So after a long Elder’s meeting last night, I got to bed too late to do the usual routine–up at 4:40 a.m. to head to the gym to workout–but I was awake at 5:00 anyway, so I headed downstairs, made a cup of coffee and settled in for a bit of prayer time. The church is in the final stages of selecting a new preaching minister after having interviewed 3 strong candidates, and the church is engaged in a prayer vigil for guidance and wisdom. My sense is that God is assuredly working in the process, but not always the way we think, nor for the purposes that we have in mind.
Around 6:15, I headed to the coffee shop and did what I haven’t done in months.
I took a walk.
Two years ago I discovered Spring. This year I almost missed it, but this morning I saw that Spring was well and good, and the slow observance of daffodils and tulips and front yards and houses for sale did my spirit a world of good. I’m headed for Chicago this morning and then on to Cincinnati on Thursday. I’m looking forward to the break in routine…as I said yesterday, the pace of life and ministry is very much on my mind. This morning’s turn around a few neighborhood blocks affirmed my intuition, that time to breathe and reflect and sip and pray is critical.
For me, deep will always be better than wide.
Slower steps…
JEFF BERRYMAN 
Psalm 46:10 tells us to, “Be still and know that I am God.” The entreaty to “be still” is a good one, for we fill our lives with other voices, often worldly sounds, not of the kingdom, but instead the product of our own agendas in our human efforts to please Him. It’s comforting to know that a simple (sometimes literal) walk with the Master trumps all of that.
As a photographer, you know that to open the lens aperture wide, you limit your focus to one very specific place, a detail revealed within the frame of, but separated by selective focus from, the busy world around it. And single, revealed details often create the most potent images. Sometimes we simply need to open the lens of grace wide in the same manner for awhile to focus on, and accept his potent presence revealed in the magnificent detail of a daffodil or tulip, the vast expanse of the Grand Canyon or simply the warm, infinite embrace of his spirit on a long overdue morning walk.
In my case he chose to place me on the lake in a canoe a couple of times over the past few days … the first time I’d been out there in about a year and a half, even though I live only 100 yards from the water! I think I’ll take my own advice and revisit the Psalms this morning …
Blessings!