St. Paul's Episcopal Church
  • About
  • Worship
  • Our Ministries
  • News
  • Stewardship
  • Resources
  • Preschool
  • About
  • Worship
  • Our Ministries
  • News
  • Stewardship
  • Resources
  • Preschool

News

Seeing Ourselves as God Sees Us

Seeing Ourselves as God Sees Us

As we prepare to enter the Season of Advent, leading us forward to the Feast of the Incarnation, God among us, I invite you to consider engaging with this reflection of James Finley. Jim is a teacher and therapist at the Center for Action and Contemplation.  https://cac.org/  He shares here his belief that we can only be truly free by healing our original wound—a loss of connection with divine love. Jim speaks here about the healing nature of seeing ourselves as God sees us. I have put in bold below what I believe is just a wonderful way for us to come before God and truly know God’s transformative love for us.

We can say that the deepest question of my life, really, is not what my father . . . or my mother thought of me, or what my husband or wife thinks of me, or what my pastor or my boss thinks of me. Really, the deepest issue isn’t what I think of me, but can I join God in knowing who God knows me to be? Can I join God in seeing who God sees me to be when God sees me? This is salvation.

In order to do this, I have to let go of my own present way of seeing things, and I discover I can’t. We’re afraid to lose the control that we think that we have over the life that we think that we’re living, and we’re addicted to what blinds us. . . . The mystery of the cross, then, is this mystery of just being liberated from this deep addiction to the illusion of an ultimately isolated self that has to make it on its own. To realize I’m in the presence of the love that loves us and takes us to itself. . . .

Jim envisions God saying to each of us, in the midst of our struggles:  

You know what? . . .  I’m in love with you. I’m so in love with you that I’m utterly giving myself away [to you] as invincibly precious in my eyes, in the midst of the unresolved matters of your heart. I find in these unresolved matters no obstacle to how infinitely precious you are to me as I pour out and give myself to you as life of my life. . . .

Jim concludes:

That’s faith in the higher power. But what if the brokenness has no authority at all over us? What if only love has the authority over us? That’s the essence of the gospel. The essence of the gospel is there. That’s why I say the miracle stories of Jesus, when you really look at the healing stories, they’re all the same, basically. A person brings suffering; Jesus listens to the suffering, responds to the suffering. But Jesus sees the essence of their suffering isn’t that their daughter died or they can’t see or they can’t walk, or they’re a prostitute or a tax collector. The issue of their suffering is they think they are what’s wrong with them. It’s the idolatry of their shame. Reflected in [Jesus’] eyes, they see their true face before they were born, hidden with Christ in God forever. That’s experiential salvation.

Fr. George

Tags: From the Clergy, Hope for the Journey

You might also like

  • Pastoral Response to Texas Elementary School Shooting - May 26, 2022
  • “Hope is a song in a weary throat.” - May 13, 2022
  • Hope for the Journey: Keeping the Feast - April 29, 2022
  • Hope for the Journey: Implications of Jesus on the Cross - April 14, 2022

Advent Adult Formation Series: Longing and Expectation in the Gospel of Luke

Give back this Thanksgiving with Rise Against Hunger

2022 Stewardship

Pledge Online

Direct Donation

Weekly Updates

➤ Rector’s Weekly Update
➤ This week’s prayer list

Worship Service

➤ Sign-Up for In-Person Worship
➤ Altar Flowers Donation

Photos

View parish photos on Smugmug.

Search Site

Recent Homilies

Seeking a Homeland

Seeking a Homeland

August 14, 2022
  • by Rev. Javier Almendárez-Bautista
On the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Fr. Javier reflects on the Letter to the He
I have had enough

I have had enough

August 7, 2022
  • by Rev. George Adamik
As Isaiah challenges the people of his time to a faith marked not just by worshi
Come Back to Me

Come Back to Me

July 24, 2022
  • by Rev. George Adamik
The prophet Hosea shows us how much God loves us.

Archived Homilies are here

Contact

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
221 Union St., Cary, NC 27511

Phone: 919-467-1477
Fax: 919-467-0152
Office Hours: M-F 9-3

Summer Worship Schedule

7:30 a.m. Sunday Service
9:00 a.m. Sunday Service
10:45 a.m. Sunday Service

View information about our services and COVID-19 guidelines.

Join us for our livestreamed service at 9:00 AM on Sundays on Facebook.

Site Map
Copyright © St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Cary, NC