“There is a chamber in God Himself, into which none can enter but the one, the individual, the peculiar man, – out of which chamber that man has to bring revelation and strength for his brethren. This is that for which he was made – to reveal the secret things of the Father.” George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons
What an amazing way to look at our life and calling – our being with God in that place and manner that only we have with Him, as a child with their father, from which we offer to others what was given to us.
There is a particular way that you and I like to be with God. For one person it is taking walks with Him, for another it is pouring over scriptures in isolation and yet for another it is worship music and movement. I can easily trip over people’s ways of being with God until I think about how each son and daughter is different with the same father.
I love to be alone with God, in quiet place, for a block of time, with a stack of books around me and my laptop with which to write and connect my discoveries. It is from this time with The Artist that my artistry flows (see the previous eLetters about living like an artist). I need to admit that I do not do this all the time – it’s on and off, hit and miss. I can easily get caught into the day’s work first thing in the morning, losing my individual time with God and eventually losing sight and source of my artistry.
This idea of bringing “revelation and strength” for others from my secrete place with God is both freeing and motivating. To offer revelation, insight, truth, light, clarity and strength, hope, heartiness, vitality, passion to other’s throughout our days is a wide-open proposition. I believe that it means simply having our life from God on the tip-of-our-tongue and on the tips-of-our-fingers ready to offer at the appropriate moment.
May we come to greater “knowledge of every good thing which is in you for Christ’s sake” (Philemon 1:6), working “with all His energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Col 1:29), “spurring one another on toward love and good deeds” (Heb. 3:13) by “warning those who are idle, encouraging the timid, helping the weak and being patient with everyone” (I Thess. 5:14).
Offering out of my time with God,
Gary
You hit the nail on the head for me — Thank You and God Bless
Andy
Wow this was a great “restart button” for me this week. As I was reading it, a wound I had been facing all day ( yet was still oblivious to) finally emerged with words and a more tangible pain: “Does my portion really matter to others?”
I think the romance of God in the secret place can be authentic and glorious despite this insecurity (that I’m sure is in most people, especially men) still being unsettled. Your post, Gary, allowed it to surface to a degree where I can’t ignore its presence. Unfortunately, it’s already after 11pm EST – past my bedtime! I guess my heart needs more attention than my pillow.
Thanks Gary for bringing your “revelation and strength”!
Nathanael
Nathanael, thanks for your honesty…for your uncovered heart. You’re right, most men, including me, wrestle with the idea of a romance with God. It’s easier for me to think about how much strength can be gleaned from my private time with my Father and King. And, I desperately need his tenderness and love as well. Gary
Gary… Iove the mental picture of you with your laptop and books… a little slice of Bohemian with a scent of coffee and a sense of adventure and promise.
And what it is that is woven together in this personal time of yours with God becomes a personal gift from you to us. Thanks.
I think the venue for me is changing… it used to need to be allocated and delimited… GOD time… but lately it’s been more constant, and less separate… it’s seeing things through a different set of lenses… seeing what has always been, but having a running interpretation that is so different, and so unlike me.
What used to be a specific time, in a specific place, has relaxed into a way of being, a deep seated awareness that I’m not alone, and that the fear is being displaced, and that what seemed so mundane is granted significance and interpreted through eternal lenses.
The waiting and anticipation of what is coming is interrupted often by what already is.
Vern, well said. You have/are persevering through much – you have stayed with God…and it shows. You really are an amazing thinker and writer. Keep writing my friend – I need it and so do many others. I’m encouraged and inspired by you. Gary
This is a moving (in more than one sense of the word) picture. One of my key revelations I have been given to express out of my unique place in His heart is that we are all so unique. I used to be fond of telling people, “You have a place to fill that no one else can. If you are not filling it, you are messing up in two ways: 1) You are leaving unfulfilled the place designed uniquely for you; and 2) You are most probably filling someone else’s place poorly and keeping them from filling it!” But that has such a negative slant to it–and doesn’t really convey the joy that comes from finding our true place. Arthur Burt of Plumbline Ministries and others have pointed out that the businessman who sits in church, mind wandering, may actually be fulfilling his true calling of worship by focusing on his God-given creativity–and the ideas flow when he is truly worshiping by fulfilling his calling–to create, to build, to enhance the lives of others by serving out in the world. I find some of my greatest joy in the expressions of working at electrical work and the intricacies of learning how to build a true business. Ed Silvoso’s book Anointed for Business points out that Jesus was most probably an extremely successful entrepreneur by the time he left the shop as a carpenter (also, often in those days, a stonemason and builder–essentially a general contractor!)–b/c he was heading up a family business that supported at least 8 people (according to the listing of his mother, 4 [half-]brothers’ names, and the mention of sisters, plus himself). I have read in other early Christian literature that some of Jesus’ earthly handiwork–a plow, if I remember correctly–was reputed to have survived in use up until around the year 200! That is true worship in the workplace, and fulfilling of the calling of being where you are!
Thanks for sharing, Gary. You have indeed captured a picture that moves…
Gary,
Loved, simply loved the quote by George MacDonald.
I have of late been musing, pondering on the humanity of my (our) elder brother Jesus in how he fully embraced and celebrated our humanity as something so much more than being a man on a mission.
The story of the incarnation which by the way seems to have been purposely veiled (the first 30 years) apart from a couple of Kodak moments of those 30 years he spent shut up and shut away from the noise of mans ideas of productivity.
As he celebrated his and our mutual humanness, I am seeing and experiencing the wonder and awe of being His man (son) in this world unobtrusively inviting others to take a good long look at me as a hu-man, in so doing they see Papa!
Rich