In Tuesday’s post, I ended with a question that I pray has been swimming around in your heart and brain: How have you experienced the goodness of God in your daily routine and schedule?
If you haven’t been able to articulate how you have experienced God’s goodness, that’s ok. Can I ask you another question? (Or should I say two more since that was a question.) Do you believe that God is present with you even when you are not aware of it? Learning both the experience of the divine presence and how to speak of it takes time and intentionality. A lifetime of time and intentionality. Not because it’s so very difficult but because although God is changeless, we are in a constant state of change.
Please don’t let that last statement frighten you. I’m not sure how we decided that change is a negative thing. God designed us to change and grow. God designed all of creation this way. There is absolutely nothing in all of God’s creation that is truly static.
Each experience with God changes us, even in the typical routine and ordinariness of our days we label as normal. The more we practice at our own awareness of God, the more aware we become of God’s presence drawing us closer and closer. In the midst of continuous change God is constant, faithful, and always present.
One lesson I know we’ve all hit head-on this past year+ is that sometimes change is our choice and sometimes change is forced upon us. And, I’m fairly certain that most of us are familiar with The Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr, or at least the first part of it. Have you ever heard the second part? Have you ever prayed the whole prayer daily?
The real meat of it, for me, is the second part which I find to be a beautiful articulation of this Eastertide season of intentional waiting with God that we’ve been talking about, a creedal statement about who and whose we are as Resurrection people. We are created for new life as we follow Jesus in God’s Kingdom, walking on the foundation of God’s changeless and constant Love.
Keep noticing the goodness of God with you. You are God’s beloved.
Mother Nancy's Coffee Thoughts 