Northwest Yearly Meeting of Friends (Quakers)

2 Samuel 22:20—God brought me out into a spacious place; God rescued me because he delighted in me.

In my column in the last Connection, I noted one beautiful way scripture describes the experience of salvation by pointing to the Old Testament notion of “a spacious place.” This language of spaciousness is directly tied to the Hebrew vision of a God-directed life. I also suggested that shalom—peace with God, oneself, neighbor, enemy, and even creation—is central to the spacious way.

Such peace is much, much more than the absence of conflict. Rather, as it is imagined in its fullness, it is an unhindered, contented life lived before God and in the beloved community belonging to God. It is learning to live in the righteousness and justice of God in every sphere of one’s life, depending as we must on God’s overwhelming mercy for us to even make a start in this direction. In the Christian context, it is learning to walk in the fullness of our faith, becoming people of truth and a community of light, even as we live in an oftentimes faithless and dark world.

I am struck again and again by the “spacious place” verse found in 2 Samuel. Though directed in particular to David, I think the invitation is open to all of us: God bringing us into a spacious place, in part, because God delights in us.

I am not sure how many people actually find me delightful. Probably better that I not get an exact headcount…just for ego sake… Maybe my mom delighted in me while she was living, but then again, moms seem to have an extraordinary capacity to see beyond our blemishes, flaws, and histories. Maybe they always see us as their beloved child or manage to look at us and catch a glimpse of who we will become…when we grow up just a bit.

I wonder sometimes if this is somehow akin to how God views us, already delighting in us as his beloved creation and delighting in what awaits to be created in and through us, as we grow into the image of Christ our Lord. Scripture imagines, at times, God’s love toward us as being like a mother’s tender care for her child. Maybe God delighting in us is one way this is so.

Some of us, of course, did not grow up feeling very delightful. Maybe we were told we were no good, failures, worthless, beyond hope. Some may not have been told this in so many words, but the actions of others toward us led us to believe it was true. It is hard to recover from those early messages and lessons, especially when life choices reinforce a growing sense of worthlessness or rejection. Either way, too many people wind up gripped by self-doubt or self-hatred. Many, even though they can recite an orthodox view of Christian forgiveness, know nothing of the experience of being set free. They are shackled, instead, by guilt and remorse. Many, in my experience, sing hymns and choruses proclaiming God’s unmerited love, but in their heart-of-hearts really do not really believe it is meant for them.

I’ve known something of this struggle and recognize how the experience of God’s love—of God delighting in us—is an important doorway toward finding that spacious place where we can dwell in freedom.

An important spiritual discipline that I try to practice each day springs from an old Ignatian prayer exercise. In brief, the discipline is learning to see yourself as God sees you, not as others see you or as you think you are, but through the eyes of God whose love was showcased in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. In my experience, it means I spend enough time each day to come to that place where I know in my bones that God does, indeed, delight in me. Not because I deserve it. Not because I have earned it. But simply because God is good—and God’s mercy is overwhelming.

For me, this is a huge piece to learning to live in the spacious way. Grounded in the love of God, I am free to be and become the man God created and is creating me to be. Instead of believing those old lies that labeled me as unworthy, I know the truth. God has made me worthy. Instead of remaining chained to my past failures, I am set free to walk in the newness of life. No longer needing to prove myself to anyone else or live in fear of letting someone down, I can just be me. Maybe best of all, when I know I am a beloved child of God, I am much more apt to see you and treat you in the same light.

Questions to consider:

• What keeps me from fully living in an awareness of God’s delight in me?
• How would such an awareness change my outlook on life or how I treat others?

If you are interested in learning more about this practice,  read this description of the Ignatian prayer practice.