Feasting soul and body with my friend. (William Henry Hunt Christmas Pie)
A few years ago, I read and heard from several different writers/speakers, "Always put yourself in the pathway of those who walk with God and make you want to be more, do more when you are with them. Avoid being around too many people who tear you down, pull you down, give you permission to compromise your ideals and faith.
And so, partly because we made a life-time, Jonathan-David commitment to each other about 32 years ago. But mostly because I love her and when I am with her, I know I will be in the presence of God and pointed to life, I made a yearly trek with my girls to visit my sister-friend, Gwen, in Kentucky yesterday. We sat pajama'd and gowned with strong coffee, homemade ham and eggs and this was the topic of our conversation, from a favorite mutual book and writer, Eugene Peterson. The book is Running with the Horses
Read this and feed your soul, and ponder it, internalize it and let change you today. --and consider not defecting and compromising. Your ideals and commitments will be to God's praises for eternity, especially in the lives of those whom you are giving your tireless service.
"Consecrated for holy plans means set apart for God's side, ..., It means that we are chosen out of the feckless stream of circumstantiality for something important that God is doing.
"What is God doing? He is saving; he is rescuing; he is blessing; he is providing; he is judging; he is healing; He is enlightening. There is a spiritual war in progress, and all-out moral battle. There is evil and cruelty, unhappiness and illness. There is superstition and ignorance, brutality and pain. God is in continuous and energetic battle against all of it.
"God is for life and against death. God is for love and against hate. God is for hope and against despair. God is for heaven and against hell. There is no neutral ground in the universe. Every square foot of space is contested.
"No one enters existence as a spectator. We either take up the life to which we have been consecrated or we traitorously defect from it."
"We cannot say, 'Hold it! I'm not quite ready. Wait until I have sorted things out."
Grace to you in the midst.