Good morning…
It is sometimes hard to notice God’s invisible ways. This morning I caught God undeniably at work.
As most of you know, I get up in the middle of the night to write our blog posts whenever God stirs me awake. After getting out of bed and enjoying a few hours of prayerful pondering, I craft a fresh insight with God most every day. I often push “send” on our morning message between 3:00 and 5:00 am, and God’s gift to me goes out to you. Then you often pass the inspiration along to your loved ones.
This morning was different. God let me sleep until 8:07 am. Wow, a full night’s sleep felt deeply delicious. I did not understand God’s “sleeping in” agenda until now. Now let me share the story with you.
At 5:59 am, the weekly email came from the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Around 8:45 am, I opened the inspirational message. After reading of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane recorded in Luke 22:39-46, I read the following words shared from Thomas Merton:
“If we are afraid of being alone, afraid of silence, it is perhaps because of our secret despair of inner reconciliation. If we have no hope of being at peace with ourselves in our own personal loneliness and silence, we will never be able to face ourselves at all: we will keep running and never stop. And this flight from the self is … a “flight from God.” After all, it is in the depths of conscience that God speaks, and if we refuse to open up inside and look into those depths, we also refuse to confront the invisible God who is present within us. This refusal is a partial admission that we do not want God to be God any more than we want ourselves to be our true selves.”
These new thoughts were stirred in me: “My alone time in the night is saturated with silence and, in these sacred hours of early morning reflection, God reconciles the jumble of my inner parts. The lamp of the Eternal illuminates the human spirit, searching our most intimate thoughts (Proverbs 20:27, VOICE). It is in the depths of conscience that God speaks and, in the wee hours of the night, I make peace with the invisible God who is present within us. I do want God to be God. I really want our ourselves to be our true selves.”
Then I moved to the song link presented at the end of the devotional, At The Cross by Chris Tomlin. This song probably means nothing to you, but it made my soul smile so deeply. I had just caught God in action! You see, around 8:45 in the morning God brought me this song to begin my day and, at 8:45 pm tonight, my new friend Terry and I will be soaking in the live music of Chris Tomlin in the Gas South Arena in Duluth, Georgia, thirty minutes up the road from our home.
Do you sense God’s great exclamation point? “See. Notice. Catch me in action. I am with you, guiding you, empowering you from within!”
The same Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is now vibrantly alive, thriving in us. Our pondering question remains: “Are the eyes of my heart seeking to catch the mysterious movement of God in action each day?”
Do not be afraid of being alone. Do not be afraid of silence. Our hope of being at peace with ourselves and each other is nurtured in our secret place of inner reconciliation with God. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part [of my heart] You will make me know wisdom (Psalm 51:6, AMP).
Now, please enjoy the music video of Chris Tomlin brought to us this morning by the living, breathing Spirit of God!
…Sue…
