205 - Psalm 89, 92. Philippians 3

Bend an ear, God; answer me. I'm one miserable wretch! 

You put the arrogant ocean in its place 
You put your arrogant child in moments like today
that I may see into my heart.

I've thought a whole lot this year about the story of the Prodigal Son.  In his book about the prodigal, Henri Nouwen writes:  "Can I let the younger and older son grow in me to the maturity of the compassionate father?"  The father is who I must become, he writes.  As the father deals with his own anger and loneliness, his anger turns to solitude and his loneliness turns to gratitude.  I am that younger and older brother.  Frustration.  Anger.  Pain.   Can you grow both of my sides into a compassion that moves into the lives of others in the midst of my own mess.

Oh God! Cause us to come to you for wisdom. 

That we may allot our time by by what You know. 

That we may set store by time.

“That God would enable us to form such an estimate of life, 

that we shall be truly wise; 

that we may be able to act 

"as if" we saw the whole of life.” 

I'm walking on air. God has been so very good to us. Psalm 89:17.

"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.  Phil 3:10.

Knowing God here is an experimental knowledge of the power of the resurrection.
One commentary called it "feeling the transforming efficacy and virtue" of His death and resurrection. 

What about us?  What keeps us from the ultimate ambition to know God?

PHOTO: The faces of the people in Budapest still haunt me.  So sullen.  So sad.  So striking.  The distrust of Communism still runs through the Danube River.  They are not a free people.  God raise them up to be like the father running for joy to his sons.