Fantastic. From The Spirit of the Century Album.
Before me, even as behind, God is, and all is well ~ John Greenleaf Whittier
I am reminded today, of how very human I am. Ugh.
But it’s good to be reminded of that, from time to time.
Often times, I view myself as not-human. I’m not talking about having delusions of being an alien lifeform. No. I forget sometimes that the very things I despise so much about me, are some of the very things that make me human. Trapped in this world, far from getting to go home.
In fact, it was a day of human-ness. After a night of little sleep, I found myself annoyed at inconsequential things at work. Things that don’t really matter. I failed at my diet because I couldn’t resist the lemon cake that was in the office today. I was a slug, just barely dragging myself through my school work for the day. And most surprising of all, I found myself hurt by a friend, when I usually have the skin of a turtle shell.
But what has this done? It has shown me once again how very human I am, how my natural fault line is to fail. And to fail big.
Why am I like that? Why do I stumble and bumble around this world, so prone to failure? Why did God create us as such imperfect creatures, bent on doing the things we don’t want to do, yet not doing the things that we should and want to do? (Romans 7: 14-20)
I’ve thought quite a bit on this today, after finishing the book “Practicing the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence. A short, yet significant tome. It’s not easy to explain the premise of the book, except to say that Brother Lawrence seems to have truly experienced, encountered; yes, even enjoyed God thoroughly throughout each day, by training his mind about God–an awareness of God–throughout his days. Around the clock. Non-stop. How does one do that? I get so distracted, my mind wanders, my soul tends to argue, and doubt feeds my mind.
I loved this quote from the book:
“We must always work at it, because to not persevere in the spiritual life is to go back. But those who have the gale of the Holy Spirit go forward even in sleep. If the vessel of our soul is still tossed with winds and storms, let us awake the Lord who reposes in it. He will quickly calm the sea”
We must always work at it. To not persevere is to go back. Some go forward even in sleep. Even in sleep. Let us awake the Lord who reposes in it, He will quickly calm the sea.
Is my Jesus sleeping, that he does not see or know my soul as it is tossed with winds and storms? No, I don’t think so. But when I have days like this, when my human-ness threatens to trample my soul in discouragement, I need to figure out how to awaken the Lord and ask Him to quickly calm this sea in me and surrounding me.
My guess is that Brother Lawrence also experienced times of human-ness; weariness, stress, frustration. Yet his soul and mind were continually being transformed in his state of practicing the presence of God.
Practicing. What a fantastic word for this subject. Of course, used in this context it means “actively following a specific way of life”. But I think the other definition for practicing works well here too:
to exercise oneself by repeated performance in order to acquire skill
I must both practice the presence of God, and I also must “practice” the presence of God.
I’ll end with another, very short quote from Brother Lawrence that I think aptly applies:
“Let us make way for grace.”
Ending today on a lighter note…….
1. Test your vocab: Be honest and see where you fall. I should know 30,600 words. How about you?
2. Take a look at this amazing bookmobile…..when I was a kid I would have LOVED to see something like this pull into my neighborhood!
3. I loved this infograph on how people in science view each other….particularly the techies.
And last, because I’m tired:
This is the best bookstore I’ve ever seen:
Several days ago, I wrote about the crises in Somalia and Kenya. Tonight I am compelled to do so again.
I hesitated to post these pictures tonight. Mainly because it seems so useless to do so, to post them and not fly there immediately to work, to help, to hold the children, to bring staples and medicine. To do something.
But then awareness is something, I suppose. The Big Picture does an excellent job at photojournalism–and they don’t shy away from the hard things, from the reality of life. So take a few minutes and scroll through their pictures. See what that does to your soul.
I read this quote from the IMB web page:
“The United Nations estimates it will take $1.4 billion to save the lives of some 12 million people across the horn of Africa in Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti. The emergency is expected to persist for at least three to four months, possibly peaking in August and September.”
$1.4 billion. That’s incomprehensible. I can’t even wrap my mind around it. Does my $20 donation make any difference at all? But if I don’t give, and that person in Texas doesn’t give, and that person in Italy doesn’t give, then how will $1.4 billion ever materialize? It won’t.
There are many good organizations that are working hard to bring relief to Dadaab. The Red Cross is one. Samaritan’s Purse is an organization that I trust my donations to. And 100% of every dollar given to the Southern Baptist World Hunger Fund goes to feed the hungry. 100%
I’d much rather be on the next flight to Kenya, to work hard, to love hard these people that are dear to my soul. But I can’t right now. So tonight I will push awareness and I’ll pray hard.