The Moment

 What did you do with your 24 hours today? Did yesterday spill over into today? Was today like going through the wring cycle in a washing machine or was it peaceful and refreshing like sitting down to share your heart with someone who knows you and loves you well? Was it a little bit of both?

In the passing moments of this life, I am learning a bit more of what it means to live in each moment. I’m finding a bit more joy in events as they come and go. I’m stressing a little less about how things will play out. When I’m in the middle of one of my 9^th grade classes making connections between the power structure set up in Lord of the Flies and how it is no less real in our lives; when I’m making dinner with a good friend and talking through pasts and ups and downs of being teachers; when I’m taking a ride to church on the back of Mark’s moto—wind and fresh air blowing over me; when I’m talking to my sister across the ocean because Skype tells me I can…these are places where I am savoring time as it passes. As I confess sins and receive Grace, I am given new revelation on true repentance. As I sit in my room and enjoy the space I have here, I am rejuvenated. As I realize that our electricity situation here at the house has drastically shifted for the positive, unexpectedly, I am reminded how good I have it right now. Thank You.

I’m not always in the moment though. Sometimes I’m minutes behind—agonizing over something that was said (to me or by me) and trying to get a grasp on how to treat the exchange. Sometimes I’m hours ahead—imagining my next meal. Sometimes I’m days ahead, months ahead, and sometimes I am even years ahead.

Someone told me today that God is exactly where we are right now—but He’s not in the hypothetical situations we are playing out in our heads. He is here. He is now. When those future hours, days, months, years arrive, yes, He will be in those, too. But not until they come.

I have a good Dad, and I want to trust Him more. I want to find Him more readily as the seconds pass by before me. I want to be living where my breath is—where His breath is, His Spirit.

Rest

When was the last time?

The last time for what?

Well, when was it?

When was the last time I realized the beauty of rest,

That it was divinely created,

And that it leads the way to more fullness?

Rest.

There’s not a need for justification,

Or a reason to explain

Because it was publicly sanctioned

By our Creator, as a “thing.”

A built-in kind of thing

And not a “if you feel like it,”

Or “If you can get the time off,”

Kind of deal.

They say in teaching that modeling

Is one of the most important aspects

Of getting students to understand something.

God must’ve thought the same thing

Because He demonstrated what it was like

To take time “off.”

“And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done,

And he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he

Had done. So God blessed the seventh day

And made it holy, because on it God rested from all his

Work that he had done in creation” (Genesis 2:2-3)

And I don’t think—as big of a job as creating

ALL things is—that He needed to sit down

And take a breather.

I don’t really believe that the Creator & Sustainer

Would’ve been hard up if he’d have continued

Working.

What I think is that He is a good teacher,

Just like His Son,

And He knew that someday someone like me

Or someone like you, might need to

Get the picture

That stopping.

Pausing.

Resting.

Is a beautiful and necessary part of our

Existence.

Oh, the things we can do

By the work of our hands and the imaginations

Of our brains!

They are absolutely glorious and reflect

A Majestic, Dream-Schemer!

But my hands have overworked for days,

And my brain has burned holes in my skull

As analytical battles have ensued,

And I am thankful that built into the best

Way of living is time to

Stop. Reflect. Listen. And simply be. 

Lead Me, Faithful One

Count me faithful,
Praising You from the inside,
I am Your temple,
Make Your home in me.
I will remember that You are
My faithful One.
I will listen as You lead,
and pull me closer when I
strain away.

Make me willing to go with You
to the grave, into the darkness to bring the light.

I believe, I believe,
Father help me in my unbelief.
Let me drink deeply of Your hope,
Your truth.