In South Africa I Heard a Voice

The poor in South Africa walk everywhere. They really have no choice. Drive on any road, no matter how remote, and you’re bound to see people walking alongside it.

I believe God used that experience to impress something on my soul.

One day at Mariya uMama weThemba monastery, I went for a run down the rutted, pockmarked road that leads up the mountain. As usual, I tried to pray as I ran; as usual, I could not keep my mind on anything. The intense South African sun kept my eyes squarely on the hardscrabble road. Finally, in one of my bursts of mid-prayer-failure honesty, I just thought, “Forget it. I can’t pray. I can’t do anything, except stare at the damned road.”

And I could sense the voice of God saying to me, “It’s OK. I am in the road too. I must be, to support the feet of the poor as they walk and walk.”

I cannot escape that sense of panentheism—God in everything—as I travel through South Africa. The monastery chapel window commands a view over the veld on the big sweeping hills, and over and over I have sensed a deep closeness between that view and the God who made it. No wonder primitive humans, viewing their surroundings with awe, considered them the work of a local god.

Our worldview has grown larger, but the connection remains. Now, we see that all creation hums with the One who created it. Which makes everything alive in ways we cannot imagine.

And it makes God present in ways we cannot imagine. To desire such closeness with us that he even supports the poor as they walk—and gives hope to all of us. Love so close. This truly is a God worth knowing.