Planting Pansies
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Quiet TimesQuiet Times
There are days when I walk on the beach and greet everyone I pass with a smile, a nod, and a brief “Hello!”, Other days, like today, I feel cocooned in my own thoughts, almost oblivious of others as they pass me. Like the sea itself, our energies and thoughts sometimes ebb and flow, focused inward or outward, depending on the day’s needs. I ask you, dear Father, to make both perspectives profitable. May I have quiet time when I can turn my thoughts inward to touch your face and feel close to the Christ who lives within me. But may I never lose balance—may I also remember to turn my energies outward, reaching for the Christ who resides in others. Help me, like the sea itself, to maintain a measured balance.
StolenStolen
I spoke with a woman in the store this morning. During our conversation, she said she’d once been in a church with a large congregation, and when she went to the altar for Communion, she returned to her pew and discovered her purse had been taken. How sad that during a time of communion, someone had chosen to rob rather than share. I thought of how things are sometimes stolen from me when my mind is elsewhere. I walk on the beach wrestling with other people’s problems or with situations over which I have no control, and I’m robbed of the day’s beauty and the ocean’s gifts. I let myself feel apart from God, and my faith begins to erode, just as the water bites at the shore. Forgive me, Lord, for letting you go too easily, for letting situations rob me of your presence. Yes, bad things happen, even in the church where there are more avowed sinners than anyplace else. Please help me to approach you always knowing there is nothing more important than my closeness to you. Amen.