Ageless Gazer

Psalm 56 has been my companion this week as we raced down highways and byways doing our best to get from point A to point B, and then at point B do the tasks required so we could get from point B back to point A at a reasonable hour to have a life (just the thought of all that wandering wears me out!) In that racing there were "snapshots of the heart" that captured my meditations... and one I will carry to you for the soul's purpose of reflection and possible vision redirection.

Psalm 56:8 - "You can recall all my aimless fluttering "to and fro" like a tale that is told; you must put my tears into your bottle, are they not already in your book?"

Ageless Gazer, that is what I will call him. We were watching yellow and white lines flip by with the miles as we passed by him. There he stood alongside of a dilapidated, ivy vine-overrun-shack of a house, that almost bled over onto the highway. Ear muffed hat (one muff up -one down); tattered, lined jean jacket that was improperly buttoned(possibly because of a button loss); roughed up jeans hanging at different leg lengths as they oddly draped a pair of big open clod-hopper type of boots ....he just stood there... he just stood staring to the East, to the sun rise, with a smile on his face.

"What good is he to you God, and what grand purpose is he performing for the Kingdom? He appears to have no plan, no forward movement, no lasting accomplishments with exception of his world that he stands in - that was falling down all around him." "If he has surrendered all then he should be busy ministering to everyone he comes in contact with."

The blush that I felt overcoming me caused tears to blurry my vision, and my heart beat sounded louder than the driving music in the car. I discovered "that heart" within me which is so desperately wicked and momentarily scorned my thoughts. I found my self cruelly thinking thoughts of human worth devaluation until the Spirit cried out to my spirit -- "His value is in the fact that I love Him, and he loves me! What does it matter to you?"

There is such a strong desire to see God in His people, that leaders and peers will add pressure to that already overarching ache ...Too much trying, too much crying, too many plans, too much practice, too much performance, too many promises...all from the brokenness of our lives. Our hope in this grand endeavor: that the Comforter will be made welcome and comfortable because of us (this almost borders obscene). It is all that we can do to make it appear that we are OK to strangers and with a little more effort... to each other.

We have yet to realize the power vested in us, though we are clay vessels. Common earthen vessels, broken in the fact that life as we know it chips at us day by day. But here is the awesome unseen reality of God's plan ... as we decrease, He increases ... as we realize our weakness, He reveals his strength ... As we wait, He works ... As we humble our selves, He lifts us up. Our value is found, and stabilized by His Word... in the fact that Jesus Loves us. We love him because He first loved us.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the real power of a man's life that affects eternal change, is based on the times of anonymous Godly living in an ungodly world, that is fueled by his soul desired secret moments to intimately know his God. Events that have changed the course of spiritual history have not been wrought by the strong faith actions of Godly men and women, but by the fragile dependence of the spiritually battered on the gracious intervention of an Almighty God.

Ageless Gazer, I did not know that you were offering your last words of supplication that brought us protection on the highways and safe passage to our home. Ageless Gazer ... without a word and only your passing image am I challenged to let God love me more.

Walk with God, First ... "O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee, my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee; in a dry and thirst land where no water is." - Psalm 63:1

HLFA,

Jeff