Set Apart

You may better hear His voice.

Why? Come to the quiet to better discern the when, where, why, how, and for Whom we are set apart.

“Be still,” He calls. I am still, I listen. Stillness beckons, and in the whisper of the silence, there is buzzing. Literally, I hear a bee. Perhaps like a buzz around town, I am distracted. Momentarily, I only hear what is loudest round me.

In the quiet I continue, in the stillness, I am still.

As I sit porch-side, rooted deep before me are plants. They are still. Greenery opens unfolding like worship, poignantly reaching upwards. Appearing like a gift back to our Creator. I marvel. Towards the Son on high and in prayerful posture they reach; like the stillness after a storm, the plants remain rooted, not wavering from what it is they were designed for.

Their purpose is to give life to all those around. In obedience, they do just that, give life. It is an oxygenating performance not caught by the human eye. Unfold they do as they are set apart for a purpose much greater than their own.

Above me there is more buzzing. It consumes the airwaves round me. This time, it is not a bee but a plane. The sounds drift off in the fly by. Yet, I remain. I pray, “Stay me.” For a moment my thoughts wander into the wild blue yonder. “Stay me,” I pray again. “Oh, Lord, in Thee, stay me.”

As the stillness beckons, You know me by name; I am Yours.

“Be Thou my vision Lord, be Thou my guide,” I beg.

“God bless the day when my faith shall be sight,” I pray.

“Beggars though we are,” were the refreshing words poured out by Martin Luther upon his deathbed and John Paul II when he helped restore beggars upon the street to renewed hope in Christ.

Grace begets grace; unto Thee we fly and to Thee we come…sinful and sorrowful…Lord have mercy. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matt. 6:12).

In prayerful silence…in the stillness, prayer continues.  Amen.