RISE!

How can we be almost halfway through January 2020 already?

“Life, like an ever-rolling stream, bears all its sons away; they fly forgotten, as a dream dies at the opening day.” -Isaac Watts, 1708

“...One would always like to settle oneself, get braced, say ‘Now I am going to begin’ — and then begin.  But as the necessary quiet seems about to descend, a hand is felt at one’s back, shoving.  And that is the way with the river when a current is running: once the connection with the shore is broken, the journey has begun.” - Wendell Berry in “The Rise”

“Going with the flow” isn’t my thing.  I hear some people actually pay to go white-water rafting. I’m not one of those people.  But I’m learning that the One who controls the currents of life also knows the depths.  He knows and loves me and my loved ones far better than I do.

I happened to read “The Rise” yesterday before realizing “Rise” was today’s hope*writers word.  I happened to think of the “Time, like an ever-rolling stream” quote (from “O God, Our Help in Ages Past”, which is Ps 90, and goes on to reassure us of His everlasting love) before I was even fully awake this morning. 

I don’t believe in “happened to”: I believe in a loving Creator who knows us completely and still loves us enough to have become one of us, died the death we deserve, and risen to give us His life. So I trust that I don’t have to reach the depths or control the current. Trusting His direction is more than enough!

In “Whitefoot” a mouse rides the current and eventually falls asleep while still drifting.  Berry says that “her sleep was an act of trust and a giving of thanks.”

“In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”  - Psalm 4:8