our incompleteness is the empty side of our longing for God and God’s love
Gerald May
[The kingdom’s] a long way off, but to get
there takes no time and admission
is free, if you will purge yourself
of desire, and present yourself with
your need only and the simple offering
of your faith, green as a leaf.
R.S.Thomas
Image: Daozi (aka Wang Min) (Chinese, 1956–), The Empty Chair on the Sea Ridge, 2018. Ink and color on paper
Our personal insufficiency does not make us unacceptable in God’s eyes. Far from it; our incompleteness is the empty side of our longing for God and God’s love. It is what draws us toward God and one another….[Our incompleteness is] a kind of spaciousness into which we can welcome the flow of grace.
Gerald May
Take time and be with your “neediness” –
rather than fight it, accept it as part of who you are,
“the empty side of our longing for God’.
God does not shame,
nor does God make us feel bad in order to be good.
God is good and wants our good –
so rest in this, bask in it, let it soak into your being, your attitude –
so that it becomes God’s first word top you – touching you into life.
Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit”, or in other words: “You are in the right place when you are poor in spirit”.
“Being in the ‘right place’ implies being poor, gentle, mourning, merciful, peaceable and persecuted- in other words, powerless, weak and vulnerable. How can that possibly be the ‘right place’? It is the right place because it makes no claims on anyone, not even on God. And it is then that God’s offer of love and wholeness, for the individual and the community, can be accepted. As it is accepted so the richness of the offer is revealed”.
Charles Elliott
The best prayer
Is to
rest in the
goodness of God
and to know that that goodness
can reach right down to
our lowest depth of need.
Julian of Norwich
The Crown of Thorns, Ink and gold on paper, 2018
The images in this post are of works by the Chinese artist Daozi (Wang Min).
Of his work The Crown of Thorns, Daozi writes
‘The Crown of Thorns takes the form of an altar triptych. Thorns, as a natural growth, a functional material, and then a sacred object, contain the mystery of the theology of suffering. It is wild and disorderly as a natural growth, corroding and shady as a functional material, but ever since it was raised to the cross, it became a witness to the Incarnation of the Word, and an existence that symbolizes order, wisdom, and glory.’ Source: Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art.
Professor Wang Min is a well-known art critic in China. He is a Member of the International Academy of Aesthetics. At Tsingua University, Wang Min teaches History of Modern and Contemporary Chinese Art and, Artistic Criticism Theory. He also serves as graduate supervisor in Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. As an artist, Daozi’s art reflects deep conviction. Daozi was imprisoned as a result of his participation in the 1989 Tian’anmen incident. During his detention, he experienced a significant shift in his personal religious beliefs. In a style he terms “Saintism,” he now uses painting to meditate.
Here is a beautiful song by Sting, called Empty Chair, that picks up the images of emptiness in this meditation.
If I should close my eyes
That my soul can see
And there’s a place at the table
That you saved for me
So many thousand miles
O’er land and sea
I hope to dare
That you hear my prayer
And somehow I’ll be there
There’s but a concrete floor
Where my head will lay
And the walls of this prison
Are as cold as clay
But there’s a shaft of light
Where I count my days
So don’t despair
Of the empty chair
And somehow I’ll be there
Some days I’m strong
Some days I’m weak
And days when I’m broken
I can barely speak
There’s a place in my head
Where my thoughts still roam
And somehow I’ve come home
And when the winter comes
And the trees lie bare
And you just stare out the window
In the darkness there
Well I was always late
For every meal, you’ll swear
But keep my place
And the empty chair
And somehow I’ll be there
And somehow I’ll be there
Music & Lyrics by J. Ralph & Sting © 2016
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click on the link below.
