Therefore I have set my face like flint

The Sovereign LORD has given me His words of wisdom, so that I know how to comfort the weary. Morning by morning He wakens me and opens my understanding to His will.  Isaiah 50:4

I am the weary.  And yet somehow.  Every morning after morning, this Servant wakens me, and makes His word fresh. He opens my understanding to His will.  Perhaps it is because I am simple, or perhaps it is because I am truly weary, but the daily offering of manna is enough to sustain me.  The “What is it?” of His word, what is it that you want me to carry with me on this rock-strewn path today, just for today.  

Part of Jerry’s plan of developing me into a competent Executive Assistant is a daily reading assignment.  Yesterday’s reading was all about envisioning the future, writing down the next ten years and making it happen.  Really, this has not been my experience. Actually, it wasn’t the author’s experience either- and he full out admitted that there were only the faintest hints of his ten-year plan in his ten-year reality. Something inside me balks at the pat you-got-to-make-it-happen tone.  There is certainly a flat-out warning here as well about equipping yourself with your own burning torches. You shall lie down in torment.  Maybe that is all those sleepless nights when we spin our own ideas.  Kindling our own flames?  We get burned.    

But as for me, I marvel in amazement at the unexpectedness of life, the unforetold vistas that open up as I push through a particularly darkly shadow rift into the light, to an overlook of the valley and the clarity of hindsight.  

Therefore, I ask for my daily bread.  His will for today.  

Because I know that tomorrow morning, as I stumble out of bed, behold, there it will be again, upon the face of the wilderness, there will be something for me as light and fine as hoarfrost on the ground.  And it will sustain me.  And the morning after.  And the next.  For the next step.  The lamp unto my feet, hanging low, so that the next footfall holds true and steady.  

Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of His Servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.  Isaiah 50:10