Simple Beauty

Rebekah on the phone with Naomi

The tone of life and news and conversation these past few days has been markedly serious. And appropriately so, given all the issues that have resurfaced in response to 9-11 and the tenth anniversary of the attacks on America. The world remains a tragically broken place, populated by so many struggling souls.

However, I am firmly convinced that hope is not only a window into the future, but a reflection of what is already real, now. Hope is not wishful thinking or "pie-in-the-sky" but something that emerges out of experience and truth. Hope is grounded in substance.

The other truth that is on my mind today is the simple beauty of the experience of life.You see, most of my day-to-day is worked out not in the context of disheartening political and global issues but in the ebb and flow of routine events. Experiences such as walking Scout, sharing that first cup of coffee with Rebekah, morning devotions, conversations with friends, the details of an average work day, gardening,  preparing dinner, talking with our children on the phone and reading good books late into the evening.

Peace Like a River

I believe that eternal life begins now, not later; and I believe that the decision each one of us makes to live in "The Kingdom" today, and to engage this journey in the context of the understanding that our greatest responsibility is to love, and to love well, amounts to the difference between hope and despair.

So I am very content; I am deeply blessed; and I have every confidence that life is fundamentally good. Why? Because I am loved, and I know what it is to love; it really is well with my soul.

Peace - the kind the counts - DEREK

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
 when sorrows like sea billows roll;
 whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say,
 It is well, it is well with my soul.
 (Horatio Spafford)