I’m surprised at how seldom I think of my array of accumulated conveniences. Like the functioning of the all-important, morning coffee machine. Or the arrival of hot water for a shower. Or AC during hot weather and heat in those other months. Or my car starting when the key is turned (like you, I suspect, that’s just the beginning of a very long list of creature comforts). Then, there’s the plethora of services ready and waiting which rarely come to mind. For example, the beginning of my escapade four weeks ago today. With one phone call from my majorly stressed-out spouse (sorry, Babe), a parade of medical professionals came to my rescue (accompanied, of course, by the prayers of family and friends and the unseen visits of angels). For days, round-the-clock caring was ministered to me, services I had long taken for granted. I’ve thought of that recently when I’ve heard the wail of an ambulance – someone else receiving the blessing of a host of trained and committed men and women, God bless them all!
From there, my mind fixes on Romans 17:28: “For in [God] we live and move and exist.” (NLT). That, too, is not something I regularly, consciously, consider. It’s a profound reality! I live in God. I move in God. I exist in God. Without God I don’t live. Without God I can’t move. Without God I don’t exist. Wow! And yet, contemplated or not, that profound reality still is! And mercifully, when I choose to stop and dwell there, those many-splendored truths, just a prayer away, blossom in my spirit, causing worship to swell up within me.
Of late, a trending buzz word is ‘mindfulness.’ I get the impression, though, that it sometimes refers to a type of self-actuating introspection, a searching within for the beauty and tranquility to be found there. In Christian circles, I find it to be the opposite: a paying attention to what we’re paying attention to, a searching for Truth as it concerns our present situation, a grateful, humbling recognition that we are nothing, can do nothing, without God. It’s a place I need more often to go, a place of amazing comfort and rest! See all you fellow Romans 17:28 journeyers tomorrow, 10 AM, 4 PM. PD
