It has been a while since my last post. Life, it seems, got a bit crowded with things calling for attention here and there, so much so that it felt that there were not enough hours in the day. That, or it could have been that I just got caught up in the noise and distractions of life and had neglected to give attention to the more important matters of faith and grace and peace and God�??s presence & voice.

I just got back this past weekend from a personal retreat (along with some friends) in the Texas Hill Country and given the state of affairs that I just described above, I was really looking forward to getting unplugged for a couple of days.

It was beautiful! To get up and hear nothing but the hum of the refrigerator and the birds chirping outside. To walk out and splash down the riverbed (on the side where there was still some water flowing), to see the sun rise, feel the breeze rush past you and through the trees while you hear the rustlings of some yet unrevealed critter in the underbrush. To sit under the shade of a tree and spend time in God�??s word and with God, letting go of requests and questions for a while to just hang-out and be still.

Leaving on Sunday to come back home was a bit difficult, realizing that all the noise was going to come rushing back in and that all the distractions will still be there. Looking down that riverbed one last time though, there was also a sense of blessing. A sense that it was good to have had time to be still with God and the knowledge that He is never absent, even in our noise. In that moment, I was reminded that part of what He purposes for me and for each of us is not that we remove ourselves from the craziness of our world but that we influence it. That while we do need to retreat from it every now and then so that we can "Be still, and know that I am God" (Ps. 46:10), we are supposed to go back into the world with gusto but not forgetting whom and whose we are.

The reality we live in will still be noisy, crazy and distracting but God has promised that �??My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.�?� (Ex. 33:14) So that is where we are at this moment as we read this �?? surrounded by the noise and distraction but with the knowledge that as the river of life rushes past us, we have a rock on which to stand which can affect the course of the river, slow it down or make music of it.

A thought - How can God work through you to bring His reality into your world today?

Grace & peace,
Deji.