Is Your Soul Thirsty?

Abundant living comes from a beautiful place of being and then only doing from a rested place of being. It seems we often pine to become something while doing, trying to attain being "someone". Ironically, the authenticity of fully living is realizing that the thirst of the soul may come in the mode of desires and longings feeling arid or parched. It takes time, silence, solitude, and rest for refreshment of the soul, one that becomes satiated in a place of allowing times of quietness and trust to become a strength.

The Place of Longing for Intimacy with God

Frail, vulnerable, humble humanity becomes a response to a loving invitation laid bare and finds in that place an embrace in the depths of the crevices with the Divine unconditional love anticipated and sought without understanding that the encounter behind the veil is found not in striving and getting but in yielding and receiving. To reach for the sacredness of life and living is ironically and paradoxically not found in doing more, but in being less with the abundance found with greatest capacity when we are found in Him. "and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God's way of making us right with himself depends on faith." Philippians 3:9

The Love of the God-Son on Good Friday

It was because of the strength of love that It was because of his love that God-Father sent his son to fulfill a requirement. It was because of the strength of love that Jesus endured the pain of the cross knowing the cost of both love and purpose. It is that same love that beckons us to receive all that he gave out of love so that our own souls may find peace and fulfillment in the divine relationship intended form the beginning, a restoration of intimacy through the Holy Spirit with the veil now torn.

Tending to the Soil of our Souls

The seed only matures when embraced and protected in sweet communion with the master Gardner, God, and allowing Him to water nourishment through all seasons, some which seem barren to the natural eye. The soul also has to allow Him to remove any debris, pebbles, or sharp rocks that would hinder growth in the soil. The beauty is when that quality seed takes root and begins to bear fruit leading to the mystery of spiritual formation, maturation, and transformation of the soul. The fruit bore is then to be shared! His abiding unconditional love is what nurtures the root!

Embracing Intimacy with God through Lent

May we see this as a season not of lack, but of embracing deepening intimacy found in unbroken authentic communion with the Father, a “renewal fast” made possible by the Incarnation, Resurrection, and indwelling Holy Spirit, in advance of the time of leading up to Easter celebration. Can the joy of the Resurrection Celebration really be thoroughly experienced without the “giving things up” in the fast? What is the spirit of Lent? Let us look back to tradition in the early church. Eastern Orthodox liturgy and theology expresses that Adam “ate apart” from God. He entered into the world of self-sufficiency and independence from God, so much so that he hid. He believed the lie that the one restricted fruit was for his own well-being had life and could then become like God instead of trusting the very words of God and embracing relationship with God. The boundary was a certain fruit upon the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Accepting that instruction, trusting God, limited the excess of human freedom. By design, Adam was to thrive in the boundary set, dependent upon God for life – for food. Was not God’s instruction an abstinence from the one fruit, not all fruit? In a sense then, did they not break the boundary, the restriction placed for well-being, a “fast” from the one fruit that provided unbroken communion with God?

Soul, Hear the Invitation to an Unhurried Pace of Unforced Rhythms of Grace?

He want's our soul to radiate his glory wherever we are, because we are his chapel, his sanctuary, his monastery, ... his temple. He lives in us. The kingdom reign is in the soul May you hear and respond to his invitation to live life unforced, to live loved and embraced in your soul, allowing communion with him at the pace he sets. That precious place of humility and communion of the soul make obedience a delight. God is the one who sets the pace, always going before and preparing the details and opening the doors through the key of prayer and communion. Why worry soul, why not trust him? Is it not there that the unforced rhythms of grace begin to make music in the soul and the joy radiates through the face?