reflections by the pond #501: made for something better

8/6/2019 Reflections by the Pond #501: Made for Something Better

1/3

Something deep within you cries out, rustrated, convinced o your graspingnotion that there is surely something better. Every morning you swing yourweary bones out o bed, plant your eet down onto what you hope will begossamer clouds o easeonly to discover that nothing has changed rom

the day beore, and your eet sink down into the amiliar brown muck.

Reflectionsby the Pond

May 30 2011No. 501

MadeforSomethingBetter

It is like walking along the mud

flats in the bottom of a slough.

The muck beneath your bare

feet sucks at every step, slowing

your stride. The cold slime oozesbetween your toes, with each

labored step pulling you down,

pulling you down.

Whomayascendinto

thehillofthe lord?

andWho maystand

in hisholyplace?

heWhohascleanhands

andapureheartPsalms 24:3-4a


2/3

You want to cry out, I deserve better than this! but dont like the

presumptuous sound o it. What you mean is that you were made or

something betterthat you are cut rom better cloth than this. You

acknowledge the Creator, and because He made you in His image,

there is something proound and mysterious dwellingsimmering,

percolatingwithin: a sense o your part in Gods grand scheme o

mans eternity. Your part is small, admittedly, but not insigniicant. He

has placed within you a desire or Him and His ways. He has, through

the sacriice o His own Son, graciously given you a place with ull

rights in His own amily.

You have enjoyed moments o sweet, intimate communion. You

have, like sister Mary, sat enraptured at His eet, listening, letting His

words and love seep into your very pores. Every part o you embraced

the Lord and, secure in His elevating love, you let His presence driven

not by mechanical locomotion, but by the sheer power o His lie.

Your eet never touched the ground as you returned to live or Him,

by Him, to Him.But soon you ound yoursel, once again, treading not just upon the soil

o earth, but down deep in its muck.

It is not inevitable, but it is persistent. Man may have been created

with a heart yearning or God, but he was also created with eet o

clay. Indeed, that paradox is the source o the believers rustration,

his pain. Having been granted a glimpse into the ethereal lightness

o being o eternity with the Savior, our leaden steps in the muck o

this world have become all the more disconcerting. We know better.

We have lived better.

Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar,and there remember that your brother has something againstyou, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first bereconciled to your brother, and then come and present youroffering.

Matthew 5:23-24

I Jesus words are sound counsel when we have wronged a broth-

erand they arethen how much more pertinent they are when we

have wronged Christ Himsel. We are not to track the worlds muck

into our worship.

The lie o a Christian is to be, by deinition, Christ-centered. To

avoid the path that takes us through the muck o the slough we are

to keep our eyeseven while we still loat in His heavenly realms

on the Lord. The sobering sight o His empty, but blood-splattered

cross is the caressing breeze that keeps us alot. And i our gaze

roamsi rom the heights we begin to envy those who trudge the

earthen pathand our eet begin to sink into the sucking slough,then, on our way to the throne, we are to revisit the place o His sacri-

ice. For only there, in that awul, holy place, do we ind the cleansing,

restoring waters that will clean our eet o the worlds mud, and lit us

once again onto the Fathers holy plane.

A soul can never attain the knowledge o God unless God Himsel in Hiscondescension takes hold o it and raises it up to Himsel. For the humanintellect lacks the power to ascend and to participate in divine illumina-tion, unless God Himsel draws it upin so ar as this is possible or the

human intellectand illumines it with rays o divine light.The Philokalia


3/3

2011 David S. Lampel. Unless other wise indicated, allScripture is from the New American Standard Bible (UpdatedEdition). Reflections by the Pond is published weekly. Thisis the on-screen pdf edition; Reflections is also available inhtml, printable pdf, and plain text editions.

For a free subscription, go to ht tp://dlampel.com

Now I have ound the ground wherein

Sure my souls anchor may remain,

The wounds o Jesus, or my sin

Beore the worlds oundation slain;Whose mercy shall unshaken stay,

When heaven and earth are fed away.

O Love, Thou bottomless abyss,

My sins are swallowed up in Thee!

Covered is my unrighteousness,

Nor spot o guilt remains on me,

While Jesus blood, through earth and skies,

Mercy, ree, boundless mercy, cries.

With aith I plunge me in this sea;

Here is my hope, my joy, my rest;

Hither, when hell assails, I fee,

I look into my Saviours breast;

Away, sad doubt, and anxious ear!

Mercy is all thats written there.

Though waves and storms go oer my head,

Though strength, and health, and riends be gone,

Though joys be withered all and dead,

Though every comort be withdrawn,On this my steadast soul relies,

Father, Thy mercy never dies.

Fixed on this ground will I remain,

Though my heart ail, and fesh decay;

This anchor shall my soul sustain,

When earths oundations melt away;

Mercys ull power I then shall prove,

Loved with an everlasting love.

Johann Andreas Rothe

Winslow Homer

2 Cor. 4:5-7

writingsthe

of

reflections by the pond #501: made for something better

Documents