Tink's Challenge
I'll never approach Tink's eloquence in her "How well do you know Jesus" challenge, but here goes: as she said, you must tell how well you know Jesus, but you cannot refer to anything from the Bible. Thus, it's only your experience that counts.
He has brought me through two open heart surgeries unscathed. One is enough to put you into a stroke or some other complication, and I had to have two of them. He granted me many tiny miracles as I picked my way through the minefield of recovery. Whenever some issue would crop up, I would turn it over to Him, and He would smooth the way.
He has given me countless chances to witness, as a reader in church. I love this passage from Isaiah 50--"The Lord has given me a well trained tongue, that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them." It's never a chore, but a blessing, to proclaim the Word of God at Mass, and I am grateful for that chance.
A while ago I posted about the Jesus is lost prayer and it belongs in this post as well, as even mundane things such as finding lost keys count. It doesn't have to be an earthshaking miracle of the sort likely to wind up on CNN, because after all, according to 1Kings 19:11-13, the Lord was not in the heavy wind or the earthquake or the fire, but in the tiny whispering sound. In the end, I suppose that is how I know Him--by that tiny whispering sound by which He shows me the way and offers to take away my pain and my worry.
(Uh oh, I think I broke the rule about referring to the Bible, but we're not being graded, are we Tink?)
posted by Career Guy @ 6:11 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
I heard a really fantastic commentary about this particular Kings post at church a few months back. Our congregration shares a space with a Synagogue. It's one of the things that actually drew to me to the church-- the giant cross and Star of David out front on the main road. Once a year we have a pulpit switch and our priest preaches to the Jewish community and the rabbi preaches to us. Rabbi Levy shared with us some of the commentators view on this verse. I'll never be able to get it as eloquent as he did, but it was something to effect of that God's presence was there even before the whisper and that sometimes we find Him best in the silences-- even beyond the whisper. I wish I could give you the teachers he referenced-- I'll only comment a little more. What your post reminded me of was when I regularly went on retreats at a Bendectine Monastary, starting in 8th grade until my mid-20s. We were allowed no walk-mans, and as a music lover and someone who experiences deep emotion with certain music, this was hard at the start. Yet I learned so much about myself and my relationship with the Divine that way. We should all have to be so quiet...
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