For the past week I have been up at the Bethany Center in Lutz, Florida, taking part in the Institute of Preaching 2023. It’s a beautiful place, with swamp land and birds and lakes around it. But it’s also very close to the interstate, and there are airplanes flying overhead every 3 minutes at certain times of the day!
Yes, life intrudes. It’s an interesting contrast, being surrounded by the beauty of nature and yet feeling the pressures of modern life trying to make its way in!
But isn’t that how our lives go? We long for those times at peace and grace and separation, but in the midst of this time of solitude life starts beating in around us –
Maybe I’m looking at it wrong. What if I should be looking at how, even in the midst of the noise and chaos of life, God sends me little moments of peace?
Maybe the point is not that we should try to become hermits and isolate ourselves from the world, but that we should take advantage of all those little opportunities that God gives us throughout the week to spend time with him. That quiet time when you 1st get up in the morning, that moment when a songbird lands on your window in the midst of all your busy-ness, those moments when you are able to sit and laugh with a friend so hard that you start crying! These are the moments of grace that shine through when we least expect it.
Grace (and peace!) be wih you!
Rev. Bill