Who doesn't like the four seasons? One is a little long for us up here in Michigan. But this Spring is beautiful to behold, a real Spring, a gradual warming, the trees in full bud and bloom against the blue sky.
There are seasons in our lives as well. Tomorrow Deb and I are attending a silent retreat at the Dominican Center at Marywood, here in Grand Rapids. Hopefully a time where I'll truly be endeavoring to draw near to God, along with others.
Maybe today I need to kind of step back and look at my life, what God has been doing or wanting to do in it. This past Wednesday in our chapel at my work at RBC Ministries, we had an interesting speaker who talked about the Potter's hands shaping us into the vessels he wants, and how we need to learn to feel those hands on us. It's hard sometimes in the midst of that shaping, if we know there's a defect, or if we're resisting the Potter's hands. Also when we get a glimpse or sense of just how far we are from where the Potter wants us to be.
It's also good to be encouraged and get a sense, that while we have a long way to go, we've come a long way. And best of all to live up to what we've attained to, in Jesus. That can be the challenging part. It's easy to make a commitment, but harder to live that out day after day, through all the circumstances life brings. But in all of that we can learn to sense and feel the Potter's hands on us. And be open and compliant to his working.
What would you like to add to this?
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6 comments:
Yes, I think the older we get in Christ the more we see our sin. The more aware we become of how short we fall from his glory. As we age God's greatness expands in our view----it is like the picture I have seen drawn of a tiny cross when we first become believers and how the cross keeps getting bigger and bigger as we age---God continues to reveal our sin as we grow in him, but he also reveals his greatness and the greatness of his salvation.
I also love the view Dostoyevski gives of an old believer in this quote that I put on my blog today:
" .....the fiery blood of youth gives way to the gentle serenity of old age. I bless the rising sun each day, and my heart sings to it as of old, but now I love its setting even more, its long slanting rays and the quiet, gentle, tender memories that come with them, the dear images from the whole of my long and blessed life---and over it all Divine Truth, tender, reconciling, and all-forgiving! My life is drawing to a close. I know that, I feel it. But I also feel every day that is left to me how my earthly life is already in touch with a new, infinite, unknown but fast-approaching future life, the anticipation of which sets my soul trembling with rapture, my mind glowing , and my heart weeping with joy....."
Have a blessed retreat and may God's Spirit commune with yours.
May you be blessed with a glorious time as you allow God to draw you closer into Himself.
I love summer because my boys are out of school and can spend time with them doing fun stuff. Vacations are always fun.
Ted you are always in my thoughts and prayers buddy especially the winters in MI.
Nannykim,
Yes, very true. Good as we grow older to grow wiser. Amazing that Solomon abandoned the wisdom God gave him. Maybe Ecclesiastes is an indication that he repented in old age. Though most Bible scholars, even evangelical ones, don't believe he wrote it. But it may have come out of his experience, and certainly seems in part, directed at it.
The zeal and idealism of youth should not give way to a weariness and survival mode kind of existence. But the older I get the more I realize just how much I need the Lord. This is not a life I can live out, myself. I live it by faith, or the faithfulness of God- in Christ, a yet not I, but Christ kind of existence. But in that we find our true joy.
Good quote, too. I like the love for God's creation expressed in it. Thanks.
Thanks, Bill.
Kinney,
Thanks. Am praying for you as well, and hope you're feeling better.
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