Living waters or cracked cisterns?

In last week's post, I thought about how hard it is for me to give up "control" and instead seek the stillness God provides me when I slow down.  Oswald Chambers, in his January 21 reading for "My Utmost for His Highest," discusses how our enthusiasm for God ebbs and flows. He cites Jeremiah 2:2. As I read chapter two in its entirety, I was struck by verse 13: "My people have done two evil things: they have abandoned me--the fountain of living water.  And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!"

As I share these pictures today, I think of how we and the Psalmist praise God for His magnificent creation.  Yet, despite acknowledging our Creator, who out of His love placed us on this earth, we still follow our distracting, destructive idols that keep us from giving our entire selves to Him. We allow our selves to become "cracked cisterns that can hold no water." I am grateful for his unfailing love and never ending forgiveness that allow us to return to His living waters.

Quieting our lives

Our minds are always bee hives of activity.  We want to be in control.  Yet when we still and quiet our minds, and move into prayer and the quietude of our hearts, then our souls recognize God really is with us.

Here is the way Henri Nouwen puts it:

Many voices ask for our attention. There is a voice that says, "Prove that you are a good person." Another voice says, "You'd better be ashamed of yourself." There also is a voice that says, "Nobody really cares about you," and one that says, "Be sure to become successful, popular, and powerful." But underneath all these often very noisy voices is a still, small voice that says, "You are my Beloved, my favor rests on you." That's the voice we need most of all to hear. To hear that voice, however, requires special effort; it requires solitude, silence, and a strong determination to listen. 

That's what prayer is. It is listening to the voice that calls us "my Beloved."

Winter at the Oregon Coast

Meg and I took Jasmine, our Chinese student, back to Eugene this past Saturday.  She is doing well, studying for her Masters degree in Accounting at the University of Oregon.  Meg and I then traveled west to the beach town of Florence.  From there we went north, stopping for a wonderful sunset at Seal Rock.  We spent Saturday and Sunday nights in Depoe Boe, a delightful small harbor on the central Oregon coast. The water spout pictures are from the breakwater at Depoe Bay.  You stand in the parking area, where just below the waves crash and thunder against the rocks. You could not be any closer to the power of the Pacific Ocean than this. In January, the angle of sun at mid morning creates a rainbow in the spray of the blowhole, as the storm driven, high tide waves, crash into it.  Meg and stood transfixed in awe for most of the morning watching this synthesis of power and beauty. 

How can we not praise our Creator!

I took the Isaiah image of Mt Emily at sunrise on January 2.  What an incredible way to begin the new year--reminded that even amidst the turmoil of the world which we mortals have created/modified, God's glory reigns supreme; his justice and mercy are eternal!

The invincible future with Him

I particularly enjoyed the reading from today's (December 31) My Utmost for His Highest  by Oswald Chambers. This writing sets an excellent and wonderful tone for the new year.

"Our present enjoyment of God’s grace tends to be lessened by the memory of yesterday’s sins and blunders. But God is the God of our yesterdays, and He allows the memory of them to turn the past into a ministry of spiritual growth for our future. God reminds us of the past to protect us from a very shallow security in the present.

"God’s hand reaches back to the past, settling all the claims against our conscience.

 "As we go forth into the coming year, let it not be in the haste of impetuous, forgetful delight, nor with the quickness of impulsive thoughtlessness. But let us go out with the patient power of knowing that the God of Israel will go before us. Our yesterdays hold broken and irreversible things for us. It is true that we have lost opportunities that will never return, but God can transform this destructive anxiety into a constructive thoughtfulness for the future. Let the past rest, but let it rest in the sweet embrace of Christ.

"Leave the broken, irreversible past in His hands, and step out into the invincible future with Him."

I wish each of us such a future!  Blessings, Eric

Christmas holds the key

Reuben Job writes, "Christmas holds the key to unlocking the deepest mysteries of our lives: who are we, where did we come from, is there meaning to our lives, and where are we going?  Granted, we focus at this time on the birth of Jesus, on the exchange of gifts and cards, and the place of joy and triumph even when the days are dark and foreboding.  But the enormous truth of Christmas rests in the revelation  of God's self to humankind....When Jesus appears as the revealer of the transcendent Creator God, God becomes near, loving, and approachable.  Now we know that God understands us and that we can begin to understand God.

"The great mystery of God unfolds in the birth, life, and death of Jesus.  Jesus Christ came and was clothed in human flesh to let us know who God is and what God is really like. Now we know who we are--God's beloved children; to whom we belong--our faithful redeemer/savior; and where we are going in our journey of life--to a place prepared for us.  Thus the Christmas story is such good news."

Reciprocal love

       God calls us to participate in a reciprocal relationship of love, but too often we are too busy, too "moral" (in our own eyes), too self centered to respond. More than three thousand years ago, when the people of Israel were forming their relationship with him, Yahweh instructed the Israelites to show their love for him by "walking in his ways and holding tight to him." As we know, then and now, we fail in this walk. Yet God never gives up on us. He "delights in showing us unfailing love." 

And so at this time of year, we are again reminded of how much our Creator cares for us.  We could not recognize his love in the abstract, so he came to live with us, to join us on our journey, to listen to our story.  As Henri Nouwen writes, "the God of love who gave us life sent his only Son to be with us at all times and in all places, so that we never have to feel lost in our struggles, but can always trust that he walks with us."