Are You in Touch With Your Heart?

I remember the first time I really spent time getting to know Jesus (you can learn more about that time in my life in this video post here), I was struck by the disparity between the religious leaders of the day and Jesus.

They didn’t get along with Jesus at all, and he didn’t get along with them. And the reason why, I came to realize, was because they cared more than anything about keeping laws and abiding by rule books. What’s more, they cared about these things in order to impress God and impress people. 

They were caught up in their reputations and their own social image. 

But then Jesus came along and said, “This isn’t the way to God. Abiding by rules and protecting your image isn’t going to captivate God’s heart.”

What is going to captivate God’s heart? 

Being in touch with your own heart and bringing that reality to God.

When Jesus came on the scene, he went straight to this truth. He told those religious leaders — in not so endearing terms! — that they had no idea what was truly going on inside themselves. They were so focused on outward appearances and external activities that they were completely out of touch with their inner truth. They had no idea what truly motivated them to do what they did.

Are you aware of what’s true inside your heart? Is there anything that scares you about inspecting your heart and then letting God see it?

All the Poor and Powerless

If you can’t see the video player on your e-mail or RSS feed, click through to view it. 

Hello, friends. 

I like to share music here from time to time that has made an impression on me and might also mean something to you. 

This morning, it’s a song called “All the Poor and Powerless” by a duo called All Sons and Daughters that I recently discovered. I have been listening to this song on repeat while writing the daily posts here this week, and this morning I woke with the chorus of this song running through my mind. 

There’s something comforting and mournful about this song at the same time. There’s a sense of compassion in it, but also a sense of triumph. 

I hope it encourages you. 

xoxo,

Christianne 

Where Has God Been Present to You?

Tonight I attended a healing prayer service at our episcopal parish and was reminded by our rector of the daily examen prayer. 

Have you heard of the daily examen prayer before? 

This is a daily prayer first introduced by St. Ignatius of Loyola in the 1500s, who said he considered this daily practice to be the most vital spiritual discipline anyone can incorporate into their daily life. He found the benefits of practicing it too rich to miss for even one day. 

What is the daily examen prayer, you ask? 

It is a time set aside at the end of each day to prayerfully review the day you’ve just finished and consider how God has been present in it.

For example, when I sat and prayerfully reviewed my day today for God’s presence, these are some of the things that emerged in my awareness: 

• The gift of an extended coffee date with one of my dearest friends
• A conflict with Kirk that ended in our renewed commitment to each other and our life together
• A couple kind e-mails
• The opportunity to meet with my spiritual director
• The smell of rain
• The granting of an unusual request I made of someone recently
• The joy-filled smile of an elderly woman at church tonight
• A spontaneous opportunity to capture a photograph of some beautiful velvety flowers
• The way Diva (my little girl kitty) sits with me at my desk while I work

These are large or little graces that communicated God’s presence and care toward me today. 

What kind of things would be on your list today? 

When I began practicing the daily examen a few years ago, I found that it increased my sense of gratitude at least ten-fold. I became aware of God’s goodness and presence in my daily life in ways I never would have realized otherwise. It led to an increased sense of well-being and joy because I grew in my trust that God was present and actively working in the nitty-gritty details and tiny moments of my life.

That God would care and attend to my daily realities as much as I came to realize he does really floored me.

These days, I typically practice a different daily examen prayer of sorts at the end of each day by listening to a podcast called Pray as You Go. I’ve mentioned this podcast here before, but it’s a 10-15 minute daily recording that includes a different Scripture reading each day with personal reflection questions and beautiful sacred music that promotes reflection and reverence. I love it.

Today I encourage you to practice the daily examen by prayerfully considering your day and then asking: where has God been present to you in this day? 

It's Love, Not Religion

Recently, a friend of mine who is going through a significant shift in her faith life sent me an e-mail asking the following: 

How do you do it? How do you go from a non-denominational church to an episcopal church? How do you post a prayer from St. Teresa of Avila on your website and still feel close to God? 

I can so relate to these questions.

I never knew the language and practices of church tradition could ever speak to me. I never knew written prayers — the same prayers people have been reading for centuries and are read by me, the same words, over and over again each week now — could speak to my heart in a real and deep way. 

I didn’t know those things could make me feel close to God, given my original church upbringing and experience. But they do. 

Here is what I answered my friend: 

You asked how I can go from a non-denominational church to an episcopal service or put a prayer of Teresa of Avila on my blog and feel close to God. I guess because when I read that prayer of hers or I visit the episcopal church, I feel like they put me in connection with the God I have come to love so much. It comes from a place of love in me that God has helped develop in me over the years. 

No matter what the external practice of our faith looks like — whether we attend a formal or informal church, our prayers take a certain format or are more free-flowing and spontaneous — it’s the inward posture of our heart that makes the difference and matters to God. 

That inward posture God desires in us is one of love. 

Two people can attend the same liturgical church service, say all the same prayers, and go forward for the same invitation to communion but have two totally different experiences. For one, those prayers and that eucharist can touch the deepest places of their heart and connect them to God because their heart is oriented toward reverence and deep desire for God. For the other, those actions can be mere routine, something they do not experience at all in their hearts, something they do because it’s what they’ve always done and think they’re meant to do. 

Where do you fit in this?

Do you have love for God? Do you desire to love God, even if you don’t right now? What moves you toward or away from that love for God in your heart?

Introvert or Extrovert: How Do You Connect to God?

A couple weeks ago, I wrote the following on my Facebook wall:

I am such a homebody. I could be satisfied staying home all day, every day, with occasional trips to Starbucks to spice things up a bit.

A good friend of mine wrote the following response: 

Both sound terrible to me. I’d be depressed from being alone all the time and then adding in burnt & over-syruped coffee would put me over the edge.

As much as his comment made me laugh, it really crystallized for me the difference between an introvert and an extrovert. And it got me wondering: 

How do extroverts and introverts experience God differently? 

This is a website about formation. We talk often here of the inner landscape of the human experience, which is such natural fodder for introverts to think about and discuss (see this article). We talk a lot here, too, about stillness and contemplation and rest — again, such natural preferences and ways of being for introverts. 

What I’m learning is, this site is quite biased toward the introvert’s experience of life and of God!

Again, my friend’s comment got me wondering. How does an extrovert experience God in different ways than I do? Are still moments of contemplation ever helpful for him or her? What kinds of things draw them nearer and close to God than the things I usually do? Do extroverts reflect on their spiritual life and experiences the way introverts are prone to do? 

Which naturally leads me to want to ask you:

Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Do you find that your introversion or extroversion influences how you best connect to God? What are the ways you prefer connecting to God?

What Are the Wounds?

We’ve been talking quite a bit about Jesus’s passion for you and how he is coming to the places where you are. And last week, I asked you to consider whether you want to be found by him. 

Today, I’d like you to consider the wounds that he might heal. 

I love that in the Gospels, Jesus is all about the normal people who know their need for him. He hung out with fishermen — talk about salt-of-the-earth kind of people! He also spent time with the hated tax collectors and befriended prostitutes. 

He didn’t hang out with the highly religious folks who thought they knew everything and did everything right. 

For instance, there’s this great exchange between Jesus and a bunch of religious leaders one day who criticized him about this very thing: 

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riffraff?”

Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”

— Matthew 9:11-13

Jesus came to heal those who were sick. That’s the message he preached over and over — remember the very first words he spoke about his mission and ministry? 

And those who were sick wanted to be near him. He brought good and welcome news to them, indeed. 

What about you? Do you have the kind of experience of life where you know your need for Jesus and for healing? Are you aware of your wounds? In what ways are you sick and in need of healing?

Remembering the Grace that Abounds

My kitty Diva, who so often teaches me vulnerability.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I’ve been wrestling with the superhuman tendency again. This morning, as I sat in the quiet with Jesus for the first time in several days, I could feel the effects of so much strain. My body was tired, my mind was tired, and my spirit and heart were particularly weary. 

I could feel, sitting there with Jesus this morning, how much the superhuman tendency creates an incredible dependence on myself and my own strength.

I’m not free to simply be. I’m not free to connect in real ways with others. And I’m certainly not in a posture to receive God’s grace. 

It’s almost as though, when in superhuman mode, we gear up with so much armor. We’re like young David going into battle with Goliath wearing the too-big and too-heavy armor of his king. That armor is heavy. When wearing it, it wears us down and wears us out. It creates an always-present awareness of navigating our way around the world with that heavy armor braced upon on all our limbs and vulnerable places.

We’re not free, and we’re always straining against heaviness with all the strength we can muster from inside ourselves.

But this morning, Jesus reminded me of his grace. 

It is a grace that abounds, more and more, always. It reminds me that I belong to him and no one else — not even myself.

And in belonging to him, he decides and declares my worth. 

The incredible thing about belonging to God is that we always win. We receive infinite worth, unending love, and a grace that never ends. 

Would you like to receive the gift of that grace from God today? 

Do You Want to Meet Jesus?

I’ve been sharing with you lately that Jesus is pursuing you with great intent and passion and is coming to the places where you are (we talked about that here and here). We’ve also talked about what Jesus is here to offer you. 

But as I watched Jesus continue to pray over you this morning and prepare to enter the places where you live, I found myself wondering how you would receive him when he finds you.

Is the thought of his coming for you welcome news? Do you want to meet him? Do you want him to meet you? 

Will You Let Him Hold You?

For the last couple months, Kirk and I have been attending a new contemplative eucharist service at the little episcopal parish around the corner from our house on Sunday evenings.

We’ve visited the church off and on over the last five years, and every time we are drawn in by the teaching and joyful spirit of the rector, Father Rob, as well as the holy feel of the beautiful chapel with its high beams, polished wood pews, incense and candles, and beautiful stained glass. It’s truly an inspiring place we’re thankful to have found, and this new contemplative eucharist service, with its slow pace, long periods of silence, candles, and sacred music, especially invites my heart settle into its more natural posture of rest before God. 

Last night, during the short reflection the rector offers after the Scriptures are read in the service, Father Rob spoke about God’s primary response of mercy toward us. He quoted an old traditional prayer called the prayer of humble access, which says: 

We do not presume to come to this thy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table. But thou art the same Lord, whose property is always to have mercy.

I thought of that prayer this morning as I brought my heart before God to start the day. My spirit felt heavy, and my heart low and weary. I looked at Christ this morning, who is full of such strength, and I had not the strength in myself to rise and meet him. 

I just needed his tenderness. 

This need for Christ’s tenderness this morning reminded me of a sweet and intimate prayer time he and I shared several weeks ago. I had begun to learn some of the ways he is inviting me to partner with him in the work he is about in this world, and a little voice inside me began to wonder if I had lost my unique specialness to him. Was I simply going to be an appendage to his work now, a convenient pair of hands that he can use? 

I hated asking those questions because they ran so contrary to the truths I’ve learned of Jesus and of my value to him. But there they were: those questions that queried my unique worth beyond what I could and would do with and for him. 

On that day several weeks ago, Jesus stopped what he was doing — all the preparations and activity he was about concerning the work we are going to be doing together — and came near. He sat down next to me, put his arm around my shoulder, and drew me close. He let me rest my head upon his chest for as long as I wanted. And when I looked into his eyes, I saw how much he knows and loves me.

I am not just a pair of hands. I am not just a worker in his fields. I am known.

I wonder today if you need a similar moment of quiet tenderness with Christ. As the prayer says, God’s first instinct toward you is always mercy, always love. He will come near and hold you if you’d like him to. 

Will you invite his arms around you right now?

How Do You Receive Love?

We’ve been talking a lot lately about the intention Jesus has toward you and the way he is coming for you and wants to know you and be known by you.

This is motivated by his deep love and care for you. 

I’m curious to know what that notion of love means to you. Do you have an idea in mind of what it means to be loved by someone? Do you know what it feels like to receive love? How comfortable are you with being open to the experience of receiving love? 

I know that for me, when I began to receive love from Jesus, the thing that changed everything was the way I felt seen and heard by him. There was a moment in time — a distinct experience in prayer (which I look forward to sharing in full detail with those enrolled in the Gospel immersion course this fall!) — where, for the first time, I got to know the way Jesus looks at me and listens to me.

It was completely unexpected. Never before had I realized he looked at me that way or listened to me so intently. And never before had I realized my need to be seen and heard in such an intent, loving, accepting, and safe way in order to experience and receive love. 

I can say with confidence that my experience of Jesus in that moment changed the way I began to receive and experience love from that point on. It not only changed the way I experienced my belovedness before God, but it also began to filter into my daily life and the way I experienced myself in the world and in relation to other people. 

When you think of the notion of receiving love, what does that look like and feel like to you? What would it take for you to feel completely safe and vulnerable before another person, in order to receive the experience of being loved?

It's Just Jesus

I’ve been quite taken by surprise over these last couple weeks as Jesus has shown to me his deep intention regarding you. The surprise has come from noticing the way everything else has fallen away. 

All that matters is Jesus. 

I’m not someone who has been particularly bold about Jesus in my life’s journey. There came a point where he inserted himself much more prominently into my life and experience of God than I’d ever experienced him before, and that was a deeply personal encounter of God for me. I shared it with those closest to me as it unfolded over time, and those who know me best know that I have a particular love and special connection to Jesus. 

But that wasn’t something I boldly invited others to experience. It was simply my own experience. 

It’s very clear to me now that Jesus wants me to share him with you.

He wants me to invite you to notice him, to consider him, to get to know who he is, and to hold and consider the invitations he offers you. 

He wants me to invite you to turn and look at him and then discover what you see in looking at him. Here is what the apostle Paul says we will discover: 

We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels — everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.

— Colossians 1:15-16

What matters most to me now is this idea that Jesus is the central truth. In the end, it’s all about Jesus. 

This is why I’m creating the Gospel immersion course, to be offered here in the fall. I am also in the process of creating a video that shares more of my heart toward you concerning this course and will give you a sense of what the course will be like as you consider joining us for that journey. (And I certainly hope you will!)

I cannot fathom a more important journey than the one of getting to know Jesus, the one who holds everything together and is the visible image of the invisible God and who teaches us who we really are. 

What are your impressions of Jesus? Do you have any desire to get to know more of who he really is?

He Is Passionate for You

Every morning, I sit at my desk in a small, windowed corner of my home and talk to Jesus about you. Every day, the questions are the same: “What do you want to say today, Jesus? What do they need to hear?”

In the early days of writing these week-daily posts for you, there was a real sense of slowness, of care, and of gentleness and sometimes stillness in God’s heart toward you in this place. The posts, therefore, took on a similarly reflective and gentle pace.

But more recently, Jesus is revealing to me his heart of real passion and intentionality toward you. 

He wants you to know him. 

And the truth is, he is coming for you. In my prayer times with Jesus, I see him walking faster toward the places where you are. His face is set toward you. He wants to be with you. 

What is it like for you to hear of Christ’s passion for you and his intent to reach you? What is it like to imagine being reached by him?

He Will Lead You Beside Still Waters

I think a lot about Jesus. Over the last ten years, he has become the most prominent figure in my spiritual life and connection to God. I love what Paul says about him: that Christ “gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get” (2 Corinthians 4:4). 

Isn’t that amazing? In looking at Jesus, we get to see God. 

Jesus used many metaphors to describe himself, and we could probably occupy ourselves for an entire lifetime just thinking deeply on each of those metaphors.

For today, I want us to consider the metaphor of shepherd. 

We have explored previously the image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd and what it is like for us, as sheep, to be a part of his fold. There is gentleness there, and kindness. There is provision and being seen. Jesus knows each of our names. 

Today, I want us to consider a couple lines from the very familiar Good Shepherd psalm, which says: 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside still waters.

He restores my soul.

—Psalm 23:1-3

The Message version of this passage says it this way:

God, my shepherd!

I don’t need a thing.

You have bedded me down in lush meadows,

you find me quiet pools to drink from.

True to your word,

you let me catch my breath

and send me in the right direction. 

I love that image of being “bedded down in lush meadows,” don’t you? There’s such a feeling of rest and comfort, like sinking into a huge, billowy, soft bed with luxurious goose-down pillows and comforters. And the image of having quiet pools from which to drink and a chance to catch our breath — what a relief!

Life with Jesus does not mean life without danger or distress. Sheep herds get attacked by wolves. Every year, they must be sheared. They have to travel each day somewhere to get exercise and food and drink. Sometimes sheep get lost. 

But walking as a sheep in the fold that’s led by Jesus means always being cared for by him in each situation. He knows the soft meadows and still waters you need. He will lead you there. He companions with you there and stays with you as you drink and eat and rest. If you get lost, he comes after you. He knows if you are missing. 

What is it like for you to receive Jesus’ presence in your life in this way? Can you allow yourself to rest in the lush meadow and drink from the still waters he offers you today?

What If You Had Encountered Jesus Back Then?

I grew up with a very strong awareness of Jesus’ presence in my daily life. It was normal for me to go about my days as a young girl with an awareness of him near me, and I can’t remember a time I didn’t know he was there.

But something shifted when I read the Gospels “at a run” (as N. T. Wright would put it) about ten years ago. 

When I immersed myself in the Gospels over the course of several intense weeks in the spring of 2001, Jesus became real in a very new and different way to me than he ever had before.

I’d always known he lived and died on the earth. I grew up reading the Bible and was familiar with all the stories of things he’d said and done. But for perhaps the first time in that spring of 2001, it began to sink in, in a much more real way, that Jesus had walked on actual roads and talked to actual people. He had shared actual meals with people, drank wine and ate bread, laughed and cried, prayed and felt distress. His actual fingers had touched actual eyes and caused real people to see. People had actually seen and felt the texture of his robe.

All of this was real. As a person who had actually existed in history, these things had happened in real time and space. 

It’s so strange how something you know can become something you know in a new and deeper way, isn’t it? 

Today I want to invite you to consider the actual time and place of the life of Jesus. What if you were there? How might you have encountered him?

Allow yourself to consider what that might have been like for you. Would you have been a person in the crowd who heard him teach or watched him heal? Would you have dined with him and his inner circle of friends? How might you have come in contact with him? What might you have wanted to say or do in his presence, if you could?

Consider the Flowers

As you are sitting on that large and sturdy rock from yesterday’s meditation, I want to invite you to notice the small flowers springing up from the ground at the base of the rock. 

Can you see them?

Take a moment to really look at those flowers. What colors are they? Are there different kinds? What are their petals like? What about their centers? What are their stems like? What do you notice about the soil they grow from?

Sit with the image for a few moments and really notice the flowers growing below you. Then consider Jesus’ words: 

Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin.

— Matthew 6:28

The flowers are quite beautiful, aren’t they? And they are beautiful simply doing what they do: growing from the ground, being gorgeous and worthy of our care and admiration without even trying. 

You are beautiful that way too. 

Can you allow yourself to receive that same care and admiration from God as you sit upon that rock, simply for existing and being who you are? 

He Wants to Know You

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from walking with Jesus these last many years, it’s that he wants to know each one of us in a deep and true way. 

It seems a little funny to say that because he already does know us — even better than we know ourselves, even. He doesn’t require us to tell him about ourselves in order to know the truth of who we are and what’s inside of us. 

However, there’s a difference between knowing God knows the depths of our hearts and choosing to be known in the depths of our hearts. Isn’t there? 

It’s like the difference between saying, “Why should I pray? God already knows what I’m going to say or ask anyway,” and consciously choosing to speak to God about the things that lay bare the thoughts and questions and requests we have. The first one accepts that God is God and knows everything. The second one involves us in the process and creates a connection. It creates a relationship between us and God. 

I have learned over and over that walking with Jesus is a process of becoming known in this second way: of opening our hearts to him and choosing to be known. 

And the amazing, beautiful thing about it is that he wants to know you in this way more than anything. He listens. He waits. He pays attention. He cares to hear what you have to say. He takes it seriously. He is fully present to you.

Do you choose to let yourself be known by Jesus in this way? Do you want to? Why or why not?

Be Honest

One of the things God most values is the truth from your inmost being. Did you know that?

Throughout the Scriptures, we see examples of people who behaved one way — as though they loved and served God — but weren’t connected to God at all inside themselves. They were more concerned with their actions and keeping up appearances than connecting to God in a real and honest way. 

But consider the people Jesus met and how he responded to them.

When coming upon his small band of disciples for the first time, they immediately left what they were doing to follow him. They left jobs, income, families, and any standing in society they had in order to walk and talk with Jesus and learn from him. The truth of their hearts dictated their actions: they simply wanted to be with Jesus.

Then Jesus met another man who knew the limitations of his faith and simply confessed it: “I believe; help me with my unbelief.” With this declaration of truth, the man and Jesus had a real encounter. They were able to communicate. Jesus was able to meet him where he was and respond to his request because it was real.

Consider the rich young ruler who wanted to know how to get into heaven. He had followed all the commands of the Scriptures, but Jesus knew what really held the man’s heart: his wealth. So Jesus asked the man to give his wealth to the poor. He was unable to do it and went away sad. He didn’t know the truth of his heart, but Jesus did. 

Wherever you are — in a place of all-out abandonment to God, in a place of doubt and insecurity in your faith, or in a place of loving other things more than God — God simply wants the truth. That is where real relationship can begin. 

What is the truth of your heart today? How can you express that honestly to God in order to meet God in a real and true way?

How Do You Experience God's Love?

Today I had planned to share a video clip of one of my favorite songs with you that talks about God’s love. It’s a song that I play on repeat pretty often inside my home, and the words from some of the verses offer deep and helpful meditations on the nature of God’s love for us. Sometimes I like to steep inside that knowledge, so I play the song over and over.

However, the more I looked at each video clip available for that song, the less that offering felt right for today.

Instead, I began to wonder: how do you experience God’s love?

Rather than offer you a song and words that declare God’s love for you (which may be a great offering for another day), let’s first spend time reflecting on the way we experience that reality.

Do you, in fact, experience that reality? What does love look like to you, and how is your current connection to God a reflection — or not a reflection — of that experience?

You Are Loved and Held

Have you ever poured your heart out to someone and then had them simply hold you afterward?

Perhaps they gave you a hug and didn’t pull away — they simply hugged you for as long as you needed them to. Or perhaps they sat with you on the couch, their arm draped around your shoulder, as you rested your head on their chest. You didn’t speak, and they didn’t need you to. You simply sat there — held, loved, and cherished — for as long as you needed.

What is it like for you to receive love in those kind of moments? Do you rest easy inside that love? Do you start to pull away, feeling the need to keep time moving? Do you worry about taking too much or being a burden?

Today, God wants to love you in that way. 

You are invited to pour the contents of your heart out to God for as long as is needed. Say whatever you need to say. Don’t worry how it sounds. It doesn’t matter how long it takes. Just say what is there inside of you to say.

And then rest in the arms of God. Let God hold you in whatever position is most comforting and restful to you. 

Fall into the arms of God’s love in the moment that follows this unburdening of your heart. Receive God’s unending and uninterrupted attention, care, and time. There is no deadline on this moment. There is nowhere else God needs or wants to be. 

Just let yourself be held for as long as it takes to rest inside God’s love. What is that like for you today?

Where Are the Pieces of Light?

This morning, as I spent time with Jesus, talking with him about you and this space and asking him what you most needed to receive today, I held out my hands before him in a cupped posture, waiting to receive whatever he placed in those cupped hands to give you, and saw several pieces of light land in my cupped and open hands. 

They looked like the gold bricks you see in cartoons, thick and solid and bigger than a candy bar, and they were made of pure light, tumbling down into my hands, one resting on top of the other. 

The question presented itself: 

Where are the pieces of light in your life right now? 

For centuries upon centuries, Christian spirituality has used the language of consolation and desolation to describe points of light and darkness in our spiritual journey with God. Consolation is that feeling of being buoyed, filled with life, and surrounded by an abiding presence of love. Desolation, on the other hand, is accompanied by feelings of abandonment, grief, and sometimes despair.

Desolation in the spiritual life is complex, I’ve found, because its source can be quite varied. Sometimes the inexplicable events of life land us inside its terrain. Sometimes the discouraging and oppressive powers at work in this world conspire to push us inside desolation’s borders. And sometimes, perhaps surprisingly, desolation comes when God makes himself absent for reasons only God may know. 

But consolation is a bit simpler.

Consolation is present wherever there’s life — wherever life and joy and peace and their enlivening currents are found.

Many spiritual directors encourage the pursuit of consolation when it’s present, believing that where life and joy are found, there God is also found, for God is the source of life and joy.

So today, as I hold these “bricks of light” in my hands for you, I ask you to consider where light is evident in your world today. 

Where do you see glimmers and pieces of light shining as you look about you and your life right now? How might you move toward that light and joy today? How might you pursue its consolation even more?