When I awoke yesterday, it was there – the low unsettling in my stomach, signs of anxiety having stirred during a restless night’s sleep. Sitting in the quiet, ping-ponging between my Bible and the morning headlines out of the Middle East, the subtle imbalance attempted to fill the space within. In those times, the momentary battles for peace over fear, my best and truest weapon is always the vulnerable conversation of prayer. Knowing God is more familiar with my heart and thoughts than even I myself am, I wasted no pretense on my emotional wrestling match and simply asked, “Okay then, what do you want to say through this?” Almost immediately He responded faithfully in words and images- a prayer for the day- blanketing my anxiety in Hope and conviction. Hope for a world falling apart at the seams and conviction to love, serve and share my fresh passion for the land and people of Israel. I am clearly no expert of any proportion when it comes to the nation of Israel or the conflicts that have plagued it. I am not a political scholar, nor historian. I am just a mom, a wife, a friend, with a hunger to know and understand Jesus. That hunger led me to Israel. Now, I find myself in a position of having walked through and fallen in love with a land during what unbeknownst to us at the time, were her final days of temporary peace prior to this latest conflict. My unscholarly, hungry heart is compelled to pray and with honest hope, inspire others to the same.
This morning some friends are headed back to Israel, motivated by what I can only guess is a similar conviction I myself now carry for the people and places inescapable in my thoughts, my dreams, my prayers. As I thought of my friends and the week ahead of them, the idea came about to each day this week, in earnest and simplicity sit with God and ask again, “what is it you want to say to us today?” and then share His heart here. I honestly have no grand vision for this little experiment, just a blog and a desire to walk in obedient, bold humility. I would love for you (and any one you wish to invite) to join me this week in intentional prayer and study. Armed with simple prose and camera’s lens, I am one mom attempting to understand world affairs and God’s Word amidst pb&j-smeared counters and laundry; trusting and begging – God, Your Will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.
Day One:
For heads and hearts to clear
as blue sky following the rain
For Truth to rise up as a grove
from beneath centuries of stone
For Light to invade
falling across homes and lives
just as the rising sun illuminates the city at dawn
For Wisdom, strength, compassion and peace-
Return for us God, draw us quickly back to You.
Amen
