I never doubted Father’s presence during the difficulties of this past year, and I never questioned whether or not He had made the trip to my retreat site. But the frustration and panic in my heart were about blindness to Father’s grace. He was faithful to stand beside me during the challenges and the tumult of my striving, pushing, shoving, and driving during the early days of my retreat.

Why?

He was waiting for an opportune moment to reveal His grace against a backdrop I would comprehend. I was never apart from His grace, for He was always present, but glimpsing what it means to relax into Him allows me to be a partaker of His grace momentarily and eternally.

As the Old Testament brothers who have gone before me often did, I bent down beside Malden Creek and picked up a stone of remembrance to add to my collection of reminders. The rock, labeled and dated, is in a bowl in our dining room.

So how about you? How long has it been since your heart relaxed in the midst of the striving around you?

Instead of resolving to follow hard after God, I encourage you to consider that God is following hard after you. As is my experience, if you’ll just stop and wait, I think you all will run into one another in fairly short order.

And as is my custom, an unabridged version of these thoughts follows tomorrow at PrestonGillham.com.