And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
2 Corinthians 3:18 NIV
Contemplate, here, is translated from the Greek, katoptrizō, which can also mean, to reflect, or to behold in a mirror.
To borrow from the words of author, Alan Fadling…
Contemplation is not just some meditative practice. It is personal communion with God.
Contemplation is a way of living and working in his presence.
A contemplative life is an attentive life in a distracted world. It is a listening life in a wordy world. It is an abiding life in a detached world. It is an unhurried life in a frenetic world.
An Unhurried Leader: The Lasting Fruit of Daily Influence, Alan Fadling (p.166)
Fadling adds,
True contemplatives are vibrantly active in the work of the One they contemplate.
Ibid, 147.
Eugene Peterson expounds further:
The contemplative life generates and releases an enormous amount of energy into the world – the enlivening energy of God’s grace rather than the enervating frenzy of our pride.
Under the Unpredictable Plant: An Exploration in Vocational Holiness, Eugene Peterson (p.115)
Hence perhaps some explanation as to why I’ve chosen to title this blog, A Contemplative Life. While my life is often distracted and wordy, and sometimes detached and frenetic, this dynamic collection of ponderings, teachings, and reflections found on this site captures but some of the ways I have sought to live as a contemplative in action, while leading others to do the same – ultimately for the purpose of reflecting the One whom we are created and called, by His Gospel, to contemplate.
Drop me a line
contact@example.com
Let’s hang out
A Contemplative Life 