Greetings to you in the most wonderful name of Jesus Christ – THE Risen Saviour! Yes! I am going to declare – “This is the day that God has made for us – we will rejoice and be glad in it!” I remind you…’rejoice and be glad in it’ – is a matter of making a choice…’I will’ and not I can or cannot. This morning seems to be one of those late Spring days when the weather is unsure what to do next, but I am quite sure there is a good plan at work. Today I will be praying for you, asking Father to hear all your prayers – spoken and unspoken – and respond in a way that you will understand and in a way that you can respond to.
This year God gave us a new devotional book of prayers based on Song of Songs called the Divine Romance by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriquez. They prayers are, as the title might suggest, reflective of the intimacy of a relationship with God. As such they are seem very personal and often fuel one’s imagination,,,and do call to mind memories that you carry into the day. All too often these memories can be reinforced by the music that surrounds our home, infiltrating our thoughts.
This morning after my devotions, I was carrying the prayer, or at least a few phrases that I will share in a moment, and the worship music was Gordon Lightfoot…it works for me! I was reminded of the unsettledness of life – the restlessness that seems to be part of our lives. In many of the songs I hear the thoughts and ideas of travelling, seeking a place to belong. I recall the words of St. Augustine: Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord and our heart is restless until it finds it’s rest in Thee.
However, there is, I believe, a holy restlessness that God placed in our heart…and maybe that is what Augustine was trying to explain. Over the past weeks I have been seeing how in God’s character is a passion for moving forward – leading us from faith to faith, glory to glory, strength to strength, and victory to victory. The Psalmist best describes this in his testimony….in Psalm 23, when he describes God as “shepherd” … who takes us to green pastures, who leads beside quiet water, who takes us on narrow trails, and when we decide to do our own thing He goes with us to. The “shepherd” is leading us on a lifelong journey!
There are three songs that have been part of my spiritual journey, although I didn’t recognize them as such at the time but…I finally did. First – “I’ve been everywhere” by Hank Snow, which is a way to share our testimony. Second – “On the road again, going places that I’ve never been” by Willie Nelson, which was a song our family used to sing when we were on holidays or moving residences. Third – “I am a travellin’ man, following the breeze” by Tommy Hunter, which expresses my experience with Holy Spirit…the breeze. How would describe your spiritual journey?
Okay, as promised, here is the phrase that sparked my thoughts…There are always options about which roads you can take–the comfortable and predictable or the surprising and adventurous. God is calling you higher to a life that challenges you in the most beautiful ways. He wants you to dream with Him, to hope in the face of countless disappointments to believe in miracles, to laugh even when you stumble, and to discover just how faithful He really is. – The Divine Romance by Brian Simmons and Gretchen Rodriquez.
Something to think about — be blessed!