today I choose

Blogging is new for me.  I find it difficult to quieten the inner voices that clamor for attention.  At first I wondered if that were only me until I was reading in Anne Lamott‘s book, Bird by Bird, how challenging she found it to write.  She has a humorous chapter on getting out those first drafts.

Yesterday I read Timothy Keller‘s The Prodigal God.  I find myself overwhelmed once again by the extravagance of God’s grace.  Admittedly, the word, “prodigal,” has always conjured up images of waywardness.  So I was surprised to learn that prodigal means something quite different.

Keller’s point that the parable of the 2 sons in Luke 15 is really about 2 sons … not just the one who squandered his father’s inheritance … is well-taken.  I don’t want to be elder brother-ish, living my life out of dutiful compliance, instead of celebrating the love and grace I’m given in Christ.

Neither do I want to be caught up in the “illusion of control” thinking that if I pray words in just the right way or give of my resources to a certain degree that God is beholden to me … required by some unspoken agreement to grant my wishes.

This morning I quieten the voices in my head.  Isaiah writes in chapter 30, verse 15, “This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:

“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your strength,
but you would have none of it.”

Today I choose repentance, rest, quietness and trust.