Victor
Hugo says:
"If
man thinks that he is faced with annihilation, that absolute
non-being awaits him after this life, life itself will have
absolutely no meaning for him. That which makes the life of man
pleasant and enjoyable, makes his labor joyful, gives warmth to his
heart, and broadens the horizons of his vision, is none other than
what revelation and religion
give man, belief in an eternal world, faith in the immortality
of man, the conviction that `You, O man, are not destined to
non-being; you are greater than this world, which is nothing more
than a small and impermanent nesting place for you, a cradle for your
infancy, the era of your splendor and greatness still lies ahead.'"
(http://www.al-islam.org/resurrect/r1.htm).
“Before
I formed you in the womb I knew (chose) you,
before
you were born I set you apart;
I
appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
(Jeremiah
1:5 NIV).
The
word of the Lord came to Jonah... (Jonah 1:1 NIV).
I
bring such small-minded and cramped ideas to my encounter with you,
Lord. And you come to me filling the air with a vast love and an
immense grace! Stretch my mind to take in all that you are; enlarge
my spirit to respond to all that you give, in Jesus Christ. Amen. (A
Year with Jesus, Eugene H Peterson, page 266).
In
fact, Christ calls every believer to have a
transcendent mission—something above and beyond expectations, even
above the very good. (Through the Year with Jimmy Carter,
page 252).
My
plea today is that we expand our view of God to a level far beyond
the limits of human comprehension, even to the extent that God knew
us BEFORE our earthly
conception. We need to claim our spiritual dimension and our sense of
destiny. That is, who we are is not circumscribed by our body, the
confines of our skull, or limits of physical existence. We need to
face the fact of man's spiritual transcendence and accept it with
humility and grace. When we do this, we enrich our role in this
world and through belief eternity.
Print Page
