Rumi has said:
Everyone near a saint
gets drunk with God.
Have you had this experience?
Have you spent time with someone
so obviously and intimately connected to the Divine
that you came away from the encounter
"drunk with God,"
hushed in spirit,
heart so filled with the awareness
of God's reality and invasive presence
that you felt stunned, released, whole?
My first time was in San Diego,
early in my work as a youth pastor,
attending a youth ministry conference.
One workshop was led by a Catholic nun
(my first nun-encounter),
who oozed, bled, spread the peace of God
in a way I'd never experienced.
As she spoke--calm, articulate, compassionate--
she embodied Christ,
and I knew--knew--
I was in Christ's presence.
I walked away dazed--
drunk with God.
It's happened a few more times in my life,
always unexpected,
always transformative--
Christ, once again, in the flesh.
Everyone near a saint
gets drunk with God.
I wonder, then,
do others get drunk with God
when they encounter us?
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