Mystics - Explorers of the Dark

Mystics seek a connection with God.  They want contact.  I think of them with arms open to the sky in prayer, like the dishes at the Very Large Array.  I imagine the mystics sending signals via their spiritual telescopes, listening, hoping to hear a response.  God is out there.  Somewhere.  They know it. 

However, as there is no place where God is not, mystics turn inward.  They lower their arms in prayer and go deep, to the depths of their souls.  They search the heart.  Seeking.  Yearning.  Are you there, Lord?  Show yourself.  Give me a sign.    

Alas, like most people - at some point in their lives - mystics grow frustrated, unable to touch what they know and believe and experience to be true.  They are impatient.  And they want - what they want - when they want it.  Now.  Mystics are human. 

And they are great teachers.  These spiritual explorers teach us the key to faith.  They teach us to submit.  To be still.  To listen. 

Through the mystics we see, time and again, that God is found in absence and negation more than in presence...at least in how we experience being "present." 

Mystics move us from an understanding of God as "goodness and light" bright sunshine and happy times (and He is all these things) -

to darkness and stillness and the void.   These words evoke the negative.  We're afraid of the dark.  We're uncomfortable in silence.  We can't sit still.  It's hard to pray.

Now, I'm not saying that God is darkness.  I'm saying that, as there is no place where God is not, we'll never find God if we don't go exploring - from the heights of joy and happy noise - to the depths of our soul and silence.  Like the mystics, we often come to God in our darkest moments and ask...where are you?

 The mystics teach us that if you are quiet enough and patient, if you're listening, if you'll stop crying and fretting and freaking out, if you calm down and take a breath and be still - you will hear the answer.  And the answer is always - I AM here.  Right here.  Always have been.  Always will be. 

The mystics teach us that it is also in the fear, in the dark, and in the uncomfortable where we can find God.  They teach us that it will be okay.  All we have to do is sit still, in the silence, open our hearts...and wait.

It's not easy. 

It may take a lifetime. 

But it will be worth it.