I shared with you a few posts ago that I planned to hunt deep into the bowels of our storage room (AKA the garage) for a book by Brother Lawrence. Well… I forgot. That is I forgot until I went searching for a small space-heater. Haven’t found the heater nor the book, but I did stumble across a whole drawer (my husband stores books in ugly metal file cabinets) of MY books! I thought our make-shift library had all of Mike’s keep-sakes, but I discovered an Andy drawer. (Smile-sigh).
It was like Christmas.
One of the books I recovered from it’s metal grave is entitled: Disciplines for the Inner Life, by Bob and Michael Benson. The first section is about experiencing God. I couldn’t resist sharing an excerpt from my reading. (Actually it is excerpt of an excerpt. Disciplines has “selections for mediation.” This is the one I read today:
He is the one who can tell us the reason for our existence, our place in the scheme of things, our real identity. It is an identity we can’t discover for ourselves, that others can’t discover in us–the mystery of who we really are. How we have chased around the world for answers to that riddle, looked in the eyes of others for some hint, some clue, hunted in the multiple worlds of pleasure and experience and self-fulfillment for some glimpse, some revelation, some wisdom, some authority to tell us our right name and our true destination.
But there was and is only One who can tell us this: the Lord himself. And he wants to tell us, he has made us to know our reason for being and to be led by it. But it is a secret he will entrust to us only when we ask, and then in his own way and his own time. He will whisper it to us not in the mad rush and fever of our striving and our fierce determination to be someone, but rather when we are content to rest in him, to put ourselves into his keeping, into his hands. Most delightfully of all, it is a secret he will tell us slowly and sweetly, when we are willing to spend time with him: time with him who is beyond all time.
~From Clinging–The Experience of Prayer, by Emilie Griffin
So many of us are searching for our great purpose. And we do need purpose beyond ourselves–of that I’m thoroughly convinced. But I’m also convinced that our Father has many purposes for us, not just one big one. He has a purpose for us specifically for each new day. If my theory is correct and Emilie is on target too, how desperate is the need to spend time with the Daily Purpose Giver?
I don’t want to miss today’s purpose.
Even if my purpose is to find a treasure during a search for something else along the way. If I’m walking with Him, He will lead me to the more important task I did not know.
Enjoy your day with Him.
Much grace and peace,
andy
Blessed are those who have learned to acclaim you, who walk in the light of your presence, O Lord.
(Psalm 89:15)
