I have a feeling something big is going on around us. I hear it all over the place, in casual conversations, through reading some of the best writing I’ve seen in a longtime, from people who have experienced fresh, life-changing illuminations, even in our secular world that continues to scoff at such experience.

When I gather with friends these days, those who are also growing older, the conversation, when honest, often shifts to what we are losing. We mention the loss of dear friends and loved ones who have passed away. We turn to the loss of strength and agility and energy. Sometimes we are left clinging to life-giving memories of different times, though this too is mixed with sadness that those times are gone forever. Sometimes we find ourselves having to work too hard to find joy.

My daily prayer app, Pray As You Go, began this morning’s meditation with the rousing opening from Handel’s 1741 oratorio The Messiah: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” Through the magnificent language of the King James translation, we listen to the stirring words of Isaiah 40:1-3:

I’ve been reflecting, actually for months now, on this amazing painting by Van Gogh, Self-Portrait With Straw Hat, painted in 1887, just three years before he took his life, tragically at the age of 37. When I look at those eyes, though, I think about a man who knows how to see deeply into the heart of things, as Wordsworth phrases it. I’ve been pondering for years about how I might see more deeply. This painting encourages me.