Letter 4478

There is a great stone set in a clearing near the edge of the village.

It serves so many functions: gathering spot, backdrop for an oration, shadow-caster on a hot day, play equipment as children clamber atop it.

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Is there anything to understand about this great stone, and how it does so much? Or shall we simply accept it and use it, each as we will?

Lord, let me accept the resources you have provided.

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Consider:

Can I accept what is around me, without trying to understand it all?

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Reading:

❖ “…capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” — John Keats, letter to George and Tom Keats, December 1817

❖ “The rose is without why; it blooms because it blooms, / It pays no attention to itself, asks not whether it is seen.” — Angelus Silesius, The Cherubinic Wanderer

❖ “The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner.” — Psalm 118:22 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4477

As I walk and walk these lands — what drives me to do so?

As I daily devote these hours to you, Lord — what drives me?

It is not desperation that impels me to walk so far, nor grasping for something found at the end of the journey.

Nor is it mere habit that drives me to my front room each morning to think on you and write of what I find.

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You are never far, I need only draw near, or try to, and you lean back in my direction.

These are my devotions, Lord, which draw me near to you.

Let me draw near.

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Consider:

Can I draw nearer to you today?

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Reading:

❖ “Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in thee.” — Augustine, Confessions

❖ “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to the pursuit.” — A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God

❖ “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” — James 4:8 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4476

I built a path through my garden, winding from the gate to the shed. I used a series of paving stones to create a steady walkway. This was just last month.

Today, already: explosive growth between the stones. It is as if they had been there for years, growing into the landscape.

Do I pull the weeds between the pavers? Or do I love the naturalness?

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Lord, let me see the miracle when you accept my humble offering into your lands.

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Consider:

Can I accept forces greater than myself today?

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Reading:

❖ “And for all this, nature is never spent; / There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.” — Gerard Manley Hopkins, “God’s Grandeur”

❖ “By means of all created things, without exception, the divine assails us, penetrates us and moulds us.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu

❖ “…and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself…” — Mark 4:27–28 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4475

A trickle, a stream, a river — water coursing through the land. Is the water in the creek I dip into the same as the lake, the rain?

All is washed clean, bit by bit and drop by drop. Sometimes in a rush of flood.

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Let me be washed clean, too, Lord. Let me abandon myself to your stream.

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Consider:

Can I let go?

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Reading:

❖ “Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it.” — Norman Maclean, A River Runs Through It

❖ “Father, I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will… I offer it to you with all the love of my heart… with boundless confidence, for you are my Father.” — Charles de Foucauld, Prayer of Abandonment

❖ “Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean…” — Ezekiel 36:25 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.