september twenty-fourteen

This month has come with lots of comings and goings.

Returning home from a beautiful time with children in India 

and coming home to our children having just started the school year. 

Heading to DC to celebrate a life well lived of my great-aunt Mabel Clark 

and then coming back to Seattle again… 

Trying to squeeze the most out of summer and the welcoming of fall… 

With all these comings and goings, my favorite meditation from Amy Grant comes to mind:  “When I wake up in the morning- regardless of the temperature, whether the sun is shining or the rain is pouring- I go outside. I speak aloud to the predawn darkness or the tail end of the moon just kissing the edge of the horizon or the 9 a.m. bright sun of a sleep-in Saturday morning. I say, “This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I say it out loud because I’m groggy. I say it out loud because I’m speaking it and hearing it.  And I don’t just say it once.” 

“As the cobwebs and sleepy confusion start lifting from my brain, I keep saying that phrase, accenting different syllables, placing varying degrees of importance on different words.  “This is the day that the Lord has made.” This- the one I’m in right now. Not yesterday. As much as I want to reach back and relive something or reminisce or bring back somebody who’s gone or feel what I once felt- that’s all in the past. I can’t reach it, I can’t touch it, I can’t return even if I tried. The door is closed. This day- the one I’m standing in- is the day the Lord has made. This is it. How I live this day is what matters.” 

“This is the day that the Lord has made.” If God made this day, if He intended me to wake up this day, then there’s purpose in it. It wasn’t made because he was bored and had nothing better to do.” 

“He created it because that’s his nature- he is creative. And he creates for his pleasure. And here I am right in the middle of a creation that was provided for his pleasure. Where do I fit? How am I a part of it? These questions start turning in my head.” 

“I will rejoice and be glad in it.” I’ve got several choices ahead of me. I can worry. I can fear. I can hesitate. I can plan. I can be regretful. But these first words out of my mouth- I will rejoice- remind me that this, too, is an option. I have the option to choose rejoicing and to be glad.” 

As I speak , I feel my senses waking up. I hear the chatter of the birds. I smell the air. I feel the wetness from the dew on my feet. This is my early morning meditation.. In whatever mental state I might happen to be, I can greet the day and engage my spirit for the hours ahead. 

-Amy Grant Mosaic  pg 143-144 

Indeed, this is the day the Lord has made—- 

let us rejoice and be glad in it….