ELUL 19
Hide not your face from me. Do not turn away from your servant in anger, You are my help. Forsake me not, my God of deliverance. Do not abandon me God, the One who delivers me. (Psalm 27:9)
For many of us, it seems like God is hiding, or at least absent from our lives. We may not even think we need God. When we feel let down, abandoned, not heard, or alone, we don't imagine that God is a presence for us. God seems distant, unreachable, invisible. Yet, we must also consider the ways in which we act that might distance an experience of God from us.
All of the little missteps, mistakes, moments of holiness that we don't take advantage of, all of these, while small alone, add up in the long run. Godliness is an open and available experience to all who seek it, and can meet us where we are. We have to be open to this relationship though, open to the possibility. Even if we are not seeking God, we can imagine that God is always seeking us. We need to look at our lives and find ways to make changes that allow holiness to enter and fill us, especially in our daily lives.
To do: Examine your everyday interactions. See where you can bring more compassion, more love, more respect, more peace into each day: with the shopkeeper, with your workmates, classmates, housemates, road-mates—and with yourself. With greater effort on an daily basis, God can become more visible, more reachable, more accessible. "When we change the direction of our lives, we will find that God has been there waiting for us." (Preparing Your Heart)
For many of us, it seems like God is hiding, or at least absent from our lives. We may not even think we need God. When we feel let down, abandoned, not heard, or alone, we don't imagine that God is a presence for us. God seems distant, unreachable, invisible. Yet, we must also consider the ways in which we act that might distance an experience of God from us.
All of the little missteps, mistakes, moments of holiness that we don't take advantage of, all of these, while small alone, add up in the long run. Godliness is an open and available experience to all who seek it, and can meet us where we are. We have to be open to this relationship though, open to the possibility. Even if we are not seeking God, we can imagine that God is always seeking us. We need to look at our lives and find ways to make changes that allow holiness to enter and fill us, especially in our daily lives.
To do: Examine your everyday interactions. See where you can bring more compassion, more love, more respect, more peace into each day: with the shopkeeper, with your workmates, classmates, housemates, road-mates—and with yourself. With greater effort on an daily basis, God can become more visible, more reachable, more accessible. "When we change the direction of our lives, we will find that God has been there waiting for us." (Preparing Your Heart)