God's own heart


"Many people seem to think that the spiritual life necessarily requires a definite and exacting plan of study," writes 20th century Christian mystic Evelyn Underhill. It does not. But it does require a definite plan of life...."

Underhill, whose prophetic voice is unfailingly urgent and often blunt, is not talking about a career plan but an entire approach to living the life God has given us. That approach is centered on complete cooperation with God, "which begins with a full and practical acceptance of the truth that God alone matters and that He, the Perfect, always desires perfection."

That got me to thinking. What does this perfection look like?

The answer came quickly: Slow to anger; abounding in steadfast love; doing justice, loving mercy, walking humbly with God.

In other words: God desires for us the very qualities that illuminate God's Son, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. What a gift God has given us, that we may simply gaze from manger to cross and find in that panorama the fullness of God's own heart!

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