Thinking Anew:THE German theologian Paul Tillich suggests that God is inescapable, that he is God only because he is inescapable and "only that which is inescapable is God".
He is reflecting on the words of Psalm 139: “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me. . .”
Tillich suggests that for a time we may be able to exclude God from our consciousness, even to argue convincingly of his non-existence and appear to manage quite well without him; but ultimately, “there is no escape from God through forgetfulness”.
The desert experience of Jesus, the background to the season of Lent, is about the exclusion of God. The three temptations faced by Jesus imply that life is better without God: that wealth, power and success are on offer when the distraction of a spoilsport God is put to one side. Some who live in what they consider to be the “real” world think like that.
Jesus in the wilderness shows us how wrong that can be; that what is on offer is an illusion.
His experience suggests that it is a mistake to see the desert as a futile, empty space; for him it was a place of critical decision-making. This is important because we all have desert moments when, as a prayer puts it, the world seems empty of God’s presence.
There are many people throughout this country today in deserts of shattered dreams through job losses and other disappointments. The gospel suggests that, while the desert is never an easy place, it need not be an empty place, because it is often there that real priorities are recognised and new direction found.
One of the challenges of the spiritual life is to see God in everyday human happenings. Too often we are tempted to believe only in ourselves and to value only ourselves for much of the time. We keep God on the margins, reserved for emergencies. That was the case with solo yachtsman Tony Bullimore, who was rescued by the Australian navy in 1997 after four days in an air pocket underneath his capsized boat. Safely onshore, he was at pains to tell people that he was “not a religious man”, while admitting that he prayed during his ordeal.
Many of us do the same: we try to keep God on the margins while we get on with life, but when things go wrong we expect God to be there. Paul Tillich reminds us that occasional reality is not how it is with the “inescapable God”. The point is illustrated in Footprints, in which a man dreams he is walking on a beach, reflecting on the course of his life. For the most part he sees two sets of footprints; one is his own and the other he interprets as a sign of God at his side. However he notices that when things are difficult there is only one set of footprints visible. He challenges God: “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied: “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints is when I carried you.”
We live busy lives, full of distractions, but Lent comes with an invitation to “be still and know”, to get beyond our addiction to noise, words, endless activity and the things that obscure the reality of God’s presence, the true source of our wellbeing and peace of mind.
“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.” – St Augustine of Hippo.
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