stripped

Monday August 17^th, Proverbs 9: Wisdom says to those who lack judgment. "Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of understanding. There is an old saying from the world war days, “there are no atheists in fox holes.”   It is simply the realization that when you have nothing left to hold onto, there is God.  The person in a fox hole, with bullets flying overhead, finds themselves stripped of all pretense of being in control and can finally hear the grace of God.   That is why the born again experience, while in practice in the 21^st century west, is a bit theologically suspect, it is also a powerful experience.  It is often the moment we hit bottom, when we find ourselves stripped of all pretenses, that we can finally see God who was there with open arms all along.  What we are open to learn at these times is the way of God.  It is very hard to teach someone who knows it all. The first step to hearing the word of God is to drop what you think it says.  Today we have a religious atmosphere in which the fundamentalists of all the major religions are busy fighting other fundamentalists, and sometimes calling them names like terrorists.  Fundamentalists see black and white, for us or against us.  It is the simple who see a sea of gray and are willing to ask God to help them navigate the ups and downs of life and know that God is with them through it all, who can see the face of God.