kabod.

"Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins..."
-Isaiah 40:2

But the reality of kabod shatters every delusion. As previous certainties desert us, we become vulnerable and open. The glory of God makes possible the primordial act of religion: the realization that we are not sufficient unto ourselves, that we have received our life and being from another. In a decision that reaches the roots of our most intimate self and demands the renunciation of belonging to that self, we freely ratify our condition as creatures.
-Brennan Manning-

Kabod.It is what C.S. Lewis called the "weight of glory". The very substance of the Lord. And Brennan Manning is quick to remind us that it's "reality...shatters every delusion". Every delusion that we had anything to do with it. Every delusion that we have control.
In my preparation for what Robert Benson calls the "Night of the Child", I have come face to face with all that I bring into this season. This morning, the shame that I thought was years gone continues to rob me of the joy that a full and free life has to offer. Shame that brings with it a grand illusion of control.
I continue to believe that I belong to myself.
But, me-- I belong only to One. One that came to earth on a crazy night as a tired babe in order to rescue the world. In order to rescue me.
His rescue means that in me the warfare is over. That shame no longer has anywhere to plant roots because my iniquity has been pardoned. Finished. Rescued.
In the Kabod of the Lord the tenderness is great and severe. It is gentle and it is direct. Not only is it really finished, but the mercy is real. It is mercy upon mercy. Double for all of my sins.


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