I recently spent some much needed time in my favorite place in the world. I travel there often, but not frequently as I would like. And when I get there, I am reminded that it is always the most refreshing place to visit. Sometimes I think it’s the constant sunshine that makes me smile, while other times it’s the familiarity of an old place that makes it feel like home.
And so it’s that time of year again. Year 7. This time by myself. Books full of stories fill the pages and as I pick up one of those books every year, the stories I read this time were bittersweet.
I read a page and my heart sang like it did the summer I spent on the lanai. It started singing the day we unexpectedly drove past that lanai this April. Headed for either Chic-fil-a or a Slurpee from 7-Eleven (easily my two southern favorites), I recognized the tune and without hesitation, I joined in the song.
It was on that lanai when I first understood that God wanted me to be something that I’ve never been. Still underlined in purple, the summer of 2003 defined my life and I’ve never been the same. I hear the words I read on the page, “Don’t lose heart in the process.”
There are few days when I “get” the last few months. But the same peace I had that summer, six years ago, is real for me again today. “Abide in me. Fret not. Bank your faith in the character of God. Keep paying the price.”
So that I may know Him.
It must be why I love to revisit this place that will always be held as markers of spiritual definement in my life. I know I will always find what I’m looking for because I pursue it with eager anticipation.
It’s a sacred place where life is refreshed every time. He never disappoints.
June 12, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Karbear:
I hope I was a part of that “life” experience…..You changed my life forever
June 14, 2009 at 4:00 am
948174839743837483 x forever
June 16, 2009 at 11:31 pm
The hear decides, and what it decides is all really matters.
June 18, 2009 at 1:42 am
“In the name of the best within you, do not sacrifice this world to those who are its worst. In the name of the values that keep you alive, do not let your vision of man be distorted by the ugly, the cowardly, the mindless in those who have never achieved his title. Do not lose your knowledge that man’s proper estate is an upright posture, an intransigent mind and a step that travels unlimited roads. Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won, it exists, it is real, it is possible, it’s yours.”