Today I'm going back to "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."  I want to get better acquainted w/ Flannery O'Connor and her context, and then to read Regis Martin's work about her.

It suddenly occurred to me how much I need to take stock of the fact that these people whom I feel are worth reading lived on this same earth that I do now.  I don't really believe that is altogether true.  The world today feels like such a different time and space than even what it was when I was growing up that I couldn't feel more alien than if this were a different planet, an alternate earth.  I live with that view daily, so prominent in my mind, that I tend to forget the rest of the truth: although things are changing, this is still the same earth, this is still the on-going story of human-kind, God is still present, and His Story of redemption is still unfolding.

I think of the hymn "God Is Working His Purpose Out"

God is working His purpose out

As year succeeds to year;

God is working his purpose out,

And the time is drawing near;

Nearer and nearer draws the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

From utmost east to utmost west,

Where’er man’s foot hath trod,

By the mouth of many messengers

Goes forth the voice of God:

“Give ear to Me, ye continents,

Ye isles, give ear to Me,”

That the earth may be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

What can we do to work God’s work,

To prosper and increase

The brotherhood of all mankind,

The reign of the Prince of Peace?

What can we do to hasten the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

March we forth in the strength of God,

With the banner of Christ unfurled,

That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth

May shine throughout the world;

Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin

To set their captives free,

That the earth may be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

All we can do is nothing worth

Unless God blesses the deed;

Vainly we hope for the harvest-tide

Till God gives life to the seed;

Yet near and nearer draws the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

This hymn is so grand and focuses on the sovereignty of God, and while it is all true, I need to focus on how this same great God who has worked in the past is yet working today, and sometimes in very small (seemingly insignificant) and subtle ways, more to the point: through individuals and the circumstances of their ordinary lives.