oops

so much for that whole Quaker thing. not only did i not post, but the #15 Pennsylvania Quakers lost to #2 Texas despite my showing up to work on Friday in Quaker garb. oh well.

i have had the chance to look at some pretty school verses recently, though, specifically while creating a lesson for Thursday night based on Rob Bell's "Rain" dvd. one of the things that really caught me (and has been affirmed in the rest of my life recently due to the welcoming weather) was how creation testifies to the God's presence. there's many verses in Psalms that mention this, but especially one that says "the heavens declare the glory of the Lord..." and then in Romans 1 it's reaffirmed saying that "men are withouth excuse" in their obliviousness to God because creation has declared his presence all along. i was recently reading on an atheist's website, and he posed the questions for converts of what was the final convincer, and one person responded that their final decision to change from being an atheist to a Christian was taking a science class and finally deciding that it was impossible for all of these "coincidences" to allow us to live, but that there must be a guiding plan.

another part that got me was talking about the word "cry". i did a search and found that it was all over the Bible. and then i started reading the places that it was showing up in and it was fascinating to me. because it seems like often when i've cried out to God recently that it's been somewhat silence. but his word promises that he actually is near the those who cry to him, that he draws close and comforts them. and this gave me a peace. maybe i'm crying to loud to hear his gentle whisper. i dunno. but i've got to believe that it's true that he's nearest in the midst of our pain, if we'll just realize.

so, yeah. these were some of my recent thoughts. i've also been thinking some about why is this so hard for me to do on a regular basis. and i realized that in some ways it makes some sense. any habit is hard to begin. any discipline takes some time to form. and so i'm gonna try not to beat myself up too much for missing, but i am going to keep trying to be faithful to this task. yeah.