith through on-going encounter with God is aptly suggested from Margery Williams' "The Velveteen Rabbit":

'What is REAL?' asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?'

'Real isn't how you are made,' said the Skin Horse. 'It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.'

'It doesn't happen all at once,' said the Skin Horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand.'"

Adapted from: John Powell; "A reason to live! A reason to die!"; Tabor: California; 1972; pg. 129-130

Yes. Only the love of Christ, the hour of God, revisited time and again, through baptisms of fire, sickness, loneliness, loss and failure, and mundane-routine-tedious details, could make us whole.

"Only you can make me whole. Only you can make my dreams come true..." I suppose these lines could be accorded to our dear Jesus just as well.

Would you join me in reciting David's prayer, asking God to continue that process of transformation in our lives?

"O Lord, Thou dost searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou dost understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, And art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, Thou dost know it all. Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, And laid Thy hand upon me...Where can I go from Thy Spirit? Or where can I flee from Thy presence?...For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother's womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them...Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me, And lead me in the everlasting way."
Psalm 139

TODAY'S MEDITATION

1. I Peter 4:1 mentioned "since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin." What do you think the "same purpose" here means? Also, the reason given for doing so is "because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin", what do you understand by this phrase? Does it mean when the process of suffering is over, the yoke of sin will also be broken in our lives? (Read also I Peter 3:17; 4:12-19)

2. Paul in Romans 8:18 said, "I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us." What do you think the "what we suffer at this present time" refers to? Does it refer to persecution which isn't apparent nor imminent yet in most of our lives? Or the agony of living in a world we aren't created for, such that we would "groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons" (Romans 8:22-23), in a world that could fill our lives with necessary evils and unnecessary evils, and legal sins and illegal sins? Have you ever wondered why you weren't absorbed into heaven the moment you received Christ but left on earth to 'suffer'?

3. Do you think the discharging of boring but necessary duties, the observance of mundane but required details, in our lives could qualify as a form of "trial" mentioned in James 1:12, as a form of "testing of faith" mentioned in James 1:3? For since whatever we do, we are to do our work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for man (Colossians 3:23), wouldn't the degree of our willingness to perform tasks, that we don't like but necessary, be a test of our faith in God, a test of our belief in His reality?