Today’s scripture: Psalm 119:105–120 (NRSV) (The Message) (KJV) What might God be saying to me?
My thoughts (Keith Phillips):
Several years ago, I went on an all-day silent retreat at the Our Lady of Fatima Retreat House. I read the Bible; I wrote in my journal; I followed the Stations of the Cross through the woods near Cathedral High School. In the middle of the afternoon, as I finished walking the labyrinth, I looked down and there was a broken piece of blue plastic at my feet. I was surprised that I hadn’t noticed it before. Thinking that I’d throw it away, I searched for a trash can, but then I realized that there was a word stamped into the plastic: Embark.
It doesn’t happen often, but I love it when I get a word from the Lord so clearly. I was on this retreat for a reason. I was very worried about my two twenty-something children. Geoffrey, who has autism and moderate mental retardation, had just moved into a group home in New Albany, and it wasn’t going so well, to say the least. Linley had moved in with a boyfriend who obviously had no future. Then there was my ministry as a hospice chaplain, which I loved, but after buying my first home it was hardly paying the bills.
I put that blue piece of plastic on my desk; and every once in a while, I’d pick it up and say/pray, “Okay, Lord, I’m ready, willing, and able to embark. Just point me in the direction and I’ll go.” But nothing. No sense of a destination, no sense of a destiny. I felt like I was simply continuing to plod along.
That is, until the other day when thinking about Psalm 119:105: “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.” Over the years, I’ve come to understand that lamp, that light as providing illumination only for my next step or two. By faith, not by sight, God’s Word has never given me a full picture of the journey, only where God wants me to go from here. Goodness gracious, I’m nowhere close now to where I thought I’d be 20, 30, 40, 50 years ago. But I assure you that I’m pretty close to where God has wanted me to be. And it’s because by faith, not by sight, I’ve taken the next step as revealed by that “lamp unto my feet.”
When I pick up that piece of blue plastic, it makes me realize how far I’d come/how much I’d grown, step by step. I remember a time a few years back when I picked up the piece of blue plastic, I thought, “I never trusted God so much as I have with regards to my son Geoffrey – he has had stability at his group home and is showing signs that he is beginning to thrive. “Then my daughter Lindley met a fine young man whom she married.” Today I am retired, have a grandchild, and live a blessed life.
I didn’t realize it, but I had embarked, I had moved forward, I had grown spiritually, a step at a time with the light that God granted me. It’s this journey that takes me to God’s destination.
Thought for the day: “Come to the Light, ‘tis shining for thee! / Sweetly the Light has dawned upon me; / Once I was blind, but now I can see; / The Light of the world is Jesus!”
We encourage you to include a time of prayer with this reading. If you need a place to get started, consider the suggestions on the How to Pray page.