Here I am Lord, back in the coffee shop! Sorry about yesterday – another day of chaos, of feeling stressed. I can see I am going to have to work pretty hard to maintain some sort of dialogue with you while the Wests are in residence. It’s a shame I’m so bad at praying in my head. All I can say is that it’s just as well no one is depending on me being faithful enough to write every day. Imagine if there were people waiting for my daily instalment only to be disappointed to find no entry that day. I guess that’s what it must be like for you though, Lord, waiting in the heavenly realms for us to pay some attention to you only to be disappointed by a huge bunch of no-shows.
Not spending time with you yesterday meant that I didn’t have the opportunity to write a sort of debrief about Sunday. I do like telling you what has happened to me over the course of a day and what I have learned – especially after one of Daniel’s Sunday specials. I realise it has been quite a few weeks since I’ve remembered to recap. I must say that Daniel’s sermon based on John 19 was not only moving but incredibly timely, centred as it was around your sentencing, crucifixion, death and burial. Lord what you suffered for me is beyond words and beyond any adequate sort of thanksgiving! The way Daniel really brought home to us the agonies you went through made me feel ashamed of treating my salvation with a casualness that is somehow appalling. I guess the old cliché that familiarity breeds contempt could be equally true in our relationships with you as it is with each other.
I know I will be thinking about the things Daniel said all week as we lead up to Easter. There’s so much emphasis these days on bunnies and eggs and commercialism that it would be easy to completely ignore the reason for this season as well. I pray that you would forgive me for my lack of thankfulness and even my lack of respect for you who are mighty above all things. I pray that over this week and over Easter weekend that we might all get a fresh glimpse of you.
Cameron and Ashley stopped by on Sunday afternoon, looking very relaxed and happy with each other. That relationship seems to be blossoming rather than being bogged down with the baggage of either the past or the present. They are really enjoying their new church too. Apparently their church is putting on some sort of Easter art exhibition so, if at all possible, I pray we might be able to find some time to go and see this over the weekend. A drop of culture might be just what the doctor ordered.
In light of all these things I think I will just be grateful today and leave off the moaning for one day – even though there are plenty of things that are really stressing me out at the moment. I will say that even though I don’t understand your will or why all these mini disasters keep happening around me, I do know that you have the ultimate power to save me and I must not forget that.
I lift all before you in your precious name…Amen