Little and poor...

When all of our idols are taken away, all our securities and defense mechanisms, we find out who we really are. We're so little, so poor, so empty - sometimes, even so ugly.

But God takes away our shame, and we are able to present ourselves to God poor and humble. Then we find out who we are and who God is for us.

Richard Rohr, from The Great Themes of Scripture

I think this is very close to the heart of the spiritual life. We are all blundering about, trying to do things, be things, have things, and it takes something - very often something pretty close to what we would think of as a disaster - to break through that self-preoccupation and confront us with our own helplessness. Then we can hear God's voice, feel his gentle hand, receive his mercy... and turn to him little and poor still, but little and humble, and gladly knowing our need for him.

But it does take something, and that's an uncomfortable thought. I often think of Romans 8.28 - "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" - in this context, as well as Julian of Norwich's remark that "sin is behovely".

Daien T Haseo quotes an old Shin Buddhist hymn,

Obstructions of karmic evil turn into virtues
It is like the relation of ice and water
The more the ice, the more the water
The more the obstructions, the more the virtues.

which carries the sense of this quite as well as any Christian writing. God will use all our weaknesses to make his strength manifest in our lives, if only we will recognise our own helplessness to anything about it for ourselves. We need to be reduced to that place where, like Bartimaeus, all we can do is cry, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on me!" (Mark 10:46-52) It is a dreadfully uncomfortable, deeply embarrassing place to fall into for us who have been brought up with the pride and the self-reliance that is instilled in us from our school-days, if not before; but it is necessary. We need to be discombobulated before God!