February 23, 2014 In Spiritual Reflections

Counting Grace

In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another day just like today, and there will never be another like it again.  Today is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth.  It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death.  If you were aware of how precious today is, you could hardly live through it.  Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all.
-Frederick Buechner

 

Wake up! The hunt has already begun.

 

You ask, “What are we hunting for?”

 

We are hunting for grace!

 

Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense it. The least we can do is try to be there.

-Annie Dillard

God’s hand is upon our lives whether we acknowledge it or not. The first thing I do when I feel the distance between me and God is give an accounting of my heart. Counting blessings provides Divine perspective. Every syllable of gratitude spoken extends the circumference of hope and marks our lives as sacred. King David said, “teach me how to number my days.” I fear we are often guilty of “numbering” our days by its curses instead of its blessings. It is easy to complain. I call it the “stumped-toe” syndrome. We allow the inevitable “stumped toes” that come with being human to overshadow the epiphanies, the tiny miracles, and the holy signs of God’s presence radiating from the theater of our lives. We forget that everything inside and around us is charged with glory, even the thin, dark, broken and doubting places. But first we must remove the cataracts of cynicism and self-absorption to witness God at work. Nothing good comes from an ostrich with his head in the dirt! When we count grace we begin to see again the holy potential for our lives!

Did you know that in the the Jewish tradition, an observant Jew will say 100 blessing prayers a day? They pray a “brakha” which always begins, “Blessed are you, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who……blessed me with a bluejay’s song to start my day, blessed me with the toothy-grin of my one year old, blessed me with words of inspiration when I thought my pen had run dry, blessed me with a husband that makes me smile, and blessed me with a kind babysitter who disposed of the half-eaten rabbit that my dog, Romeo, proudly deposited at our front door stoop!

But top on the list is Blessed are you, Lord, my God, King of the Universe, who continues to be my Divine confidant and Friend, who faithfully shows up for me every single day of my life, even when I choose not to!

Wisdom teaches that there is never a greater time to count blessings than when we find ourselves in a season of disappointment, pain, doubting, and great sorrow. When God appears silent in our lives, we must become even more vigilant in our “hunt” for grace. God promises that even in the pitch-black darkness, there will always be a star of hope to lead us through.

Just to be is a blessing

Just to live is holy.

-Rabbi Herschel

As we enter the Easter season, let’s number our days by counting grace.

Live in Hope,

Farrell

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