Brace Yourself with the Light of God's Reality

Dear Kaleid Ladies,

Good morning to you! We pray you are well today. Once again, it’s been a heavy week in the news.

In this week’s reflection, we turn again to the words of Howard Thurman as we “brace ourselves” in this unsettling cultural time, not by doubling down on effort, but by fortifying our souls with the practices that lead us into trust and surrender, compassion and conviction.

Today’s meditation from Thurman reminds us of Jesus’ words in Luke 34 when He said,

“Your eye is a lamp, lighting up your whole body. If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.” (The Message)

God’s reality brings light to our eyes. It helps clear the cobwebs of fear, distrust, and confusion so that we can settle ourselves into the opportunities and the constraints of each day, knowing that God’s time, God’s order, and God’s future are the most true things.

Today, as you ponder Thurman’s thoughtful prayer, welcome the Holy Spirit’s light that clears your vision, brings light to your body, and elevates your sense of time, order, and the future. 

I NEED YOU

I need Your sense of time. Always I have an underlying anxiety about things. Sometimes I am in a hurry to achieve my ends and am completely without patience. It is hard for me to realize that some growth is slow, that not all processes are swift. I cannot discriminate between what takes time to develop and what can be rushed because my sense of time is dulled. O to understand the meaning of perspective that I may do all things with a profound sense of leisure of time.

I need Your sense of order. The confusion of the details of living is sometimes overwhelming. The little things keep getting in my way, providing ready-made excuses for failure to do and be what I know I ought to do and be. Much time is spent on things that are not very important while significant things are put in an insignificant place in my scheme of order. I must unscramble my affairs so that my life will become order. O God, I need Your sense of order.

I need Your sense of the future. Teach me to know that life is ever on the side of the future. Keep alive in me the future look, the high hope. Let me not be frozen either by the past or the present. Grant me, O Patient One, Your sense of the future without which all life would sicken and die.

Howard Thurman

Blessings,

The Kaleid Team