Grains of Sand

“ This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it ” —Psalm 118:24, NIV. She took too many pills, not enough to hurt herself, but more than she should have. It’s a warning sign. She promised not to do it again, but last night she was slipping into the same hole that had caused her to want to pull the earth down over her head just a couple of days earlier. Miles away, a older women wraps her loneliness around her. Her beloved soul-mate is gone. She has barely recovered, even after several years. She is ill, making her even more isolated. Her circles of friends has shrunk. She is not a “couple” anymore. Some have died. Some are simply not able. The younger generation doesn’t seem to care, too busy with their own lives to think about an old woman alone. The world marches on, filled with itself. More about me and less about Thee. The thunder from the pulpit is distant. It has collapsed into a whimper of self-help platitudes and what passes for worldly wisdom. Th...

“ Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart ” —Psalm 37:4, NIV I’d like to rewrite this verse just a little. I know that sounds presumptuous, but I think my rewrite is what’s written underneath the letters that we spell out in our minds as we read these well-used words. So here goes: “ Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of his heart .” My reasoning is simple. When I am so delighted with the Lord, so full of him, so concentrated on him, so dedicated to him, I can’t help but want what he wants for my life. My desires become what his desires always were for me. Then, immersed in what he knows will bring me the greatest satisfaction—himself—God can withhold what he knows is not good for me, or give what he knows will benefit me, and whatever he withholds or gives will be just fine. What he takes is my desire, what he gives is my desire, because my real delight will never go away—HIM—and that’s all that matters.