Welcome, May!

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The past few weeks have been stressful. Training new employees, dealing with difficult customers, not sleeping well, not exercising (I’ve gained 20 pounds in the last two years), getting through family drama (two life-threatening events in the same day, 2000 miles apart: my dad’s heart attack in NM and a 9 year grandchild starting the rest of his life with Type 1 Diabetes) . . .  My CrossFit lifestyle withered into oblivion when I lost my job at the University in 2020, as Covid got going. Deep depression brought me to a standstill as I took a few months to try to reset. Since then, my physical status has been on steady decline. Now my daily schedule looks something like this: Work 3-11 pm (on a good day), Go to bed at 4 am, get up between 10:30 am and noon, get booted up and go back to work. If I get one day off a week I’m fortunate. At least I don’t have to work all night for now. That was the worst.  So I haven’t had time or energy to do much, even read, much less write. And since my

As if by sea

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"Just as at sea those who are carried away from the direction of the harbor bring themselves back on course by a clear sign, so Scripture may guide those adrift on the sea of life back into the harbor of the divine will."

(St. Gregory of Nyssa, b. 331? - d. 396?)

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"Many years ago, F. B. Meyer was returning to England from northern Ireland by ship. It was night, and as the ship was entering the harbor, nothing was to be seen but a confusing array of lights. Dr. Meyer was concerned as to how the captain could hope to navigate into the harbor safely at night in such a confusing jumble of lights, and said so.

The captain called him up to the bridge and said, 'You see, Sir, it’s really very simple. I’ll show you how. Do you see that big light over to the left? And do you see that other big light over there to the right of it? And now, do you see that outstanding light further still this way? Well now, keep your eyes on those three lights and see what happens.'

Dr. Meyer did so. The big outer light on the left gradually moved in until it coincided with the middle one. Then, as the ship veered further, that light gradually merged into the third.

'There now,' said the boatman, 'All I have to do is to see that those three big lights become one; then I go straight forward.'

Even so, when the Word of Scripture and the inward urge of the conscience and the corroboration of outward circumstances become one, we need have no fear. We may go straight ahead. God’s will is clear."

(J. Sidlow Baxter, "Does God Still Guide?")

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