Just Knock

A very close friend's brother received some great news over the course of the last couple days: he is in remission. He was diagnosed with leukemia 4 or 5 months back. And a particularly nasty version of the malicious code, too. I am thrilled to hear that he is one step closer to expunging the corrupted script. As such, I thought to offer the following to God as a giving of thanks. As always with such subjects, it is best to implore the Holy Spirit (the Heavenly Muse) to help my pathetic self, with my human limitations, to rise above if only for a sentence.

Mt 7:7 Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

This is an oft-cited passage from the Book of Good News. And it is an incredible one.

What is meant by it?

I will begin by speaking of the very nature of God. He is timeless. Eternal. He is Truth. Eternal. He is All Good. Eternally so. He is irreducibly simple. He, quite simply, is. He is outside the binds of time or the tethers of space. He simply is. Forever, in both directions. A witness of the now outside of time. He is, was, will be... but all of these things concurrent. This explains his Omnipotence. His knowledge of all that is, was, will be. He transcends all in an infinite and static now. It is important to remove the concepts we are shackled to, such as time and space, in order to glimpse the reality of the Author. Again, we invoke Grace to make sense of the incomprehensible nature of God. We ask for illumination of the murky corners of our limited comprehension.

The trouble people have with God comes quite frequently from a complete misunderstanding of the promises of the Christ. They might comment that they knocked like hell for this or for that... and near as they can tell the Door was no opened. They asked and they did not receive. They sought and found nothing. They conclude that this most clearly articulated promise of Christ must be patent bullshit. And, they turn away still thirsting for a sip of Eternal Life.

Such is a good portion of the nature of man. Confined by his time and confounded by his place. He is, as near he can conceive, a fleeting being. Coursing through time and growing old in his shoes. But it is this very real sense of limitation which makes him give up. And give up too easily. He wants what he asks for. He wishes to find what he seeks. He wants the door opened to him when he knocks. But man wants what he wants, when he wants, and how he wants, because man believes he knows what is best. He believes that his-story is the only theme that matters. And damned be anyone who thinks to be wiser than he.

But God knows ALL. God knows what the larger theme is. He is the Beginning and the End, the Alpha and the Omega. He is the Composer. He is the Conductor. In the Silmarillion by JRR Tolkien, we find the following:

"...thou ... shalt see that no theme may be played that hath not its uttermost source in me, nor can any alter the music in my despite. For he that attempteth this shall prove but mine instrument in the devising of things more wonderful, which he himself hath not imagined."

For those who are not big Middle Earth fans, I beg you to read this book. It is one of the greatest essays on Creation and God that I have ever read. It bests Milton's Paradise Lost for the Modern Reader. In any event, we find that God has assembled his cosmic beings in order that they might carry out Creating the Universe. They will do so by singing, in unison, each his own unique theme, known only to himself. The unfurling of Creation takes place according to the intertwining themes... the Song of Creation. The Creation Song. But Malkor (aka Lucifer) has pride. And he begins to sing his own theme, in order that he might claim a portion of the Cosmic Design as his own. And therein darkness is permitted to seep into our universe.

When we knock, are we doing so as Malkor? Are we knocking and asking for what is in keeping with God's Plan? If we are, the door will be opened and we shall receive. This is a State of Grace. The knowing... the trusting... that if we seek that which is in keeping with God's Will, we will receive. State of Grace is interesting, in that the knocking, the asking, the seeking is a perpetual activity. It is not confined to events, happenings... time and/or space. It is not concerned with that which falls outside of God's Will. It is truly, sincerely asking, knocking, seeking as a State of Being... on the Good Days... on the Bad Days... on the Mediocre Days. If we truly desire to be a part of God's Chorus, we will surely find that we anticipate... we desire in a proper manner... We desire only that which is in keeping with God's Will. Or, if you prefer, we desire only that which God's plan includes. If we are able to step outside of the self... the selfishness... our Hummanness... if we stick to the theme imprinted on us... the unique theme within us, then the Door that we knock upon will be opened, that which we seek will be found, and that which we ask for will be provided us. It is our job to stick to the theme assigned us. To revel in it. And to lend our voice to the greater Theme, the Chorus of the Cosmos, to the Ultimate End which God alone knows... and for which we cannot and should not wish to corrupt.