The time before sunrise is most beautiful. Still. Just right for quiet conversations. I know others are awake but it feels as if it’s just me and heaven. The words of a song I haven’t listened to in ages has come through my brain’s theta waves.
A satisfied mind is hard to find
Be still
I want you to know
No money can buy yourself some time
Be still
I want you to know
What the Lord of life has in mind
I listened to A Satisfied Mind on repeat one morning as I led a group of about 15 college students on a leadership retreat. They were from different schools throughout Georgia and East Tennessee. They trusted that a weekend together would be worthwhile.
A bit after sunrise, I walked around the motel in which we stayed, probably wanting both exercise and clarity. Have I ever been 100% at peace after planning an event? Probably not. I needed to know everything would be okay.
Pretty sure it was 2015. I’d been holding the event each fall at our regional church camp because we could all fit between three very comfortable chalets and the camp grounds were serene. But once the largest of the chalets (where we had all our programming) was no longer available for events, I switched to a motel in a different city. And while I’ve never loved entering my room from the parking lot, this motel was pretty okay and also close to our free-to-use meeting spot. I walked around the parking lot listening to Jamila Silvera sing and hoping that everything I’d planned would work.
Satisfaction often feels beyond my reality, as if maybe I’d have it if I…
And those ellipses lead to nothing fruitful.
Meanwhile, the Lord of life has the divine ability to calm my heart in spite of the to-do lists in my yellow journal, DC traffic, idea processing fatigue, and forgetting to wash my kids’ white uniform shirt earlier in the week instead of the night before they need them. And no, I don’t want to buy them extra white shirts coz those suckers are expensive.
I want you to know what the Lord of life has in mind
The Lord of life has good things in mind. They are enough for the day, sufficient in all the ways we need them to be.
Here’s to another brand new morning.