Lent, Day 6
Lent, Day 5 / Be Known (2)
A Poem: Known and Free
I AM the One who knows:
Each vice that holds you in its grip,
Each lie that strikes you like a whip,
Each weakness of your foe.
I AM the One who knows:
Each time your heart seeks better things,
Each moment you turn back to Me,
Each higher place you’ll go.
So I have been,
So I will be:
The Knowing One
Who sets you free.
Lent, Day 4
A way has been made, a veil has been torn. It was made by The Way and pierced by The Truth.
And now anyone who longs to – and chooses to – can approach the Altar of God. To embrace The Life who will guide us in all that’s best.
Lent, Day 3
Too often, we find only temporary – or artificial – delight in things that cannot possibly give us lasting delight.
Because they are not THE Light.
Lent, Day 2
“From sinking sand He lifted me, with tender hand He lifted me; from shades of night to planes of light, O praise His name, He lifted me!”
Charles H. Gabriel (1856-1932)
Lent, Day 1
The Journey Begins:
The way up to Zion is not smooth or even, but the Word says the heart consumed with a pilgrimage mindset will be filled with delight.
Even in the ashes, even in the suffering, I see hope and holy longing (in diverse hearts of the young and old) climbing to the dwelling place of God, just as the wisdom and strength of His light and the streams of His delight rain (and reign) down on us along this desert road.
Be Known (1)
Why are we so relieved when someone we trust listens to our awkward confession and still “gets” us without judgement…yet we are often fearful to say what we really think/feel to people we are unsure of?
Why do we feel at home with people who know our quirks…and feel we must put on a mask with those who don’t know us well, lest they should find us quirky (or worse)?
Why do we repeatedly attempt to hide from God just like our earliest ancestors did, even when we will always be as unsuccessful at it as they were?
For a hundred different reasons at different times, we do not want to be known – at least, not really. And yet, if we could listen to the nearly-suffocated voice of the core deep inside us, we might hear it whisper, “Who would really want to know me here? And if they did, would they love me still?”
Ironically, this being known so intimately by God and others with the knowing coated in fear-abolishing love: this is the most important desire of the human heart.
(I guess that’s why I had to write about being loved before I could write about being known. I would be petrified of the knowledge that God knows me fully if I could not hold onto the promise that He loves me even more.)
This month and next month, I will continue my weekend posts, further exploring what it means to be known intimately and to know intimately. But I am going to take it one step further.
Lent begins this week. Upon reflection, this year I have decided not to abstain from something. Instead, I am choosing to feast, to immerse myself in this idea of being known – and not just being known, but being delighted in.
I know deep in my gut that God knows me. But what really boggles my mind is the thought that He, knowing me, would actually and always, delight in me.
And He, the master of the universe, asks me to know Him. And to delight in Him.
Breathtaking.
So, I hope you will join me on a journey. Starting daily, from March 6 through the Lenten season, I will post a picture of a new, simple piece of word art reflecting some aspect of this wonderful mystery: God’s delight in us and our delight in Him.
Most days there will be no commentary. But I hope that pausing to see each image will give your soul a sip of nectar, sweetness to brighten your being from the inside out. Please drink deeply with me and share with others who may need to see the images too.
Let’s be known – and delighted in – together.