“We push part [purposed limits] to find what we’re craving, but God can develop in us a much smaller push for more significant things, a push that starts with our eyes. Watchfulness. It enables us to enter His story. . . . Watchfulness — on the back end of the cycle of loss, grief, and surrender . . . can be full of wonder. Watchfulness can make us children again, finding the treasure of home.”- Sara Hagerty
“The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.”- Ephesians 1:18 (NKJV)
As Sara Hagerty moves on in Chapter 7 of The Gift of Limitations, she notes the different weight carried by the words watchful and vigilant. Most of us, Sara acknowledges, master vigilance accidentally.
Because most of us resent our limitations, we dread the potential for more. Yet, Sara observes, dread doesn’t serve as a placeholder for believers. Nor is it something we should live with. For dread occupies the same place where God intends our God-given imagination (understanding, Ephesians 1:18) to reside.
Therefore, dread functions as the killjoy of our imagination. Dread, the darkened version of imagination, replaces it in our minds and hearts. Furthermore, vigilance carries dread through our minds and deep into our hearts.
But watchfulness means simply to see. To see:
- with curiosity.
- with the trust of a child watching a show and imagining a good ending.
- what we don’t know but our hearts crave.
- with eyes wide open to God, all around, always working.
Consequently, Sara exhorts:
“God wants us to imagine a life where His power is potent, where we see Him in the sky fire and our hearts are awakened, where relationships don’t just die in bitterness. . . . Yes, even in our suffering sorrowful times, He wants us to imagine a life where we feel entrusted to Him in our darkest hours. (This last one, alone, is a minor miracle). And this godly imagination comes as we exchange our plans and dreams for His.”
Today’s question: How do you distinguish between watchful and vigilant? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “An undercurrent of peace”
