Edging God Out

Book excerpt: According to a recent Gallup poll, nine in ten Americans believe in God. Yet how easily we can edge God out of our lives. This is what the ego does. Ego can stand for edging God out. We edge God out by being blind to the realities around us which cry out like a siren in the night for our attention. Our blurred vision needs healing so we can see with a wide angled lens. This will enable us to see that the worst of times can become the best of times when seen through the lens of the cross. By not listening to God, others, and our own bodies, we keep God below our radar screen. We listen more readily to the voices of materialism, consumerism and individualism. Some forty to sixty percent of our day is spent in listening, but how much do we actively listen? Sexual abuse, especially of children, is a horrible way to edge God out of our lives. Jesus showed us how to touch in a loving, caring, tender way. How many of us can show the highest kind of love by accepting Jesus' challenge by loving our enemies, doing good to those who hate us, and praying for those who mistreat us? We misuse our precious gift of speech by lying, detraction, slander, gossip, unjust anger. We edge God out by our failure to be involved in thorny justice issues like the environment, global warming, racism, sexism, militarism and immigration. How often we respond, "What can I do?" Instead of wringing our hands we need to open them up to others. The most ordinary things are drenched in divine possibility. But we become paralyzed by fear, failure and even death. We need to counteract all of this by spirited prayer which will prevent us from edging God out of our lives. God cannot be bothered to do for ourselves what we can do for ourselves. Prayer will enable us to see things in a new way, to think the unfamiliar, to accept the present moment even if it is disturbing.