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Rather than thinking about material things, such as window screens or movie screens, we can look at the kind of screen that involves the selection of people according to whatever criteria the screener has in mind. Just as screening sand through a mesh of the correct size keeps back all other materials that had been mixed with the sand, screening for people by some of their qualities separates out everyone else. The purpose of the process is exclusionary.
Does God screen us? For example, are we screened so that those who love others receive blessings and those who are selfish do not? Or does God sift us so that those who do good for others and maintain their own dignity pass through, and those who cause harm to others and to themselves remain behind? How we might answer the question depends upon our image of God. Those who are certain that they know how God behaves toward us can often find support in both Scriptures and in the traditions of the religious faith that is theirs. Others may not be as sure, and from the same Scriptures and religious traditions continue to ponder the mystery of God’s mercy and judgment without coming to an either/or conclusion.
Thinking about how God behaves concerning us can lead to the amusing idea that we, who hardly know ourselves, and who certainly do not know everything about even the person who is closest to us, can make pronouncements about God’s intentions. However, no matter what we presently think God might or might not do about screening us, we can start any search into the mystery of God with the most secure certainty of God as Love. How sick a religious faith would be if it imagined God wavering between love and meanness the way we do.
When we make the move from our minds into our hearts when pondering God’s relationship with us, peacefulness becomes the criteria for judging whether a thought about God’s behavior enhances or disturbs the graceful, sensitive awareness of God’s guiding action in our spirit that gives us certainty. We might not receive answers to questions that are more from curiosity than a heartfelt need to know. We might find, for example, that our concern is not so much about whether God screens us, as to know with a soul-satisfying knowledge that God loves us.
While we can readily accept God as having the final say as to everyone’s destiny, we will likely become uncomfortable at the thought of God being exclusionary. If peace of heart is restored by dropping the whole idea of God as “screener,” that will settle our question without a direct answer being truly required or given to us.
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In the United States, many universities and colleges offer a “Spring Break” to students, intended as a time of rest and recuperation from the rigors of intensive academic studies. The reality is often quite different, as when students engage in so many activities that they return to their studies more tired than when they left. However, there is wisdom in the ideal of taking an intentional pause amid even non-physical work, where the mind and emotions are especially involved.
If we have multiple responsibilities with work, family, and other commitments, we might find it difficult or nearly impossible to take a break of even a day or two, much less an entire week. Some are so occupied with events, activities, employment and memberships in various organizations that even the thought of taking a break does not occur. Yet, our human capacity for activity usually diminishes in efficiency as well as in any awareness of fulfilling our purpose in life if we do not require of ourselves whatever pauses, breaks, or changes each of us needs.
If we were to expect that life itself or other persons should provide the equivalent of a spring break for us, it is highly unlikely that the anticipated alterations in our ongoing activities would take place. Rather, we need to do for ourselves what no one else can do. That is, we are the only ones who can decide that we will take a needed break, even if the first is to ask God to show us the way forward. We can deliberately choose to begin doing whatever is possible in our present circumstances.
We and God are the only ones who know the real burdens we carry, and only God knows for certain the obligations that we have perhaps mistakenly taken upon ourselves with great good will but with an unrealistic estimate of our unique personal set of resources. We can always ask for discernment to better understand which belong and which do not.
Some of us are called by God, but also empowered, to carry on with a manner of life that no one else could possibly manage. The most important word is “we,” which means God and us. It is indeed a mysterious but real and loving way of life to lean on God to provide us with the inspirations and insights that will enable us to discover and utilize the kind of breaks, changes in thoughts, different ways of doing things that lighten our burdens and enable us to desist from irrelevant labors. God not only completely understands our present situation, but loves us as we are, including our unrecognized needs for God’s assistance.
The word “Lent” originally meant the season of Spring, a time for new life and growth, especially in our spirits. The best spring break for us might be to reflect on our need for a specific kind of pause that will benefit everything we do. It only takes a moment to turn consciously to God, whose loving presence is always reliably available and uniquely supportive. No appointments are necessary, and such moments will often alter for the good whatever we are doing or thinking of doing at that moment.
Everyone can opt for a spring break like this and do so many times a day rather than only once a year.
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A simple proposal or a simple answer to a question does not always turn out to be such in our experience. Some simple expressions are so profound that we can never fully comprehend all that is contained in them. If someone says, “Oh, it is a simple thing,” we might think that the subject is of little consequence. However, reflecting on our past experiences regarding “simple” will often reveal depths of meaning that we would not otherwise appreciate.
A simple act of kindness, such as giving an appropriate compliment or word of praise to someone, is a quite small deed, but we do not know or control its effects. Whatever we communicate might be received as the small gesture that we considered it to be, but, as we may recall from some occurrences in our own past, sometimes a simple act of kindness touched our minds and hearts so deeply and positively that is resonates with us now as we bring it to mind. Likewise, merely pointing out to another some quality or capability of theirs that seems obvious to us may occasion a moment of significant realization which that person had not acknowledged before. Such simple interchanges can have powerful consequences.
The most significant qualities of our lives are essentially simple: faith/trust, hope, and love. How we go about trusting God and others, and how we follow our beliefs is not simple, but there is nothing inherently complicated about them, for our minds and hearts are created such that from childhood through the present moment, these gifts have been available for instant use. We become more adept with applying them the more we exercise them, but they are not subject to entropy, and do not lose their power to affect us even if we do not employ them frequently.
There is no higher value in life than love. That is a simple truth, but the way we fashion our lives in consideration of love involves complex and deeply personal ongoing adjustments. None of us would say that it is a simple matter to live a life where love would always be our highest priority. Life itself seems to grow in complexity, presenting continuing challenges to us as we seek to find and enact love in all circumstances. In addition, the very word, love, takes on different meanings in various contexts. Yet, for all this, the movement in our minds and hearts towards love is simple. No other combination of thoughts and feelings resonate as fully with our spirits as does love.
Gratitude for these simple gifts is another example of that which is simple in essence. Everyone, at any time, can give thanks to God, and we can do likewise in many daily situations with others. How simple is that?
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We probably do not think of ourselves in terms of greatness, yet we might have great desires and many interior movements in which we aspire to greatness without that word or concept ever entering our minds. We often hear and may even use the word “great” as merely an expression of approval, as in “That is great news.” Similarly, we may apply the word in that sense to persons, saying that someone is simply great, or that what someone does is great. But we likely reserve our idea of true greatness for very few persons with whom we have personal experience.
The value in taking as real that there are some aspects of greatness available to all of us, and may at times be consciously our own intent, is that we will continue to grow and develop those characteristics or qualities, for they are ultimately gifts of God, who alone is great in the fullest sense of the word. So, if we have, and treat as real, some great desires to be good and loving persons, we will likely receive from God consoling graces that are the equivalent of one of us saying to another, “That’s good! Keep it up.” The sign, then, that some interior movement within us tends to greatness is an additional interior movement of peace, joy, or true contentment that will usually accompany thoughts or actions associated with our leanings toward greatness.
One kind of greatness is ascribed to famous public figures, some of them saintly, some of them not. They are accorded this term because of their deeds, whether wholly selfless like a Mother Theresa, or of benefit to some people but not to others like victorious military leaders. Another kind of greatness is closer to our experience, but much less visible to large numbers of people. Unlike famous athletes or media stars, those who are great in generally hidden circumstances includes all who generously and freely give of themselves for the benefit of others. Whether in music or art, engineering or managing, or in any other way, they do so according to a formula for greatness accessible to all: reliance on God for direction.
With so many options, pushes and pulls vying for our attention, it is of excellent practical consequences that we “check with God” about the exercise of our limited supply of time and energy. We are each given a unique and significant place in the world, which we can best live out one day at a time by continually keeping the implicit question open as to what we will do. God has no pre-programmed instructions for us, but Love has a usually gentle but sometimes insistent way of guiding us when we open our minds and hearts to inspiration and to the confirming signs of peace and joy.
It is great life, even if we say it is hard, when we give of ourselves as Love calls us to love.
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Lifting involves motion which is almost always upward and carries a positive connotation. It includes the common expression of giving “a lift” to someone, usually an invitation offered by the driver of a car. We have many practical uses for the word, as when we talk about lifting something off the floor or putting something on a lift to move it from one place to another. Often too, without the word forming in our minds, we decide to lift a burden that someone bears, whether of grief, worry, or a specific difficulty. We lift from, giving release. We do not lift anything onto someone.
How good it is when someone offers to lift even a small part of whatever might weigh on us, for even if we decline, we have already been lifted in spirit simply by receiving the offer, especially when we acknowledge the considerate intention of whoever proposed to act on our behalf. We thrive on such person-to-person movements because they enliven us. They also provide the basis of true human community.
We might have good reasons for turning down a specific offer, but when we respond with gratitude, we will also receive the lift to our spirits that was directed toward us. The gift of presence, one person attending to another, may at times seem trivial and not worth acknowledging. But we are not made to carry our problems and responsibilities by ourselves alone. Every kind intention of one person toward another enhances our lives when we accept them.
We are familiar with offering to others a lift of one kind or another, which we do because we see an opportunity to be helpful to someone, not for the sake of a grateful response. When the other person either accepts our offer, or thanks us for our good intentions, a mutual bond of human caring takes place. Imagine, then, what happens when we accept a lift from God. Not only do we receive needed assistance, but we are also affected by an experience of mutual presence: God with us. Gratitude is a natural response.
Sometimes we wisely ask for a lift of some kind from God and at other times we receive spontaneous offers from God. There is a significant difference between offers from our fellow humans and those that God inspires in our minds and hearts. No matter how good their intentions, no one knows for certain whether the lift that they propose truly matches a need of ours or accords with our mental and emotional dispositions at that moment. God’s love perceives unerringly not only whatever will be helpful to us but also the moment when we have the capacity to accept it. We always retain the freedom to turn the thought and feeling away, for nothing is demanded of us, but God will never stop offering them to us.
When God offers a lift, only good takes place when we accept.