Today, I have an assortment of random thoughts and quotes that resonate deeply. While I am infinitesimally small, God has chosen me. As the Psalmist said, “what are mere mortals that you should think about them, human beings that you should care for them?” (Psalm 8:4)
Eugene Peterson uses a phrase in his book, Leap Over a Wall, that resonates tonight … “in my insignificant, sheep-keeping obscurity, I am chosen.”
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world. (Ephesians 1:4)
Oh, it’s mysterious lamplit evenings, here in the galaxy, one after the other. It’s one of those nights when I wander from window to window looking for a sign. But I can’t see. Terror and a beauty insoluble are a ribband of blue woven into the fringes of garments of things both great and small. … Until one by one, by the blindest of leaps, we light on the road to these places, we must stumble in darkness and hunger. I turn from the window. I’m blind as a bat, sensing only from every direction the echo of my own thin cries.
Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
Last night, big emotions, tears
confusion, today, reverie –
I may be bat-blind
but He chooses me!
He leadeth me, O blessed thought!
J.H. Gilmore 1862
O words with heav’nly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be
Still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me …
Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom of pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.
Frederick Buechner, NOW & THEN
Day-by-day cultivation of spirituality
Peterson again (Leap Over a Wall) … the sanctuary is essential, but it isn’t the primary location for the day-by-day cultivation and practice of spirituality, the Holy Spirit shaping the Christ-life in us.
That shaping, cultivating, molding: it comes in and through the ordinary, everyday-ness of living. Reverie, tears, work, laughter, play. It’s in living in the present that we work out our salvation (Philippians 2:12-13)
And that could be scary except “in my insignificant, sheep-keeping obscurity,
I am chosen.”
…He sees deep and is glad, who
Marianne Moore, “What are Years”
accedes to mortality
and in his imprisonment rises
upon himself as
the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
free and unable to be,
in it surrendering
finds its continuing.
As the new year gets underway, it’s easy to feel uneasy … so many questions …
“Who am I?”
“What am I accomplishing?”
“Am I doing enough?”
“What is the meaning of my life?”
And those questions can feel so overwhelming. That’s when it is time to remember whose we are and His purpose for us. We are chosen in Christ to be holy and blameless. To work out our salvation by walking in step with the Spirit of God. Surrendering, yielding to His leadership. Believing, trusting, and developing our faith. Giving ourselves over to Him to love Him wholly, completely, with all our hearts, minds, and strength.
My New Year Prayer
Father, You who flung the stars
In place, who established the sun and moon
labeling day and night, You know the time
The appropriate time, the “just-right” time
And You’ve written my days in Your book.
Teach me to redeem the time You
Have allotted me – May I follow where
You lead, leaning into You, learning You,
Loving You, sharing You – All
For Your glory, Amen.
If you want to know more about who we are in Christ, check out this previous post, In HIM!
Thank you for such a timely and important reminder
Thoughtful and sound… lovely