My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
Psalm 63:5-7
Black-Crested Night Heron, Shark Valley Natural Area, Everglades National Park, March 2014
Of all the things that can occupy our thoughts, so often our minds may find themselves drifting towards those things that bring us worry and fear, stress becoming our daily drink. The psalmist reminds us of the transformative gift of training our minds to seek God and to rest in God and trade everyday stress for the very peace that passes all understanding. To swap out our burdens for the peace of God.
I will sing to the LORD as long as I live;
I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
Psalm 104:33
Baby Anhingas, Shark Valley Visitor's Area, Everglades National Park, February 2014
How will your life sing praises to God today? Tomorrow? Always?
You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
Matthew 5:43-46b
Great Blue Heron, Shark Valley Visitor's Area, Everglades National Park, February 2014
Given what Jesus has to say about loving those who hate us, it is a wonder why we put so little time and effort into putting his words into practice in real life. Do we fear letting go of our hate and allowing the action of love to transform us and possibly others?
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2
At Snake Warrior Island Natura Area, Miramar, Florida, March, 2014
The world will not fail to call you to compromise, not for the sake of the gospel, but for the sake of what matters most in its own calculus, which is power not relationships, judgment and not mercy, control and not love.
Then he said to them all, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it.
Luke 9:23-24
Fishing pier, Intracoastal Waterway, Hollywood, Florida, March 2014
The cross does not demand that we look for suffering for its own sake, but daily die to ourselves so that we may live for Christ. True serving requires true humility. All else requires repentance.
Let the light of your face shine on us, O LORD!
You have put gladness in my heart
more than when their grain and wine abound.
I will both lie down and sleep in peace;
for you alone, O LORD, make me lie down in safety.
Psalm 4:6b-8
Inter-coastal Waterway, Hollywood, Florida, March 2014
For the LORD will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all her waste places,
and will make her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the LORD;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.
Isaiah 51:3
It is not where success appears in great evidence, nor where power has been accumulated and exercised that they Lord has promised to be most present and most clearly revealed, but rather in the desert of our life, in the wasteland of our brokenness. And where the Lord is present, life finds a way.
