11/3/11 Sanctification, Lord. A big word. We really don't use it anymore. Takes too long to say and I usually have to say it a couple times to get it right.

Being holy. It's not an event or having arrived. It's not something I do and a result. It's not being perfect. It's a process, isn't it? A journey. A becoming. Being perfected.

For me, there's no end to that. At least, not until I meet Jesus. But that's okay.

So, Lord, when does it start? When is it that a person begins the sanctification process, the journey to become what You always intended them to be. Is the answer in all of the prescribed ways of salvation that we have determined for ourselves in our very divided myriad of theological understandings? Who says when that moment occurs for another, the journey back to the One from Whom all were created?

You do, Lord.

The moment, the instant, a person turns her eyes to You and acknowledges You as God is the moment sanctification begins. Do You, the Unknowable Who knows all, not acknowledge when one of Yours turns or returns his attention, to You, even in the smallest way? I hear a "yes," deep within my soul.

Sanctification starts with a knowing in the soul depths that there is something, truly Someone, greater than me. It is there that it all begins. In the depths. In the soul.

This is my prayer to You, today, O Lord, that You would please acknowledge the slightest turning of the eyes, those spiritual eyes You have given each us, in the poor and homeless. Help them to see You when the darkness is so great clarity of sight is nearly impossible.

Help me, Lord, to see through my own darkness, today, to recognize when those whom You send to RCM make even the slightest turn to call on You, Lord.

I love the Lord, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy. Psa. 116:1, NIV