Friday, January 13, 2012

DREAMER'S CHALLENGE: Day 2


    It is so true what people say about beauty rising out of the ashes of pain. Last night, after my rocky beginnings with Day 1 of the Dreamer's Challenge, I crawled into the back of my dad's truck, threw my head back, and soaked in the awesome sight of God's stars...and the occasional plane taking off from a nearby airport. Somehow, the combination of these sights prompted me to think of the song Keith Green wrote about God's beauty, "Oh Lord, You're Beautiful."


    I had a good conversation with God, and read Psalm 37 by the light of the stars, street lights, and passing cars' headlights. This psalm is especially meaningful and beautiful, I discovered, when read aloud. I have tried to read this particular psalm before without really "getting it," but last night was different. It was as if I had never read it before. I especially love verses 3-4 and 34-40, but the whole piece is both delicious and rejuvenating.

    The Psalm begins by declaring, "Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart," and ends on a similar note, " But the salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the LORD shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in Him."

    We are not only blessed, but SAVED by God for trusting in Him!  Trust must be pretty important to God, huh?  What separated many of the heroes of the Bible from the people that lived around them in their time was not their own holiness--some of them were drunks, liars, hypocrites, and cowards--but instead was the trust that they had in God.  Sure, they had their doubts at times--many times, in fact--but for some of the time, they trusted God, and it was during those times that God moved them the most.

    I guess the theme of the day must be Keith Green, because I've got another song for you called "He'll Take Care of the Rest" that relates beautifully to this topic:




    After spending some time with God, I slipped back into my house and plopped onto a couch next to two of my younger brothers, twins.  They were watching the movie Eight Below with my dad.  Not wanting to watch TV or leave their company, I ultimately chose to sit at a nearby table and draw illustrations for a possible future installment story idea of mine (HINT HINT).  I prayed a short prayer before crawling into bed, and slept soundly.

    I only remember having one dream, and the details I remember are vague: something exciting was going on, possibly a wedding, and I wrote "I love something" on my arm.  I still don't remember what that "something" was, but the dream was bright, clean, refreshing--not nightmarish.  I feel that God has blessed me for going to Him first.  Psalm 4, the verse that was so ironic to my sleep experience two nights ago, now echoes the peace I experienced last night.
    God's mercies really ARE new each day; praise the LORD!

1 comment:

  1. It must be hard to do this challenge in a house full of people. You have to choose between being with your family and leaving them to get away from the tv and media. It's hard to know which is the better thing...

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