Chapter Six Video: http://www.incourage.me/2011/02/one-thousand-gifts-chapter-six.htmlI hate being behind. I REALLY do! At the same time, I really struggled over finding the "point" of Chapter Six. I didn't feel like I could really move on until I grasped exactly what I needed to out of this chapter. Hard to discuss something that you truly don't "get" yourself.
How have you felt on the days when you are seeking the blessings from God? When your eyes are open and you are seeking with all your being? I have felt an immense peace and calmness over my life when I am truly invested in exercising eucharisteo. When I let the busyness of life take over and my priorities go by the wayside the anxiety and worry begin to creep right back. On page 106, Ann reminds us that we can still see all these great things and so easily forget.
"I empty of truth and need the refilling. I need come again every day-bend, clutch, and remember-for who can gather the manna but once, hoarding, and store away sustenance in the mind for all of the living?"What am I refilling for? What am I truly seeking and want for me and my life? I want to see God. I want to know Him a little bit more today than I did yesterday so that His peace may fill the voids I have where Satan plants a garden of anxiety and fear. I seek and our world seeks for beauty. We want the shiny and sparkly because who goes out looking for the dirty and grimy? Isn't beauty what our consumerism is rooted in as mentioned in the video? Our hunger for beauty is not wrong, but the wrongness lies in what we are feeding that hunger. Our hunger for beauty is a deep-seated desire for God.
"Beauty is all that is glory and God is beauty embodied, glory manifested."As I seek, I wonder after reading Ann's experience of the moon, if I have had that big moment? The moment where I take my search for God's beauty to the next level and experience that true communion with Him. I love this quote from the book:
"This moment, this place, is none other than a gate into heaven. God's glory rains down, weighs down earth's tented heights, and grace tears through, ripping sky canvas and me clear open."When we see His beauty in nature and the things around us, do we recognize that it is Him? Do we have faith that we can reach that communion with Him? And in those hard to handle gritty, grimy moments do we see Him?
"Faith is the gaze of a soul upon a saving God...Faith is the seeing eyes that find the gauze to heaven torn through; that slow to witness the silent weight, feel the gold glory bar heavy in palm, no matter the outer appearance...faith is not a once-in-the-past action, but faith is always a way of seeing, a seeking for God in everything."A lot of material this week leads to an allover the place discussion. I hope there was something in the words above that touched you or changed your perspective. Feeling behind? Catch up on past One Thousand Gifts Posts.
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