WHAT OF GOD THEN?

Rilke asked God what He will do when Rilke dies.

Who will call His name?

Who will beg His succor, then thank Him daily?

Who will praise Him? Need Him? Adore and despise Him on a regular basis?

Good question, Rainer. Did He ever answer?

I too have come to know God. I know longer seek Him, because I know that I know that I know where He resides; what He would have me know and do and be. Stupidly I sometimes choose to ignore His simplest requests. He knows me. It’s okay in the overall scheme of things.

It seemed enough to finally know; to say I know and truly mean it; to relax into that knowledge, and to wave off those who would interfere with my peace, my personal satisfaction, if you will, that I no longer need to debate the existence of my life and soul source -God. Believe It or Not. Get thee behind me, Satan. Go away, I say, Go away, Son, y’bother me (Foghorn Leghorn). I am comfortable with my God, and He with me.

There is a challenge within the knowledge, however. It is not enough to know that you know. You must DO something with the knowledge, or He might disappear. He might become nothing but a passing thought. His power and gifts may never again be requested, and so our collective strength will weakened.

Mein Gott, as I’ve written this I understand what Rilke was saying! He was not threatening God, not pretending he was himself God, but rather he understood that all power, might, love, friendship, community, prosperity, health – all require acknowledgement and celebration – nods of acknowledgement one of the other. God of Man and Man of God. Neither exists without the other. Both are essential. The chicken AND the egg are essential, each for each.

It is not that God made Man in His image, nor that man made God in his image. The image is not the thing! Life is the point of it all. Life and living it and acknowledging each other as we do so.

Oh, My, as George Takei would say, it might be time to re-read E.M.Forster, and Hesse and others my professors and friends have presented, and my old Bible, perchance. Not for the rules, but for the connection! I need to think on this further as an opportunity for tapping into the joy of it all, that we each define each other. Our strength morphs and grows as we believe in each other, and we each live and prosper.

Life is Good – Life is God

The concept has been in front of me all this time.

Amen.

May 29, 2022

suggested reading: Poem “What Will You Do/” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Short Story “The Point of It” by E.M. Forster