We live in a tourist visited area and the season is coming to an end. We have heard a great deal about Minnesota nice. Is Minnesota nice present in our community? Overall, the belief and opinions of Minnesota nice depend on individual experiences.
In my experience, I have found Minnesota nice very much present in Grand Marais. Also there is more kindness and genuine compassion from the people of Duluth than many other places I have visited.
In Grand Marais and Duluth, people will tell you exactly how to get where you are going and even tell you the best place to eat on the way. People will speak to you while you wait in a line. They will help carry items to your car. They will stop along the highway to help when you are stranded. There can be many other random acts of kindness. Growing up with this stereotype of Minnesota nice, even if it may be a myth, it is most certainly a value to live by.
However, while Minnesotans will be pleasant in their conversations and always offer to lend a helping hand, that doesn’t mean that we are ready to be your best bud. It can take years before you’re actually invited over for dinner, and we tend to be rather reserved. We like to mind our own business and expect you to do the same. Sometimes we can be nice to your face, but talk about you as soon as you walk away.
Relationships are formed when people reveal themselves to one another. When we feel that something unique and attractive about another person has been revealed, we are drawn to enter into a relationship with that person. In a relationship both parties hope to reveal and discover each other.
When it comes down to it our faith is all about relationship. God seeks to enter into an intimate relationship with each one of us. God reveals himself to us. We need to know God. Since creation, God has been revealing himself and inviting all of us to enter a relationship with him. This is called “revelation.” God is taking the initiative. When we think that we have made the decision to become more spiritual or “to get religion,” we in fact are already responding to God’s invitation to us. God started it.
Adam and Eve thought they could become godlike by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
The people who built the tower of Babel thought they could reach the heavens by building a skyscraper.
These things did not turn out well. They did not respond to God but rather took the initiative themselves… they started it.
Since the time of our birth God has begun to seek us out, inviting us to a deeper relationship with him. People who are highly responsive to God’s invitation are sometimes known as saints. Instead of pursing God we should make it our responsibility to turn our attention to God’s pursuit of us.
C.S. Lewis has said, “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘thy will be done’ and those to whom God says, ‘all right, then if you don’t want to listen, have it your way.’”
When we begin to realize that God is the initiator, we realize that our task in life is to understand God’s will and respond; thy will be done.
Mostly we hear today that it is all about us .We are going to do what we want to do regardless of God’s wish. God doesn’t exist or He has made us angry. Some person has hurt our feelings in God’s name. In any case God is not important.
We must remember that it is really about what God is doing in our life.
We should concentrate on being responsive to God’s initiative, responding to God’s efforts to get our attention. Recall Moses at Horeb (the mountain of God), God appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. God got Moses’ attention. It was God’s initiative.
Many people turn off a response to God, saying that it is folly to believe in God. They may say that prayer is a perfect example of the non-existence of God.
Richard Dawkins gives an example in this book The God Delusion, where three groups of people were hospitalized and one group was prayed for, but were not told they were being prayed for; one group was prayed for and were told they were being prayed for; and the last group was not prayed for. The study, according to Hawkins revealed there was no difference in feeling or well-being between those prayed for and those who weren’t. His conclusion, and that of the study: prayer has no effect and those who pray are wasting their time because there is no God listening and responding to their prayers. This concept of prayer is like asking Santa for things. Prayer is not seeking God’s attention but rather responding to God’s revelation.
We don’t pray to change God’s mind, but to change ours. Prayer is not an attempt to change reality magically. Prayer cannot be measured on the physical level. Prayer is about “thy will be done.” We don’t pray to manipulate God. Through prayer we respond to God. Just listen.
We are called to be receptive.
Each month a member of the Cook County Ministerium will offer Spiritual Reflections. This month our contributor is Deacon Peter Mueller of St. John’s Catholic Church in Grand Marais.
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