Stand firm and be deeply rooted in God's love. - Ephesians 3:17
- Sunrise in Valrico, December 29, 2011
Wow, what a cool, refreshing morning! The mercury dipped to around 40-degrees again and it made for most excellent walking conditions.
Scout Labradoodle seems to appreciate the sense of energy in the air. I'm not sure if she's responding to my shift in spirit or simply shares my enthusiasm; either way, her tail is high, her nose is in the air, and she has a spring in her step.
It's like the morning is this invitation from the universe (don't worry, I'm not trying to deify creation - I just think that the Creator speaks directly through such amazing work).
My brother, Geoff, shared a great comment about each new day when we were talking recently about mortality. He said that he's often heard people say, "Live each day as if it were your last."
Geoff said he appreciates the sentiment behind the cliché, but his years of working in a hospital taught him that "the last day" isn't necessarily your best, and certainly not the kind of experience you want to repeat on a regular basis.
"So what I have decided to do is to live each day as if it were my first," he said.
There's a lot more energy in that idea; energy and promise and potential. Because none of us know what tomorrow will bring, irrespective of a bleak diagnosis, a good one, or no diagnosis at all. So the imperative is to live forward, regardless.
Days also hold sadness and disappointment, and there's no way to greet the promise of a new morning without acknowledging that some days - days created and sustained by the same God who invites us into the life-charged life - are more difficult than others. And I can't write like this without thinking about my niece, Hannah, and her family, who sustained another bitter setback yesterday when she lost the second of the twins she has been carrying for almost five months.
Grief and sorrow are realities that can't be - shouldn't be - steamrolled or knocked aside by tidy answers or shallow theologies. However, and despite our most difficult trials, the sun does break through in the morning and light does pour over the eastern horizon and into our lives. Every new day.
INVITATION: And it is an invitation that never fails to quicken my step, that always manages to tingle my senses and that unfailing calls to me - be it ever so subtly, to "Live this one like it is the first day of your life...."
- Open to the possibilities...
"God is wonderful and glorious. I pray that his Spirit will make you become strong followers and that Christ will live in your hearts because of your faith. Stand firm and be deeply rooted in his love. I pray that you and all of God's people will understand what is called wide or long or high or deep. I want you to know all about Christ's love, although it is too wonderful to be measured. Then your lives will be filled with all that God is." - Ephesians 3:16-19 CEV
In the promise of this day, another new one - DEREK
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