Latest / The Providence Podcast / Spiritually Exhausted? Finding God in Overwhelming Times

Transcript

Spiritually Exhausted? Finding God in Overwhelming Times · The Providence Podcast

• 0:05
  Hey there, community, and welcome to the Providence
• 0:08
  Podcast. I'm sister Leslie and as always,
• 0:12
  I'm so glad you're here. This podcast is offered to you
• 0:16
  by the Sisters of Divine Providence of Kentucky through
• 0:19
  our outreach ministry called God Space.
• 0:22
  You can stay connected with godspace@godspacecommunity.com
• 0:26
  and you can even sign up for our newsletter.
• 0:30
  And please help a sister out by subscribing to this podcast and
• 0:35
  sharing it as much as you can. Speaking of sharing, we are
• 0:40
  mixing it up a little bit and trying to do some video
• 0:42
  episodes. And you can catch the video
• 0:45
  versions on YouTube and Spotify. Now let's get started with our
• 0:49
  scripture reading and go from there.
• 0:57
  A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
• 1:01
  When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after
• 1:06
  he had sat down, his disciples came to him.
• 1:10
  He began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit,
• 1:16
  for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
• 1:18
  Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.
• 1:22
  Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
• 1:27
  Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for
• 1:31
  they will be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for
• 1:35
  they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the Queen of hearts,
• 1:39
  for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for
• 1:44
  they will be called children of God.
• 1:48
  Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of
• 1:51
  righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.
• 1:55
  Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter
• 2:02
  every kind of evil against you falsely because of me.
• 2:07
  Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
• 2:14
  The Gospel, the good news of God.
• 2:16
  Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
• 2:21
  The readings for this Sunday touched me right from the first
• 2:24
  words, from the first reading from the prophet Zephaniah.
• 2:28
  Seek God. So I asked myself, what does it
• 2:34
  really mean to seek God, especially with so much evil and
• 2:39
  violence around us? You know, I consider myself to
• 2:45
  be a spiritual person, but to be honest, I find myself kind of
• 2:49
  running out of steam lately. Sometimes I'm just going through
• 2:52
  the motions in prayer, or I'm getting so distracted that I
• 2:57
  turn my attention to other stuff.
• 3:01
  And these days, with everything going on in the world, my first
• 3:04
  instinct hasn't always been to seek God in what's happening.
• 3:08
  I think, I think I'm just overwhelmed.
• 3:11
  And although it's in these times when I probably need to seek God
• 3:14
  the most, I also have the least amount of bandwidth to do it.
• 3:22
  But as I continued on with this reading, I saw that it also
• 3:26
  tells us to seek justice and humility.
• 3:31
  And it almost seems like it's equating the pursuit of justice
• 3:34
  and humility with the pursuit of God, or at least letting us know
• 3:38
  that seeking justice and humility are part of what it
• 3:41
  means to take refuge in God, Working to set things right in
• 3:46
  the world, working for equity and peace, and doing so with an
• 3:50
  earnest, authentic spirit. I mean, who knows?
• 3:54
  Maybe these are ways of moving toward God.
• 4:00
  Pursuing justice is a kind of work.
• 4:03
  I mean, a lot of work and humility is more of a
• 4:06
  disposition. And so I wonder if seeking God
• 4:10
  involves both action and attitude.
• 4:16
  And I think in the gospel Jesus spells it out pretty clearly.
• 4:19
  In the Beatitudes there are dispositions that bring us
• 4:23
  closer to God. He says blessed are the poor in
• 4:26
  spirit, the mourners, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for
• 4:32
  righteousness, people who are merciful, clean of hearts.
• 4:38
  And also, and maybe less directly, the Beatitudes do
• 4:43
  point to the work people do. Blessed are those who make peace
• 4:49
  in the world, those who work to bring about the reign of God.
• 4:54
  They're blessed even when they are persecuted for doing the
• 4:57
  good they're doing. So it seems like Jesus is
• 5:02
  calling us to not only take on these ways of being in the
• 5:05
  world, but to allow these ways of being to move us to do good
• 5:12
  in the world. When I'm poor in spirit and meek
• 5:16
  and merciful and all of these, then I'm also moved to work for
• 5:20
  peace, right? Even if it's hard, even if
• 5:24
  there's pushback and resistance, Maybe I should even expect
• 5:28
  pushback and resistance when I'm working for peace.
• 5:33
  However, despite opposition, working for God brings me to
• 5:40
  God. Also, even if there's resistance
• 5:45
  from some, there's also an enormous sense of solidarity and
• 5:49
  community from others. Personally, I'm seeking and
• 5:53
  finding God's presence in all those who are doing God's work
• 5:57
  right now. The news in my news feed are
• 6:00
  full of stories of violence and abuse of power, but they're also
• 6:06
  full of people's resistance to oppression.
• 6:12
  There are countless stories of people who may be meek and
• 6:15
  humble themselves, but who are also resolute and standing up
• 6:20
  for vulnerable people. There are people in Minnesota
• 6:23
  braving really terrible discomfort in order to advocate
• 6:26
  for immigrants and also for the greater cause of Freedom and
• 6:30
  Justice in our country. In many ways it's a terrible
• 6:33
  challenge and maybe even a terrible amount of work, but
• 6:37
  they persevere. God's presence is very clear to
• 6:41
  me in this work and in people all over the country who are
• 6:45
  peacefully protesting the misuse of power happening now.
• 6:49
  People are fascinating, aren't we?
• 6:53
  We can do some terrible things, mean and cruel things, but we
• 6:58
  can also show so much goodness and strength, generosity and
• 7:04
  care. And it's in these moments when
• 7:08
  the Spirit of the Holy One shines through so clearly.
• 7:15
  The thing is, when we seek God, we tend to find God because God
• 7:18
  wants to be found. And what then?
• 7:23
  Because finding God can be a beautifully profound experience
• 7:27
  of connection and comfort and peace, joy, all these and more.
• 7:33
  But at least for me, it usually doesn't end there.
• 7:40
  When I find God, even in a small glimmer of an encounter with the
• 7:44
  divine, there's there's also often an invitation that comes
• 7:50
  with it. God usually calls me to do
• 7:53
  something. So God extends a warm embrace
• 7:58
  and also an invitation to move beyond that encounter and allow
• 8:03
  it to transform me, allow it to deepen and increase my actions
• 8:08
  and ways of being and loving and serving.
• 8:12
  To be a Beatitude person. I need to respond to God's call
• 8:16
  to be more and do more. Responding to God's call is
• 8:24
  possible, but also hard. It's something that pushes me
• 8:29
  beyond my comfort or ease or assumptions to love more deeply
• 8:34
  and serve more fully. So if you, like me, are feeling
• 8:41
  discouraged these days, and I mean just bowed down with the
• 8:46
  weight of things, I hope you also find some encouragement in
• 8:51
  these words from scripture and in the good things happening
• 8:54
  around us. In fact, we are all part of the
• 8:58
  good things happening around us. This slow but sure movement from
• 9:03
  violence to peace, despair to hope, hate to love.
• 9:10
  God calls us to seek God because God desires good for us and from
• 9:15
  us. God desires us to have more of
• 9:19
  God. God is always seeking us, and
• 9:25
  maybe seeking God is simply turning to notice the gentle but
• 9:29
  profound force of goodness and light and love that's right here
• 9:32
  the whole time, behind me, beside me, within me, in you, in
• 9:38
  US. And are striving to bring God's
• 9:42
  raid into fulfillment. And in our rest, may we seek and
• 9:48
  find God the best we can. And when the sorrows of the
• 9:53
  world are many, may we know God's love and presence in each
• 9:57
  other. When we seek, we will find God.
• 10:04
  God always wants to be found. Amen.
• 10:15
  And now let's continue and maybe even deepen our reflection.
• 10:21
  When you hear the invitation to seek God, what rises up in you?
• 10:27
  Hope, resistance, fatigue, longing, or something else?
• 13:14
  Thanks for listening to the Providence Podcast.
• 13:17
  Hope you continue to stay connected with Godspace and of
• 13:21
  course, the Sisters of Divine Providence of Kentucky.
• 13:25
  As you continue your spiritual journey, may you notice all the
• 13:29
  ways that God cares for you and may we all take good care of
• 13:34
  each other. Peace.