Little Twinklings

I suppose we all look for the bits of revelation in our life, the little twinklings of understanding, that put into greater focus our identity, our purpose, and our daily mission. If we aren't curious about ourselves, others, and world around, then we are either monumentally self-centered, confined by disabilities, or dead. Regardless of the stage of life we occupy, the level of education, the amount of money or lack there of, God has given each individual the inner drive to know and to seek truth through the lense of "the Divine". More than that, we are endowed with the discomfort to act and to do according to that which is lasting and pleasing to God.

In the pursuit of divine understanding, or as I like to say, little twinklings from God, most of us ask the same set of questions. Beginning with ourselves, we wonder about our place and purpose in our immediate world. With even the slightest self-reflections, most humans want to know how they can do and be better... to others and to God. If we look beyond our little miniature worlds, the concerns become more global: is our world improving or degrading, what is the role of humankind on earth, how does God interact and intervene in our human experience? Even as we ponder the almost unanswerable and ancient questions, we experience the discomfort, the pinch, of wanting to make a difference but having no earthly idea how!

As a Christian, United Methodist pastor, mother, and flawed individual I ponder these questions and more. Due to my impending middle age, perhaps, I look for answers, signs of God's work, important shifts in my environment and world, and reasons to be optomistic with more urgency. Why all of this ruminating, you wonder? Well, I'm a perpetual over-thinker! Beyond that obvious character trait, I seek to know my place in this world. And in understanding myself, I want to feel as if I can act, speak, and strive for better things without reserve. For the world would have us conform to its fleeting standards, and we could try that route. It takes an awful lot of social media to keep up with those standards, however, because most secular ideas are just that, someone's idea. An idea is fleeting, but a kernal of truth is forever. It is from the bits and pieces of life, the kernals of truth, the tiny and huge epiphanies which God makes available to all who seek Him, that we find our starting points. My hope is to become more sensitive to God's "twinklings" around me, to his quiet and powerful work, to understand myself and evolve, and to love others with clearer insight and patience, and to be willing (i f necessary) to sacrifice myself and the good opinion of others in pursuit of God's will.