Continuing the thought from yesterday, that God finds me beautiful. I think we (or I) too often forget just how much I mean to God. I get so involved in trying to find God, please God, live for God, that I lose sight of how wonderfully made I am!
And yet, remember that I am precious to God, that God finds pleasure in me, that I am fearfully, wonderfully made, this remembrance brings such deep peace and joy. How can I forget that to God, I am unique? How can I fail to remember words of Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
We so often worry about how to approach God. And yet, according to scripture, God is already in our heart. As we read in Luke 17:21, Do you not know, the kingdom of God is within you?
And I would add, God wants us to believe, “you are so beautiful…to me.”
About Amy
Who am I? That is a question I still can't answer. One thing for certain, I am a pilgrim on a journey. I began this journey as a monastic many years ago. I lived in a very simple monastery in the Southern US, a place with a wonderful heritage and history, one quite unusual for its time. But as much as I loved the life, felt fed by the rhythm it offered me, I could not fit into the structure. It took me a long, long, long time to accept that, and move on.
But moving on means so many things. For me, it means taking on new challenges, stepping into zones in which I sometimes find I am neither comfortable nor well suited. It means stepping forward and stepping backward, and sometimes, stepping aside. It means peering into that looking glass called Jesus and trying to find me in there too.
In all my journeys, I continue to do my best to preserve my greatest treasure, my monastic experience. That doesn't so much involve keeping faith and hope, prayer and a spiritual outlook on life. It means living my monastic experience in the best way I can, here and now. That means continuing to be still before God, in an attitude to listen; to hold closely to the beauty of silence, a silence so deeply experienced nothing else can come close to its power; to practice the deeply spiritual exercise of Lectio Divina.
This is what I am attempting to share on this blog. I want others to realize that the monastic treasures aren't the sole privilege of those hidden behind a monastery wall. They belong to each and every one of us who are serious about the mystical and spiritual life. No one can lay claim to having special access to God. Each one of us finds him every time we make room for him in the life we are living.
I am hoping to encourage individuals in their pursuit of this deeply enriching life of grace, life of meditation, life of reflection, self-reflection, silence and stillness. I'd love to hear from you, to know your own journey, to share my journey with you. Drop me a line, or post some comment. It is good for all of us to share.
Hi Amy,
Thanks for this theme. You’ve reminded me of something that made a huge impact on me. One way of looking at creation is that it is something God did a long long time ago, and that the universe has been running like some kind of big machine or living being ever since. That puts a lot of distance between us and God, and it can make us feel like we as individuals have very little significance to the Divine. But another way of thinking about creation, and one that some of us, and mystics of many different traditions, claim to have directly experienced, is that creation is ongoing, that the Divine is not only Creator but also Sustainer, and that if the One stopped loving any little part of creation for even an instant, it would simply cease to exist.
I know for many of us this view adds fuel to the fire for questions about the existence of evil and suffering. For me the whole matter is less about a concept that is rationally neat and tidy than it is about a mystery that can be directly experienced and known, despite my ability to fully comprehend it. We are, each and everyone, loved and cherished more fully and completely than we realize! I know it can be very very hard to rationally accept and feel that love… but what if…?
Agape,
Chuck
Thanks, Chuck. I find truth in your words. It’s too bad that religion has made loving God a matter of keeping score when it is about learning and experiencing. I know that can be tricky and lead to other problems, but just because of that detour I don’t think we should replace experience with “doctrine”.
Part of loving God is surrendering to the “what if…?” don’t you think?
Thanks again for sharing.
Amy