{"id":3232,"date":"2013-02-05T09:00:42","date_gmt":"2013-02-05T17:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=3232"},"modified":"2013-08-26T17:15:32","modified_gmt":"2013-08-27T00:15:32","slug":"elders-god-is-big-on-heart-searches-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/elders-god-is-big-on-heart-searches-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Elders: God is BIG on heart-searches, too!"},"content":{"rendered":"

By the Rev. Paul Graves<\/em><\/p>\n

As I imagine him, the father looks to the horizon every time he comes out on the porch. Even when working the farmland with his older son, the old man glances up on occasion to look down the road.<\/p>\n

His young, restless hothead son really did it this time! Still, the father searches for him on the horizon, but mostly in his heart.<\/p>\n

Imagination is a helpful tool for us. But I doubt that any of us who are parents need much imagination activated to identify with that yearning to know our child\/children are safe, healthy, and maturing into more whole persons. Our hearts always seek for our children\u2019s wholeness.<\/p>\n

So why should God\u2019s heart be any different? As long as we choose to better seek God through human-centered images and feelings, let\u2019s assume God\u2019s heart works like ours, but more so. We hope God\u2019s heart is always searching for us on the horizon, always seeking our wholeness.<\/p>\n

So why do we even use language, or think thoughts suggesting God \u201cabandons\u201d us? I suppose it\u2019s partly because there are biblical stories of people who felt that way — abandoned by God. I suppose it\u2019s also because we\u2019ve had moments when we have truly felt abandoned by God.<\/p>\n

But what if our feelings weren\u2019t based on God-facts, and only on our own desperation? Would that make any difference to you?<\/p>\n

Look with me at a surprising twist to a familiar quote by John Wesley. In his sermon \u201cA Catholic Spirit\u201d, he utters a sentence used often by preachers and lay persons to make the point that we really can get along. \u201cIs your heart as my heart? (Then) Give me your hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two surprises in that quote:<\/p>\n

1) Those are not Wesley\u2019s original words: and
\n2) the original context for the quote is quite bloodthirsty. John took those words from II Kings 10, out of a story of two warrior-types in ancient Israel, Jehu and Jehonadab.<\/p>\n

As they destroyed people all around them they saw as enemies, when they encountered each other, there was an unidentified change of perception. So Jehu said, \u201cIs your heart right, as is my heart with your heart?\u201d To which Jehonadab replied, \u201cYes, it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it be, give me your hand,\u201d Jehu said. I\u2019m not sure if they saw in each other a common hatred for others, but that may have been the case.<\/p>\n

Yet John Wesley turned that vengeance-seeking heart quotation into an invitation to dialogue between persons who perhaps were \u201cenemies\u201d. He called upon people to seek their common hope, not their common hatred. He was seeking God\u2019s heart, for God had sought his.<\/p>\n

I sometimes struggle against the simplistic humanizing of God for what I hope are good reasons. Yet at the same time, the notion of Incarnation always draws me toward a better understanding of how God works in us and through us. \u201cIncarnation\u201d is the technical term, isn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n

While we can nitpick Incarnation nearly to death \u2013 \u201cit means this\u201d; \u201cno it means this\u201d \u2013 it does help us better understand God as we look ever more carefully at who Jesus was. Jesus used the Prodigal Son story to focus on a father\u2019s undeterred love.<\/p>\n

God\u2019s love is like that, the parable suggests.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we paradoxically search for God through our obsessions, our chronic distractions, even our religious devotion! But we just can\u2019t find God on those terms because we get in our way.<\/p>\n

In a way contradictory to our thinking, God searches for us by patiently waiting for us in plain sight. Even when we hide from God, or actively run from God, She is as close as our very breath, waiting for us to catch a glimpse of Her in the most ordinary of things.<\/p>\n

The prodigal father couldn\u2019t see his son until he was closer than the horizon. God sees us every moment of our lives, yearning for the moment when we stop working so hard, when we let go enough to just \u201csee\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Paul Graves serves as the chair for the Conference Council on Older Adult Ministries.<\/em>
\n This article was featured in Channels 60. Visit the archive, here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By the Rev. Paul Graves As I imagine him, the father looks to the horizon every time he comes out on the porch. Even when working the farmland with his older son, the old man glances up on occasion to look down the road. His young, restless hothead son really did it this time! Still, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":3237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,142],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3232","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-older-adult-ministries"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/COLUMNS_Elders2.jpg?fit=600%2C307&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-Q8","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3232"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3244,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3232\/revisions\/3244"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}