There is an irreversible vulnerability in God’s love that was first expressed “in the beginning” and continues to offer itself over and over again through the history and prophets of Israel, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, through each of our lives. God’s first offer of love still stands: I will be your God. Will you be my people? (cf. Ezek 37:27).
From the book Cherished by the Lord
The amazing thing about the dawn is that we get to begin again.
Each new sunrise announces a gift to be opened.
I have to admit, I usually have at least 20 tabs open in Google Chrome on one of my monitors with eight to ten programs open on the other. I’m switching constantly between online and offline programs to accomplish tasks connected with maintaining a website, digital marketing, or facilitating digital publishing. At the end of the day, my spirit is fragmented into as many splintered pieces as windows that flashed in front of my sight and soul during the day. And of course, there is the token YouTube video, the news, and my favorite blogs.
I’ve spent a lot of time pondering the effect of internet and computer use on the human spirit. If I were out gardening all day I’d probably have other complaints, like a sore back and hurting knees, but being in nature would be healing and whole. Multi-tasking across multiple different platforms in front of a screen doesn’t quite have the same healing effect. Using smartphones and tablets, now so much of our organizational and communication tools can have the same soul-splintering experience if we are not careful to preserve space for our spirit.
One thing I’ve been trying to do is to spend 15 or 20 minutes before I go to bed, in a darkened room, in prayer or reading. Candles or incense awaken my senses to beauty once more. My reflections or conversations with God reconnect me personally to Someone who hears and listens and speaks and touches and tastes and holds and cares. It restores me to myself.
Do you have any small rituals you’ve developed to restore your fragmented or drooping spirit at the end of a long day?
God loves us as if we were the center of his universe! We who have died and risen with Christ, we in whom the Son abides, we for whom Jesus answered to his Father with his life and with his death—we are the object of God’s delight. O Love! You wash my feet and tend to my vulnerability every day! Give me eyes to see you.
A Sacred Moment from Cherished by the Lord
Believe in God like you believe in the sunrise. Not because you can see it, but because you can see all it touches.
C.S. Lewis
Touching the Sunrise 