The Peace of Wild Things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief.
I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light.
For a time I rest in the grace of the world,
and am free.

Wendell Berry

The flesh became word...

Read 26 books this year - a couple of courses took me past my goal of 20.

Top Six:
Dallas Willard "The Divine Conspiracy" - Discovering our hidden life in God. (Deep but money)
Robert Webber "The Younger Evangelicals"(great take on the progression of emerging church) Peter Scazzero "The Emotionally Healthy Church"
Richard Foster "Streams of Living Water" (invaluable look at church traditions/history)
Shane Claibourne "The Irresistible Revolution" (the new monasticism, friars)
Parker Palmer "Let your life speak" (essence, calling).

Ouch, mostly church stuff - "Barney's Version" was the only fiction, (having lived in Montreal, and been a Canadiens fan, this was really good) gotta' get out more!!!Books still ring the bell - Rob Bell's "Velvet Elvis" was good come to think of it.....

God's word still speaks of course - with all the changes, the word is eternal - my soul needs and feasts on it. I need to read it more and meditate upon it more.

You have a calling.....

Have returned exhausted in all respects from an exhilirating week with 22,000 others interested in missions at Urbana in St. Louis. So many students with their futures before them.

Some of my friends are pictured above.

Many good thoughts - one key one for me as we consider our calling and love of Christ:

The devil is busy, busy, busy; but the shepherd is faithful, faithful, faithful.

Begin every day by giving control to God - we will be frustrated serving from our natural self, we'll feel cheated, or serve half-heartedly, in fact we might become angry because our natural self has been denied.

But when we surrender our will to his, we operate in another realm - glory be to God....

Listen to your life.....

“God, I hated you after the rape! How could you let this happen to me? And I hated the people in this church who tried to comfort me. I didn’t want comfort. I wanted revenge. I wanted to hurt back. I thank you, God, that you didn’t give up on me, and neither did some of these people. You kept after me, and I come back to you now and ask that you heal the scars in my soul.”

Clear, wavering voice of a young woman during open prayer time – Yancey “Prayer” p. 89.

Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it not less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace.

Frederick Buechner “Now and Then”

So we need not fear our pain. It is part of our story. While a source of despair, it's also a root of creativity. We embrace it, and find God is there.