Monday's Meditation
I'm having a really hard time getting anything written for today's Meditation. I have a billion ideas, but currently lack the focus required to make any of them worth reading. Actually, this state of mind has been the status quo since returning from visiting friends and family in the Puget Sound. It's getting tiring.The wind has been blowing pretty hard for the last couple of days. I don't know about you, but the wind wears me out. The constant sound and motion of everything leaves me feeling unstable and restless. I can find no peace in times likes these. Give me rain. Give me sun. Give me fog. Give me snow and ice. But wind...
One of my favorite stories in the Gospels is when Jesus calms the storm while crossing the sea. I'm not sure why, but that story has always stood out to me. Maybe it's because I grew up on the water and often fell asleep to the sound of the waves crashing upon the shore while the wind ravaged the trees. Perhaps it's because I need Jesus to calm the storms of my own heart. I'm not sure.
Last weekend, after church, my daughter had a hard time going to sleep because of the wind. The wind really pounds her end of the house and she hates it. I went in and told her the story of Jesus standing up in the boat and telling the wind to stop blowing. She giggled her little giggle and was especially excited that Jesus was in a boat.
This morning, when I asked her if the wind had bothered her in the night. She said no and that Jesus had come and taken her away. "He did!?" I replied. "Where'd you go?" Are you ready for this? Jesus took her to the zoo! It was priceless. She said they saw the alligators (one of her favorites to talk about and imagine, and one of my favorites to hear her say!) and that she put on her swimming suit and went swimming with the "Alli-gay-tors."
"So, did Jesus go swimming, too?"
"No. He left."
It seems that life so often gets blown about in the winds of our circumstances. Things can get hot, cold, or foggy, but, at least for me, the winds of change and circumstance really sends us spinning.
This morning, at church, the basic thrust of the message was that life is going to throw you for a loop. When you're free falling in the winds of life, we need to rely on the certainty of Jesus.
I find this reliance upon Jesus hard to do. I can intellectualize the concept with phrases like "Jesus is the rock!" or "Jesus is my ever-present shelter in my time of need," but to actually live this out, I haven't known where to start.
I think I've shared this with you before, but I'm going to share it again. In the last year, I've had an image come up in my head from time to time of me grasping at the feet of Jesus. I'm distraught, tired, and confused. Maybe that's a lousy picture, I don't know, but it's mine and I'm using it!
posted by MoLak Jedi @ 4:31 PM
