"I have absolutely lived with God as one lives with a father. Amen." -- Søren Kierkegaard, Papirer, IX1
Absolutely: with no qualification, restriction, or limitation; totally.2
I love this quote. It makes me feel like I want to float on my back fearlessly in a sea of God's Love. Yet, this is hard for those who didn't have a father or had a father whose love fell far short. We may put restrictions and limitations on what we entrust to a God whom we fear might be too much like our earthly fathers. Which is most of us. Yet, Kierkegaard wonderfully described in his Journals a little of what he meant, and why he could absolutely live with God as father.
"He [God] lets me weep before him in silent solitude, pour forth again and again pour forth my pain, with the blessed consolation of knowing that he is concerned for me—and in the meanwhile he gives that life of pain a significance which almost overwhelms me." -- Kierkegaard, Journals, VIII1 A.
That last part overwhelms me too. Knowing God and His irresistible love, deeper and better and surer gives staggering significance to all the suffering, all the pain, all the brokenness that we endure on this journey. And as I let go of the limitations and qualifications that I have put between me and my Father, I come to know Him better each day with clearer and bolder certainty that he loves me and is concerned with every pain, every struggle. And I come ever nearer to my own "Absolutely."
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7
"Heavenly Father! Teach us to walk before Thy face and grant that our thoughts and our acts may not be like strangers coming from afar for a rare visit to Thy dwelling place but rather like native sons …" -- Søren Kierkegaard, The Prayers of Kierkegaard (prayer 30)
I love Your voice
You have led me through the fire
In darkest night You are close like no other
I've known You as a Father
I've known You as a Friend
And I have lived in the goodness of God -- Goodness of God3
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. John 17:3 (ESV)
"Righteous Father … I have made you known to them ..." John 17:25, 26
1English translation, quoted in Prayers of Kierkegaard, commentary by Perry D. Lefevre, pp. 201-203.
2Definition from Oxford Languages.
3Songwriters: Ben Fielding / Brian Johnson / Edward Martin Cash / Jason Ingram / Jenn Johnson
Photo by Jack Bair
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