A Call to Holiness

Welcome to Real Life.  As I begin the New Year, I am pondering God’s call to holiness.

View from my window
I’m looking out the window on this second day of the New Year.  It’s snowing hard.  It hasn’t snowed much this year.  (I know, it’s coming.)  The whiteness is blinding after days of dull, dreary rain.  Watching the snow, I sense God’s Spirit saying: 
I am holy.  I live in blinding light.[1]  I want you to be holy as well. 
Yesterday on New Year’s Day, we sang in church:
       He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
       And trembles at his voice... How great is our God 

Pure. Clean. Blinding light.  God is holy.  I am not.  In fact, I’m far from it.   A great gap exists between who I am and who God is calling me to be.  Yet, He still wants me to be holy.  It almost seems unfair.  Kindness, compassion, and maybe even love might be do-able.  But holiness feels out of my league, like an amateur athlete trying to compete in the Olympics.  Leave holiness to the professionals.

As a child, I considered a priest or nun to be holy.  They live separate from the world.  Their lives are fully dedicated to God.  My dad views the Amish as holy people.  They choose lives of simplicity to please God.  Is this holiness?

Separating from the world is definitely an element of holiness.  But far more than in separation, I find holiness in connection to God.  In God’s presence, I want what He wants for He is wholly good, pure, beautiful – wholly holy.  When I desire what God desires, I become holy.  


God's call to holiness is not unfair.  It is not a heavy burden He is laying on me.  It is a call of love.  It is a Father calling his daughter home.  It is God saying, "I want to be with you."


Holiness is not so much a characteristic I need to develop as it is a natural result of spending time with God.  It’s that simple.  And it’s that difficult.   That’s Real Life.

Dear Lord, draw me nearer to you.  I want my heart to reflect your pure, beautiful, holy heart.  I long to be who you created me to be.  Amen.

Something to think about…

[1] 1 Timothy 6:16

Comments

  1. CatherineJanuary 11, 2012 at 4:42 PM

    Your one-liner conclusions are usually zingers. Lines with a lot of punch like "it's that simple and it's that difficult" really stick. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. PeglovesjesusJanuary 11, 2012 at 10:07 PM

    They zing me, too. :) Thanks for taking the time to read it. I ALWAYS appreciate your encouragement!

    ReplyDelete

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