Instructions

The book "Great Awakening" by Jim Wallis is full of scripture references. I'm currently about half way through this book, and as I was reading it this morning, one of the cited verses caught my attention.

Perfect love casts out fear.

Even though it is a verse I'm well familiar with, reading it today made me pause...

A short while later, I was reading my Lenten devotional. It talked about laying in the grass, getting instructions from God, and concluded with a reference to the very same verse that had caught my attention earlier.

Lately, I've been hoping to get some instructions from God myself. I've been experiencing fear about my immediate future; the anxiety that's keeping me awake. So today, I did just what the devotional suggested. I lay down on some grass, beneath the warm California sun, on a slope overlooking the Los Angeles River. It's not the Sacramento River, I know, or even the Feather River, but it's the best we got here.

I lay there and waited. For instructions.

To be honest, I didn't expect any to come. I've been doubting lately.

However, after not very long, two words came to me. The first was love. No surprise there. The second word was understanding. That was a bit of a surprise.

I guess if I'm going to work on love, then I need to work on understanding. Specifically, understanding those I love and am called to love.

Those are my instructions for today, perhaps for this week. I'm working on them.