Good morning…
“It has been said that 90 percent of people seem to live 90 percent of their lives on cruise control, which is the unconscious,” writes Richard Rohr on page 90 of Falling Upward. “The Holy Spirit is that aspect of God that works largely from within and ‘secretly,’ at ‘the deepest levels of our desiring,’ as so many of the mystics have said. That’s why the mystical traditions could only resort to subtle metaphors like wind, fire, descending doves, and flowing water to describe the Spirit. More than anything else, the Spirit keeps us connected and safely inside an already existing flow, if we but allow it. We never ‘create’ or earn the Spirit, we discover this inner abiding as we learn to draw upon our deepest inner life. This utterly unified field is always given, as Annie Dillard said.”
“What is this utterly unified field?” I wonder to myself. “And who is Annie Dillard?”
I googled the phrase “Annie Dillard unified field” and, discovering a “goodreads” Quotable Quote, I am drawn deeper down.
“In the deeps are the violence and terror of which psychology has warned us. But if you ride these monsters deeper down, if you drop with them farther over the world’s rim, you find what our sciences cannot locate or name, the substrate, the ocean or matrix or ether which buoys the rest, which gives goodness its power for good, and evil its power for evil, the unified field: our complex and inexplicable caring for each other, and for our life together here. This is given. It is not learned.” ― Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters
Rohr and Dillard agree, we are buoyed by the utterly unified field, “our complex and inexplicable caring for each other,” our shared life with the Spirit. This is a gift given, not learned. Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:21-22, NIV).
Might we take our lives off of cruise control to heighten our conscious awareness? Beneath the violence and the terror drenching today’s newspapers is the good news of the Spirit. Deep beneath the surface of human hatred already exists our “complex and inexplicable” care for each other. Rising up from our deepest deep is the life giving power of God, if we but allow it.
Flipping the page in my tattered copy of Falling Upward, I am buoyed by God’s inner abiding flow. “The good news is that there is a guide, a kind of medical advocate, an inner compass – and it resides within each of us,” writes Rohr. “‘Included inside the box,’ as the ads always say. As the Scriptures put it, ‘The love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us’ (Romans 5:5).”
Might our finger click off of cruise control? Our foot is guided to the pedal, lifted into utter union with the loving Spirit of God.
…Sue…
