together at the same time.

"No one can look at God and at the reality of the world with undivided gaze as long as God and the world are torn apart.  Despite all efforts to prevent it the eyes still wander from one to the other.  Only because there is one place where God and the reality of the world are reconciled with each other, at which God and humanity have become one, is it possible there and there alone to fix one's eyes on God and the world together at the same time.  This place does not lie somewhere beyond reality in the realm of ideas.  It lies in the midst of history as a divine miracle.  It lies in Jesus Messiah the reconciler of the world."

-dietrich bonhoeffer.

-----

"therefore, let us fix our eyes on Jesus..."

(amen).

seen.

"why do you say, o jacob,
why declare, o israel,
'my way is hid from the L-RD,
my cause is ignored by my God?'
do you not know?
have you not heard?
the L-RD is God from of old,
creator of the earth from end to end,
He never grows tired or weary,
His wisdom cannot be fathomed.
He gives strength to the weary,
fresh vigor to the spent."

-isaiah 40.

beginnings.

"the man who sweats under his mask, whose role makes him itch with discomfort, who hates the division in himself, is already beginning to be free." 

-thomas merton.

maybe.

"what may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God."

-dietrich bonhoeffer.

roots.

thus said the L-RD:

cursed is he who trusts in man,
who makes mere flesh his strength,
and turns his thoughts from the L-RD.
he shall be like a bush in the desert,
which does not sense the coming of good:
it is set in the scorched places of the wilderness,
in a barren land without inhabitant.

blessed is he who trusts in the L-RD,
whose trust is the L-RD alone.
he shall be like a tree planted by waters,
sending forth its roots by a stream:
it does not sense the coming of heat,
its leaves are ever fresh;
it has no care in a year of drought,
it does not cease to yield fruit.

most devious is the heart;
it is perverse - who can fathom it?
I the L-RD probe the heart,
search the mind -
to repay every man according to his ways,
with the proper fruit of his deeds.

O Throne of Glory exalted from of old,
our Sacred Shrine!
O Hope of Israel! O L-RD!

heal me, o L-RD, and let me be healed;
save me, and let me be saved;
for You are my glory.

tear it open.

something something something,
always working to make God seem so small.

and yet, beyond this veil thrown over our eyes,

GOD REIGNS.
GOD REIGNS.
GOD REIGNS.