Something changed inside of me

[jerry ralph]

“Dear Lord, grant me the grace of wonder. Surprise me, amaze me, awe me in every crevice of your universe……..Each day enrapture me with your marvelous things without number. I do not ask to see the reason for it all; I ask only to share the wonder of it all.”
ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL

“What does the worker gain from his toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on men. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil, this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever, nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.”
ECCLESIASTES 3:9-14 NIV

Rabbi Heschel said “I do not ask to see the reason for it all, I ask only to share the wonder of it all.” That sentence speaks to me today. I don’t know why, all I know is that God Is. Today I can accept God being exactly as God is. Even though I can’t fathom the depth or height or width of God, I can accept God in all Gods glorious majesty and power, without having to know why. It’s all about acceptance. There was a time when I was much younger when I needed to know the reason for everything. All through school reasons were given for everything, all the way from the study of English to mathematics to science. There were always exceptions to certain rules but the reason given for them was that they were exceptions. I understood this. I didn’t have a lot of training in my younger days in spiritual awareness, or religious teachings, and no answers were given to me as to why the existence of God was valid. I wanted to know why, and the answer “just because” was not sufficient. I remember my mother telling me to do things and I would ask why? She would say, “Because I said so!” I could accept this answer because of her authority, but when it came to the vastness and awesomeness of God, I wanted to know why. Where my life changed and where I began to accept ideas without having to know why was sometime in 1968. The first half of the year I was in Vietnam, the summer I spent home in Kansas City and the fall I was in college in Indiana. As I look back on that year I see where there were many influences in my life, some of traumatic proportions. From the painful experiences of combat to the carefree summer of 1968, the summer of love; to the discipline of college studies, something happened in my soul. Something changed inside of me and I realized that there was more to life than what I knew or could see. Fifteen years later I accepted Jesus and the finished work of the cross, and the missing parts of life’s puzzle were starting to come together. It has been a growing process. Today I don’t have to have all the answers. I feel and experience God’s love and that is more than enough to get me through life, one day at a time. Today I don’t need to know why for everything, all I need is to accept God so God can work through me. God is doing for me what I could not do for myself………………….JRE

“If it can be verified, we don’t need faith……Faith is for that which lies on the other side of reason. Faith is what makes life bearable, with all its tragedies and ambiguities and sudden, startling joys.”
MADELEINE L’ENGLE

“Acceptance is the key to my relationship with God today. I never just sit and do nothing while waiting for Him to tell me what to do. Rather, I do whatever is in front of me to be done, and leave the results up to Him; however it turns out, that’s God’s will for me.”
ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, page 420

[martha]

Absolutely beautiful. I know it is from your heart. I feel the same way, but you said it with a great deal of feeling. I love the quote from the Rabbi.

Thanks for sharing.

Joyfully, Martha

[jerry ralph]

Originally Posted by martha

Absolutely beautiful. I know it is from your heart. I feel the same way, but you said it with a great deal of feeling. I love the quote from the Rabbi.

Thanks for sharing.

Joyfully, Martha

Thank you Martha.................for your kind words............jerry

[Ceetee]

hi Jerry: I like reading your posts...
the above one, though, I'm not sure if some Bibles word it differently or not but the way it is quoted is that God has made everything beautiful in 'His' time, not 'its' time. perhaps other versions do word it the other way, because most folks do quote it the way you did.