Happy Easter! He is Risen! I asked you last time to think about how you understand the meaning of the spiritual life in light of Henri Nouwen’s belief that the whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry was “to bring us to the house of his Father,” not just having our sins forgiven and going to heaven when we die but being embraced into the life and love and relationship of the Trinity now. As we continue to think about our relationship with God, let’s add to the conversation the following ideas from contemplative author Thomas Keating.

Dovetailing with what we’ve already discussed concerning Western theology’s emphasis on doctrine, Keating notices how that way of spirituality leads to the perception of the “self-outside-of-God.” He states that early parts of the Christian tradition tended to focus on the “self-in-God, and God-in-self.” He says, “God is not just with us, not just beside us, not just under us, not just over us, but within us, at the deepest level.” I think we would all say we believe that God is within us, but have we thought much about what that means?

So, with Keating’s words in mind, I ask this unusual question: Where do you picture God spatially in relation to yourself when you’re praying? From talking with many people over the years, I think that most of us have a sense of God as somewhere external to us, whether it’s somewhere high and above us or close and sitting right next to us. Either way, it’s God outside of us and us outside of God. It’s not so much that this image is wrong—God does indeed fill the entire cosmos—it’s just that it’s incomplete, because in Christ and by the Spirit, God has also chosen to take up residence inside our innermost being (see Col. 1:26-27 and Eph. 3:16-19).

What might it be like to “relocate” Jesus from next to you to within you, to imaginatively picture Jesus joyfully dwelling within your deepest self, always present, always loving, always filling you with himself? Might it positively affect your relationship with God to see and engage the infinite God of love within your inner being? I’d love to hear what you think about this idea. Let’s walk together.

Happy Easter! He is Risen! As we continue celebrating Jesus’ resurrection, we resume thinking about what it means to have a personal relationship with this risen and very alive Savior.
 
Eastertide, the seven-week celebration of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, is an excellent time to remember the jaw-dropping, self-emptying nature of the One who came to restore us to full communion with Himself. Because the phrase “personal relationship with God” is used so often in church settings and we have heard it so many times, is it possible that we have become a bit desensitized to its breathtaking meaning? Do we forget how staggering it is to have intimate, one-to-one knowing of the eternally and infinitely loving and present God? Do we forget that this God so longed for us to know him and have face-to-face communion with him that he sent to us from his own heart—from within his own three-personed being—his only begotten Son (John 1:18)?
 
Author Henri Nouwen frames the astonishing truth: “The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry is to bring us to the house of his Father. Not only did Jesus come to free us from the bonds of sin and death, but he also came to lead us into the intimacy of his divine life [emphasis added]. …we forget that Jesus came to give us his own life. He came to lift us up into a loving community with the Father. Only when we recognize the radical purpose of Jesus’ ministry will we be able to understand the meaning of the spiritual life.”
 
So, how do you understand the meaning of the spiritual life? Does it include being embraced into a loving community—into the house of—the Triune God? How does your understanding dance with the words “a personal relationship with God”?