Casting Light in Every Corner

God searches and knows us.

I’m a mystery to myself. I do and say things I don’t understand. What about you?

I have thoughts that seemingly come out of nowhere, though I know they derive from the depths. I’m easily distracted. I obsess over minor details. I get stressed. I procrastinate. I generate anxiety. I wonder about my worth. And worse.

That’s not all that is going on in the chasm that is me. Only part. But God knows it all. How? Why? Ultra-level lumens. God is Light.

Proverbs 20:27 says:

The human spirit is the lamp of the Lord, searching every inmost part.

God traces us out, casting light in every corner, becoming intimately familiar with every nook and cranny of our inner being, our heart. Dallas Willard writes, “When I speak of our heart, I refer to that center or inner core of our being from which all our actions flow.”

God knows our hearts, far better than we know our own hearts. And as we come to know God, we come to know ourselves, not only in what we discover about the Creator, in whose image we are made, but also through God’s help, who teaches us about our inner core and heals us, from the inside, out.

In Psalm 139:1-6, David writes:

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
    you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
    and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
    O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
    and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
    it is so high that I cannot attain it.

The entire psalm is gold, yet it is the final petition that has become a theme in my prayers. Psalm 139:23-24 concludes: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”

“The way everlasting.” Line me up with what lasts. Preserve in me what is of you, all that is good. Make me fit for forever companionship with you, the Rock of Ages.

Shine your light. Search me out. Turn my heart toward you.

Book Notes

Tom Nelson’s The Flourishing Pastor: Recovering the Lost Art of Shepherd Leadership continues to delight me.

Along very different lines, I’m reading Victor Davis Hanson’s The Dying Citizen. This is not the kind of book that will brighten your day. In fact, Hanson offers a grim diagnosis and dire warning for America. I tend to be suspicious of books that argue that nothing is going well and everything is getting worse. But I also don’t want to be the kind of person caught fiddling while Rome burns. If don’t take the American experiment for granted. Lastly, Hanson is considered by some to be radioactive. Sometimes I read people who are radioactive.

Tops among the books that are next up: Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankin’s Baptists in America: A History.

Sights and Sounds

I watched Venom: Let There Be Carnage (2021). Neither film in this franchise has really been my thing.

I also created a playlist on Tidal based on songs in the 1940 Broadman Hymnal. This isn’t a perfect list. Some of the tracks are gospel variations of classic hymns, others, contemporary adaptations, still others are instrumental accompaniments…I did my best.

Last Words

On the blog: Baptists are hard to pin down, a quote from Henri Nouwen, and wisdom for pastors (and congregants!) on time horizons.

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Be well this week. Bless others.

Best,

BAS

P.S. - A troll rolling down the open highway.