Brushed by Glory

"Ruthless Trust is an unerring sense, way deep down, that beneath the surface agitation, boredom, and insecurity of life, it's gonna be all right.  Ill winds may blow, more character defects may surface, sickness may visit, and friends will surely die, but a stubborn, irrefutable certainty persists that God is with us and loves us in our struggle to be faithful.

A non-rational, absolutely true intuition perdues that there is something unfathomably big in the universe (kabod/glory), something that points to Someone who is filled with peace and power, love and undreamed creativity - Someone who will reconcile all things in himself."  

Brennan Manning, from "Ruthless Trust"

I spend my weekdays behind a desk, inside a building, away from the open sky.  But as I drive to work each morning and then home again in the evening, I am often brushed by kabod as I see the sun rising and setting.  There have been times that I've been tempted to pull to the side of the road and sit, looking at the sky in awe.  It is easy to understand why heaven has always been thought of as above us, in the sky.  Yesterday I had a longer morning drive than usual as I was going first to my dentist, whose office is a 20 minute drive away through farmland and empty fields.  The sky was glorious, the sun bright, the clouds flirting with the sun.  The open fields were lined with bare trees silhouetted by the sun.  

I wasn't able to take pictures, and even if I had, they wouldn't have captured the glory of it.  But photos can remind us of that feeling that we've been brushed by kabod, that feeling that stops us in our tracks and silences us.  These photos taken by my husband do that for me.

May you look at the sky today and feel the brush of Glory.  May your hearts be filled with peace.

Hope

The following is a duplicate of a post on my other blog, http://ginnysgarden.blogspot.com

HOPE
–noun
the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.

I would like for all of you to hope with me.  If you pray, I ask you to pray with me.  

As I write this my brother is having surgery for a malignant brain tumor.  No matter how successful the surgery, some of the tumor will remain - it's that kind of tumor.   But we are full of hope - for successful surgery, for a swift recovery from surgery, for successful chemo and radiation treatment with minimal side effects.
  
One of my hopes for the coming days is that my brother is able to spend time at our family house by the lake, sitting on the porch and feeling surrounded by God's loving arms. It's a healing place.  I took the photos in the slideshow below early Sunday morning, a few days after he was diagnosed, when our family gathered there in support.  We are now gathered at the hospital - waiting, hoping, praying.

 

"Daily" Life

“Let us remember that the life in which we ought to be interested is “daily” life.  We can, each of us, only call the present our own. . . Our Lord tells us to pray for today and so he prevents us from tormenting ourselves about tomorrow.  It is as if (God) were to say to us:  “(It is I) who gives you what you need for this day.  (It is I) who makes the sun to rise..  (It is I) who scatters the darkness of night and reveals to you the rays of the sun.”

Gregory of Nyssa, On the Lord’s Prayer

I read this passage this morning in the opening pages of “The Quotidian Mysteries” by Kathleen Norris.  “The Quotidian Mysteries” is a book I’ve read before and that I go back to from time to time for words of inspiration, but the words that stayed with me all day today weren’t the words of Kathleen Norris - they were these words of Saint Gregory.  

It’s difficult to be interested in daily life through the cold gray days of winter - I’m too eager for these days to pass and Spring to come.  When my mind and imagination are focused on what I long for, I miss out on the joy that gratitude for the blessings of today would bring.  Those blessings are many - God gives me what I need and more.  

And so each day I’ll savor that first cup of hot coffee.  I’ll linger at the kitchen window and watch the purple finches at the feeder.  I’ll give thanks for the man who has loved me for over 40 years and I’ll hold his hand gratefully as he asks God to bless our evening meal.  I’ll crawl in my warm bed with a stack of books on the nightstand and give thanks for a comforting end to another day.

"Being fully present in the now is perhaps the premier skill of the spiritual life."  

Brennan Manning