There were two posters at an exhibition at the National Library last week which caught my eye. One poster posed questions with regard to the concept of "Place":
"Where does "PLACE" begin and end?"
"How much of a "PLACE" is found only in the MIND of the perceived?"
Another poster gave me new thoughts about "Space":
"Space is simultaneously personal, communal and impersonal."
These two posters led me to reflect more deeply on the Kingdom of God. What is our perception of God's Kingdom? Where does God's Kingdom begin and end in our lives? How much of God's Kingdom is found only in our minds?
We limit God's rule when His place in our lives is confined only to our Sunday worship and church activities during the week. Instead of putting on Christ when we leave church we take off Christ and put on the masks of our ego selves.
We are so preoccupied with our pursuit for health, wealth and pleasure that we forget that we are only pilgrims on this earth. We are so earthbound that we are not homesick for heaven. Even as we faithfully pray, "Your Kingdom come," our eyes are not opened to the reality of God's Kingdom in our daily lives in the here and now.
Jesus taught us that God's Kingdom is to be found in our hearts. So often, it is only when we face death that we seek God's Kingdom with all our heart. The good news is that Jesus came to help us to create space in our hearts for God. Like space, prayer is simultaneously personal, communal and impersonal.
We may feel at times feel that prayer is impersonal for we cannot see and hear God. But the hymn, What A Friend We Have In Jesus, teaches us that prayer is personal - and what peace we often forfeit when we fail to bring our concerns to our Lord in prayer. At the same time, prayer is communal as we pray for one another as it links us together in our concerns for one another and the world.
God's Kingdom is the space in our hearts and we need to receive it with the childlike attitude of trust and wonder. In the gospel of Luke, Jesus tells us very clearly:
“Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn’t receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it” (Luke 18:16-17)
We do not need more faith – we simply need to put whatever faith we have in God. We are to be like children who are able to believe what they cannot understand. Unfortunately, as we grow older, we lose our childlike wonder and we only believe what we can understand. How true it is that there are times when ignorance is bliss! The truth, as stated in the Upper Room devotional today is that “we don’t have to know the how to trust God with the what.”
Our responsibility is to learn to turn our worries, fears and anger to Christ so that we can see our circumstances through God’s eyes and to respond to them in the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of wasting our energies on trying to increase our faith in human ways, we are called to discover the movements of God in our daily and ordinary lives so that we can experience and enjoy His agape love. We will be filled with the inexpressible joy of our salvation when we submit to God’s reign in our lives by seeking to love Him more as our Heavenly Father instead of busying ourselves trying to win points to please Him.
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