Metaphor for Life

"After a few weeks of constant work, the bloody blisters gave way to hard-earned calluses that protected us from pain. Long after the fact, it occurred to me that this was a metaphor for life--blisters come before calluses, vulnerability before maturity..." ~Clarence Thomas, My Grandfather's Son, pg.25.

Forgiveness

‎"Forgiveness is not the misguided act of condoning irresponsible, hurtful behavior. Nor is it a superficial turning of the other cheek that leaves us feeling victimized and martyred. Rather it is the finishing of old business that allows us to experience the present, free of contamination from the past." ~Joan Borysenko

On Peace

We cannot be at peace with others because we are not at peace with ourselves, and we cannot be at peace with ourselves because we are not at peace with God. ~Thomas Merton

Merton Explained

It seems that if I had kept reading the other day, I would have been able to understand the quote I posted much better. Here is what Ravi Zacharias has to say about Thomas Merton...

After Merton observes how everything within him converged--Bethlehem, Calvary, and the empty tomb, now all within him; God offering himself to God within the mortal frame of this kneeling man--he ends with the key words "the love of those creatures who are drawn to him in and with the power of his own love for himself." The love with which God himself is bound, now binding us to himself. This is the mystery, the majesty, and the grandeur of holy Communion--God's love shed in our hearts to keep us from fragmentation and dissolution.

So beautiful and profound. :)

On God-Dwelling in Us

"In the temple of God that I had just become, the once eternal and pure sacrifice was offered up to the God dwelling in me. The sacrifice of God to God. Now, Christ born in me, a new Bethlehem, and sacrificed in me his new Calvary, and risen in me: offering me to the Father, in himself, asking the Father, my Father and his, to receive me into his infinite and special love--not the love he has for all things that exist, for mere existence is a token of God's love, but the love of those creatures who are drawn to him in and with the power of his own love for himself."

~Thomas Merton (quoted in Grand Weaver, Ravi Zacharias, pg 142).

I have to keep reading this over and over and over... it is so deep, but incredibly profound.

On journals and Chesterton

Well, I have pulled the old blog from the depths of the grave where it has laid buried and I think I may give it another go-round. Because I have another blog, though, (specialneedsiblings.com), I don't think I'm going to focus a lot of attention on this one. Perhaps it will be more of a journal to record some of the amazing lessons that I learn or profound thoughts I come across.

Here's something I've been enjoying lately by G.K. Chesterton.

An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed o Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays. You might as well say of a view of the cosmos that it was suitable to half-past three, but not suitable to half-past four. What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century... Therefore in dealing with any historical answer, the point is not whether it was given in our time, but whether it was given in answer to our question."

As he goes on to say, Christianity is the answer to life's questions... and it matters not the time or the place, but whether it is true.

I like the way he says things. :)

Through a glass

I've decided there is too much life to not share. And even if no one else follows along, I'll have beautiful reminders of God's grace.

I wrote this a few weeks ago... when the supermoon appeared in the sky. I just forgot to share it till now.

Tonight I went outside to look at the moon. Apparently, tonight’s orb is a ‘supermoon’ and it showed in the brilliance and splendor of it’s glow. As I gazed upon it, I thought…

I thought of the 50 workers in Japan who are laying down their lives to prevent a nuclear meltdown that would destroy so much.

I thought of wars and earthquakes and tsunamis and all the horrible things that happen on this earth.

I thought of the glory that lies beyond this earth.

I thought of how the moon is just a miniscule reflection of that glory.

And as the clouds danced past the moon, sometimes obscuring it completely, other times magnifying its light, I thought of 1 Corinthians 13:12.

“For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am also known.”

For now, our glimpses of heaven are as through a glass. Or as if through the clouds. There are times when dark clouds obscure our view completely. At other times, we catch glimpses of greater glory as those same clouds, or trials, draw us near to God.

But then…

Oh glorious thought!

But then, we shall see face to face.

No more darkness. No more obscurity. No more uncertainty. Only face to face glory.

Now I know in part. Then, I will know completely, totally, and utterly--as I am known by Christ.

Now we see through a glass… but then…