Mysticism and Encounter

Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941) wrote  much about the relevance of mysticism for ordinary people living in the modern world.  In her book Mysticism (1911), she wrote that mysticism was "the art of union with Reality," and she expressed mysticism, "the soul of religion," as the experiential dimension of faith.

About the same time, Watchman Nee, who spent the last 25 years of his life in a Chinese prison for his Christian beliefs, was writing The Normal Christian Life, expressing the experience of God's Presence as "normal" for believers.

I wonder how many people have really experienced God as the "normal."  We tend to think only saints and crazy people "experience" God, that it is not a "normal" experience for most of us.  But when I begin at the beginning, with Adam and Eve, with Cain and Abel, with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; with Moses and with all the prophets; with Jesus and the Apostles, and with all the saints who followed up to Evelyn Underhill (1941) and people who are writing up to our time, I see that "mysticism," if you want to call it that, IS the normal Christian life.  Even as a child, I can remember experiencing God as a Reality, not a myth.  And that experience has but grown stronger and deeper with every year of my life.

If we could line up on one side of the road all those who have experienced God as a living Being, and on the other side of the road those who have not, I wonder which side we would choose.  Does God want us to experience Him, or just to "follow the rules of our faith?"  I think the "rules and regulations" are supposed to hold us in place until such time as we encounter the Living God behind our religion.  Once that encounter has taken place, we are never the same again.  In fact, 2 Cor. 4:18 says that once the veil is removed, we are transformed from glory to glory in our encounter with the Living God.

Like any Person, God wants us to know Who He is.  He wants to reveal Himself to us in Truth, in Faithfulness, in Love, in Compassion.  He wants us to see Him as He is.  Because of who we are, the revelation must be a gradual one, from the slight gleaning of dawn to the full light of day.  And as we see Him, we are changed.  Many people believe (wrongly) that first we must change, and then we'll see God -- but He always reveals Himself to those who are helpless to change before they see Him. 

To the helpless Hagar in the desert, dying for lack of water, He revealed Himself as "the One Who sees, the One Who hears."  To Moses, on the back side of the desert, He revealed Himself as "the One Who has heard the cries of His people (in slavery.)"  Jesus is the New Moses, who, beholding the Face of God, set His people free from the bondage of sin.  Now, we too can behold the Face of God, Who hears the cry of the poor. 

If we do not believe that God wants us to know Him and to love Him because we know Him, maybe reading Underhill's Mysticism would be a good place to begin.