Determination

The goodness of earth and sky and sea

When you rise and pray this way, you’re separating yourself from the pessimism and crankiness that can easily poison your heart. You’ve served notice that, while there are plenty of real problems in our world—some you’ll face even today—you’re determined to rise above the hand-ringing and finger-pointing and name-calling that are so toxic.

That determination means you’ll live a life uncommon.

But it’s you who’ve chosen to work with the grain of the universe, rather than against it. God pronounced the world good, and goodness is the essential nature of things. If you see things any other way you’ll sin against the Sacred and most likely end up with a handful of splinters.

Instead, pick up a ripe midsummer peach. Toss yourself into a pile of autumn leaves. Saunter in the snow. Dance in the rain. Caress a baby’s face. Cradle an old person’s hand. Savor a glass of wine or a fine green tea. Watch the waves crash against the shore. Count the stars. Bend down and pick up a handful of this good earth. Smell the musty aroma of life.

True, the earth can reel and rock. The sea can rise against us in terrifying power. The sky can send a gale to rip and tear at all we hold dear. But pound for pound, goodness far outweighs the bad.

So arise and welcome the zillion tons of goodness beneath you, the infinite benevolence above you, the unbounded charity all around you. And smile. All is good.

But if for some reason things aren’t so good for you right now, if pain and darkness and fear crowd in against you, things shall be good again.

God says so.

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Perceive

The goodness of earth and sky and sea I was once meditating on the first chapter of Genesis, those opening verses of the Bible that survey the splendor of creation. These verses are not science in the Modern sense of the word. Rather, they’re a witness to the most sublime science: the science of prayer. They’re an invitation to curve the heart outward, opening to the Beloved in gratitude, awe, and surrender. They’re a hymn of praise to the goodness of earth and sky and sea, and all that is in them.

At the end of this grand hymn stand the words, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good” (Genesis 1.31). I read them and immediately there arose within me another voice, nearly shouting: “But you say, it’s never good enough!”

“Never good enough.” That’s how I lived my life. I’d grown up believing that everything could stand at least a little improvement. And that belief, that view of the world, fed the restless life I was living.

But God called the world and everything in it good.

So who am I to contradict God’s own verdict?

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Goodness

The goodness of earth and sky and sea The way you perceive the world affects the way you live within it. Many people see the world as a dangerous, bad, even evil place. They live with fear and carry hostility and suspicion with them wherever they go.

If you see the world as a dangerous place, a dangerous place it will be. Life will be a struggle, and from the moment you rise each day you’ll find yourself pitched into a battle. The struggle might energize you. You might find pleasure in the competition, the fight, the need to win, to be right or better or wealthier than others. There’s no question that such a view of the world motivates. But there’s also plenty of evidence that viewing the world as dangerous, bad, or evil takes a toll on you—on your relationships, your body, your spirit. Such a view feeds the wars, economic woes, and the environmental troubles we’re facing on this planet.

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Welcome

I welcome to my life When you rise and welcome the day, entering it with intention and prayer, you’re not calling the day to yourself. You have no power to do that. Instead, you’re bringing yourself to the day. You’re praying for power to enter the coming day alert and alive and active—not passive, dull, unconscious.

When you whisper the words, “I welcome to my life,” you’re bending your life open again. Yesterday you did things, said things, heard things, and saw things that frightened or angered, excited or enticed you. To some degree, you went to bed worried or wounded, upset or obsessed. And today you awakened lost in your own little world, absorbed in yourself—curved in upon yourself.

But when you welcome the day, you reverse the curvature of sin. You bend yourself out toward God again. There’s still plenty to worry about. The responsibilities you face are still waiting for you. Trouble or pain will pester you again. And it’s likely that you’ll forget God and get all curved in upon yourself. No worries. Just place yourself in this welcoming posture again. Open rather than closed. Your heart curved toward God, ready to receive.

There’s more goodness coming toward you than you have eyes to see.

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Arise

As I rise and embrace the gift of this new day The way you greet the day matters. Your first lucid moments set the course for what follows. Set that course with intention, through a simple prayer, and you’ll be okay. The prayer needn’t be long, but it ought to be clear. In fact, the simpler, briefer, and more focused it is, the better.

For much of your life you’ve let the day start you. Your alarm wakens you, and you stumble out of bed. You start the coffee or a shower. A steady stream of thoughts flows through your head. You fetch the newspaper, turn on music or the TV. Maybe you check your email or head off to the gym. The mental stream swells, and as it does, your body and spirit are pulled along with it. Tension and stress tug at your neck and shoulders, the thought-stream nags at you, demanding more from your body than your body wants to give. So you pump a little more caffeine into your veins or jot another note on your to-do list. These thoughts—largely unexamined—have yanked you into a river whose direction you control far less than you realize.

But if you rise and announce your intention to greet with gladness the day God’s given you—if you breathe from the deep center within you where Christ dwells, if you feel the firmness of the earth beneath you, if you open your arms in a gesture of welcome and arrest those thoughts for just a moment, if you say with purpose, “I rise and embrace the gift of this new day,” then you’ll have altered the course of your personal history, you’ll have announced your intention to go against the stream—or at least no longer to follow blindly when you choose for a time to follow where it leads.

So, rise and embrace the gift of this new day. Arouse your spirit. Embrace the day, and join up with God. The moment of your rising and what you do with it has the power to change everything.

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