The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,

Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit

Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,

Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

the rubaiyat - omar khayyam - 11th century

It has been a few weeks since I last blogged and in that time I have finished university for the year and read God is closer than you think. I have also found this really great website called ‘World Prayers’. It has a selection of different prayers and quotes and stuff from lots of different spiritual people. I really enjoy having a random ‘spin the wheel’ moment and seeing what I can learn. Have a look if you’ve got the time.

But anyway, thought I’d blog about the book. I know many people have read it so I hope I make sense. There’s lots of it that I really liked, mostly I appreciated how John Ortberg wrote in a really down to earth maaner. He actually gives instructions!! I struggle to read spiritual books because I feel like they say good spiritual stuff that means nothing to how I am supposed to live. But he actually suggests things to do rather than offering deep existential opinions!

Anyway, back to the point. In part of the book he’s talking about Job and about how God’s response to Job shows God’s extravagantly good nature. He quotes this:

And when I begin to think about God’s wild extravagance, his wastefulness, his passion for the unnecessary and the excessive and the completely useless, I am struck by a thought so wonderfully freeing I can do nothing but laugh. What if this extravagance extends to me? I am not a soldier for God, or a valued servant in the kingdom. I am a jester! I am the celestial equivalent of a peacock- a tiara- a doll. We are not made to serve God, we are made to charm him.

Now, I don’t exactly agree with how everything in that statement is worded- I want people to know that they are valued and that they can serve God but I really like the idea that I am God’s extravagance. I am the pizzazz. I am the thing that he so wanted even though he didn’t need it. Have you ever gone shopping and seen the perfect thing- for analogies sake say, a bag- and wanted it so much that you calculate in your head what other stuff you could give up just to have that bag? Not because you really need it but because you really want it and it will make you happy. Well, God did that for me. And he ended up giving up something really important because he wanted me that much. I don’t need to strain and force myself into ‘religious’ boxes, fill some quota of perfection and purge myself of all happiness and desire in order to make God smile. He smiles and laughs at me in love all the time. Because he made me so that he could. How freeing is that?!