Dear friends,Here is a very nice picture of our friends Hugh and Joelle in NYC. We did have a marvelous time with these dear, generous hearted folks who opened their lovely home (also featured here) to us for a couple of nights. We left behind our troubles and enjoyed relationships (my recurring theme), and it is like medicine to change scenery after a long, rather dark night. Joelle is from France, and their 2 charming, bright boys are bilingual, making the “chatter about the flat” interesting and lyrical. The fact that I couldn’t understand it didn’t seem to matter. It was simply a pleasure to listen in.
New York City is filled with people of every color, language, personality and fabric imaginable. Smitty and I talked on the way home about how much heaven will look like New York. People from “every nation, tribe and tongue” will be there. So if you don’t like variety, you had better get used to it in a hurry. The Great One loves it, and didn’t set aside redemption for any particular strain of humanity. He says “whosoever is thirsty, come!” Jesus died for all. Sadly, not all will say yes to Him. But the offer is freely given in expansive, wild, reckless love. It’s given to all. Our choice is to believe or not. It’s the most important choice we will ever make. Because none of us knows how close we stand to the edge of eternity. Airplanes crash into buildings, cancer attacks the unsuspecting, drunk drivers drive head-on into fathers picking up their sons. Our world is full of distractions that keep us from thinking too long or too hard about the invisible reality all around us. The enemy of our souls wants to keep us distracted, laser focused on the here and now, with its problems and pleasures. The Lover of our souls wants us to see Him through our problems and pleasures, and find our ancient sonship so we can begin living the eternal reality now. How easily distracted I am from the truth of what my life is about!
Luke 21:34"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.
The definition of dissipation is “scatteredness, lack of focus”. Most of us won’t miss God because of some great evil, but because of the million other things that call our name. I am at the head of the line for this sin. But my heart's desire is to “Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul mind and strength.” So we’ve got to duke it out with ourselves by keeping the temporal stuff in its rightful place. Second.
Now it’s back to the everyday. Let’s face it, every night can’t be wonderful Moroccan food and music and long walks. But every day does have joy to grab hold of, in all its ordinariness. It’s fun to have a mini vacation, and it’s good too to come home and go about the business of common life. The Great One is in all of it. But I sure will miss those French toast bagels…
New York City is filled with people of every color, language, personality and fabric imaginable. Smitty and I talked on the way home about how much heaven will look like New York. People from “every nation, tribe and tongue” will be there. So if you don’t like variety, you had better get used to it in a hurry. The Great One loves it, and didn’t set aside redemption for any particular strain of humanity. He says “whosoever is thirsty, come!” Jesus died for all. Sadly, not all will say yes to Him. But the offer is freely given in expansive, wild, reckless love. It’s given to all. Our choice is to believe or not. It’s the most important choice we will ever make. Because none of us knows how close we stand to the edge of eternity. Airplanes crash into buildings, cancer attacks the unsuspecting, drunk drivers drive head-on into fathers picking up their sons. Our world is full of distractions that keep us from thinking too long or too hard about the invisible reality all around us. The enemy of our souls wants to keep us distracted, laser focused on the here and now, with its problems and pleasures. The Lover of our souls wants us to see Him through our problems and pleasures, and find our ancient sonship so we can begin living the eternal reality now. How easily distracted I am from the truth of what my life is about!
Luke 21:34"Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.
The definition of dissipation is “scatteredness, lack of focus”. Most of us won’t miss God because of some great evil, but because of the million other things that call our name. I am at the head of the line for this sin. But my heart's desire is to “Love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul mind and strength.” So we’ve got to duke it out with ourselves by keeping the temporal stuff in its rightful place. Second.
Now it’s back to the everyday. Let’s face it, every night can’t be wonderful Moroccan food and music and long walks. But every day does have joy to grab hold of, in all its ordinariness. It’s fun to have a mini vacation, and it’s good too to come home and go about the business of common life. The Great One is in all of it. But I sure will miss those French toast bagels…
Your friend on the pilgrim road,
Loriann
Loriann
1 comment:
Your line "Most of us won’t miss God because of some great evil, but because of the million other things that call our name" reminds me of something expressed by your favorite author, C.S. Lewis. In 'The Screwtape Letters' Screwtape is advising his nephew on the best way to have a man damned, and he writes at one point "It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one - the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts."
A chilling thought, and one to constantly remind ourselves of.
Terrific post today, Loriann. I enjoyed the weekend with you and our dear friends very much. Love you!
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