This dovetails nicely with what I had been reading a couple weeks ago about being a good steward of the circumstances we find ourselves in whether they be good or bad from our perspective. When we accept stewardship of our circumstances, we in effect are accepting them as from the hand of God and that in itself makes them holy. When we realize this it will completely change how we view those things that come into our lives that are from our perspective negative or bad.
The book "On Hallowing One's Dimishments"...uses the word dimishments to describe any of the ugly and painful experiences we all have...The word "hallowing" means to regard something as holy...it also means to regard it as a trusted companion....Hallowing means: make holy or set apart for holy use, consecrate; to respect greatly; venerate.
"It was a new and most encouraging idea to me." Yungblut writes, "That one's dimishments could be 'made holy', 'consecrated', 'respected greatly', even venerated."
I know writing it is easy, but when you are in the middle of a bad circumstance or you deal with ongoing health issues or pain, remembering this is quite another. However, I have found that when I try to think of my circumstances as being from the hand of God to accomplish a specific purpose in my life or the lives of others, then I have moved from simply enduring them to taking stewardship of them and hallowing them.
3 comments:
Marsha,
Thanks for this entry. Oh how I need to remember this!
This is especially a challenging thought for me right now as I am sick again and suffering from what appears to be a broken rib from coughing too hard.
Thinking of it as from the hand of God for a specific purpose is a challenge when I would rather complain and be depressed about it. However, as I try to focus on the positive and what God is trying to teach me through this, it becomes easier to keep a good attitude.
The thoughts in this post are things that have never come to my mind. What amazing insight. Thanks for sharing!
Angie
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