It’s another beautiful sunshine day, with cooler temps down from the mid-90s, thankfully.  Still no rain in our area, as we pray for that blessing.  Yesterday was a successful day at our Spencer-Van Etten community farmers market season opener, and a great time to see friends and meet new folks as we chatted about various topics.

This week as a sub also went very well, with special hugs from students, helping students stay focused on the classwork in front of them. And that reminded me of this previously unpublished poem and reflection written several years ago. We all struggle to stay focused at times, not just our young ones. But there are also benefits to those wandering thoughts… as ideas for good will pop into our thoughts. And maybe that’s how great inventions happen!  God really can use those wanderings to benefit us and others!

With these few wandering thoughts and ideas, I hope you have a blessed Sunday and a great week ahead, because...  

We can all get distracted when we focus on something other than the intended.  Our thoughts wander and stray, and we have to rein them in, retrieve them, and regain our focus.  In fact, as I sat here thinking about writing this reflection a few years back, I recalled a cartoon I’d seen decades ago.  As Garfield’s creator, Jim Davis, put it, “I have a fear of letting my mind wander.  I’m afraid it might not come back.”  How true, how true!  Yet, on the flip side, we may learn or discover something new and of benefit in those wandering thoughts and ideas!

And I chuckle because I cut that out of the paper back then (and have since lost it)… it’s exactly how I felt!  Truth be told, it was on my mind as an example to use as I sat down to write… but then my mind wandered, and I looked out the window at the cold wintry scene… thinking about spring, and gardens, and planting… and, for the life of me, could not recall the above quote when I brought my focus back to the computer.  So, I told Ed I’d forgotten the quote I’d planned to use about letting my mind wander and asked if he had any idea what I’d been thinking of.  Dear man that he was, he knew the exact quote I’d wanted to use! Ed knew me so well!

I also thought about an old hymn that’s been one of my favorites since childhood – “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” written by Robert Robinson at about age 22 in 1757.  “Come Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise… Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the throne of God; He, to rescue me from danger, bought me with His precious blood… Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.”

It’s a common malady…  We all tend to get distracted by what’s going on around us.  And we may find ourselves beset with wandering thoughts and/or wandering feet.  We may even stray from the narrow path and away from our Lord at times. But, with His loving mercy and grace, He faithfully and gently draws us back to His side… back to His word which guides our steps, our thoughts, and our words. 

With those thoughts bringing me back into focus, I’ll rest in Him and the comforting peace of His word.

In Him I’ll Rest

Linda A. Roorda

Oh Lord you know I long to follow

Your guiding words on this path of life,

Yet still I stray in my thoughts and words

Away from truth to follow desires.

What is the draw?  Why do I wander?

What do I seek?  Is it my will or Yours?

Help me, I pray, to give up my wants

That which I hold too tightly in fear.

A fear that grips my heart in its clutch

From being in charge to loss of control,

Trying to make this destiny mine

Grasping tightly the threads of my life.

But what I’ve learned by following self

Is that I’ve missed the greater blessing

Of true peace found on giving control

To the One above who created me.

For He established the me I would be

And created all for His glory and praise.

He knew before time the steps I would take

And how He’d draw my heart to seek His.

My life is not my own to command

I owe my worth to One far greater

Giving Him reign o’er all I hold dear

Bringing praises to His name alone.

Then in Him I’ll rest in comforting peace

And patiently wait His answer to prayers

As He envelopes my soul with His love

And shines His light to glow from my heart.

~~

07/17/15