The world affords endless options. In what shall invest my energy, time and love? I see needs, issues, emergencies. I hear demands, cries, simple requests. Where should I go and what do I have to bring? I have nothing, of myself, to offer that is not paltry and insignificant. Nothing that won’t blow away on the next breeze, becoming dust in the wind.
I have often fancied the life of a monk. I envision a single mission, a quiet realm, few distractions, prolific work. Swimming in society is exhausting and can feel so meaningless—the endless distractions, babble, occasions…
Opportunities. For instead of being washed away by them, I am called to walk to them with Jesus. It isn’t so important that I go, just that Jesus arrives, that He is brought to and works in this life around me. When I am established in Him, He can lead me, He can go with me. He, not I, is the One whose presence is essential.
This, which to tell the truth I have never deeply considered until now, calls me to become profoundly rooted and grounded in Him. It’s the only way. To extend, I must possess. To breathe out, I must have breathed in. To walk with Him, He must be my devotion, my enthusiasm, the One I champion. Not an organization or a philosophy. Not a fleeting passion or a person, place or thing.
Solely and wholly, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:24-25
Meeting God at the Park 