Wednesday, May 7, 2008

My dearest God,

Deep speaks to the deep. We are not just any study group. We want more. Traveling together on the road of faith, we are willing to drop our backpacks and sit a spell. In the hot sun we pull out living water, drink from the vessel, feel its wondrous effects and then share from the well deep inside ourselves.

It is a wonder really. We are no longer satisfied with pat answers. In fact we are not searching for answers. We are searching for you. We have already passed through danger zones that say, "Beware. Warning." We have pushed beyond the barriers set up to keep us from our destination. We are doing it together.

There is an amazing freshness to this group. Some have already dropped their veils. Others are thinking about it. Trust has been building for weeks. We don't really need the veil after all.

We have already begun to personally explore other study books following this study. We want to know more, experience more, trust more, be more. We are two men and eleven women. We range in age from 49 to 80 something. We have lots of years of experience among us. All the better especially when we share the depth of our existence. We still have a long way to go to become totally transparent, to stop and count our fear and doubt, and share even more deeply.

We aren't ready to leave after an hour although that's what it started out to be. We remain seated after an hour and a half. I'm not sure how long we would stay. What if we were to have an all nighter, digging deeper with mystery tools that allow us to uncover yet another level of faith. What if we didn't have an ending? What if we just huddled together with our lighted cave helmets and kept going?

This is the most fun. When we are inclined to make a statement of how faith is, someone else questions it, allowing for deeper discussion. We are not interested in being stopped with some easy answer.

We will eventually enter the deeper darkness, learn the truth of doubt, and wonder. We will be stopped in our tracks, trying to make sense of darkness. We will ask yet deeper questions. We will find this trek unnerving, unsettling because we will question the limitation of our beliefs. We will ask you to lead our way because we will be afraid to travel deeper alone. What will we discover?

The spiritual pilgrimage
is a journey
into truth, love, hope,
peace and joy.
But the terrain
is dangerous.
Broken rocks
will topple
and fall
down the precarious ledges.
We will question
our safety.
We will question ourselves.
We will question
each other.
Questions
are good.
We will ask you
yet deeper questions.
We may even
weep away
our small, self-made answers
and beliefs
in order
to find the diamond
in the rough.
It won't look like
what we think.
Our preconceived notions
will have to checked
at the entrance,
allowing for the new
to speak its truth.
With picks and shovels,
we will follow you.
For you are
the diamond
we seek.

Loving you, Andrea