Good morning…
Before choosing a book for each new semester, I prayerfully nestle into a few chapters from a small handful of possiblilities. God knows what lies before us. God knows our every need. I totally trust the LORD to nudge: “This is the book for the season ahead.” Then I put the book down before reading it fresh, week by week, with our classes.
Spring 2018 was Parker Palmer’s Let Your Life Speak. Offering us a glimpse into the disconnection of depression and the seasonal nature of our everyday lives, this book was a perfect read to support us through a harsh spring of mourning multiple suicides and enduring unexpected deaths.
Now, after sensing last spring the book for this semester, we have seen Fall 2018 host horrendous hurricanes. Just this past week Paula D’Arcy’s perfectly placed words offered us a powerful perspective.
“I’ve heard myself accuse the elements of being rageful, destructive, and dangerous,” writes Paula, “forgetting that the wind has blown with the same fierce freedom upon the earth, bringing life and change to the natural world, long before any of us appeared.”
She continues: “And the sea assailed all the shores with its violent force, shaping continents and bringing life and transformation long before we took ownership of the shorelines, or the bluffs, or the ridges for our own purposes. Long before we built there. Eons ago the earth quaked and exploded with volcanoes, altering the planet’s surface. All of it having nothing to to do with us.” (Seeking With All My Heart, 88)
Since the beginning of creation, the earth has been shaped and reshaped, formed and transformed. Facing the freaky forces of nature, might we nestle into our ever present, unchanging God? If you wake me each morning with the sound of your loving voice, I’ll go to sleep each night trusting in you. Point out the road I must travel; I’m all ears, all eyes before you (Psalm 143:8, MSG).
…Sue…
P.S. Last week, I loved conversing with Jamie Zimchek and Mark Little, the artists who created the photo book of water images displayed in my opening picture. They left their Atlanta art show to return to their homes on the Florida panhandle just a few days before Hurricane Michael hit. Check out their interesting work.
