The World of Grandpa Don

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Many of us find it difficult to focus on God, eternity or for that matter, anything spiritual. I think I found the reason in the opening chapters of C. S. Lewis' "Perelandra".  He points out that we fear the unknown and that we most often see the unknown as evil or, ... see evil in the unknown. He reveals that we can deal with the unknown evil because we anticipate rescue by something good. There is a known result in the anticipation of our rescue.

But, what if the unknown is good to begin with? Where then, does the rescue come from? We fear the unknown, even if it is good, and there is nothing to save us! The unknown we fear will not go away. It is a permanent thing which is beyond human comprehension and can not be removed. So, we don't want to think about it. We try to stay focused on the known, albeit an incomplete existence. It is all we want to think about.

The secret is, I think, to get as close to god as we can. We need to try to know God even though it will be an incomplete knowledge. Being close to Him will take the mystery out and raise our comfort level, the later part being the most important. I spent a large part of my life trying to solve the mystery until I came to the realization that if there was no mystery, there would be no need of faith. As we become more comfortable in our relationship with God the mystery is not the important part of the problem.

We get to know God by spending time with Him. Time devoted to prayer, church on Sunday, special liturgies and prayer or faith sharing groups all bring us closer to Him. We accept the mysterious as a condition of our humanity and once we realize that it will be gone when we are united with God it becomes unimportant. It may be difficult at first but familiarity brings comfort. And as comfort is increased we become as loving Father and Child. 

Don Plefka
05/13/03

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