A Blessing

I rarely read at night, especially when I'm tired, but I'm glad that last night was different. Last night, I read one of my favorite Christian authors: John Eldredge. Besides his openess into his own struggles as a man, besides the insight he provides to others regarding their heart connection to that of the Master's, and besides what he offers to those on the masculine spiritual journey, the thing I might like best about Eldrege's work has nothing to do with the quality of the work itself, but the impecable timing with which I chose to read it. So, in Walking with God, one of his more recent books, I read last night about the time that he(Eldredge) had discovered a great little brook, rarely fished. So, he decided to go back. He took his fly rod and hiked up the Bear River to find another portion of this brook that he desperately wanted to fish again. He decided to fish the Bear River along the way, and with his first cast caught a 13 inch rainbow trout, followed by catch after catch of about half a dozen or so fish, but always fixated on the brook he was making his way to. To his great disappointment he discovered that the portion of the brook he'd found which dumped into the Bear was to rapid for good fishing. He'd missed the joy of the good fishing that had been given him on the path while he focused on a dream really of a brook that offered nothing at all.

Back to what I was saying about timing, yesterday, I spent a lot of time online. God, I hate that word sometimes. Online... does it sicken anyone else the way it sickens me? Yeah it's helpful, but it's so vast and so...distracting. To me, it's the pinnacle of being offline from the rest of life. I spent all day looking for apartment ads, and I found many that intrigued me. By the time I read one, a dozen more were posted on craigslist.org. I couldn't help wondering if I was walking the cart before the horse. And pardon me, but can anyone tell me just which does come first, the chicken or the egg? My intentions were pure and even just: be not a burden to the family you are staying with. Sounds good right? Almost... godly? But what it translated into was me running like a chicken with it's head cut off, never mind what happened to the egg as I let it roll out of the basket, down off the counter and onto the floor. Splat! I met God in prayer with a question on my heart. Am I setting myself up to miss the joys of the journey on my way to the destination God? Do you want me to stay here with these people, the Curleys, while I adjust to the biggest move of my life? Do you really care that much?

Before he left today, Bob told me not to feel as though I had to get my own place right away. In fact he encouraged me to stay. "This move is bigger than you probably realize, and I've made that move before." Wow. Did I even say amen yet before receiving my answer? I'm not a burden at all. So often, the voice in my ear tells me, "Don't be a burden to anything or anyone." Rush through life and grab the answers in the fast lane; maybe grab a little happy meal quip on your way past the drive through of life. I want a feast! God's telling us to give Him the burden; He insists on it. Yet my response so often is just to march to the sea, wade in, and hope that He'll rescue me...And he does. This time though, He stopped me in my tracks, and thank God for my plans being thwarted. Now I can hurry up and relax. Take a train ride today, learn my way around, make it more my home, look for work, see what happens, and most of all, enjoy the ride.
Cheers, mates!

First Day in California

So, not a whole lot to say about yesterday except I made it safely as planned without losing any luggage. I wasn't at the baggage claim more than five minutes when I turned around and saw my name in black and white on a small piece of sign board, held by Pastor Bob Curley himself. Smart cookie that man, because I hadn't even saved his cell phone(turned out to be his home number that I had). That served as a further reminder of God's amazing grace, even in the minutia of life, in the wake of my dropping the big details. Anyway, he picked me up with his son Tom, and we took a quick detour so that I could see the Pacific Ocean on my first day in the city. Tom's a good resource on how to be where you need to be and not be where you never want to be(that's kind of catchy, song anyone?) I have pictures from the flight and the sand and surf, and when I figure out how, I will attach them to the blog or email them if it's faster. Actually, I'll give you a link to my shutterfly, and you can see them there.

http://joshuadavis.shutterfly.com/

I've decided that mornings will be my blogging/devotional and prayer time. People here rise at about 6 on, so it's fairly easy for me to get up and do my thing right after.

That's all for now.

jD