Why I Love Being J. Barrett Owen

The paradox is: We search outside ourselves for fulfillment. We need things to fulfill us. On the other hand, the greatest fulfillment is choosing God; we find God within ourselves.

Fulfillment in life will never be contented if it is constantly replacing itself with more stuff. Fulfillment is reached when we take an inward approach to life, faith and spirituality. There is wholeness in the world and there is an avenue where we find God – it is in the contemplative, pensive moments of life.

As humans we must take the time to reflect, sit, think, ponder, wonder, imagine, create, envision, fashion, visualize, craft, construct, doubt, speculate and marvel. Doing this exercise propels us deep within ourselves and connects us with the Divine.

In my short time in this world, I have found God most clearly when I am deeply listening to my soul speak. I hear God more plainly when I search my heart’s mind and think about what it needs.

This past week I spent five days in a spiritual retreat. Those days of reflection and silence reaffirmed for me that I am God’s Beloved child and in me God’s favor rests.

“I am glad to be me.”

I can honestly say this statement because I have traveled from the ‘quest of fulfilling myself with material things and intimate relationships’ to an inward journey of ‘knowing myself and appreciating the person God has made me to be.’ I am glad in who I am because I am a Beloved child of God. I am God’s and in me my God lives. Everyday is another quest to knowing myself better, understanding my choices more clearly, and accepting my Father’s love more dearly. We must look outside of ourselves to see that we are incomplete, but I suggest you better then look inward to see God, for God is the ultimate fulfillment.

Take the Parable of the Prodigal Son for example. The father grants his son’s request for his share of the estate and never judges him for his act of betrayal. After months of loose living and failed attempts at fulfillment, the younger son returns with his tail between his legs. The father greats him with a loving embrace and throws a banquet in his honor.

What I am trying to say in this blog is summed up perfectly if you look at this story of the Prodigal Son allegorically. The father is always at home. Home is deep within our being. We leave home to attempt to fulfill ourselves and our lives with other things. After we fight long enough to live on our own, we go back to the place we started. We go home.

The paradox is in our exocentricity. We need things outside of who we are to survive. I agree with this. But ultimate fulfillment in living in the world comes with being in tune with God.

God’s home is in us. Therefore, to go back home is to go deep within ourselves. It is to connect with the Divine by being with God.

You are God’s Beloved. God lives in you. It may be time for you to go home and receive that blessing. It may be time for you to go home to yourself.

Comments

John's Gratitude Journal said…
I look forward to future installments as you mine the obstacles on this journey. Enticements and temptations constantly change, but the 'Way' never does - it seems to me...
Thanks for sharing your journey. JBA
March 16, 2009 at 10:30 AM
gb said…
Barrett,

We miss you at Union, looking forward to your return.

We can't wait to hear about your trip.
May 24, 2009 at 9:36 AM
gb said…
Barret,

Look forward for your return, we miss you here at Union.

Can't wait to hear about the trip.
May 24, 2009 at 9:37 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Most Difficult Parable Ever

Image
Theologian N.T. Wright finds the parable of the fig tree to be quite strange.  He says, “Jesus' warning in Luke 13 is at once amplified by this almost humorous, yet in fact quite sinister, parable of the fig tree in the vineyard.” And it is sinister.  It’s a hard pill to take.  Jesus' parable goes like this: A man has as fig tree planted in his vineyard.  One day he comes out looking for fruit on it, but there are no figs.  He says to the vineyard keeper, “Look at this tree.  For three years, I've come hoping to find some fresh figs, but what do I find? Nothing.  So just go ahead and cut it down.  Why waste the space with a fruitless tree?” The vineyard keeper replies, “Give it another chance, sir.  Give me one more years working with it.  I’ll cultivate the soil and heap on some manure to fertilize it.  If it surprises us and bears fruit next year, that will be great, but if not, then we’ll cut it down.”...
Read more

The Bird of Dawning Singeth All Night Long

Image
This Christmas I was moved by the words of Frederick Buechner.  For my last blog of the year I offer to you his wisdom rather than my own ramblings.  I hope it does for you what it continues to do for me. Frederick Buechner says in his book The Faces of Jesus: On the dark bulwark of Elsinore, Shakespeare has Marcellus and Haratio reflecting on Christ in the opening scene of Hamlet: Some say that ever ‘gainst that season comes Wherein our Savior’s birth is celebrated, The bird of dawning singeth all night long; And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad, The nights are wholesome, then no planets strike, No fairly takes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallowed and so gracious is the time These lines from the first scene of Hamlet in a sense say it all.  We tend to think time is just progression . . . as moment following moment, day following day, in relentless flow, the kind of time a clock or calendar measures.  But we ...
Read more

Sacrificing Joy

Image
I have been told my biggest weakness is I take myself too seriously. I agree. But here is my dilemma: My life is filled with responsibilities and deadlines. I go to school, pastor a church, assist my seminary in their admissions process, and feel obligated to be a good friend. My school takes up twelve hours a week plus roughly twenty hours of study. I work at least 10 hours on my sermon and spend two days a week with my congregation. Fifteen hours of my week is given to the McAfee Admissions Office and every Saturday I play softball with some friends. With this schedule I am up to 57 hours of responsibility time plus two days are given to my congregants. Why do I do this you ask? Because I can. Because God is blessing me in it. Because it gives me a sense of fulfillment. All of these shape an identity for me. And I love every second of it. We are all busy people. We all know what it is like to work the extra hour or sign up for one my volunteer role. We all over...
Read more