Out of Thin Air

Life is but a grand paraphrase, plagiarized from those around us then compiled and rewritten from our point of view. What is your source material?

As I travel through life I find myself picking up pieces of knowledge from many sorts of places. These seemingly diffuse items line up into lessons if I just pay attention.

Envision walking down a crowded street with all of the areas of your life lined up like so many shops on each side of the road. There to your right is the TV store with hundreds of screens stacked beside and on top of each other, each one tuned to a different station. Add to that the radio station next door with as many receivers commingling music with their amplified clamor roaring like a waterfall. Ahead is a sidewalk café with those you will meet today, conversations overlapping and intertwining. Their words forming a cloud that drifts into the street.

Your work life is represented along this throughway as the bustling unnamed souls on the sidewalk, hurrying by, bumping into you as they hasten to their diverse destinations. The towering buildings across the street that block the light from the sun are todays troubles you just can’t seem to shed. Moving slowly by on the street are the things you would enviously have if you only had the means. The next shop is the dessert store where your gluttonous desires can be fulfilled to overflowing. The items in this shop are glorious, sensuous, stunning, magnificent... and attainable. They can not only be obsessed over but consumed until the pain of envy is but a small distraction.

Each step you take, every vacuous face you look into, is speaking into your life with sights and sounds that overwhelm your senses… but you cannot stop. Even in this clutter and haste that we call life, God is speaking to you. Are you able to slow down enough to listen? Look patiently into each of the things in your life as points on a masterful impressionistic painting. Allow God to combine the drifting words into inspirational sentences. Let him show you the beauty thrown by the shadows of your fears. Permit him to point out the face in the crowd that is tinged with sadness and ask what you can do to help.

Combine the sights and sounds of the urgent until they become like thunderous waves on a beautiful beach. Drink in the peacefulness of a life slowly embraced. Turn your face to the again visible sunshine, and let His light warm your soul. If you allow Him, God will bring you to a place where you can see the majesty of the symphony he is daily creating, and your part in it.

The Reason for the Storm

The rain has been unrelenting for hours. Even though it is still early afternoon the dampness seems to have enveloped even the light trying to shine through the ever present clouds. The small crevices under any shelter available still seem almost aquatic because the humidity is so overbearing. The continual crash of raindrops occasionally descends to a quiet as another rumbling distant thunder strike rolls by like a stampede; shaking the ground, as well as your soul.

Has your mood ever felt like this? Have you gotten to the point where it seems logical and even a bit comfortable to pull your knees close to your chin while warming your face with the reflected breath of your exasperated sighs? Have your tears flowed to the point where they no longer seem the exception? That role is now occupied by a grim smile. Even in that place of desolation God is able to reflect in the darkness a glimmer of hope that lights the world. It seems that we sometimes “need” to experience pain to gaze again with fresh wonder on the blessings that abound, if we take the time to look. They are hard to see as we wallow in our pity, but if we will respond to the gentle touch of our spirit and gradually lift our head to peek over our embraced knees, He is there to open the clouds and remind us the sun will someday shine again. It may not be an overwhelming rush of healing to your soul, but it will be enough. The sobbing will be reduced to tears, the tears to a whimper, and the sighs with an inflow of gradually building peace. If you will distinguish his efforts from your personal anguish, the single ray of filtered sunlight may be the hand offered to help you stand again.

A New Day

Silence... Even the wind seems to momentarily lie down in quiet reverence. All around the trees and hills are clothed in inky darkness. The entire world is hushed in hallowed expectation of the coming day. Shapes begin to emerge from the coal black into a midnight amethyst. Slowly the colors surface but the transition is respectful, giving each their turn, like a gentleman departing so the next can take its place. Deep sapphire is next in line, dazzling but muted, deferential to the coming day. It seems that all creatures have stopped to admire God’s revealing of His next miraculous appearance. Somewhere at the edge of hearing, a rooster cries out with his all to rejoice the coming of a new sunrise. I watch in anticipation to the East for that rising radiance as the other colors crowd behind the glowing ruby and brilliant orange. Finally, they burst forth in a dazzling entrance of celebration. Painting the landscape like a spreading wave of beauty the land begins to glow in worship of the dawn. This will be a day the Lord has made, exult in it, and give it your all. Live not just the length of it but the breadth as well. It is worthy of the awe-inspiring entrance. Be kind and generous to everyone you meet in an attempt to show God how much you appreciate the gift you have been given. Shout out like the rooster and begin, today is a new day!