There is the continual ephemeral feeling of expectant joy today interspersed with a tinge of irresistible freedom from the bondage of gravity in fluctuating, ever-so-slight revelations. Gone is the need to search for the next crumb of sustenance. In its void lies the reminder of why we pull back from the table of consumption to remind ourselves that we need to orchestrate, at various times, the opportunity to become more dependent upon God than of our own accord. Along with this self-prescribed extraction comes the increased awareness and perceptibility of knowing that He’s with us – through the physical submissiveness, we are made to stand upon the precipice of the precariousness of survivability.
The invisible nature of God becomes less translucent. His transcendency opines upon our character into the most intimate levels of consciousness, allowing for his breath to fog the glass before us. With trembling forefinger, we etch out the question we seek in that foggy mist that obscures our own image until the track of our written message reveals us once more through the picket fence letters of our message. “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”[1]
Self-deprived abstinence doesn’t make one’s salvation any more than a man rowing a boat upon the ocean makes him a champion sailor – it merely brings him closer to the shore, as one might become closer to the presence of God in their deprivation.
The confines of our heart are often self-inflicted implications of our human nature. Layer upon layer builds through life’s journey, burying the soul within the ramparts of flesh, both lustily and bodily, becoming entwined into the capital vices of sin. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?”[2]
Breaking free of that yoke, even if for a short time, allows one to see beyond the restricted walls of the everyday encumbrances of life. Allowing one’s head to rise above the din of mortal reprehensiveness pushes our being into a closer relationship with the Almighty. Forgoing the needs of our body, we take one step closer to finding that of the glorified state, if nothing less than a glimpse. As one considers themselves returning from a life-changing adventure, where their ascent to the tops of the world can never be replicated, they too find themselves forever changed. It is here, in this remnant of coexistence with the Father, that we, too, as Moses returning from the mountain, can glow with God’s nearness to our heart.
[1] 1 Corinthians 13:12 KJV Bible
[2] Isaiah 58: 5 KJV Bible
