Personal

Understanding the personal nature of my relationship with God means that I can understand how God loves me PERSONALLY. 

The Virgin With Angels (William Adolphe Bouguereau)

The nature of the sort of work that I do is that it is quite routine and regulated.  I can timetable out most of my tasks in the day and predict what I will spend time on at each point in my day or week.

Although every client is different, it is fairly easy to predict the process required to complete each set of tasks.  And there is a comfort in the predictability of the work and in the way that we can work through the issues.  And I have been thinking about that today, because in many ways there are short cuts and all sorts of things that I can do to take the personal out of personal work.

And I do these things routinely because they make the work easier and more manageable and help me to be able to do my best and make my best effort.  And I have been thinking about God today as I have been thinking about the formulae and the short cuts and the different ways that I try to accommodate the magnitude of my days by simplifying it and breaking it down into little portions.

And when I compare this to God I am overcome.  You see, the thing about God is that He does not meet you in theory.  There is no arbitrary formula that is applied to you or me.  God does not worry about the little things and then get caught up missing the big ones.  Instead, He comes to the place where I am and meets me personally.

He feels my pain with me and loves me through it because He cares about me in every way.  He thinks about me in all times.  He does not need to process it or simplify it or make it work quicker and easier so that He is not overwhelmed by me.  Instead, He is more than capable of handling everything that I need and more.  My meeting with God is PERSONAL.

To love God is to know God and to know God is to understand that God is able to turn all things for MY GOOD.  And understanding the personal nature of my relationship with God means that I can understand how God loves me PERSONALLY.  You see, God knows me and gives me time.  He loves me and gives me space.  He comes to me and meets me where I am in my limitations.  When I am grieving He sits beside me and comforts me.  When I am angry He listens to my anger with patience.  God is always with me and in that is a personal connection.  He is not with me like smoke where he hovers above the surface of the thing.  Instead, He is right here inside my soul.  He knows me intimately.  He knows my inner most thoughts – even when I do not know them.

And I am completely overcome when I consider the personal relationship I have with God, because He certainly is with me PERSONALLY – and not just in theory…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.