Philippians 3:4b-14
I suppose every time you read a passage from scripture, you cannot help but say how is God speaking to me? What does this passage mean? What is it calling me to do? As you know, sometimes the message I write down is simply that God loves me and you. God wants us to be confident in his love, know we were 'purpose built' and holy. Sometimes, a reflection on our lives is just a smile.
Today, I have such a smile. It isn't laziness but I feel content to simply sit here and take it all in, look out over the blue water with the sun rising and feel so appreciative of all that God has graced me with.
Like Paul, there are many reasons I can be confident in the flesh and in what I have been given. Early on in life I started on a journey, set forth by my ancestors perhaps, of growing in the Roman Catholic faith. I always studied in religious schools and to date have amassed 20 solid years of Catholic eduction. Perhaps more important is the 20+ years of spiritual training that accompanied that education as well a singular retreat when I was 17 years old. That retreat laid the foundation for everything else in my life, faith, appreciation, relationship with God, joy and sustenance. At 17 I came to know in my heart, mind and soul that no matter what, God loved me and cared for me. It was a mutual love affair. This love became the joy of my life and the prism of my entire life. No matter what transpired, no matter what happened, no what I achieved or seemed to achieve, everything was seen and appreciated through the prism of God's love for me. It is something that I pray everyone can have. It is the reason I write this blog.
So I can run through a litany of all the reasons I can be confident in the flesh like Paul. I can tell you stories for hours on end of how my life has gone. Some would say quite well, others might judge that I have been afflicted with life traumas and that I have overcome much. I have no such judgements except to say that the value I put on anything (and everything) is seen through the prism of God's love for me. Children, family, spouse, a wonderful cat, friends, home. All of this is seen not as accomplishments or reasons for pride. All of this is gift. All of this is seen through the prism of God's love for me.
So as I sit here at my desk, the sun gets brighter and the water even bluer, as my husband makes me a cup of coffee to start the day, I am at peace and filled with love and appreciation. A fine morning meditation.
What is it you see when you look through the prism of God's unending love for you ?
I suppose every time you read a passage from scripture, you cannot help but say how is God speaking to me? What does this passage mean? What is it calling me to do? As you know, sometimes the message I write down is simply that God loves me and you. God wants us to be confident in his love, know we were 'purpose built' and holy. Sometimes, a reflection on our lives is just a smile.
Today, I have such a smile. It isn't laziness but I feel content to simply sit here and take it all in, look out over the blue water with the sun rising and feel so appreciative of all that God has graced me with.
Like Paul, there are many reasons I can be confident in the flesh and in what I have been given. Early on in life I started on a journey, set forth by my ancestors perhaps, of growing in the Roman Catholic faith. I always studied in religious schools and to date have amassed 20 solid years of Catholic eduction. Perhaps more important is the 20+ years of spiritual training that accompanied that education as well a singular retreat when I was 17 years old. That retreat laid the foundation for everything else in my life, faith, appreciation, relationship with God, joy and sustenance. At 17 I came to know in my heart, mind and soul that no matter what, God loved me and cared for me. It was a mutual love affair. This love became the joy of my life and the prism of my entire life. No matter what transpired, no matter what happened, no what I achieved or seemed to achieve, everything was seen and appreciated through the prism of God's love for me. It is something that I pray everyone can have. It is the reason I write this blog.
So I can run through a litany of all the reasons I can be confident in the flesh like Paul. I can tell you stories for hours on end of how my life has gone. Some would say quite well, others might judge that I have been afflicted with life traumas and that I have overcome much. I have no such judgements except to say that the value I put on anything (and everything) is seen through the prism of God's love for me. Children, family, spouse, a wonderful cat, friends, home. All of this is seen not as accomplishments or reasons for pride. All of this is gift. All of this is seen through the prism of God's love for me.
So as I sit here at my desk, the sun gets brighter and the water even bluer, as my husband makes me a cup of coffee to start the day, I am at peace and filled with love and appreciation. A fine morning meditation.
What is it you see when you look through the prism of God's unending love for you ?
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:
circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;
as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.
More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.
I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.
Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,
I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
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