Days 22 ~ A Gift Silent, Still and Strong

Can you believe it is the last full week of October?  It is...

And the mild weather we're enjoying this week will turn into highs into the 40s this weekend...

But that won't make me back down from wearing my flip flops...that takes snow!

So Day 22 ~ A Gift Silent, A Gift Still, and A Gift Strong

I am so grateful for the gift of silent solitude. 

I used to think myself "strange" because I do have a need for solitude...quiet time...time to remove myself from the clammer and yammer of our society.  It's not just something I like...I need it.

Jesus also found the need to be alone...alone in nature, alone with His Father, alone with His disciples.  And yet it was always a retreat from His ministry, His mission -- to be able to continue to do the work His Father game Him to do.

Such is the way with what I do...day in and day out...without the gift of silent solitude (especially spending it with Him) to which I can retreat ~ I would be faced with chronic burnout and be ineffective in all my efforts.

There were several nights when we were when on, vacation a strange thing would occur...the clouds would lower as we were high in the mountains...the stillness of the mist rolling in transformed the appearance and aviance of the landscape into a different kind of beautiful wonder...a site not seen where I live in Ohio.  What a gift!

And a gift strong ~ it can best be expressed by quoting Psalm 18:1-2:

I love you, God ~
   you make me strong.
God is bedrock under my feet.
   the castle in which I live,
   my rescuing knight.
My God ~ the high crag
   where I run for dear life,
   hiding behind the boulders,
   safe in the granite hideout.  (The Message)
 

If God is for me...who can ever be against me?

 

 

 

A Week of Quotes and Words - Day Two

The inspired word for Day 2 was the word, "peace." That word conjours up a myriad of images and thoughts.  It brings to mind sights, sounds, places I've known, a state of being, and most of all, thoughts that either help or hinder peace in my life.

From the moment my feet hit the floor in the morning, it's off to the races in my work at the hospital.  I have more "to do's" than I can fit in a day with competing priorities.  And if I stayed until all was complete, I would never leave.  And another word comes to mind:  enough.  What is enough?

Then I came across this quote as I ponder the word "peace."



I am only responsible for what I can accomplish in the day and that must be enough, as long as I have done my best.  We are all given only 24 hours in a day and each are given varied responsibilities from God to accomplish what He brings our way.  No more, no less.  And He stands vigil while we rest in His peace to be renewed for the next day.

As I continued my contemplation of the word "peace," it saddened me to realize how little peace there is in our lives.  As for me, I am always conneccted - either by pager, by cell phone, by computer, by cable news, by ongoing stimulation.  I would not say that I am a loner, but I do know that I find the greatest peace in solitude.  Or is it that I need the solitude to maintain my peace?  Often when I take time to slow down, disconnect, and get off the merry-go-round of dailyness, I am able to see more clearly the gifts and mercies God has lavished on me multiple times each day.  The clamour and demands and distractions of every day (don't even get me started on polarized political discourse that abounds), oppress my spirit, knowing Jesus has modeled what I need to do as reflected in multiple places in the Gospels.  Jesus, the God Man, needed to withdraw to a solitary place to commune with His Father.  How much more do I, a fallible, imperfect soul, need to do this?  How can I see from His perspective, if I never take time out to look at Him?

Turn your eyes upon Jesus.  Look full in His wonderful face.  And the things of earth will go strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.

Without this discipline, peace will continue to elude and the din of life will continue to oppress.  And so I see the mercy, the gift, of being welcomed into the solitude of contemplation and time alone with the Lover of my soul.



With gratitude,