Glory?

What does the word glory mean?

I've never understood that word. I've been thinking about that word since my twenties. It irks me when I can't understand something. It's one of those words that I looked up. I read the definition many times and I'd seem to comprehend the words in the definition and then walk away still not knowing what it means.

When that happens, I basically ignore the word until the next time it shows up in a teaching or a friend brings it up in a conversation or an author talks about it in book.

But last Sunday, something happened. My pastor was teaching about prayer. And as a part of that he talked about the fact that most people find prayer frustrating and dissatisfying. Then he gave ways that we could enter into a conversations with God with different motivations. As a part of that conversation the word glory came up.

I started to wonder if I went back and reread all the places where the word glory and appears in reference to God could I substitute the words I Am or God's I AMness. Oh man, when that thought hit, it was an epiphany.

We live for the glory of God. We live for His I AMness. We lay down our lives for the glory of God. We lay down our lives for His I AMness. His glory is revealed in creation. His I AMness is evident all over the place.

Here is where I think I got twisted up before this moment. We people are glorified it's often a very ego puffing up and ugly thing. I couldn't connect the dots to God on that. So I didn't know how else to think about it. I've had people come to me basically saying the same thing and saying they weren't all on board with making God look good just for the sake of that. Which is very honest human reaction. I didn't really know how to help them. I think my pretty lame response has been that it says that's how we are supposed to live and think so I'm trying to go with that even though I don't really get it.

But boy, I think I get this now. I can be about living for His I AMness, His essence. He is trustworthy with that. He's not going to respond to that the way a human responds to be praised.

So I raise a glass to yet another mystery that is unfolding! Cheers! May the light bulb moments just keep coming. Thanks be to God.