You're bound to get idears if you go thinkin' about stuff

Regocijaos en el Señor siempre. Otra vez lo diré: ¡Regocijaos! Vuestra bondad sea conocida de todos los hombres. El Señor está cerca. Filepenses 4, 4-5

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Philippians 4:4-5

The ache is very real. Steinbeck exactly captures the same questions of gratuitous injustice and inhumanity to man as the headlines in this morning’s newspaper chomped down alongside my bowl of oatmeal.  As declared by the LORD God to His people in Isaiah. And the call is to engage. To loose the bonds. To undo the straps. To break every yoke.

And this ache sort of saps all of the flavor out of that bowl of plain oatmeal and milk. With a banana sliced on top.

And I was talking to a friend last night how to make sure that El Camino didn’t just turn into a mountaintop experience. Or thirty or forty mountaintops, complete with quaint villages and picturesque farmhouses connected by swooping beautiful beaches.

And we are both moving into the last third of our lives. And what should that look like? Can we be intentional? Pause and consider? Pause and listen to that still quiet voice? That sweet Voice that has become more clear each day? And that is my prayer for this year, that His plan would be made clear.

We are not called to go quietly into the night, into the darkness, distracted and complacent. But neither am I called to angry judgmental finger pointing. And I read Ann Voskamp this morning. And her conviction to “keep writing it out here everyday, the words I am seeking to live — about this wondrously messy, everyday-holy life….about finding the beauty and quiet, about slowing to see the sacred in the chaos, Just listening – laundry, liturgy, life, — all of life, holy ground. A holy experience — because God has flaming bushes everywhere.”

And how am I to go about this life? With rejoicing. And reasonableness. Because His goodness is at hand. And thus it is a holy experience.

Sinners, take your shoes off.