Who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith–of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire–may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. ~1Peter 1:5-9 (NIV)
“Life, the contemplative knows, is a process. It is not that all the elements of life, mundane as the may be, do not matter. On the contrary, to the contemplative everything matters. Everything speaks of God, and God is both in and beyond everything.
Having the faith to take life one piece at a time- to live it in the knowledge that there is something of God in this for me now, here at this moment- is of the essence of happiness. It is not that God is a black box of full tests and trials and treats. It is that life is a step on the way to a God who goes the way with us. However far, however perilous.” ~From Illuminated Life by Joan Chittister
Almighty God, in the everyday ordinariness, may I see you. May I live this moment to its fullest so that my every waking moment glorifies You. May the regrets from yesterday or the worries for tomorrow not take away from the beauty that is, today. Amen.
