A couple weeks back, a woman at the shelter told me that her
Bible had randomly fallen open to Ezekiel, Chapter 14, and – given that we had
an ongoing discussion about the possibility of grace within what she saw as the
evil of the shelter – she wondered what I thought?
I said I’d get back to her, and over the next week I thought
about how the worship of idols by the citizens of Israel had caused God to turn
his face away from his chosen people, and more importantly what that might mean
to those on the street.
We talked the following week, and touched on the pagan idol
worship that predated Judaism, about the idea of sin as an idol separating us
from God and about the voluntary ceding of individual autonomy giving
idolatrous power to others.
We finally came to the idea of addiction – something common
at the shelter -- as an idol that would cause God to turn his face away. We wondered whether drug use was
a disease or a choice; was it merely the craving of the body and not the
longing of the heart, and as such an understandable human failing that would
find forgiveness in the eyes of God?
What is it in our lives that would cause God to turn his
face from us?
We came to no firm conclusion, but the simple fact that we
could have this conversation outside of the day shelter on the cusp of winter
highlights the undeniable fact that the divine is always present, no matter the
circumstances. We just have to
slow down, breathe, look around and realize that our
simple human shortcomings are no bulwark against divine love. If we are facing God with a longing in
the deepest recesses of our heart to know him, I am convinced that he will not
turn away. He will meet us
exactly where we are – as the saying goes, warts and all.