”We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...” (Romans 8:28).  That's an interesting statement.  It could have many meanings, and probably has different meanings to different people at different stages of their lives.

”We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...”  I think for most, what I would call traditional Christians', that is, people who grew up within a mainline or evangelical Christian church, and accepted the general teachings of their childhood denomination, this statement means that if you love God, then it'll all work out, because God will sort it our for you.  People who are able to hold this way of understanding these words exhibit a deep trusting faith in God, especially in God as the one who, like a heavenly parent, looks out for you and catches you when you fall.  Indeed, a lot of literature, as well as wall plaques, greeting cards, and Christian nicknacks bear messages that say approximately this: the one that especially comes to mind is Footprints in the Sand' where the teller comes to understand that it was in the hard times that Jesus carried him or her.

But this is not the only way to understand these words.  In fact, some people, some faithful or faith seeking Christians stumble on the idea that loving God means an automatic smooth ride thanks to God's intervention.  I'm one of those people, maybe because I've read Ecclesiastes too often, or considered the cost of following for Jesus and the apostles, not to mention a lot of other people in the Bible.

”We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...”  You could understand these words to refer to a state of consciousness that changes the way you see things.  In other words, once you come to love God, you start seeing the world differently, and you start acting differently in that world.  So two things happen.  Your choices change, but just as importantly, and maybe even more importantly for this topic today, you receive the world and your circumstances differently.  But it's not just that you go from being a pessimist (“the glass is half empty”) to becoming an optimist (“the glass is half full”).  Rather, it is beginning to live in hope and the inescapable presence of God.  The circumstances don't get better, but you live in them better.

What do I mean?  I can't talk about this without coming back to the practice of Centering Prayer, the particular discipline of prayer/meditation which I practice.  This prayer practice is the prayer of permission.  I allow God in.  I open myself to God in my prayer and my life.  I bring no agendas other than to be available for God.  To be there.  To rest in God's presence.  To let God take the lead.  I stop searching, yearning, longing, driving the interaction between me and God.  I let God set the agenda.  Usually nothing happens.  You sit in silence, letting go of thoughts, and nothing happens.  However, something does happen, but not necessarily in the prayer time, and certainly what happens in the prayer time, the “practice” time, is the least important.  The thing that happens is that you become habituated to waiting on God, to being receptive, to reinterpreting, first a few things, and then more things, and eventually everything in light of entrusting everything to God.

”We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...”  Or to rephrase it in light of Centering Prayer, “When I love God, things start looking different, not as bad, not as threatening, not as consuming.  When I love God, and turn things over to God, I live in them differently.”  It's not that I expect God to solve my problem.  Usually God doesn't (Maybe God never does -- who knows?).  It is simply that as my relationship to God changes, my relationship to everything else changes too.

Maybe when Paul wrote, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...” he really meant, “My experience has been that all things work together for good when I love God...”

This has a strong relationship to what Jesus taught about the Kingdom of Heaven (Matthew's language) or the Kingdom of God (Mark and Luke's language). It is that little seed that gets planted and grows into an enormous plant (Matthew 13:31-32).  It is the little bit of yeast that infuses the entire lump of dough and causes it to be transformed (Matthew 13:33).  And this little thing, this little bit of faith, this tiny step of love toward God, is such a precious and valuable thing, so life changing, eye opening, consciousness reorienting, that some are prepared to sell everything to get it (Matthew 13:44-46).  And it's true, some people pay a lot of money in their spiritual quest on books, retreats, teachers and gurus, because deep down they know that the treasure, the pearl, is priceless.  But it doesn't have to cost a lot.  As Jesus says elsewhere, “Ask, and it will b given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you...” (Matthew 7:7).  It's right there, just waiting to be taken hold of -- this little bit of faith, this tiny step of love toward God that changes the world I experience, even if the world goes on as before.

”We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...”  An interesting statement if ever there was one; a statement alive with possibilities.  Amen.