Seeing God in the Circumstances of My Life
I am an old woman of almost 84 years. I like to call them ‘the bonus years.’ I get that from the Bible which says “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures…” (Psalm 90:10 NIV)
I keep an index card on my desk which is a quote from Fenelon’s book entitled “The Seeking Heart.” It reads: “See God’s hand in the circumstances of your life.”
Out of the “circumstances” of my early childhood I have always been a questioner, a searcher, a ponderer of people, places and things. So in that vain, when I read that quote, I looked up circumstances in the dictionary*, It read as follows:
“circumstances
-condition, fact, or event accompanying or determining the occurrence of another fact or event.
-condition in regard to worldly estate.”
Today, the circumstances of my life are that our world is in what is being called “The Covid-19 Global Pandemic”— apparently started in China, has moved across the world and has now come to us here in the United States. In the state where I live, Idaho, we are some of the last to receive this virus.
There are some real benefits to being the last! We can surely learn from all that the rest of the world has been going through and hopefully be wise in seeing the mistakes they have made but also as to what worked or is working. That would be first hand knowledge in a manner of speaking in that we are experiencing their ‘story’ in real time via all of the technology at our disposal today.
Being the age I am, I feel I am actually blest with a unique perspective.
When I was a child we didn’t even have a TV! We were too poor. The way we heard of the ending of WWII was by being huddled around our old upright radio, which I gave to my oldest son and I believe his oldest son now has in his home.
And yes! We had a phone and it hung on the wall and to call your neighbors you actually dialed their number and I still remember ours to this day, it was ‘2F24’ See how old I am! (And to think my great-grandchildren have not experienced life without a cellphone or iPad! I have heard that started around 2007 or sometime there about.)
But now, back to ‘Seeing God in the circumstances of my life.’
I really did not like history class in high school. Not US History! Not World History! But somehow, someway in God’s mysterious ways of dealing with us all, at some point I became interested in Biblical history. Not particularly how the Bible came down to us in all of it’s versions as important as that is, (and it is) but the stories of the history of the peoples recorded in the Bible.
Meanwhile, back to the dictionary definition of ‘circumstances’ this morning I noticed in that second part of the definition it mentioned only ‘worldly estate.’ Curiously I see I have always been ‘other-worldly’ minded. And that ‘other world’ always seemed to me God had something to do with. I think I came to that conclusion as a child of five as I sat under the “Prayer Changes Things” plaque outside my mother’s bedroom.
True, I was a child raised in church and going to church as a family. So obviously I was exposed to that view of the world. I realize some have not and some have been so tainted or put-off by all that ‘church stuff’ and they don’t have the same frame reference that I do. Be that as it may, I am sharing with you ‘the circumstances of my life’ and those were my circumstances.
Yesterday I listened to a portion of PBS news and Ann Patchett who is an author and part-owner of Parnassus Books gave suggestions on what to read together on Zoom or other apps available to us during these ‘circumstances of life’ we find ourselves in today.
So, I recommend to you the amazing history book of Jeremiah in the Bible** that contains stories just like ours today. Just this morning a friend of mine and I read together the story of an ancient people called the Israelites and you find their story in that book. The part of their story we read this morning was from Chapter 29-31. It was a delightful exercise this reading a book together over the phone.
We found wonderful advise there about what voices to listen to in times like these. Helpful words about panic, and conflicting messages, and God’s word to them “Don’t despair!” And so much more, not avoiding the reality of the situation, but a reassuring word that God still is in control and always has been.
Quoted Material:
*Webster’s Secondary School Dictionary with pages torn and cover nearly falling off, copyright date torn out by ‘wear and tear’ of use.! 🙂
**We read it together from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message:The Bible in Contemporary Language” but there are many versions out there even online apps.
Seeing God in the Circumstances of My Life
I am an old woman of almost 84 years. I like to call them ‘the bonus years.’ I get that from the Bible which says “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures…” (Psalm 90:10 NIV)
I keep an index card on my desk which is a quote from Fenelon’s book entitled “The Seeking Heart.” It reads: “See God’s hand in the circumstances of your life.”
Out of the “circumstances” of my early childhood I have always been a questioner, a searcher, a ponderer of people, places and things. So in that vain, when I read that quote, I looked up circumstances in the dictionary*, It read as follows:
“circumstances
-condition, fact, or event accompanying or determining the occurrence of another fact or event.
-condition in regard to worldly estate.”
Today, the circumstances of my life are that our world is in what is being called “The Covid-19 Global Pandemic”— apparently started in China, has moved across the world and has now come to us here in the United States. In the state where I live, Idaho, we are some of the last to receive this virus.
There are some real benefits to being the last! We can surely learn from all that the rest of the world has been going through and hopefully be wise in seeing the mistakes they have made but also as to what worked or is working. That would be first hand knowledge in a manner of speaking in that we are experiencing their ‘story’ in real time via all of the technology at our disposal today.
Being the age I am, I feel I am actually blest with a unique perspective.
When I was a child we didn’t even have a TV! We were too poor. The way we heard of the ending of WWII was by being huddled around our old upright radio, which I gave to my oldest son and I believe his oldest son now has in his home.
And yes! We had a phone and it hung on the wall and to call your neighbors you actually dialed their number and I still remember ours to this day, it was ‘2F24’ See how old I am! (And to think my great-grandchildren have not experienced life without a cellphone or iPad! I have heard that started around 2007 or sometime there about.)
But now, back to ‘Seeing God in the circumstances of my life.’
I really did not like history class in high school. Not US History! Not World History! But somehow, someway in God’s mysterious ways of dealing with us all, at some point I became interested in Biblical history. Not particularly how the Bible came down to us in all of it’s versions as important as that is, (and it is) but the stories of the history of the peoples recorded in the Bible.
Meanwhile, back to the dictionary definition of ‘circumstances’ this morning I noticed in that second part of the definition it mentioned only ‘worldly estate.’ Curiously I see I have always been ‘other-worldly’ minded. And that ‘other world’ always seemed to me God had something to do with. I think I came to that conclusion as a child of five as I sat under the “Prayer Changes Things” plaque outside my mother’s bedroom.
True, I was a child raised in church and going to church as a family. So obviously I was exposed to that view of the world. I realize some have not and some have been so tainted or put-off by all that ‘church stuff’ and they don’t have the same frame reference that I do. Be that as it may, I am sharing with you ‘the circumstances of my life’ and those were my circumstances.
Yesterday I listened to a portion of PBS news and Ann Patchett who is an author and part-owner of Parnassus Books gave suggestions on what to read together on Zoom or other apps available to us during these ‘circumstances of life’ we find ourselves in today.
So, I recommend to you the amazing history book of Jeremiah in the Bible** that contains stories just like ours today. Just this morning a friend of mine and I read together the story of an ancient people called the Israelites and you find their story in that book. The part of their story we read this morning was from Chapter 29-31. It was a delightful exercise this reading a book together over the phone.
We found wonderful advise there about what voices to listen to in times like these. Helpful words about panic, and conflicting messages, and God’s word to them “Don’t despair!” And so much more, not avoiding the reality of the situation, but a reassuring word that God still is in control and always has been.
Quoted Material:
*Webster’s Secondary School Dictionary with pages torn and cover nearly falling off, copyright date torn out by ‘wear and tear’ of use.! 🙂
**We read it together from Eugene Peterson’s “The Message:The Bible in Contemporary Language” but there are many versions out there even online apps.
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