post surgery 3

Yesterday marked 3 weeks post-op. People who know me are amazed at the quick recovery - no walker, not even a cane and even fertlizing the lawn. Praise the Lord! If you were one of the pray-ers, thanks. The only challenge now is to get the narc out of my system. I sleep for an hour or two and then am up. It's 3 a.m. as I write. Been up for two and a half hours - on my birthday even!

Being horizontal for a while, I've had the opportunity to meditate and learn more deeply the journey of walking with God. As I've mentioned before, I had a real sense of God's presence when I didn't do a thing. This ol' performance-oriented N.D. farm boy just quit all the disciplines of the spiritual journey. It was like God said, "Ray, let's just hang out together. No performance needed on your part. Your your structure and disciple has become burdensome. Give it up." A sense of His presence was palpable.

Of late, I've sensed the need to as Foster and Beebe say in their book,Yearning for God, "create habits that incline me to look for God." And to create these habits in a non-burdensome way. Spiritual disciplines of study, prayer, reading and memorizing Scripture, service to others, solitude, silence, fasting, involvement with an encouraging accountability group and the choice to "die daily" to demands of my flesh - all are ways of creating habits that incline me to looking for God. As this inclination deepens, I prevent the lack of knowledge of God that leads to a lack of love for God.

Larry Crabb has an intersting slant to the topic. "Communion with God is less about feeling God than revealing God. My focus needs to shift away from experiencing God through spiritual disciplines toward expressing His sacrificial nature in how I relate to people. I experience the very essence of God and enjoy fellowhsip with HIm every time I relate to my wife and family and friends in a way that visibly expresses His relational nature of love."

Something to think about and consider.

By the way, my wife and I feel the need to spend more time with grandkids. To that end, I'm selling my pictured Solstice so that we can buy a truck to pull an RV. Do you know of anyone who would possibly be interested in the car? Let me know at rburwick@mindspring.com.