Life Happens in Small Things

     So far this morning I have enjoyed my early quiet time with God.  And, in the moments, I found a meaningful verse in Psalms 127 of  The Message version.  "It's useless to rise early and go to bed late, and work your worried fingers to the bone.  Don't you know He enjoys giving rest to those He loves?"  In our busy schedules, we often forget to simply take life as it comes and enjoy the moments of the day.
     It is interesting that just after completing my Bible reading, I picked up the book, When I Relax I Feel Guilty, written by Tim Hansel.   I could not help but underline the following sentences:
     "Learning to let life happen rediscovers the importance of small things.  It relishes childlike joys of the everyday wonders of being alive...If you cannot do great things for God, do small things in a great way...Can you find joy in a paper cup of time or a thimbleful of love? ...Each day is a gift...Each breathe is a gift...Sing because you have a song....The mark of a believer is not only love, but joy, wonder, appreciation, surprise, creativity, peace, tenacity, hope, simplicity, and even play."
     Wow! Here were 2 pages chopped full of restfulness.  It is the kind of rest God wants us to enjoy.
We don't have to rise early or go to bed late to find it; we just need to find a few carefree moments of the day to open our eyes and see and open our ears to hear.  By doing so, we can discover, in the words of Tim Hansel, "more of ourselves, of life, and of God."   We can truly seize the day!
     Beginning the chapter of Let Life Happen, Tim further provides the quote by Walt Whitman, "To me, every hour of light and dark is a miracle, every inch of space is a miracle."
     I truly give God the credit for every hour of light and darkness and every inch of space.  I praise God that I don't have to rise early or go to bed late to find the miracles of life, and I thank Him for giving me rest and a song in my heart. 

A Real Christian

     While reading "When I Relax I Feel Guilty" by Tim Hansel, I came across a quote by A. W.Tozer.  Since it is struck me as unusual but true, I decided to share it.

"A real Christian is an odd number, anyway.  He feels supreme love for One whom he has never seen; talks familiarly every day to Someone he cannot see; expects to go to heaven on the virtue of Another; empties himself in order to be full; admits he is wrong so he can be declared right; goes down in order to get up; is strongest when he is weakest; richest when he is poorest and happiest when he feels the worst.  He dies so he can live; forsakes in order to have; gives away so he can keep; sees the invisible; hears the imaudible; and knows that which passeth knowledge."

How many of us can say we are "real Christians" daily or do we admit to being "almost" Christians?