Within

“What is Above is Within … the Circumference is Winthin, Without is formed the Selfish Center, and the Circumference still expands going forward to Eternity.”
William Blake

“If I discover within myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world”
C.S. Lewis

“When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you.”
African Proverb

(the crowing tiny center of yellow, flowers within a flower, of a zinnia / Julie Cook / 2015)

What is your mettle. . .the stuff of which you are made?
What lies within your thoughts, your heart, your soul?
Are you afraid of what others may find,
or perhaps more afraid of what you yourself may find?

Is there beauty within?
Fruits and peace of a kind and gentle spirit?
Or perhaps dark secrets, chaining you to a dark past, when only a clear future is all that should lie ahead. . .

Is there serenity settled safely within,
of which you may in turn offer to those who surround you in need?
Is there a centering anchor which holds you fast during the raging storms,
affording you the opportunity of reaching out with both hands to those caught in the seething maelstrom?

Recall, remember and claim each and every day that which lies within. . .
that which lies deep past the silly worries and hurts. . .
past the petty harborings of slights and slurs. . .

For deep within, in the very center of self, lies a tiny light Divine
Inviting,
Welcoming,
Warming
Hopeful
and always
Comforting. . .

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19