My Privilege?

Leave a comment

privilege: a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most; an advantage or source of pleasure granted to a person.

This morning’s meditative reading had me reflecting on what it means to be privileged. Long before the sun rose today, I was deep in contemplative thought, and surprised that I do not often think of myself as privileged. Namely, that it is my privilege to love Jesus. I can’t recall actually cataloging this honor as a right of mine, though I know this is truth for me to my very core:

It is a privilege to love Jesus. It is the best experience in life! Do we take the time to tell Him so? Do we express with words the beauty of our Savior?  If we show His beauty with our lives, others will say, no wonder you love him! (Our Daily Bread, Keila Ochoa)

Imagine my surprise then when I proceeded to my next reading for the day (Morning and Evening ~ Charles Spurgeon) which began: “What a state of privilege!” This reading  thereafter expounded on the wonder-filled benefits bestowed to all who believe in Jesus. It is too wonderful for me to think that we, as created beings, have become, through our Creator, objects of Divine delight!

Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son. (THE MESSAGE) Ephesians 1:4-6

So often when I hear the word ‘privilege’ I associate it with negative connotations. Perhaps you do too. But for today at least, I am grateful that my eyes have been opened anew to the great honor and privilege I have been given by the Divine One who lives in me!

How Beautiful by Twila Paris

The Nearness of God

2 Comments

Prayerfulness is fostered by the simple consciousness that God is. That God is near us at all times. That God is closer to us than the breath we breathe. That God is available, a silence in the midst of chaos, a voice in the midst of confusion, a promise at the center of the tumult.
Breath of the Soul, Joan Chittister

He is near; that He is able to rescue and deliver; that He is in all things that I experience because He gives his life, his breath, his everything to me. Thank you most faithful Father for loving your children so thoroughly! You never give up on us. How close are you to us? Closer than our own breath? You inhabit every atom of your creation! That thought I cannot comprehend and that thought reminds me that you, God, and you alone, are worthy of praise, adoration, and worship.

Be assured that I never abandon any of My children, not even temporarily. I will never leave you or forsake you! My Presence watches over you continually. I have engraved you on the palms of My hands.
Jesus Calling, Sarah Young

Season of the Sun

Leave a comment

These summer months are flying by and I find that I have no desire to sit still for any prolonged amount of time…which means I don’t sit long enough to compose my thoughts on paper…or anywhere else for that matter. Like the months, my mind seems to fly by itself too. Thoughts, ideas, musings, meditations…all flit and float about wildly and cannot light for long before another wisp of intrigue catches and carries them away to places unknown and hidden. These are the days that beckon me to go outdoors, to bask in the delights of the season, to explore and rest, to drift and dream. So I will not, today, or any day too soon, do anything other than what the season beckons me to do; I will enjoy this day to the full and in so doing I know that I am also delighting in the One who made it for me! I will bask in the glory of the present…of today. The days will grow short and the shadows grow long soon enough…those days will call me to myself again so that I may recall everything I have learned in this season of the sun.

A New Day to Hear…and Listen

Leave a comment

Every day I wake is a gift from above; with it comes the promises of Him who made the sun to rise, and together with the brilliant rising sun He says…I AM here for you. Today my prayer is that I will not only hear His voice, but that I will also listen and learn. This morning I seem to hear Him say:

Walk with Me! But when you walk, keep your eyes open, your head up. Do not lose sight of Me. Seek after Me, Keep up with Me! Dawdle if you must, but dawdle with Me in view. Run if you must, but run with the joy of your inner child. I AM never far from you.

The Sound of Silence

Leave a comment

It is a holy thing, is it not? The sound of silence. It can clarify my murky thinking if given ample time in this place. Silence. It brings to brilliant relief those thoughts, ideas, attitudes, and feelings of mine that need to be examined and reduced to their most base elements. Silence. If I will only allow the quiet of silence to settle on me, like a misting fog, so that it may wrap me in its enveloping Presence. Silence. In the quiet, if I will linger for awhile, I may be delighted again, to hear the faint whispers of the Divine; his Breath as healing and loving kindness to my inmost being; like a flower’s fragrance of which I want to inhale deeply. Silence. His quieting Essence draws me out from myself; from the nooks and crannies of brokenness and into the light and life of Being.

The sound of silence invites me to intimacy with my former self, to the place of my beginning…my first residence where I was knitted together in the invisible realm; where the only sounds known to me were of heartbeat and breath; the sounds of love and life. Silence. To this place which I am drawn, my pursuit of quiet oneness. Because it is in this place that I become aware of communion with the One. I can hear the Heartbeat, I can feel the rhythmic Breath cradling me back to life; I am keenly exposed, yet not undone. It is in this place of beginning, that I find I am remade and renewed.

Silence. When I listen and soak to the full, I learn and re-learn how to live in the other place, in the outside, noisy world. But for now, I will delight in this quiet place; I will settle down into myself and into the company of the One. Yes, this is the place I will take myself to, run to, expectantly, and often, when I am in want. Silence. Because this is the place where I find and meet again, the Maker of me. In the quiet and still I will be hushed and comforted by his Presence; after all this I know, the sound of silence is a holy thing.

Forget Me Not

Leave a comment

It’s Mother’s Day and I’m fortunate enough to have my mom yet alive so as to celebrate this day with her. There have been times this past year when her health brought her mortality into sharp focus. While she is currently living in remission, this too is a gift because this reprieve of disease is a reminder to all of her family, that each day is a gift to be lived to the full.

But I’ve also noticed that when life settles into dull routines, minus the urgencies of life-threatening drama or stress, it is easy to get lazy about cherishing the gift of life and the gift of those precious people God has put in our midst to love.

This is why it is a special comfort and delight to know that our Maker, the Designer and Engineer of Mother-Love, has no capability or capacity for forgetfulness. The proof of His abiding love for all of us is in the indelibly engraved love note in the nail-scarred hands of Jesus.

Can a woman forget her nursing child?
Will she have no compassion on the child from her womb?
Although mothers may forget, I will not forget you.
I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.
(Isaiah 49:15-16 GOD’S WORD Copyright © 1995)

Word as Bond

Leave a comment

In the old days, a trustworthy person could be described as one whose ‘word was their bond’. In modern times, ‘our bond’ has been greatly depreciated. It has been replaced with credit scores and background checks. I wonder what our society, our communities, and our families would look like if we valued the power of spoken words more than credit scores. What if we spent our words carefully each day, speaking those things that are only needful and helpful for others? What sort of dividends could we amass as a society and personally if we only spent our words as currency of love and truth?

“Be Impeccable With Your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.” Don Miguel Ruiz

DEFINITION: Impeccable: faultless; flawless; irreproachable

That’s heady stuff; to be impeccable with my word. That means I would have to think before I speak. I would not veil what I mean with empty fluff; I would not seek to harm or reduce another with my words. How often am I impeccable with my words? I hate to admit, but not very often. Maybe, on a very good day, once or twice in the course of my waking hours could I be accused of speaking with impeccability.

Jesus too, the WORD incarnate, taught this about communication: “Say just a simple ‘Yes, I will’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Your word is enough. To strengthen your promise with a vow shows that something is wrong.” Matthew 5:37 TLB

What indeed would happen if I had it in my mind to only do my very best whenever I opened my mouth to speak. What effect would that have on those with whom I communicate; with those who overhear my communications? I can only imagine…

No Longer an Exile

Leave a comment

Death is no longer banishment, it is a return from exile, a going home to the many mansions where the loved ones already dwell. We are not far from home–a moment will bring us there.
(Morning & Evening ~ Spurgeon)

I love the image that is conjured in my mind when I consider Spurgeon’s description of death being our return from exile. I strongly identify with being in exile because that’s what I so often feel like as a resident of O town ~ exiled from the larger world, from so many friends and family. And yet, these feelings perhaps are not too far from true if I view them in perspective of eternity.

If I believe that I am a created in the image of the Living God, then while I exist in this world He created for us to inhabit, it only makes sense that I feel like I am living in it as a foreigner; this world is not my home! While I clearly delight in the natural beauty of His creation, my heart tells me that there is so much more to life than what I experience through my senses. This world is not my final destination! I was created and designed to live in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the only possible explanation that makes sense to my heart; this can be the only explanation as to why everything here on Earth feels so other worldly. So while I live on Earth I live as one with dual citizenship. A resident of Earth, but a native of the Kingdom of Heaven. This world is not my home!

“In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” John 14:2-4 NIV

So as Spurgeon notes, “we are not far from home — a moment will bring us there”, my dual citizenship allows me great privilege indeed. I may access the Kingdom of Heaven while living in the Kingdom of Earth when I practice the native tongue of my homeland: LOVE. So then, I am indeed something like an Ambassador…a representative of the homeland, and as such I live closest to my homeland when I live in LOVE during my exile. And while I simultaneously straddle today and eternity, I find comfort and joy knowing that my days in exile are not so long as to make me forget from whence I came. Because, in a moment, in the not too distant future, I will close my eyes and awaken again…no longer an exile.

Prayer is the filter through which we view our worlds. Prayer provokes us to see the life around us in fresh, new ways.

To pray in the midst of the mundane is simply and strongly to assert that this dull and tiring day is holy and its simple labors are the stuff of God’s saving presence for me now.

Wisdom from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today ~ Joan Chittister

Pray…For Refreshed Perspective

Quote 1 Comment

Let us make daily use of our riches, and ever repair to Him as to our own Lord in covenant, taking from Him the supply of all we need with as much boldness as men take money from their own purse.
Morning and Evening ~ Charles Spurgeon

Peace is my continual gift to you. It flows abundantly from My throne of grace. I have designed you to need Me moment by moment.  I can meet every one of your needs without draining My resources at all. Jesus Calling ~ Sarah Young

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God.  A Course in Miracles

So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God.
There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. Hebrews 4:16 ~ Holy Bible, New Living Translation

Know Your Source

Quote Leave a comment