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| Thunderstorm at Ikaria Island |
I had a very hot, yet enjoyable retreat at St. Scholastica last week. God continues to meet me right where I am and I don't know why that keeps blowing my mind. I was doing an exercise this morning, and yes I was up at 4!
Wait let me start over.
While I was at the monastery last month, I picked up a flyer for "Retreat in Daily Life", filled it out and mailed it in. This time, I found out that I got in! Let me try to explain what this retreat in daily life is about. It is a seven month experience of the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. I will talk about Ignatius soon, I promise, but this retreat will last seven months, meeting once a week. Instead of how he set it up for thirty straight days. We just can't do that kind of retreat unless we're unemployed or living in a monastery. The cool part is Sr Rachel is coming to Rogers and Fayetteville to do the weekly retreat! So, while I won't be going to the monastery monthly, I will be having a weekly retreat! OK, now that I explained that, let me tell you about this book I'm using to prepare me for this retreat.
The exercise for this morning was "God first loved us". Now I'm going to be the first one on the band wagon to agree that yes, God does love us and Jesus does love us. However, I am at a place where that's all I hear, and I happen to know there is more! I am in no way saying that God loving us is not a big deal, because it is! What I'm saying is, "That was a great glass of milk, can I have some meat to chew on now?" John tells us that the origin of all love is in God and that our human love is a reflection of God's love. (I John 4:7-8) God's love changes us, it's changed me! I see things differently and hopefully respond differently, most of the time? Although we can't see God, we can see the effect His love has within our circumstances of our lives. His love becomes visible through those people who have loved us and when we realize the many times we have been spared the consequences of our sin.
So here's the question for you... Has God changed for you since you first were introduced to Him as a child, or whenever He was presented to you? Think about it. I believed that God was huge, and busy, and the father of Jesus. But now, I believe so much more! He is always with me! He has always been with me! He will never leave me or forget about me or act like He doesn't know me. Is that not the COOLEST!?
So I challenge you to think about how you would like to know God. How do you want to relate to God? But let me warn you, when you start asking questions, you will get answers and from those answers, you will need to start acting. I'm just saying! You have been warned!
1 comment:
Great post! Actually God is now the God I had as a child. Ever present, loving and looking out for me. It was the junk people get caught up in throughout my adult years that took that God away and gave me a mean finger pointing God along with a lot of fear. I am thankful I have found my Father God and his love again and His amazing peace. I look forward to more post about your retreat!
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