reflections

Short Reflections

Published in Words of Life.

Lying down with frogs

Reference: Hebrews 4:15, 11

It was a perfect afternoon. The sun was shining. The air was warm on my skin. The frogs in the ditch heralded the coming of spring. I lay down in the grass along the edge of an embankment. Everything around me was at peace. I felt God come to me in the breeze that rippled the grass around me.

In my busy life, I look for time to slow my pace enough to enter into God’s rest and let him speak to me in the stillness. The day I laid down in the grass, I had taken a one day retreat at a monastery where I had set aside the time to listen. God used the frogs and the grass to speak to me.

Prayer: God please come to me in the quiet hours and let me enter your rest.

Callout: “Let us therefore strive to enter that rest…”

Folding Towels

Reference: Deuteronomy 4:1, 5-9

Nearly every time I fold towels, I’m reminded of the summer I turned nineteen when I worked in a resort in the mountains. I was taught the perfect way to fold a towel by the toughest boss I’ve ever had. It was a difficult summer. I missed my family and friends, the work was grueling, and the management did not treat us well.

After I returned to university in the fall, I wanted to forget the unpleasantness of that place. Now, more than twenty years later, however, I know that it is important to remember. More importantly than the perfect fold, I learned perseverance and acceptance. As I fold towels now, I meditate upon the things that my eyes have seen.

Prayer: Lord help me to remember what I have learned.

Callout: “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen.”