May 29
Scripture focus: Tu n'auras pas d'autre dieu que moi. Exodus 20:3, La Bible du Semeur
As many regular readers know, my mother-in-law recently died. We were given the grand gift of a week to say good-bye. One Saturday we took her to the hospital because she thought she had bronchitis, and the next day she was dealing with a rapid growing cancer in her chest. This sounds like a terrible thing, and for us, it is. We miss her terribly.
But the gift of the six days between diagnosis and death was grace-filled. There was no way we could deceive ourselves or others, deny, repress, rationalize, hide, delay or fail to cope. (All of these are ways we feed the addictive process.)
We simply had no choice but to be fully present for the journey. Our daily presence also taught us that we were incapable of “handling” the situation, and I think this was a great blessing, because each day brought with it a fervent prayer for God’s presence and his peace. He graciously provide each of us with an awareness of both.
Here’s what I learned. I learned that life without dependencies is blessed. When stripped to the essence of the fragility of life, we discovered that God remained fully present and available to meet our every need, according to his riches in glory.
Weeks later, I cannot remain in this fully present state, unfortunately. Petty life issues distract me. But I have renewed hope for the wonder of loving God and others. And it is this experience that spurs me on to learn more fully what it means to have tiny gods, and pray more trustingly for them to be removed from my heart.
May God lead us all into his wonderful light.
Click on the word comments below and join our conversation!© Copyright 2010 NorthStar Community
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
12 step recovery and Northstar Community have shown me the tools to change lives. They continue to teach me how to use these the tools to change my life. Today I am very open about my journey prior to and after finding the gift of recovery. When people ask me about Northstar, I tell them about community. I have found with the help of James exactly what Northstar is to me. "19-20My dear friends, if you know people who have wandered off from God's truth, don't write them off. Go after them. Get them back and you will have rescued precious lives from destruction and prevented an epidemic of wandering away from God." The epidemic is real! I was one of the folks who wandered and needed a way back. After spending a week with James, I am left with one question. Am I living a life worth inviting others to join?
Blessings Yall
If you believe in the one HE sent you are imo. It is not my job to question weather I am rightous or not. That gets sorted out in the end. I feel my purpose is to know GOD, through reading a very thorough instruction book, discussion and building a personal relationship with HIM through prayer and to carry that message to others in word and action.
Also to be out there where those in need are. Teresa speaks to her grocery store checkout line experiences as one example. Other places might be 12 step meeting rooms, conferences, at work and play, the casual chat with a stranger in a public place.
I do love the book of James and have found it a great template to live life with. As someone that spent 38 years wandering around my own desert of life and finally engaging in the change process I found that I had no clue how to live a healthy life. To me James is a great intruction manual and wealth of information.
Post a Comment