Rid Me Of God

I pray God will rid me of God

Meister Eckhart Cited in Christian Mystics

Matthew Fox makes these observations on one of Eckhart’s  most dramatic and often misunderstood declaration in these words”

Eckhart surprises us with his stark observations.We often make God over into our image,  and this is the “God” Eckhart wants removed. Eckhart often prays to God for forgiveness  and help moving beyond our human projections of God to the real thing. 

Have you ever prayed to rid you of God? Are there human projections you need to let go of: perhaps of an all-male God, a God of judgment and condemnation? 

A god that spreads division, class oppression, homophobia, sexism, excessive nationalism?

While Fox points to the results of the twisted excesses of a skewed understanding of religion, the original delusions or underlying misunderstandings are what capture my attention when I read and reread Eckhart’s teachings. 

I believe that it is an inescapable necessity that any spiritual aspirant or sincere follower of a spiritual path go through a house cleaning of complete proportions;l where we rid ourselves of any doctrinaire teachings, any malicious dogmas, any automatic pieties, and imposed obligations associated with our childhood religious experiences.

Only after such a thorough clean out can we knowingly decide to bring back any ideas, practices, beliefs etc. that still hold value and retain meaning for us. Eckhart’s goal, as I see it, is to rid us of any lack of clear intention and expansive understanding. 

He desires to rid us of anything phony and insincere, anything misguided or even malignant in your thinking and feeling that was or that had been attributed to God, or that was included within your early formative comprehension of who and what God is/was/will be.

I see it as a call to authenticity… towards being real and responsible to a God that was not created for you by dogma or culture, but one that you have aspired to understand and that was safe to believe in with all of one’s heart. 

However, just as it is true in the study of personal growth, relationships, and other steps of consciousness and awareness, there can be no “by-passing” of our need to authenticate and constantly refine our understanding of what the source/God is of our ethics, values, and spiritual ideals.

In short, to rid ourselves of God is a necessary step towards an more mature and responsible faith; an understanding of God that fits who and what you aspire to become, and in that search, there will be the need to discard the past to make room for the growth of that which is not yet… the hope of the future, the ripening of your soul.