Yesterday I travelled about a thousand kilometres between Darwin and Alice Springs.I travelled through a variety of climate zones, starting from monsoonal forests and ending up in arid zones. Each had its own beauty and mystery as I drove through.Most time was out of reception for my mobile phone. I enjoyed the solitude.It gave me plenty of time to enjoy the beauty of the wilderness. It gave me time to be in touch with my own thoughts and feelings.I felt drawn to take what arose in my own consciousness to prayer.As I write this reflection, it is the feast of St Martha. I hear the echo of the words of Jesus:‘Martha, you fret and worry about many things, only one is important …’Our faith is about relationship. When we focus on Jesus, on God as our greatest lover, all the rest seems to fall into place.It is not that challenges do not happen; it is not because we get to know all the answers.Rather, we share all these with God, who is love. We get the strength to deal with all that we face with faith, hope and love.We all need solitude in our lives. Since God is with us, we can have the courage not just to deal with pleasant things, but also with the painful and other things as well.Only God is God. When we forget this, we try to find substitutes. There are no real substitutes!It is so liberating to be in harmony with the one and only true God. All other relations fall into true order and become so much richer, so much more real!
Image credit: fir0002 via Wikipedia