Three Things I Liked This Week

How did the landscape of your soul expand this week? And where did you notice beauty and goodness?

I had to limit myself to three instances. Here they are:

First: Pianist James Quinn does it again! This time with his piece “Golden Meadow.” Listen, linger, and enjoy!

Second: R. S. Thomas’s poem “The Face” sent my thoughts into motion on the theme of persevering in ministry. Though it’s a bit cryptic (as are nearly all of his poems), much of his work centers on the farming community where he resided in Wales.

The following section stirred some reflections for me:

When I close my eyes, I can see it,
That bare hill with the man ploughing . . .

 

He is never absent, but like a slave
Answers to the mind’s bidding,
Endlessly ploughing, as though autumn
Were the one season he knew.
Sometimes he pauses to look down
To the grey farmhouse, but no signals
Cheer him; there is no applause
For his long wrestling with the angel
Of no name. I can see his eye
That expects nothing, that has the rain’s
Colourlessness. His hands are broken
But not his spirit. He is like bark
Weathering on the tree of his kind.

• “Endlessly ploughing”
• “no signals cheer him”
• “his long wrestling with the angel of no name.”

Those powerful expressions capture the difficulty of persevering in any endeavor, especially when encouragement or recognition are absent. The question I’m asking myself is: Do I have the spiritual stamina to persevere in the often-hidden work of love and prayer? 

Third: Again, I appreciated Coleman Ford’s words on using Scripture to inform our prayer life:

Rather than saying the same old things about the same old things, take a passage of Scripture and pray through it . . . . If the text speaks to God’s faithfulness, ask that God help a friend who seems to be wandering from the faith. If the text speaks to the life of Christ, ask the Spirit to recall a family member or friend who doesn’t yet know Jesus. If the text speaks to suffering, ask God to bring comfort to a church member who is battling cancer. And so on. Let the text guide your prayer life as you read the text. Your Bible reading and your prayer life can work together to uncover greater depths of spiritual treasures (147–148).

Amen to that.

What about you? How did God capture your attention this week?