In Your Hands*

... to follow-up on further thoughts from the last post over a holiday which has had a greater than normal amount of reflection time.

I think what I love most, or at least find most valuable, about the 'secret of life,' as cheesily coined below, is the change in focus, and that it is so darned applicable in most every situation.

One could be sick over Christmas break and wrenching his guts out and really start to pity himself. But that same person could have that statement posed to them?

Is there no way to make this worship and honour God or is there just no way to make this worship and honour your life; the life you think you should be living/ think you are totally entitled to?

And therein lies the rub! The truth is that the situation can be used to honour and worship God. In fact, and it's possible that this only works for me, but thinking along those lines seems to quash the logical leverage of most restless "I don't deserve this" (read "I am unfulfilled") frustrations! It is not, unfortunately, that it causes these thoughts to flee. But thinking this way does seem to expose the selfish humanity of it all.

Furthermore, it is possible that this line of thinking reminds one, surprisingly enough, that it really is about God. So if you are in a particular in-action/action which seems rather dull but is the action/in-action which glorifies God - than that is more than what you could ask for to experience in that phase of your life. As such, it really is the most fulfilling thing one could do.

The trick for me is seeking out those actions, in-actions, attitudes and places which glorify God, of which there are many available. [Edit 10 minutes later: Or in fact, simply just embracing them when they are given to me. My language in this last paragraph originally showed that I learned nothing. In fact that whole thing about glorifying God while being bedridden is about embracing the in-action as something just as fulfilling. There is a time for seeking and a time for embracing]


*title credit goes to my man Charlie Winston - whose album my sister was kind enough to get for me from England!

Need for Love

"These days I can never look up at the sky and see the moon without thinking with wonder and awe that men have walked there. To conceive of such a thing - to desire such an adventure, to be capable of overcoming all fear, all doubt, to have faith in man's ability to solve problems, and seek out the way to go about this great exploration - what dedication of mind and will! 'What is man that thou art mindful of him? Thou hast made him little less than the angels.' It keeps coming into my mind - how much man would be capable of if his soul were strong in the love of God, if he wanted God as much as he wanted to penetrate the power and glory of God's creation.

To know Him, to love Him, and to love Him, and to serve Him - a personal God, who took on human flesh and became man and suffered and died for us. To find the way, not to the moon but to God - this is man's[sic] real desire, because of his need for love, and God is love."

Dorothy Day, The Catholic Worker, March-April 1976

I think often what amazes me in my poor understanding of God, but in my search after Him, is discovering the true desires of my heart. It can also be so frustrating at times to think how lost one can be - grasping and seeking out the ' penetration of the power and glory of God's creation' because sometimes that's all we know - sometimes that's all we want to know. It is also heartbreaking to look around and see all the energy put towards finding a way to love without ever thinking of the source and power of love itself. I believe wholly and truly that resting in the love of the heart of God is what I desire and I need. It is often, however, that I do not act in a way that shows this conclusion to be evident, even worse, in a way that enables me to grow closer to the heart of God.

But isn't it good that life is long - in order that we may have time to learn.