+
In our FIAT, there is always a "letting go."

We must, at every stage, be letting go of our own desires, our natural reactions, our preconceptions and expectations. You are always surprising us, if we are open to be awed; You are ever calling us to something new, something we cannot know, if we are willing to let go of what is familiar and secure; You are longing to lift us beyond ourselves, if only we will open our arms to You.

Why is it so difficult for us to step out into the sun? You invite us to be free, unlock the cage we are in, even prop the door open, but we often refuse to leave what is familiar - even if it is dark and uncomfortable. We must be opened up to the Light. Something must break through to us, to convince us to allow ourselves to be freed of all that prevents Your love from touching us, transforming us, re-creating us from the inside out.

We must go through progressive "openings." Steve Hand calls them "shatterings," and it's a good word. We must go through progressive "shatterings" of our own facades, our illusions, our securities, our erroneous ideas, before we are free enough to turn fully to You.

Sometimes we are shattered by being knocked off our horse and blinded (like Paul); sometimes by the shock of love and mercy reaching to us gently and unexpectedly (like the woman caught in adultery); sometimes by our own recognition that we have denied You and are weaker than we wanted to believe (like Peter); sometimes by Your very Presence manifest in a surprising way.

As we turn to You, reach to You, we hear You say, "Take up your cross and follow Me." We must walk the purifying path to Calvary, by which we are stripped of every unnecessary thing, often including even our own self-confidence and success, supported only by grace, dark faith, and pure hope. We must walk the essential path in which we are reduced to suffering love.

Yes, we are shattered down to love.

~ from His Suffering and Ours, available through http://www.lulu.com/kathryntherese