For Today By Elisa Morgan
There are days when my heart can't find the momentum to write. Or speak. Or think much really. When I'm not exactly depressed or stuck, but I'm not flowing with creativity and inspiration. Like today. My sweet husband and I stole up to the mountains for a few days of "awayness" and now, returning, I find a blog is due and my being is still "away" rather than here, to offer hope and help. Likely, you relate? You've shoved the piles around as long as possible and now there are piles upon piles. You've ignored the emails blowing up your inbox from your child's school because the decision just wasn't clear as to whether you should send them back or not - or what - and now the deadline is TODAY. You're just bone tired from coping with the uncertainty of how you will manage your own job if they don't go back to school. And you really need your job. You try oh-so-hard to get up every day and choose joy but today that attribute doesn't even seem to be on the multiple-choice list of options right now. It's as if "joy" has been erased. Or put in a hard-to-reach cupboard. Another family birthday hovers on the calendar and you're fresh out of creative virtual alternative celebration ideas. You miss Girls Night Out and MOPS and book club and Bible Study and church. And as all-about-you as it sounds - or really, as it actually is - you'd give anything to sit in a darkened movie theatre and escape the unrest of our world for a few hours. Yeah. Me too. So, let's do what God often beckons us all to do when we are weary and heavy-laden. Let's turn to him, for the first time, or the millionth time! As you read this, maybe it will help to even physically stand up and turn around. Then we can release what we're carrying - tighten the muscles in our hands and then open them, as a reminder of our release. Now, instead of carrying it all ourselves, let's bow our head and shoulders, and bend under his yoke and burden - the one that he promised would be easy and light! A friend sent a prayer from St. Augustine that expresses my vacant heart and I share it with you as God's provision for me in this moment and likely, for you as well. For today: God of our life, there are days when the burdens we carry chafe our shoulders and weigh us down; when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies gray and threatening; when our lives have no music in them, and our hearts are lonely, and our souls have lost their courage. Flood the path with light, raise our eyes to where the skies are full of promise; tune our hearts to brave music; give us the sense of comradeship with heroes and saints of every age; and so quicken our spirits that we may be able to encourage everyone who journeys with us on the road of life, to your honor and glory. -Saint Augustine
Elisa Morgan is the cohost of the new podcast, God Hears Her. She is also the cohost of Discover the Word and contributor to Our Daily Bread. Her latest book is When We Pray Like Jesus. Her other books include The Beauty of Broken, Hello, Beauty Full, and She Did What She Could. Connect with Elisa @elisa_morgan on Twitter, and @elisamorganauthor on Facebook and Instagram.
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