When a character in the science fiction movie “The Matrix” needs to make a getaway in a helicopter, she downloads the knowledge of a pilot’s license into her brain and proceeds to take off in the chopper.
As preposterous as this sounds in real life, I wonder if sometimes we are praying for the very same instantaneous results when we ask God to help us. Even when we’re praying for the strengthening of virtues – make me more kind, more patient, or more generous – we’re still looking for God to add something to us, give us something we lack.
But what if God is actually looking to subtract from us, to chip away at a nature that has picked up too much debris from the misguided attempts of the world to satisfy its longings without God?
What if God sees us the way Michelangelo sculpted a slab of marble by taking away the parts that didn’t belong to the finished product?
How interesting our Christian enterprise becomes when we see the Lord as sculptor! Through this lens, we can understand our hurts and losses as the necessary part of the paring down process – pieces of ourselves that have to be removed in order for the true self to emerge.
It also reminds us of how it is possible for the Lord to love us in the first place. God is always seeing the beautiful work of art that lies within us.
But let’s not allow this image to call us to get out our chisels and start working on ourselves. As Richard Rohr reminds us:
“God does not love us if we change; God loves us so that we can change.”
Just think how many rough edges can fall away from our souls when we remember to place our lives in the hands of the Master Artist.
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