to all who labor

It is good to become conscious to the sound of rainfall. It is good to become conscious and be completely at rest. My body was heavy with the weight of the sleep I needed so badly, but through the fog as I woke, I welcomed to sounds telling me I was conscious-alive.

Awake and nothing pressing me. Awake and nothing waiting to be done. Just rest. And rainfall.

God created rest for us. He worked for six days on his masterwork-on his creation-and on the seventh day he rested. I doubt he was weary from his work-He's God! But I think he rested because he knew it was, like all his creation, good. He knew that we, unlike him, would toil and strive and weary ourselves with work and worry and need rest, so as a gift of love he gave it to us. And then, because his love is infinite and beyond our understanding, he created rest to the sound of rainfall, rest in the warmth of sunshine, rest in the shade of a rustling tree.

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

a gift for you

One gift of pure love that God has given us is warmth. Think about it. Think about the sun on your face, the heat of a fire on a chilled night, stepping into a heated house on a icy day, taking a hot shower. What kind of a love He must have for us to cause him to give us such a gift! But he didn't stop there. He gave us the warmth of the sun on a beautiful day like today, and then as the sun begins to set and the chill begins to fall again I am able to feel the radiation of all the day's warmth, an echo and a replay, coming from the bricks outside the studio as I sit leaning up against them. This warmth is a gift of the purest, greatest love, solely for the joy of humans, I believe. It relaxes the muscles in my tired back, and I am able to feel the tension of a long day melt away. He gives good gifts, doesn't he?

Holding on

Great is Thy Faithfulness! Great is Thy Faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see.

Morning by morning. Sometimes this means greeting the sun at daybreak, sometimes it means working through the night to a new day, but there is great joy in finding each morning that no matter how you've come to it His mercies are new.

Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow

This is my prayer for this new day, my prayer for every new day. I honestly cannot make it through without His gift of strength each day and hope to carry me to the next. I feel like recently my body has been at war with me, screaming constantly in the background,

Sleep! Sleep! Sleep! Give up. Go to bed! Sleep!

I push its demands aside once more, and then again, to do one more thing, to study one more thing, to finish something well. But then if I stop moving, if I sit and rest, the force of the demand washes over me again. It is not as if I haven't been sleeping-I have, as much as can be expected in my current circumstances-it is just that I am in a place where weariness is a constant companion. I praise God for songs like this that speak truth and give me something to hold to until this time passes.

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. All I have needed Thy hand has provided, Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.