The Great Mystery

There is something about working in the garden that makes me feel close to God. Maybe because it is so close to our true beginnings and so far away from anything man-made. Having your hands in the dirt and working with the soil is one of the most soothing things I have experienced. And what an amazing thing to put a little seed in the dirt and watch it over the weeks as something alive emmerges. And in a great year, watching the abundance flow out of that garden that started with just your hands in the soil and a tiny seed.

God speaks to us in several ways; through the bible, biblical teaching, and through what happens to us. When we listen with patience, faith, and hope and our hearts and minds open we can discern the guidance, comfort, and joy he shares with us. God also speaks to us through his creation, "Speak to the earth and it will teach you," Job 12:7-10. However, communication is a two way street. God can be sending a message that falls on deaf ears or that we are too busy to hear or too wrapped up in our own agenda to stop and listen. God talks about people in the bible who have hardened their heart. They no longer pay attention to God's messaging to them or to his prompting in their heart.

Maybe that is what happens in the garden. I slow down long enough to listen. You can move through the day in one of two ways. You can experience everything that happens to you on the surface, checking off one task at a time from sun up to sun down and never contemplating why or who or what; ignoring any tugs at your heart by something too great to fully comprehend. Or you can open your heart and hear God's direction all along the way. Have you lost touch with your inner story? That deep place inside which is most deeply yours that no one else can touch. Just you and the Lord.

Why do we ignore it? Why do we try to run from it or medicate it? Is it because the story not only contains mystery and magic but angst as well? "It woos us with romance and stalks us with fear."

Do you know what I am talking about? Were you able to connect with this chapter, Chapter 2 in "The Sacred Romance?" If you did, do you remember the first time you got a glimpse of the revelation of this Great Mystery -- this magical connection with something greater than yourself, something greater than your parents, than your whole family and neighborhood.

"Even in your hobbies there is something that secretly attracts you to it that others are curiously ignorant about. Something not to be completely identified with but always on the verge of revealing itself." Reminds me of when God told Moses he would allow his glory to pass by him, but he could not look at his face or he would surely die. Does God's glory pass by me in the garden as he prepares to turn those seeds into abundant fruit?

Do you let the Great Mystery touch your heart or have you been hiding? This study is asking you, giving you the permission to open up your heart again and let the Great Mystery touch your life. It is about waking up something inside of you that was revealed to you in your childhood -- something inside that wants to connect with this Great Mystery again. Something that may have been shut down with all the "shoulds" and obligations you have in this life you built. Think about it. . . when was the last time you felt the calling and stopped to listen?