Starting something new: With today’s post I’m trying out a new idea. Knowing how pressed we all are for time — and equally aware of how much “stuff” comes into all of our mailboxes each day asking to be read — today during prayer I asked a simple question of God: What do I have to give or say to you that could possibly rise above the noise of our everyday lives? The answer I sensed perhaps should have been obvious to me: Give them less and invite them into silence.
As I have written before, silence is perhaps one of the best tools we have to draw closer to God and continue to make some sense of our lives. So while I may still post the occasional longer entry about something on my mind or something I have read, I’m going to try to write more often and shorter (about the length of one of my Living Faith devotions), all the while inviting you to spend some time in silence, where the God of all of our wants and desires dwells and waits for us. We can find God there, in the midst of family crises, illness, work problems or loneliness, if we only enter in and reach out for the One who created us. “Reaching out for God is reaching God,” as Mark Thibodeaux, SJ, has written so eloquently.
So I’m going to be living and praying each day, searching for one word upon which I can briefly reflect, a word that will also beckon you to spend some time in silence, searching for that word’s unique meaning for you in your journey of faith.
Today’s Word: Irresistible
I heard this word today somewhere — irresistible. Now there are lots of senseless things that can sometimes be irresistible to us, such as television, eating too much of the wrong things or other such vices. That perhaps is a subject for another time. But the immediate sense of this word that I felt today is a comforting and peaceful notion: We are irresistible to God. God cannot get enough of us.
But we have a hard time believing this, don’t we? Why, we ask, would God want to spend time with us? Why would God care one way or another if we turn toward Him and say, “here I am?” But we also know the answer if we care to take the time to think about it. We are irresistible to God because God made us, and He made us to be in relationship with Him. The beauty and grace of all this is that when we don’t respond, when we forget to turn toward God, God is still there, waiting for us. God never grows weary of waiting because we are precious and perfect creatures of His own imagination and love. God waits because He cannot possibly resist the urge to do so. So believe it: You are irresistible.
Ask yourself in silence: Am I willing to believe this? If so, how do I respond? How does it change my life?
17 comments On Today’s Word: Irresistible
Beautiful message! Thanks!
I know why God made sure we met – and became friends – It is always a Comfort to know there is someone else loving the Holy First. No matter what is ours to experience – Our “True North” is God.
Color me Grateful for YOU in the world – Color YOU – Irresistible.
-g-
Hi Steve,
Thanks so much for this reflection.Really liked it a lot!I always do a little silent retreat in my house for about 2 1-2 hours each morning.It’s a wonderful AND peaceful way to start the day.Then I go to Daylesford Abbey {near to my home}and meditate for about 30 to 45 minutes late in the afternoon.Meditation is,to me,the highest form of prayer.
Peace and blessings,
Karen
Steve – another home run! Thanks! The new Bible study I’m participating in at church starting September 9 follows along the same lines. I’m sharing this with the guys in the group.
Steve, Thanks for this re-awakening : a reminder to ‘enter in and reach out for the God that dwells in us’.
I now understand your asking us to reflect on the beautiful yet mysterious Psalm 8, in your recent invitation for ‘guest bloggers’.
You wanted us to reflect! Henri Nouwan requested the same. In fact, doesn’t “examination of consciousness” of Ignation Spirituality require doing just that – reflect!?
Yet it is my heart I need to still! The ‘ramblings’, the great and many ‘good’ that my heart prompts me to do everyday, does confound me! So much needs to be done, and said. Where do I begin? In my quest to do God’s will, I am sure I have mistaken some of mine to be His!
So Steve, yes I have to take stock. You have given me KEY pieces to fit into the jigsaw of my life with God, and I am encouraged to believe that if we continue at it, with helpful words from you, we would be hauled back from our ‘highways’ and return to the narrow path; and to choose the better part, as Mary did.
Yes, the Kingdom of God is at hand, in the now and here, and I believe that those who are showing the way, . . . loving God, and caring for man, . . . are already shining as brightly as the resplendent stars in heaven!
I am looking forward to more ‘gems’ from you; nay, priceless pearls not unlike that in Jesus’ parable … to maintain our sense of ‘pride’ that we are irresistable, to God.
Grazie,
Anthony.
Thanks, Anthony.Your comments are equally stimulating for me and others. And, yes, Ignatian spirituality certain emphasizes an “examination of consciousness” (different in many respects from an examination of CONSCIENCE that focuses more on sin.) This “examen” asks us to look at the whole of our lives, day by day, and reflect on where we have seen and experienced God during our day. This kind of reflection is a spiritual discipline that can be powerful.
Thanks, Jim, for passing my words along. Hope to see you soon.
Thanks, Karen, for sharing about your own prayer discipline. It’s inspiring to me and others to hear how others go about reflecting on the Word in their lives.
It’s been a good, long, creative friendship, Georgy. Thanks, as always, for your kind words. Keep singing and telling stories…
Thanks, Judy. Hope you had a good, relaxing weekend. Peace!
Steve, thank you for reminding me how irrestible I am to God! It was what I needed. And thanks too for Mark Thibodeaux’s words “reaching out for God is reaching God”. Prayer (I define as being with God) can often feel very empty and without consolation. The assurance that God and I have connected, though unfelt, is itself a consolation.
Hi Steve,
Irresistible- such a meaningful and attractive word in the human context. And yet, here you are telling us that God finds us irresistible? Yes, it is difficult to fathom.
I look at myself, with all my faults, with all my frailties, with all my shortcomings and I ask myself “I am irresistible to HIM?'”
Then I remember, I am a mother and I know that whatever wrongs or whatever mistakes my son may make, I will still find him an irresistible son and I will still love and forgive him, no matter what.
What more then, our Father in Heaven, He who created us in His likeness, He who so immensely loves us that He would send His Son to suffer and die for our salvation, He who so patiently awaits our ‘return’, He who throws us ‘lifeline’ after ‘lifeline’ until we realise the folly of our ways. He MUST FIND US IRRESISTIBLE, because He clearly doesn’t want to lose us, His children, His creation.
Thank you Steve for giving us this inspired word to meditate and reflect upon. More importantly, it awakens a deeper sense of hope BECAUSE i DARE SAY FEW AMONG US WOULD HAVE DARED TO THINK WE ARE IRRESISTIBLE TO GOD!
Thank you, Mary, for taking the time to write. We all need this assurance even, as you say, those of us who try to pray regularly. We might not feel we’re connecting or bering heard, but faith tells us that we are. That’s all the assurance we have…or need.
Thanks for writing, Lily. I thought a lot about parenting as I wrote this. Indeed, we hopefully never grow tired of seeing or being with our children, so how much more God…indeed.
As always, thanks Steve! Such a thought provoking reminder of the inner pull we all have to take time to quietly be with God. As one who has habitually begun the day very early in the morning to meditate and pray, (which without a doubt leaves me feeling peaceful and more aware of God’s presence in my life, but which at times can be most challenging to do so) I have come to understand that God is gifting this time to me; not “me” giving this time to Him. If we could really comprehend the measure of irresistibility we have in God’s eyes and return the tiniest amount back . . . how we would rush to be with Him! He patiently waits for us to just “rest in Him!” How awesome! Thanks for the nudge. God bless you. Kathleen
Thanks, Kathleen. As always, your remarks are right on target and very helpful to us all.
Steve, I know I have written to you before on behalf of my daughter Kathy. She passed away July 12th after many years of battling cancer. I got your book for her and she passed it around the chemo room. I know she is with the Lord but she leaves a big hole in our heart especially during this holy season. Always enjoy your messages in Living Faith.. Prayerfully Rosemary