I awake with an emotional heaviness at 4 a.m. and remember what caused this feeling. I got hoodwinked by fear in a legitimate disguise: I saw an injustice and pushed the panic button–again. I ended up making a fuss over nothing and now I wonder if those involved are getting frustrated with me.
I hate these holes in my bucket.
“If you were a leaky bucket and wanted to be filled with God’s love,” I heard Rob Des Cotes say at a prayer retreat not long ago, “you could either spend your life patching the holes or simply immerse yourself in the ocean of God’s love.”
When I heard Rob’s words, I imagined myself as a bucket–filled and surrounded with love–and a deep ahhh relaxed my body.
God is loving me now at four in the morning. God doesn’t despise my weaknesses but sees these holes as openings through which I can be filled with love.
I breathe in and out and picture myself lying in God’s ocean of love. I hear the pebbles move, feel them shift under me as the cold water flows out and rushes in again. Salty waves flood my weaknesses and recede leaving every filament of their tattered edges as wet and vibrant as anemones.
In the morning my fears will have drifted off to sea; I will laugh at myself and wonder why I was so worried. Even if my peers are wearied of me, I will not be undone. God is with me.
But here, now in the night, I don’t want a strategy for how to live with my weaknesses. Here and now, I just want to lie in the ocean of God’s love and feel God’s tireless, boundless love wash in and out of the holes in my soul.
When I awake, I am still with you. Psalm 139:18b
Thankyou Esther —really appreciate your insights, and especially the fact that when we wake we are not still with God but that He is still with us. Amen
LikeLike
Thank you for sharing this with me. Yes.that is wonderful. And God has had more loving things to say to me about his love, the leaky bucket and the panic button. Stay tuned.
LikeLike
Ah… Well, here I am at 10:30 at night. I respond with Ah… at the images of truth that you offer. Thank you, Esther
LikeLike
Esther,
This is a wonderful blog and an absolutely lovely post. Thank you for including me! Donna
LikeLike
You’re welcome. Thanks for letting me know. Great to have company on the journey.
LikeLike
Dear Esther,
Thank you for your image of a bucket with holes. It expands my thinking/feeling. I personally sense that waving flow in deep meditation or prayer.
Jan
LikeLike
You’re welcome. Your loving presence in my life makes it easier for me to imagine.
LikeLike
Pingback: What’s a Bucket to Do? | An Everyday Pilgrim
Pingback: A Leaky Bucket Tells His Story | An Everyday Pilgrim
Pingback: Christ In Me, With Me, For Me | An Everyday Pilgrim