To know God is to be truly blessed, to receive, without having done anything extraordinary to deserve it, the one thing that has any real value, the one thing that really matters, that matters today, that will matter tomorrow, that will still matter when all else has ceased to matter. I was looking at God in prayer this morning, and in those curious moments when the reality of God envelops you, I was overwhelmed with the awareness of what an astonishing happiness it is to know Him. And in such moments, you sit before Him and you become aware that 'this is it,' this is the one thing humanity needs, the one thing human beings need, the one thing they were made for and without which they will perish—the knowledge and nearness of God; a humbling awareness.
And it goes even further when it comes to understanding that you don't deserve to be where you are, to see and enjoy all of this, that you might very well not have been there, never have gotten there, if it weren't for God Himself who came to you in spite of yourself; if it weren't for the people who gave their lives for the cause of the Gospel and served as instruments in God's hands to record God's word in writing and who often suffered shame and disdain for it; if it weren't for the people who persisted in sharing the Gospel with you in spite of your unbelief and mockery and; if it were not for the Holy Spirit who drew you and called you from sleep to sacrifice, from love of the world to worship, from carnality to contemplation, and illuminated the treasures of the Word of God to nourish a soul that He had taken care to awaken in the desire and thirst for the knowledge of the Master.
This is to say how many people there have been outside yourselves who have participated and labored to bring you into these moments where the reality of God completely floods your being, and you say to yourself, if only one could devote one's life to this, to simply looking at the Master, leaving everything else aside; how many people there have been, circumstances that you have not and could not have orchestrated, to the point where you ask yourself 'how did I get here?' In reality, there is only one word for it and it is simple: grace. And one is obliged to murmur a burning desire, the desire to ourselves be part of these people useful to the Master, these people skillfully inserted into the fabric of other lives, to help, if possible, to bring them, we have been brought, into this place where one lives the reality of God, into this place of awakening to grace.
Selah!
