On frustrating days (or rather, on good enough days with some particularly frustrating moments), this view right outside my door is my mental safe space…
My much-needed reminder that the momentary afflictions and annoyances are passing by like the fading sun and the gentle waves.
Sunset at Toguchi Beach
There’s a psalm that comes to mind–or should–when I start getting distracted by what’s not going the way I want:
“I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the LORD.”
Psalms 27:13-14 NASB
I’m preaching to myself here, and watching the last amber hues fade behind the gray clouds at the horizon. Tomorrow will be another day, with its own troubles as well as a few left over from today.
With the trouble, there is always a supply of goodness and grace. It’s up to me to choose what to focus on.
A few days every week, one to three of my older kids participate in a youth program on base. When I’m off, it’s a great excuse for me to park my butt at the nearby coffee shop and write. After all, I’m trying to finish off the draft of my NaNoWriMo project (50K words wasn’t enough for the story I had planned), and then I have fantasy book 2 to write…
Sometimes it feels like a constant “should” hanging over my head. I could be writing. I want to write more. I need to finish the next book, and the next one, and the one after that. I don’t want to waste my time flipping through Facebook and tapping through Twitter.
And yet, when I parked at the coffee shop yesterday, I noticed once again the stone benches placed between several banyan trees. I saw the sun shining through the clouds and the leaves. I heard the birds chirping out their warnings. I paused to sit and enjoy the moment, and then I tried to capture it in my journal.
On that page, I wrote these words, hoping to immortalize the memory for myself if no one else, and the moment of contemplation got me thinking about how many times I’ve passed that spot without stopping.
The things we want don’t come because we wish for them; they come because we work for them.
I recorded my thoughts and a reading of the text in my journal on YouTube here:
Here’s the text of my notes, in case the wind got in the way.
The branches and sections of trunk tangled and wound together like a four-year-old’s shoelaces…
roots like elephant trunks curling this way and that between octopus tentacles that poke through the waves of green grassy seas…
birds on all sides, singing the same few notes over and over, like someone with a song stuck in her head who can only remember one or two lines…
warm sunbeams cast long, cool shadows, and ants march across my pencil case in search of something edible…
cars drive by, carrying men and women on other business who will forever be oblivious to THIS moment, THIS time and space…
and I do not judge, for so often I have been likewise blind by necessity or obligation, forced to focus my attention on some other task, marching like these ants toward an unspecified but presumed-important goal…
All of us are pulled and twisted in many directions like the trunks and branches of these trees; all of us are motivated by unavoidable consequence to avoid “wasted” team and move with purpose to the next task…
But can I be cautious and conscious, careful to find here and there in life a moment and space like this?
Can I pause and be still, and listen to the world?
Though pulled and twisted by demands, can I sit like a tree, elegant in the pose like a dancer stretching upward?
This is the first of five meditations I wrote for a project last year. When my iCloud account got accidentally purged, I thought I lost these. But I recently found a file, so I thought I’d share them online.
The other four will be scheduled for Monday mornings, to start the week out looking for God to lead in our lives.
GOD LEADS US AT OUR BEST
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus… (Colossians 3:17, NIV)
“But I don’t want to go to Japan.”
Near the end of language training for the Air Force, my class received orders. Mine said, “Okinawa.”
I whined long-distance to my parents in Chicago. Before the military, I didn’t live away from home for any length of time. Flying to Texas for Basic was the farthest I’d ever been from Mom and Dad. Training in California came next, but I could still drive home if I wanted.
Okinawa is the other side of the world.
There was a big test coming soon. We would have to prove we knew our language well enough to continue to our next duty station. It would be easy to miss some questions. My best friend was on his way to a different job because his grades were low. I could do that too, I thought. Fail, and stay close to home.
My parents no doubt wanted me to stay. But my father advised me, “You need to do your best. If God doesn’t want you to go to Japan, you won’t. But if He does want you there, you’d be wrong to resist.”
I graduated from language school and continued on to Japan.
Over six years on Okinawa, I met my wife, got married, had two children, and rededicated myself to Christ. Now I see God prepared His best for me. But I had to give my best to see it fulfilled.
I’m happy to say I passed the test.
Application: God may use skills we’ve developed to reveal the path we should take.
One type of recurring post I would like to include on this blog is reflections on Scripture… something short and sweet.
A little morning snack, if you will.
They always said I was supposed to get the Word inside of me.
This was the subject of my meditation this morning, and I thought I’d share what came to mind:
Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. (Colossians 2:6, 7 NASB)
I see three tenses here, and questions arise in my mind.
Looking back, I was taught the Gospel. As a result, I received Christ by grace through faith. When that happened, I was rooted in Him. Have I wavered from that teaching? Have I left my first love? Is my foundation still sure? Am I still committed to the relationship like I was at the beginning?
Looking at the here and now, am I still being built up in Him? Am I being ever more securely established in my faith, or am I letting distractions get in the way? Also, am I grateful for what God has given and what God is doing? Am I compelled to respond to Him in praise and worship?
Looking forward, am I following after Him? A good friend of mine often taught that our present closeness to Jesus doesn’t matter so much as the direction we’re walking. The most spiritual person could be moving away or getting left behind if he or she is not continuing after Christ. The most vile sinner might be doing well by drawing near, even though that may not be obvious to the rest of us. No matter where I am in relation to Jesus, whether intimately close or coldly distant, is the path I am walking on leading me toward Him or away from Him?
Also, credit where credit is due, you can find more about those Bible cakes here.
The home of David M. Williamson, writer of fantasy, sci-fi, short stories, and cultural rants.
On frustrating days (or rather, on good enough days with some particularly frustrating moments), this view right outside my door is my mental safe space…
