A Week of Reverence

I am slowly making my way through Larry Warner’s book, “Journey with Jesus,” yet another modern (and insightful) take on the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius Loyola. This past week, the theme was “reverence,” and over and over I was praying for the grace to be in awe of God. Here are a few thoughts from my journal…

— Yesterday I walked the wooded path that loops around Mallard Lake near my home. I was still contemplating the theme from the previous week in the book, which was “praise.” Surrounded by the wonder of creation, sometimes there are just no words to express even that praise to the Creator. I guess that’s the purpose of awe. Sometimes we just need to stand in awe and allow the silence of our thoughts to do the work of praise.

The changing and falling leaves. The turtle sunning itself midstream on a log. A big re-headed pileated woodpecker constantly on the move, flitting tree to tree as if just trying to stay ahead of me. Is that you, God? Slow down. My response is to stop and take it all in. What I felt was God’s extravagance. I know these are all just natural, biological things with lives and rhythms of their own. They are common and ordinary. And yet if we stop and pay attention, they hold a glimpse of the Creator and the divine ongoing work of creation — all seemingly for my enjoyment in that moment. 

— Inspired by 1 Chronicles 16: 23-25

The Earth, and everything in it, sings to God. 
Intones God’s glory and action. 
Fills us with awe.
The splendor of the Earth announces and presents God to us. 
Nature sings in harmony:
“You think this is so great? You should see who made us!”
We are called to shift our gaze from the created to the Creator. 
When we do, a whole new world opens up. 
We enter in as if entering a temple, for surely we are. 
So bring yourself as a gift before the altar of fallen tree and exposed rock
Stand still in your awe and feel yourself tremble.
Listen to the Earth and take up the song:
Water rippling over rocks.
The whisper of grass and grain. 
Trees reaching high in near-silent psalms of praise.
My own mouth breathing out.
My small voice sings. 

— I have an overwhelming sense of awe of the presence of God in my life, this God who just keeps showing up in the simple and ordinary, in my work, in those who surround me, in the everyday miracles of nature. 

— Inspired by From Revelation 4:6-11  

In unimaginable beauty, I find myself before the throne,
Radiant, as if all light comes from that one place.
As if. 
Speechless, unsure of myself,
And yet words tumble out of mystery and doubt:
Holy. 
You are holy.
You have always been, and are, and will be.
Worthy. 
You are worthy
To receive my little psalms of praise
My nods of reverence. 

What is your song of reverence today?