:: the pursuit of God, ch. 4 ::

There are things I can't see, voices I can't hear. There are melodies I haven't sung, depths of relationship I have never known. There is God, beckoning me to look for Him with the eyes of my soul. There is reality worth living in, dreams which are not distant but begin today.

God, how can I know You? How can I look with the sealed-tight eyes in my soul? Peel off my layers of unbelief, of false notions about reality and the spiritual realm. I want to know You, see You, taste and feel You. I want You in my still waters.

"We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. He is nearer than our own soul, closer than our most secret thoughts." a.w. tozer

For every which way

      in which

you made my day:

thank you.

I wish I had a butterfly net for my thoughts.  I have fantastic ideas, beautiful little poems and witty lines of prose, sometimes great inventions or depths of understanding God; then they flutter away, all shimmering bright colors, and are gone.

I cannot get them back.

It's nice to be able to replace people's losses.  In fact, it's almost impossible to participate with altruistic motives, without stealing a bit of pleasure for ourselves while we lend a hand.  

The problem is when we can't help, when we don't have what they need brimming out of our full closets.  When they lose something like a Dad.  Or husband.  Then there's no good feeling to pass around, just the tissue.

(I'm so sorry.)  

:: word ::

The Word of the Lord stands forever. I'm thinking about Jesus, about the preservation of what's valuable throughout history. I know of no artifacts related to Jesus. Except the shroud (which is sketchy), nothing remains. Nothing, except the words he spoke.

I'm thinking about this because I'm trying to understand what is worth life pursuit. Is God impressed with our cities, our museums, our internet?

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
Mother Teresa

:: the neediest need ::

Let's pretend there was a big fire that swept through the area. This fire, while it did burn through huge sections of land, managed to miss heavily populated areas and hit mostly the rural, the uninsured.

But insurance, that's not what I want to talk about. Back to my scenario.

Hypothetically speaking, the main church in the area would see this need (literally over 100 homes/buildings burned just in one zip code) and be moved to action, and would naturally set up a sort of free store. People all over the county would want to help, would be pouring in donations. This would fill the store with things, which would in turn fill the store with people who need those things.

Now.

Let's imagine that in this area where there were fires and burned homes, there were also non-burned homes belonging to the poor. Who are usually the first to hear about free things. Who would then want to come supplement their poverty with wonderfully donated free things like new shoes and soft sheets and my never-used wall organizer.

I'm not saying I would know what to do, but it is an interesting sorting that happens, a hierarchy of needs. (Aren't we glad that hasn't happened here?)