Good morning…
We are transformed by our life-giving choice to spend at least 10 Minutes Each Day developing our conversational relationship with God. Focusing our full attention on who Christ is and how Christ loves us nurtures our true identity as a child of God. Ten minutes each day, we can do that.
As I was deleting old emails yesterday, I came across a devotional message I had skipped over the morning it was shared. I see now why the Spirit kept these words veiled. They fit perfectly into the puzzle God is piecing together within us right now.
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DAILY MEDITATION | MAY 17, 2022 – We Become What We Imagine by Henri Nouwen
When I bring myself into the presence of God, I imagine him in many ways: as a loving father, a supporting sister, a caring mother, a severe teacher, an honest judge, a fellow traveler, an intimate friend, a gentle healer, a challenging leader, a demanding taskmaster. All these “personalities” create images in my mind that affect not only what I think, but also what I actually experience myself. I believe that true prayer makes us into what we imagine. To pray to God leads to becoming like God. . . .
The more we come to depend on the images offered to us by those who try to distract us, entertain us, use us for their purposes, and make us conform to the demands of a consumer society, the easier it is for us to lose our identity. These imposed images actually make us into the world that they represent, a world of hatred, violence, lust, greed, manipulations, and oppression. But when we believe that we are created in the image of God himself and come to realize that Christ came to let us reimagine this, then meditation and prayer can lead us to our true identity.
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” – ISAIAH 43:1b (NIV)
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In the Message translation, 2 Corinthians 3:18 (MSG) captures the transformational power of meditation and prayer as we discover our true identity. We…suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.
We become what we focus upon, choice by choice, day by day. If we choose to give our full attention to a world of hatred, violence, lust, greed, manipulations, and oppression, then that ugly energy will shape who we become. (I think of the eighteen year old shooter from last week’s senseless killing at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. He became the violent hatred he focused his attention upon.)
Instead, might we shift our gaze? We are each designed to give our full attention to our compassionate Creator who whispers, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” God is love and joy, peace, patience and gentleness. Making daily choices with God, we embody the character of our living Lord. Do all you have to do without grumbling or arguing, so that you may be God’s children, blameless, sincere and wholesome, living in a warped and diseased world, and shining there like lights in a dark place. For you hold in your hands the very word of life (Philippians 2:15, PHILLIPS).
Our daily lives gradually become brighter and more beautiful as Christ holds up a clear mirror to our true identity and we become like him.
…Sue…
