Ache (Continued)

This morning I was up early praying through the thoughts that I laid out in my last post, and I felt compelled to clarify one point. I really should get better at writing a post & then saving it as a draft, re-reading it the next day & THEN posting it. Sometimes I write as I think and so my words and thoughts probably aren't always as clear as I'd like them to be. Add to that that many people who read this blog have never met me in real life, so they don't know my heart completely, so maybe things come across differently than I meant them to be taken.

So my point of clarification:

I said "So much of what we do is meaningless." I was not referring to my duties and responsibilities as a wife and mother. I do not find those things meaningless. In fact, I find great fulfilment in them. I was however referring to all the clutter in my life (things that don't bring God's Kingdom to earth...things of this world) Those things in our life that don't draw anybody closer to Jesus--myself included. I have really been convicted to start weeding out those things in my life that are meaningless. So that is what I meant, for whatever it is worth.

As I was praying this morning, and searching God's Word about this subject of ache & of longing for our permanant home and such I was drawn to this Scripture:

3We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.... 15Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2:3-6, 15-17)

Such a good reminder--if I claim that I live in Him then I should be walking as Jesus walked. Can that be said of me? The world & it's desires pass away. I need to always be striving to live more simply.

I was on the blog of another family that we traveled with when we went to Ethiopia to bring Jane home. She had posted a poem that struck me so deeply. It goes so well with this subject that I'm thinking through & definitely had to share it. I pray it stirs your soul like it has done for mine.


DISTURB US
A Prayer by Sir Francis Drake (1540-1596)

Disturb us, Lord,
When we are too well pleased with ourselves,
When our dreams have come true
Because we have dreamed too little,
When we arrived safely
Because we sailed too close to the shore.

Disturb us, Lord, when
With the abundance of things we possess
We have lost our thirst
For the waters of life;
Having fallen in love with life,
We have ceased to dream of eternity
And in our efforts to build a new earth,
We have allowed our vision of the new Heaven to dim.

Disturb us, Lord,
to dare more boldly,
To venture on wider seas
Where storms will show your mastery;
Where losing sight of land,
We shall find the stars.
We ask You to push back
The horizons of our hopes;
And to push into the future
In strength, courage, hope, and love.