“Death is not just physical dying, but going to full depth, hitting the bottom, going the distance, beyond where I am in control, fully beyond where I am now. We all die eventually; we have no choice in the matter. But there are degrees of death before the final physical one. If we are honest, we acknowledge that we are dying throughout our life, and this is what we learn if we are attentive: grace is found at the depths and in the death of everything. After these smaller deaths, we know that the only ‘deadly sin’ is to swim on the surface of things, where we never see, find, or desire God and love. This includes even the surface of religion, which might be the worst danger of all. Thus, we must not be afraid of falling, failing, going ‘down.’ It is at the bottom where we find grace; for like water, grace seeks the lowest place and there it pools up.”   Richard Rohr

“Our of the depths I cry to you Yahweh,
Lord, hear my voice.
Let your ears be attentive
to my cry for mercy. …
I wait for Yahweh
my whole being waits,
and in his word I put my hope.”
Psalm 130:1,2,5

Moving From the Head to the Heart

•  None of us want to “hit the bottom” where we lose all control and “have no choice” in what is happening to us. And there are certainly many lesser “deaths” along the way to that ultimate one. And yet, much of what needs to happen in us will occur no other way. When life takes you into these painful places, can you remember to allow God to do in you what he probably couldn’t do any other way?
• Knowing this about “falling” and about “grace pooling up at the bottom”, can you remember not to be afraid?

Abba, your love definitely takes me places I never wanted to go. I’ve found life there though, and pooled up grace, so I will trust you as the two of us go on together.