That God

It is usual for people

to think of God

as Supreme Being,

the Lord and Master

of all Creation,

the omnipotent Higher Power

who is in charge

of everything.

Such a God

is separate from us,

transcendent,

above and beyond us and 

capable of giving us

good things

and bad things.

We naturally pray

for the good things we want

and for relief from the bad things

we don’t want. And usually

it doesn’t work.

We don’t get all

we want, and 

we get too much

of what we don’t want.

That transcendent,

omnipotent,

separate God

seems arbitrary 
at best.

And at worst?

At worst?

AT WORST?

That God?

Whose God

is that?

Ever have a crisis of faith? Recently? Now?

Or perhaps more of a slow erosion of its former landscape?

From what I can tell, the only way not to experience loss, erosion, queasiness of  faith is ultimately to choose a more comfortable idea of relationship with God over actual relationship with God.

Recently I've posted how helpful Gerald May's book The Dark Night of the Soul is for coming to terms with how necessarily challenging and unsettling our experience of God must be. Challenging, unsettling, and ultimately deep, true, nurturing, and joyous.

The poem above is another bit of May's wisdom, slightly modified and formatted as a poem.