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He said: The love of God is not His pining for your happiness…it’s His resolving the sin problem.

There’s been some debate among people recently on how successful long-distance relationships can be.

Some tend to argue that they are doomed to fail and there’s no point of entering into them. Others are quite optimistic…granted, these are usually the people that are currently in them. I’m hardly one to make blanket statements about topics that clearly have evidence of success in them, but I would have to agree that the long-distance relationship presents some unique challenges. It doesn’t mean they’re impossible, though. I just think there are things to be wary of upon entering into said relationship.

Here’s my list of things to consider/be cautious of when you find yourself either entertaining the idea of jumping into this relationship or already in the midst of one:

• Idealization: Because you’re not really spending as much time with the person as you might be if you lived in the same place, it’s easy to place a lot of things upon them and it’s easy to forget a lot of things about them. For example…he may be really messy, but because you never have to see his house or his room, you forget this tiny detail that actually drives you crazy. In your head you’ve decided that he’s probably cleaner than you think and you must have imagined the messiness….and since you’re not really around the messiness much, you truly believe this. Or, maybe he has certain habits that annoy you, but over video chat you can’t really tell that he’s a slob while he eats. And yes, both these examples are superficial and things that don’t really matter, but they are little things that can easily worm their way into many an argument. It isn’t always superficial, though. Sometimes the way they talk about things isn’t a true representation of how they actually are…and so while you’re only getting to hear them talk, you aren’t getting to really see or experience the way they are truly living….which leads us to my next point. 

• Other Relationships: I think it’s pretty crucial to see how your significant other interacts with other people on a normal basis. When you’re only in town for a weekend and meeting his family and friends for a hot second, you miss out a lot on normal daily interactions…which are actually quite telling of someone’s character. You learn a lot about how he thinks of others through the way that he treats others, whether they are strangers in a restaurant or some of his best friends. Getting to witness this is important…and so even if you’re in a long distance relationship, it can be tempting to only spend time with each other when you finally get to be with each other! Do try and make it a priority to spend time with each other’s friends and families as much as possible. 

• Physical Boundaries: In those limited moments together, it’s easy to want to spend as much time together being physically intimate. Unfortunately, this can get out of hand a little too quickly…especially the more your rationalize and justify. Can’t you just hear yourself saying, ‘But I won’t get to kiss him for another month, so I better get as much kissing in while I can…’? And while kissing isn’t inherently bad, if you spend your entire weekend together only kissing… I’ll probably argue that it is bad and certainly not conducive to establishing any real intimacy between the two of you. Long distance typically leads us to making exceptions for things where we normally might not, and it’s easy to convince ourselves to be spontaneous and seize the moments while we can. It doesn’t mean you should, though. If you’re in a long distance relationship, I hope that you’ve developed some good boundaries for yourselves and that you’re finding ways to adhere to them. Well, let’s be honest…this applies to all relationships. 

• Sacrifices: All relationships require sacrifice. Long distance just seems to require more. Being glued to the phone, or the computer screen, for hours at a time, giving up more sleep than you might normally because it’s the only time in the day you two can connect, spending money to see each other (whether that’s on gas or flights). It costs you something. If you want to make a long distance relationship work, you have to be willing to sacrifice more than you might in a closer-to-home-relationship. The good news is that it doesn’t always feel like sacrifice…but the bad news is that it sometimes does. As with any relationship, there needs to be compromise and a willingness to consider the other person above yourself. Be willing to look at things from their perspective and understand, that with the distance, that communication may be harder and you may read into things more than you should…and so open, honest conversations are absolutely vital. 

• Communication: One advantage I’ve found in long-distance relationships is how communication can flourish. Instead of watching tv together every night, you’re more apt to talk about your lives and get a greater understanding of who the other person is/wants to be. You get to dive deeper into the heart and take time to really hear about each other’s days. You get to become each other’s best friends….you even get to learn to enjoy the silence beyond the awkwardness of it. But… this can also fade. Conversations can be scaled to sweet nothings and soft mutters and intentionality can be lost. Seek to maintain depth in your conversations, to truly care about the other person on the end of the line and how they are really doing. Look for ways to challenge them, inspire them, encourage them, listen to them…remember the things that they say, remember the things that they are doing in their lives and ask them about it. This will be one of the primary ways you care for your significant other and it can be such a beautiful thing! 

Take heart, friends. If you’re currently in a long-distance relationship… you aren’t doomed. There’s hope for you (even if it sucks sometimes…). Just proceed with caution!

When you’ve lived at a camp in the middle of nowhere for 6+ years, 70 miles from the nearest Wal-Mart, without cell phone service… adjusting to the ‘real world’ can be quite the process. Shoot, even if you’ve lived in a camp setting for an intense summer of ministry, adjusting back to the ‘real world’ can also be quite the ordeal.

Here are just a few things I’ve noticed/forgotten:

• I can actually run into a grocery store to get a few items without having to plan for my entire week of groceries…and it can actually take just five minutes. Who knew? 
• Traffic happens. Every day. 
• People can see in your windows at night and so it’s necessary to shut your blinds. 
• Friendships/relationships take time to develop. 

The comment:

So, my husband and at one time boyfriend has had a pretty hard past struggling with women sexually/emotionally. He describes his past with them as a “struggle”. When we were dating I idealized who this man was… Sure he might have “struggled” with women, but he LOVES The Lord and seeing him today there is no way he could still struggle with them- and especially not with me, bc what we have is true love. These were my thoughts… My “truths” about him. Through dating and breaking up and dating and breaking up and dating and eventually getting married HIS PAST is what we struggled with. And in between each “break up” he struggled STILL with women. And after each break up it felt like hell trying to recover what trust had been lost while we were broken up. I have never dated anyone but him. And he has slept with/messed around with X amount of women. This past, these women… I have sought out to forgive and hopefully forget. The hardest part is being married to this wonderful man but invisoning this innocent man in my eyes committing these acts with these women… Making him the farthest thing from innocent. I know I have forgiven his past. But I can’t stop having these envisions creep in whether it be while reading a book/ dreaming.. I know the devil is using these thoughts to build a barrier between us. I guess what I want to ask is what your thoughts are on forgiving a past so different from your own and is it possible to truly forgive but still remember the pain this has caused? And if so is that ok? Is it ok to bring it up with him even though it could strike up old memories and hurt? I have used his past against him previously, but since we have been married I have steared clear from it even talking about it… But it drives me crazy at times not knowing ALL of him. I hope this makes some sense..

Thanks for sharing.
This is hard. Really hard. My own experiences open me up to a small portion of what you might be going through, and while I wish there was some easy solution to the visions and the thoughts vanishing completely from your mind… I’m not sure there is one. Unfortunately, I believe this may be something that you’ll have to battle a lot. I don’t think it means you haven’t forgiven, though…

Here are my initial thoughts:
When I look at love in 1 Corinthians 13, there’s that really great clause that we like to overlook that basically tells us that love keeps no record of wrongs. That love isn’t resentful. Love isn’t holding something over someone’s head…and this can be done whether we are talking to them about it or not. I feel like I’ve had relationships absolutely fail because I could never really get over the ‘wrongs’ that had been done. While I might not be mentioning them all the time, I was still living and acting in accordance to the wrongs done… which essentially meant that I wasn’t fully trusting, and I wasn’t giving him the chance to truly be different and live in the fullness of grace.

I think there’s probably a lot that you need to process through on your own, but I’m not sure if they need to include him. I think, especially considering the dreams and visions that seem to come at random times, that it would be wise for you to seek professional help. That there’s something valuable to having someone to sit, listen and take an unbiased stance in your life as you sort through the hurts that you’ve experienced (and still are experiencing) because of your husband’s sin.

At some point they may advise you to bring your husband into these conversations, but, at least initially, it seems like it may be more harmful than good for the two of you have to have them. Maybe an initial conversation where you let him know that you need healing and you’re going to seek out help as long as he’s okay with it…and hopefully he will be more than happy for you to get help from an outside place. Be fully honest with him, but not in a way that casts blame on him…not in a way that makes him feel guilty for his past (especially if he is walking in freedom from that now).

I don’t think you don’t need to know all of his junk, all of the specifics of his past… and it’s probably better for you to not know all of it. Let him invite you into those areas of his life as he is ready and willing, and as he sees necessary. I think a lot of times we are just driven by fear of the unknown and so we want to know everything…but sometimes it’s better for us to live in the unknown. Sometimes I think we think it’s better to know all the details…but depending on the details, the harsher realities of what actually happened can be more detrimental than the possibilities of what happened. Knowing the fullness of what happened doesn’t always help us sleep better at night…

Bottom line: talk to your husband about getting professional help from a counselor. I think this will be the initial step to take in moving toward full healing for yourself. Sometimes it’s easy to believe that since it’s not ‘your’ sin that it doesn’t affect you… but it does. It has to. You’ve been made one. His sin affects yours as yours does him. There can be healing for you, in a way that will allow your relationship to flourish (hopefully in ways you never before dreamed!). The more you hang on, the more you allow these visions and dreams to be all-consuming in your mind, the more likely it is that you will explode one day without him ever even knowing what hit him.

Be willing to take the hard steps toward healing. I think you’ll find them to be worth it in the end. Pray about how to approach your husband gently in this, as well. Make sure you choose your words wisely, in a way that ensures him of your love, of your concern, of your desire to look at him as only the man he has become/is becoming without letting the past cloud your vision of him.

He has been redeemed!
It’s the beauty of the Gospel that we not only get to embrace for ourselves but for those we love.

I’ve been reminded recently that girls are pretty crazy when it comes to love and romance.
Don’t believe me??

Even Sebastian knows what’s going on (while he simultaneously has no idea…).
I mean, we’ve all done it. And when the flowers weren’t accessible we would play the soda pop tab game. You know, the one where you push the tab back and forth to the letters of the alphabet just hoping that it’ll pop off on the letter of your crush’s name. I remember trying to manipulate the tab to come off at just the right time, as if, somehow, the tab held the secret powers of making my crush suddenly be interested in me. I think it worked…. never?

The funny thing about this is that while our insecurities take us back and forth emotionally before a relationship even begins… our over-analytical minds also tend to take us back and forth once we are finally in the relationship. The female mind seems to flourish in the world of being completely Unsettled.

It’s awful.
You feel crazy. In one moment you’re convinced he likes you, the next moment you’re convinced he doesn’t. In one moment you’re convinced you love him, and the next you’re wondering what in the world you saw in him in the first place. Something he does is infuriating and absolutely wrong and the next second you’re melting because of his smile or his eyes, or the way that he did something kind for you without you asking.

We’re hard to please.
And yet we demand that we be pleased, in our own way… the way that meets all of our expectations.

The reassuring thing, ladies, is that you’re not alone in this.
The not so reassuring thing is that it’s almost always irrational and ridiculous and we very easily are creatures driven by emotion, which often leads to us making poor decisions.

I can’t tell you the number of times, while crushing on someone when I wasn’t sure how they felt about me, that I became crazy and ended up doing or saying something I immediately regretted. I can’t tell you the number of times, while dating someone, that I wanted to break up with them for the most insignificant thing and then ten seconds later found myself so thankful that I was with them. I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve just felt plain crazy when it came to men.

Here are my thoughts though: pause…before you do anything or say anything at all.
Take it to the Lord. Be willing to consider if you are manipulating, controlling, being selfish, or simply not trusting the Lord with this area of your life. Be willing to take a moment to process whether or not this thing you are so worked up over matters (especially those of you in relationships who find yourselves becoming nagging, constantly annoyed women)… and be ready to hold your tongue.

I hate feeling crazy.
But, I must admit that sometimes I am.
I think the more I can acknowledge that sometimes I truly am a little crazy, the more I can recognize tendencies within myself to actually do the crazy things… and then stop them before they happen. I think ultimately my prayer has to be that the Lord would quiet my anxious heart, that He would teach me how to trust Him, that He would teach me how to be a woman who acts in sound, rational ways instead of flighty, irrational, emotional ones.

This always requires the pause.
Pause before doing.
Pause before saying.

Sometimes it’s even good to have a sounding board in trusted friendships/mentors that can remind you of your tendencies while you’re in the middle of a ‘crazy’ episode. Sometimes it’s good to even touch base with them before you end up doing something irrational or emotional and allow them to be your sounding board before you go spill your guts to your current romantic interest.

Be slow to speak, ladies.
I think we’ll all find ourselves a bit better off if we learn to live with more of a pause in our lives…if we learn how to truly take things to the Lord before letting our irrational, crazy sides consume us.

Or..
maybe that’s just me.

I had a conversation recently with a new friend about how easy it is to rationalize relationships.

As we shared past relationship stories, it was evident (in retrospect, of course) that we had convinced ourselves to remain in unhealthy or stagnant relationships for far too long. As I told random stories about things that had happened or things that I had done, there was always a feeling of embarrassment that lingered and the desire to hit myself in the head, ‘What was I thinking?!‘ Who stays in a relationship when this happens, or that happens?

We can talk all day long about the things we could have done differently, or the regrets that we have… but, it doesn’t really change what was. I think some of the best things we can do is learn from our mistakes in the past and be aware of the tendencies that we have to make similar ones in the future. Honestly, as much as I’ve done stupid things and not always been in the best relationships, I don’t regret them. I think there was much growth as I discovered tons about myself, myself in relationships and the Lord in regard to relationships.

But…
that doesn’t mean I want to do it all over again.

So- if you’re in the middle of a dating relationship and you’re wondering if and when it’s time to pull out, I’d encourage you to really check yourself to see if you’re rationalizing the relationship. This may actually require a third party (ideally someone whom you trust and respect and who will be honest with you…and not too biased).

Be aware of your tendencies to do the following:

• Be the hero. Often times we develop a hero complex and we want to ‘save’ those we are in a relationship with. This causes us to think that if we ever end the relationship, the other person will immediately start going down the ‘wrong’ path. It’s in this moment that you must recognize that you are not the savior, you can’t fix them, it’s not your responsibility. If they’re only on the ‘right’ path because of you, that’s something to be aware of and it may behoove both of you to end the relationship (despite how it feels). 
• People-Pleaser. Sometimes it just sucks to hurt people’s feelings… especially if they haven’t done anything wrong and they’ve actually been a really great person to be in a relationship with. This doesn’t mean you should stay in the relationship, especially if you’re not feeling it and if you’re completely checked out. This is hard because you don’t feel like you have any real reason to not want to be with them and so you try to convince yourself of the million reasons why you should stay. I’ve kind of decided that if I have to convince myself to want to date someone, I shouldn’t be dating them. 
• Be the victim. It’s easy to think that we don’t deserve anything, and so we allow ourselves to exist in relationships where we are treated like crap. It’s okay though, because at least someone wants to be with us, right? Wrong. If you’re in a relationship that is harmful for you (physically, verbally, emotionally, etc.) you need to get out. This isn’t your last shot with someone, and the sooner you get out, the better. I firmly believe that the Lord longs for good in this area of our lives…someone who will cherish you, honor you, love you, and gently remind you of Him in all ways (even in the ways that you feel foolish admitting that you need). 

The comment:

What do you do when you have been hurt by someone, say you have told God in your heart that you forgive this person and have said the same to the person. I thought I had forgiven, but then thought it was important to pray for the person as God asks us to pray for those who have wronged us. The problem is that as much as I want to pray for this person as its the right Christian thing to do, I can’t very easily bring myself to do it. Mainly for the simple fact that this is the person who hurt me and a part of me doesn’t want to see anything wonderful happen to this person while I’m still sulking in my pain. I feel bad because part of me feels like I won’t be able to say I’ve fully forgiven until I can honestly wish and pray great things for this person. Am I the only one who struggles with this? I still care but am still very much hurting.

I hear you.
I’ve been here. Sometimes I still feel like I’m here. Hurt and wanting justice for the wrongs done to me. And, even if I’m not wanting bad stuff to happen to those who have hurt me, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I want good for them. In these moments I feel like I haven’t really forgiven them at all…

I kind of think it’s bogus though. As much as I’d love for us to forgive once and have that be the end of the story, I think it’s going to be something that we have to fight for. Sometimes the fight is daily, depending on the crime. Just because we don’t always feel like we want lollipops and sunshine for those who have hurt us, it doesn’t mean that we haven’t forgiven them.

I’m not convinced forgiveness is a feeling, despite what the dictionary says.  In fact, I think this is something the enemy can jack with us about. We get all emotional and feel okay with someone in a moment and so we think we’ve truly forgiven them. A few days (or seconds or hours) later we are reminded of something and suddenly we’re ticked again… there goes the forgiveness we thought we had granted. We begin to beat ourselves up over the fact that we haven’t forgiven them at all and then we exist in guilt and shame for our inability to forgive like Christ forgives us.

I kind of think that a large part of why we are asked to pray for those who have hurt us or wronged us is for transformation to happen in our own heart. That when we are willing to sit down and spend time surrendering this bitterness in our hearts, light begins to infiltrate the darkness within us. That when we take time to consider the state of where the other person is or where they have come from, understanding begins to unfold. And while we still may be extremely hurt by their actions, we may be able to empathize with them when we remember that they are human, too. That, like us, they are sinners. We remember that the same grace that has been extended to us has also been given to them.

I guess all I’m trying to say is that most of the time we’re probably not going to have these awesome feelings about the people who have hurt us. This is where, regardless of how we feel, we have to be people who walk in obedience. Forgiving. Praying for your ‘enemies’. And, in these moments, I truly think transformation happens. Because when we are willing to pray for them, we’re essentially inviting the Lord to move in this broken part of our hearts. Restoration is easier to come by when we are open to allowing it to happen.

Regardless of how you feel toward the people that have hurt you, I think it’s vital to make it a point to pray for them. And don’t be afraid to be honest when you pray. I think the Lord can handle it. I imagine some of my prayers have been pretty brutal: ‘Father, I don’t even care about this person right now and I don’t want good for them… but you’ve asked me to pray for them and so I will. I don’t even know what to pray for…‘ and eventually, the words come and true meaning comes from them. I find myself praying that they would know Him, truly know Him. That they would be walking faithfully in that. It’s not even that I’m praying that they would get everything their heart desires…but I’m praying that they, too, would have a heart that longs to know Jesus and be obedient to Him, that they would truly learn to live a life of surrender. In the end, it’s not too different from prayers I pray for myself. And you just do it. Even when you don’t want it. Even when you aren’t feeling all chummy toward them. Don’t allow yourself to get lost in the emotions of what you think forgiveness should feel like. Just do it.

Because, at the end of the day, they matter.
Whatever wrongs they’ve committed against you, they aren’t big enough for you condemn their soul to hell when you, yourself, are also a sinner, a thief, a betrayer, an abandoner, an adulterer, a idolator, a pharisee, a liar…

Forgive as you have been forgiven.
There’s no other alternative.
And then, as you forgive… rejoice!…for you are truly exemplifying the Gospel, and that is the most beautiful, the most important thing.

I sometimes feel foolish when I tell people that I want to write. 

The comment:

What do you do when your spiritual world comes crashing down on you, and you’re not even sure all the things you’ve believed about God are even true. Everyone else carries on like everything’s normal and nothing’s happening (cause it’s not for them). It’s awkward to talk about it. You don’t feel like people will understand. You sometimes get silly, cliche answers that don’t help at all. The answers you at one time might have given. But this is something so much deeper. 

Can we just acknowledge that sometimes things do come crashing down around us spiritually and we feel lost, and thats.. maybe even OKAY. Not to sin. Not to turn from God. But it’s okay to be real about where you’re at and it’s ok to be there, and to wrestle, and to not settle for easy answers. It’s okay to be an “bad” or “weak” Christian, if that is what we are.

Yes.
I think we can acknowledge that. Mostly I think we just need to strip away any adjectives that we tend to place in front of Christianity that make us feel like we’re on a higher or lower playing field with other believers and the Lord…but that’s kind of a tangent I’ll avoid going on for now.

You’re right. It is a little awkward to tell other people that you’re struggling with fully believing…because, there’s not a whole lot they can say to help. It’s easy to rattle off a lot of verses and wonderful cliches that we keep stored on the tip of our tongues, but when we’re in the midst of questioning those very things it doesn’t seem realistic that they would be the things to draw us back into  fully believing.

I think one of the best things someone told me when I was doubting was that it was okay. They didn’t try to ‘sway’ me back to believing, or tell me things I already knew (which is often another annoying part about telling people things like this)… but they actually pushed me to look at others who have doubted before me. They pushed me back toward Scripture. They reminded me that I was not the first to ever doubt God’s existence, His plan, His goodness, His love, His faithfulness, His ability to save, heal and redeem. I was not the ‘worst’ Christian around. There was hope in that for me…because beyond wrestling through these hard issues, I didn’t feel as alone in it.

If you’ve read much of my blog, you know I’m a doubter…so your comments resonate a lot with me and my own experiences. There is a distance that’s often created between ourselves and the Lord (and then naturally other believers), as we process through these things to try and figure out what we believe. In the midst of feeling like a foreigner to the cliches and the truths that flow from their mouths, it’s easy to feel misunderstood and then immediately not cared about. I don’t think we can blame them though.

I think one of the best things we can do in these moments of doubt, in these moments of wrestling, in these moments where we feel a bit lost…. is to press further in. What does that mean? I think that obedience is really key here…and I think pressing further into what He has commanded of us becomes the thing that carries us. And sometimes when we don’t feel like we can love God, we desperately seek to love others (and through our love for others, we are actually loving God…it’s a viscous cycle). We do things that take us outside of ourselves and our over-analytical brains and in the moments when we are serving others, when we are considering them better than ourselves, when we are not so focused on trying to figure out what we believe…I think those are the moments when God reveals Himself to us.

It’s a shifting of focus off of ourselves, and diving straight to the heart of the Gospel. I think when we do that, it makes sense… and the fullness of what we say we believe, what we want to believe…it becomes what we actually believe.

I realize I’m a little all over the place…
But, I give it a resounding yes– it’s okay to admit where we truly are at, even if that means we are doubting, feeling lost, or feeling like our whole spiritual world is crashing down around us. But no– it’s not okay to dwell there and let it become something that’s defining. And it’s not okay for us to avoid talking to people about where we’re at just because it’s awkward or uncomfortable or we’re scared they won’t understand us. You might be surprised.

I guess for me, at the end of the day, the most reassuring thing is that God is faithful. Even in the most intense times of doubt and denial, He has continually beckoned me back. And, as cliche as it sounds…it’s also true.

You’re not alone in this.
Press further in. There is something so much deeper.
Seek to find it…and don’t settle until you do.

Sometimes I don’t know how to plunge into The Deeper.

I feel like I’m often tinkering around on the edge of the pool of life, dipping my toe in every so often…delighted by the sensation of how the water affects parts of me, but unable to grasp the fullness of what it would (or could) look like and feel like to take the plunge.

It’s not that I don’t want to.
It’s just that I don’t know how.

It’s like I’m aware that a deeper exists, I just don’t know how to get there. And, if we’re being honest, there are probably times when I’m quite content on the outskirts of the pool because I’m not fully sure of what the plunge might require of me.

Too often I’m scared of the unknown, especially within the spiritual realm.
It’s easy to love the God that I’ve grown up ‘knowing’, but what happens when He does things outside of what I’m used to? What happens when His moving in others looks radically different than what I’ve ever witnessed before?

It’s easy for me to snap to quick judgements and defy that it could ever be God doing those things, moving those people in those ways… but what if my comfort level didn’t dictate what God can and can’t do? What if I allowed God to be bigger than what I’ve always known? What if I embraced the fullness of who He is? And what if that looks different than what I’m always comfortable with?

I want to go beyond what I know and step into what is true, even if it means stretching the box that I’ve put God into. I think I have to. Because as much as I’m content dabbling around the pool and sticking my toe in when I feel ‘ready’, I think there’s something greater to dive into. Something more powerful, more mysterious, more unexplainable….and while that’s terrifying, I’m convinced it must be better.

I guess I hope that in addition to all the newness in my physical life, that there would be newness in my spiritual life. That my heart would be open to God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit moving in ways that are true and good. That may look different from what I’ve known, but I pray that I would be stepping into a fuller, deeper view of who God really is and what He is calling me to. I realize I may be in a perfect place for that as I’m entering into a season of learning and meeting tons of people from tons of backgrounds.

I hope you’ll pray for an open-mindedness with me. I hope you’ll seek out truth for yourself, that you would long to take a plunge into The Deeper…even if you’re not entirely sure how or what that even means. May we be a people who continually long to know our Savior more intimately, despite how uncomfortable it may make us at times. May we be a people who long for others to know the fullness of who He is and what He has done for us.

I don’t exactly know how to get into The Deeper, and I’m not actually convinced that I can get there on my own…but my plea is that I’d be open to knowing Jesus and everything that entails. I’m trusting that He’ll take me there when it’s time.

A journey.
More learning and growing…
It is good.
It is necessary, no matter how painful and uncomfortable it may be.

May we catch more glimpses of the Lord’s glory here on earth as we willingly open ourselves to The Deeper.