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The River of Grace

Jesus answered her, “if you knew the gift of God, and who is it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water…...those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.”  John 4:10, 14

In, Everything Belongs:  The Gift of Contemplative Prayer, Fr. Richard Roar teaches that a practice of contemplation carries us into the “Big River” of God’s love and enables us to release our fears.

“Grace and mercy teach us that we are all much larger than the good or bad stories we tell about ourselves or one another. Our small, fear-based stories are usually less than half true, and therefore not really “true” at all. They’re usually based on hurts and unconscious agendas that persuade us to see and judge things in a very selective way. They’re not the whole You, not the Great You, and therefore not where Life can really happen. No wonder the Spirit is described as “flowing water” and as “a spring inside you” (John 4:10–14) or as a “river of life” (Revelation 22:1–2).  
I believe that faith might be precisely that ability to trust the Big River of God’s providential love, which is to trust its visible embodiment (the Christ), the flow (the Holy Spirit), and the source itself (the Creator). This is a divine process that we don’t have to change, coerce, or improve. We just need to allow it and enjoy it. That takes immense confidence in God, especially when we’re hurting. Often, we feel ourselves get panicky and quickly want to make things right. We lose our ability to be present and go up into our heads and start obsessing. At that point we’re not really feeling or experiencing things in our hearts and bodies. We’re oriented toward making things happen, trying to push or even create our own river. Yet the Big River is already flowing through us and each of us is only one small part of it. 
Faith does not need to push the river precisely because it is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing; we are already in it. This is probably the deepest meaning of “divine providence.” So do not be afraid. We have been proactively given the Spirit by a very proactive God.

Ask yourself regularly, “What am I afraid of? Does it matter? Will it matter in the great scheme of things? Is it worth holding on to?” We have to ask whether it is fear that keeps us from loving. Grace will lead us into such fears and emptiness, and grace alone can fill them, if we are willing to stay in the void. We mustn’t engineer an answer too quickly. We mustn’t get settled too fast. We all want to manufacture an answer to take away our anxiety and settle the dust. To stay in God’s hands, to trust, means that we usually have to let go of our attachments to feelings—which are going to pass away anyway. People of deep faith develop a high tolerance for ambiguity and come to recognize that it is only the small self that needs certitude or perfect order all the time. The Godself is perfectly at home in the River of Mystery.”

Prayer For Living Water

In the dry wildernesses of our lives, 
in the days of heat and thirst, 
you offer us living water, 
Thank you, gracious and generous God. 
When we begin to doubt your presence, 
and grumble that your love is unreliable, 
you offer us living water, 
Thank you, gracious and generous God. 
When life's regrets and the bad choices we have made 
leave us feeling excluded and unworthy, 
you offer us living water, 
Thank you, gracious and generous God. 
When circumstances, or the inhumanity of others, 
have left us alone and wounded, 
you offer us living water, 
Thank you, gracious and generous God. 
We thank you and praise you, O God, 
that however we may thirst, 
whatever we may need to satisfy our souls, 
you offer it freely and abundantly in Christ; 
So we drink deep of the living water 
and, as we draw from your wells, 
we seek to pass the cup to others 
who, like us, are thirsty for your grace. 
Amen