To Discern
Saturday 28 January 2023
As The Dawn Brings The Light,
And The Moon Dims,
May We See God’s Light
Transforming Our Hearts And Minds
So That We May Discern God’s Will
For Us All.
First Samuel 17:45
But David said to Goliath, the Philistine, ‘You come to me with sword and spear and javelin; but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.’
Romans 12:2
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Words of Grace For Today
The world teaches us to be proud, to make something of ourselves.
God created us to live abundantly, and that is not how we do that!
We have heard:
Life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we respond, that is what we do with it.
BUT that is not how God intended us to live life.
God’s plan is more like life is 110% what God makes us able to do to give God thanks & give everything to others.
Life lived as God intended us to live it is not what we make of it, rather life is a gift, such a precious gift that we get to do so much with it, giving thanks and sharing the gift with everyone in need of God’s grace (which is pretty much everyone!)
It is as if my dream came to life again —
Despite the Darkness that presses in on all sides,
I saw two pillars,
which turn out to represent two different ways of living,
two totem poles representing real lives lived.
The totem poles are not static, finished, nor are they simply in the stage of being carved, instead like living trees they grow and are carved by the experiences of the person’s life they represent.
Both totem’s emerge from the ground with imperfections.
One looks nearly perfect, because cosmetic fixes are applied to the imperfections soon after they emerge from the ground, as well as to any other imperfections that appear on the totem (and there are so many), are touched up.
The other looks a mess with all it’s imperfections treated with a salve, but left clearly visible as scars, dents, and deep punctures. Some are so deep, going through and through, that one starts to wonder how the totem remains standing.
Then, in the dimly lit darkness we’ve been in, a brilliant light starts to rise over the horizon, and one sees clearly now the imperfections of the first totem, just as deep, just as scarred, just as ugly as the second, no uglier now for –
in the dawn of the light we see that the cosmetic fixes and the deep hole patches of the first totem are only webs of weak sour crystals. Inside the patch material has turned to acid and seeped down to eat out the core of the totem, and then settled to eat through to just under the visible surface and there formed a bulge of powder from collapsed crystals.
in the dawn of the light we see that what we thought was salve on the second totem is actually pieces of a living being, spattered over its wounds. It is both revolting and somehow peacefully settling as the light starts to interact with these living pieces, which come alive and fill in but do not hide the scars, dents, cuts, and gaping holes.
When the light breaks the horizon the light shifts. Had it not we would not have been able to see anything at all, our eyes being consumed by such intense pure light as powerful in reverse as a black hole. The light itself becomes invisible, though its effects are blatantly obvious and … astounding.
The first totem, which was patched up to look wonderful, starts to disintegrate. First the light permeates the crystals and turns them into a fine powder, which collects at the bottom of the totem that is left as it has been for a long time, barely anything at all. Then in the light, what is left of once grand looking totem, begins to burn from the inside out, until it crumbles into a pile of dead ash that disappears back into the earth.
The second totem, perfect in structure as the ‘salve’ has made it, though still as ugly as the sin that marred, scarred, and punctured it at its heart – this totem also starts to come apart, not a disintegration but a reintegration, as from the top it peels off into pieces of the living ‘salve’ of healing, which seek out the wounds of so many other totems that we now see in this invisible light.
We see in this light, that though we can try to make our lives something more than the ugly sin that scars and wounds us, it is all for nothing. The only hope for us is when Christ, the healing salve for the world, claims us, touches us, heals us, and makes us able to be the healing presence in the world for other broken, sinful beings.
When the invisible light of truth and grace starts to set, again we are astonished and delighted to see all the totems, whom the healing salve from us all has touched, start to dance … one, two, three; one, two, three; one, to all the Three in One that creates life so blessed.
In the dance we see, instead of dents, scars, cuts, and holes, the astounding power of our Creator to heal with Grace. The wounds become reflections of the Light itself, more precious than any gem we’ve ever imagined, and the dazzling light show of life on earth in this dance cannot be compared to anything other than ….
well than life at its absolute best, as God created us to live it.
And that is how God allows us to discern what God intends for us and all people, by the healing, saving power of Jesus the Christ via the cross and our sacrifices to give life to others.
May the light shine for us, even in the darkness of our days and lives.