In honor of a terribly gray rainy day in Seattle, I thought I'd post a few good rainy day photos. Hence the bookstore, the coffee shop, and the board game :)
This weekend I've been resonating deeply with these words from Psalm 55.
"Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy! Attend to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint...And I say, 'Oh that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest; yes, I would wander far away; I would lodge in the wilderness; I would hurry to find a shelter from the raging wind and tempest.'"
The words from Eugene Peterson's Praying with the Psalms remind me to be thankful I haven't been given wings: "Maybe this is the reason God did not give us wings - we would use them, not to obey his commands more quickly, but to escape from unpleasant circumstances." And the prayer that accompanies these words: "You know, God, how often I want to get away from it all so I won't have to face a world that spurns your love and rejects your life. But you also know how to give me courage; I wait for your help in Jesus Christ. Amen."
Last night I was talking with my Dad over the phone. He reminded me that everything we go through - the good, the bad, the beautiful, the difficult, the uplifting, and that which tears us apart, is all cumulative for our faith. If we don't think that way, he told me, then we're just trying to make things easy and comfortable for ourselves. But we're not called to be comfortable. This thing called faith isn't easy. Today I'm trying to remember that each circumstance that I'm in is an opportunity to learn and grow.
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