Father, Son, Spirit; Mercy, Gift, Love.
Always reaching down to us, always desiring to lift us up to free us.
Your mercy, grace and love are Your desire in action, Your will to save us, Your desire to draw us near You forever, Your movement toward us, which desires to make us whole and free.
You long to unite Yourself with us, to fill us with Your life and its peace, but the vehemence of this longing is balanced by its absolute purity, which cannot take more than we freely give, and which knows the precise limits we set even when we do not fully know them. Our freedom is ours, and if we subtly withold something for ourselves, You will not take it by force.
And yet, You magnanimously step into every crack we (sometimes hesitatingly) open to You - as You did with the woman at the well, You step boldly into every half-truth we admit and gently invite us to admit the whole truth. And You step in as deeply as we allow You.
Your Mercy never fails to accept what we offer, even if You know we will soon grab it back again. And Your love never ceases to find new ways to call to us, new ways to give Yourself to us, new ways to lift us beyond ourselves. Because we are so much more than we recognize, loved so deeply, given so much, called to such dignity! We are indeed breathed forth in love, called to love, and drawn by love at every moment. But this love calls to us from the cross, where love's burden is made clear. We are freed for love by suffering.
Mercy goes THROUGH sin, and not around it; Love does not COVER our sin, but USES it to reach us; You give Yourself WHILE WE ARE YET SINNING, rather than reject what is unworthy of You. You come to us and make us worthy; You come to us and sanctify us with Your Presence immediately and as fully as we allow, as soon as we acknowledge and confess our sinfulness. You do not want one soul to be lost and You never cease to find ways to reach in with Your love and mercy to free each one from its exile.
Mercy. You are Mercy. The enemy has done a thorough job of convincing the world that You are everything but a tender, merciful Father by distorting the meaning of every good thing. But Mercy has the final victory. Love still gives depite its being ignored, misunderstood, maligned, even persecuted. Grace is ever being given, in ways we often fail to recognize and sometimes reject. Still, we are deeply impelled to love.
And in the end, we are judged by Love.
Always reaching down to us, always desiring to lift us up to free us.
Your mercy, grace and love are Your desire in action, Your will to save us, Your desire to draw us near You forever, Your movement toward us, which desires to make us whole and free.
You long to unite Yourself with us, to fill us with Your life and its peace, but the vehemence of this longing is balanced by its absolute purity, which cannot take more than we freely give, and which knows the precise limits we set even when we do not fully know them. Our freedom is ours, and if we subtly withold something for ourselves, You will not take it by force.
And yet, You magnanimously step into every crack we (sometimes hesitatingly) open to You - as You did with the woman at the well, You step boldly into every half-truth we admit and gently invite us to admit the whole truth. And You step in as deeply as we allow You.
Your Mercy never fails to accept what we offer, even if You know we will soon grab it back again. And Your love never ceases to find new ways to call to us, new ways to give Yourself to us, new ways to lift us beyond ourselves. Because we are so much more than we recognize, loved so deeply, given so much, called to such dignity! We are indeed breathed forth in love, called to love, and drawn by love at every moment. But this love calls to us from the cross, where love's burden is made clear. We are freed for love by suffering.
Mercy goes THROUGH sin, and not around it; Love does not COVER our sin, but USES it to reach us; You give Yourself WHILE WE ARE YET SINNING, rather than reject what is unworthy of You. You come to us and make us worthy; You come to us and sanctify us with Your Presence immediately and as fully as we allow, as soon as we acknowledge and confess our sinfulness. You do not want one soul to be lost and You never cease to find ways to reach in with Your love and mercy to free each one from its exile.
Mercy. You are Mercy. The enemy has done a thorough job of convincing the world that You are everything but a tender, merciful Father by distorting the meaning of every good thing. But Mercy has the final victory. Love still gives depite its being ignored, misunderstood, maligned, even persecuted. Grace is ever being given, in ways we often fail to recognize and sometimes reject. Still, we are deeply impelled to love.
And in the end, we are judged by Love.
posted by KathrynTherese at 3:23 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home