Interior Enhancements

"...Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and confidence is your strength. But you would have none of it." Isaiah 30:15

The way I often come across a new thought is making a connection between two or more seemingly unrelated items usually within days or weeks of each other. This is also the way God seems to speak to me (correction; the way in which I hear him.  He likely speaks in all sorts of ways, but I'm not such a great listener).

Recently I made the connection of two things I observed. One was my beautiful wife in her usual early morning spot having her devotional time; bible open, and usually, children sprawled all around her. This has been a custom of hers since she was a pre-teen. Recently, I snapped a picture of her in this locale, which would usually invite her scorn.

termites had eaten the entire middle of the tree

Then several days later I was walking in our back woods with my daugther and noticed a tree that had blown down some months before during a strong wind storm.  I had sawed pieces of it off my fence, but hadn't investigated it at the point of seperation, it had previously appeared large and alive.

I discovered that termites had eaten virtually the entire core of the tree, starting at the bottom and working their way up the tree.  When a strong wind storm came the tree had no strength, though it wasn't dead, and was blown over.  This tree "looked" healthy and there was no exterior indication that it was eaten-up inside and had no inner core strength to keep it erect during the storm.

The spiritual connection I made between the two images is now obvious to you I'm sure.  That, without cultivating a strong devotional life our inner core, our soul-person within us gets eaten up, shrinks and weakens our lives.  There are too many pests that can gain entry; pride, selfishness, greed, fear, etc.

We eat several times every day to stay strong, we breath several times per minute to stay alive, how can it be that we go days or weeks without spending meaningful time in quiet reflection, bible open waiting before our Creator?  As with any relationship love is spelled "T-I-M-E".  In my wife's case, if I were asked to point to one quality or habit that aided her most in life (especially in dealing with our large crew and and a peculiar guy like me), it would be this time of santuary she holds so dear.

This was a great reminder for me to continue to focus on my inner life and reinvigorate my spiritual discipline of daily devotionals.  I did this by beginning to journal my reflections during my daily devotional time.  If you need a kick-start, here's a great devotional help I've enjoyed -- Harvest daily devotional.