Leaping tall buildings in a single bound
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Fifth Week of Lent
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/031913.cfm
Romans 4:17-18
Abraham believed the God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not. Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed, and so became.
In that way, Abraham became the father of us all – including the rest of us who “against all hope, in hope believe.” This is the reason for positive thinking and gratitude journals. It is a basis for good living. These tools for good living do not, however, remove me from the center of things. I still end up thinking that the universe revolves around me and owes me something.
The belief with which Paul credits Abraham centers on who is believed, not the results of believing.  Abraham can do nothing to merit the attention of God. God is the one who brings life, who calls into being. Ex nihilo. Out of nothing something comes.
There is a simple agreement made between the created and his Creator. When Abraham notices God, and listens to him, and accepts his words, God is pleased to continue the intimacy between them. Their conversation, their sharing from the heart, their mystical union … grows. Abraham’s “leap of faith,” as Kierkegaard beautifully described it, sustains his side of the conversation.
Abraham believed, “and so became.” He became a father, yes. In a wider sense, he continued “becoming” instead of getting stuck in himself. His ego, his false self, fell away in the flow of becoming, which always marks life which is lived in the present moment. In his twentieth-century psychological language, Erik Erikson calls this “generativity.” The alternative is stagnation.
The King James Bible needs to be read aloud, and often the words are very beautiful, poetry that in its beauty seems all the more true. Try these words out loud: “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Sweet Jesus, those words are beautiful. God, you are the Father of us all. My children and me, my father, my father’s father, and my father’s father’s father are all your children. You bring life to the dead and call into being things that were not. You call up my believing and invite me to say yes.
http://www.christiancounselingservice.com/archived_devotions.php?article_id=1172
