Peace in the midst of...life

Life has been crazy for the past couple of weeks.  From skiing trips to last minute flights to 7-page papers to random choir tryouts, everything is going at 100mph.  Its so easy to lose focus.  So easy to make excuses for grumpy moments or short quiet times.  


For my birthday, my mom gave me a book called A Blossom in the Desert.  Its a collection of thoughts and watercolor paintings from the journals of a faith-filled woman named Lilias Trotter.  Today I read this:

God speaks so through all living things.  Last time it was through a rushing mighty wind that filled the valley.  The trees took it in such a different way.  They are nearly all juniper and eucalyptus, and their different natures so came out under it.  The junipers, tough and stubborn, only moving when by sheer force they had to move, and that in an ungracious combative manner, springing back instantly to their former position.  The eucalyptus, on the other hand, had every leaf so posed that not a breath passed unheeded - while a litte gust would ripple and toss their heads about, and a stronger one would sway their very centers.  When the breath died down, instead of a willful rebound like the junipers, they would just relax and hold still - still enough to catch again the first whisper of the wind.  It was such a pictures of the "minding of the Spirit" which is "life and peace," while the junipers stood in control as those who "minding the things of the flesh" are "not subject unto the law of God."  One does want to be sensitive to His every breath.

In the middle of a crazy life, I must learn to lean on God and be very, very sensitive to his voice.  Without his guidance I know that I will lose my way quickly.  So as this week continues and I get up early, run around all day, and crash into bead at night, the cry of my heart will be that I have peace within my soul and that my soul will be attentive to his voice.  When my soul is attentive to his voice, I can hear what he says, receive it, and allow it to change my life.  Only when we listen to his gentle whisper can we know what he has for us.  

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you.

                                                                                              ~ Romans 8:9

But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.

                                                                                              ~ John 16:13