Now, LORD, God establish forever the promise which you spoke about your servant and his house. Do as you promised. --2 Samuel 7:25 (my own translation)

What impresses (and frightens me) about this passage is the way that David talks to the LORD, his God. The last sentence of this passage is in the imperative; David is telling God what He will do. God will do as He as promised. David is in essence saying: "Be true to Your word! Be who You are! Keep Your promise to me and my household!"

To someone who is young in their faith, it may seem as though David is over-stepping his bounds. How dare a mortal man speak the eternal God in this fasion? But, to those who have walked with the Lord for a while and had to lean on him, we recognize the necessity of this action. To hold God accountable to His promises is to recognize that we cannot do this thing called life alone. We need God's help. We need His work in our lives. We need to trust that God will be there to help us or else we will never be able to go beyond our own selves. In order to achieve greatness, we must lean on the one who is Greatest.

"Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often secret event of God's active presence in their lives. Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence."--Henri Nouwen, The Way of the Heart

How indeed. In a world where people are looking for "balance," how does one create space the hear the still, small whisper of God calling us to a time of rest with Him? Many philosophers talk about a need for balance in our lives. The yin and the yang; the light and the dark; the sun and the moon. These are symbols of a world of harmony and "give and take" that has developed over the years. Developed? Yes! Intended by God? Maybe not.

[Jesus says] “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."--Matthew 10:37-39

Busyness springs from a quest for balance because we think that, in order to be good at one thing, we have to balance that with time for family, friends, job, etc. Look at many of the great people of history and you will see that they chased after one passion to the exclusion of everything else. I pray that I will always follow the call of God and do those things that he would have me do. I pray that I am always able to be unbalanced and chasing after a Jesus who is leading me deeper and deeper into a radical love and discipleship of Him.

While I am new to blogging, I have been keeping a paper journal for years now. There's something very romantic and comfortable about sitting with an empty bound book and a pen, writing down my thoughts, struggles, fears, and worries. In fact, I really enjoy it and always probably will.

One of the the things that I dream of is giving my journals to a loved one just before I return to my home in heaven. I picture them paging through them lovingly and longlingly, gaining new insight and wisdom from the scribbles inside. This thought that one day I might actually help someone through my words really appeals to me.

It's with that idea, that these ramblings may give inspiration to someone, that I am starting this blog. It's my prayer that these words may inspire you in some way.