Developing Object Permanence With God
Mar 07
Our six-month old baby, Sarah, gets super excited every time she sees me. One of those times when her eyes seemed totally locked onto me, I wondered, “Why is it that my presence gets her so excited?”
I had many explanations. And I was also reminded that babies don’t have a concept of object permanence. When something they see disappears, they don’t understand that it continues to exist. I realized that Sarah must think this way of me too. Every time I returned, she became excited.
Then I wondered, “How much of a spiritual baby am I?” I seem to lack object permanence when it comes to God. When I “see” Him, I get so excited. But when I don’t see Him, it’s like He doesn’t even exist anymore. I just go on with my life with no thought of Him whatsoever.
How can I develop object permanence with God? How can I be reminded that God continues to exist, even when I don’t see Him?
I like this post.
This is actually where belonging to a more Liturgical church (Roman Catholic) helps me. There are things we believe just are regardless of how we feel about them or whether we have any kind of associated spiritual experience. Anyway, I’ve recently made a transition from a rather long period where God felt more distant and where a lot of spirituality felt quite frankly irrelevant to a point where I am actually experiencing God’s presence in a more tangible way.
During the earlier time, I pretty much went through the motions of going to church, participating, receiving the Sacraments, fulfilling my duties and obligations, serving at church, and not really feeling like it was doing anything for me, but understanding that God was still honoring my commitment and efforts, and having faith that He was still working inside my heart and all that good stuff.
I’m not saying you have to belong to a Liturgical tradition, but during the dry times, simple things like the particular color the priest is wearing, the candles, the particular Scripture readings chosen for that week, the predictable order of the Mass and all the visual symbolism can actually mean a lot–can become something tangible you hold onto that keeps you anchored when your heart and mind just can’t or won’t do it.
I hear you.
This is where coming from a Pentecostal background (in contrast to the liturgical background) is a disadvantage. In more experiential services it’s implied that if God is in the experience, then God is missing in the lack of experience. It was an epiphany when I realized that wasn’t the case, and that was a simple enough concept that figuring it out should not have reached the epiphany level.
In Screwtape Letters C.S. Lewis wrote about the concept of undulation where we go through up and down stages in our walk, and that the down stages are more important to our growth than the high ones.
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