Chapter One
Day 1Reaching for
His Hand
This is a crazy world.
TV ads for luxury SUVs and sports drinks bookend
stories of car bombings in Baghdad. A handicapped infant
is left to starve to death in a neonatal unit, while a couple
two thousand miles away search high and low to adopt a
child-any child. Millions of dollars are spent to protect
the eggs of birds on an endangered species list, while
human babies are aborted in the third trimester. Battered
wives paste on smiles as they dress for church. A preteen
girl writes in her prayer diary, "My daddy took away my
innocence last night."
It's all crazy.
I've seen the insanity and cruelty of man in places
such as Bucharest, Manila, Quito . Auschwitz.
The madness began in Eden, where man and woman
chose to part company with their Creator. Whenever man
gains control, chaos and darkness reign. It is insanity that
blights beauty, shatters peace, and brings hurt and injustice
and cruelty and neglect. It is an insanity that preys
upon the innocent and crushes dreams and quenches the
light of hope in young eyes.
But this is still "My Father's World."
He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass
I hear Him pass;
He speaks to me everywhere.
In His coming, the Lord Jesus hallowed this broken,
crazy world. He breathed earth's air and felt the warmth
of its sun and drank its cool water and walked its dusty
highways. Earth's soil drank in drops of divine sweat,
tears, and blood.
The Holy Spirit is here, the wise and gentle Counselor.
He speaks through His Word, and He shines through the
lives of countless believers all over the world.
It is a crazy world. We keep crazy schedules. Life
speeds by at a blur. The crazy waves of circumstance roll
over us, overwhelm us, threaten to drag us under.
Yet God is with us, no matter where we find ourselves
in life. Right in the middle of the insanity. And anywhere,
at any time, we may turn to Him, walk with Him, talk to
Him, hear His voice, feel His hand, and catch-even if
just for a moment-the fragrance of heaven.
Intimacy with God is an island of sanity in a sea of
confusion. It is a quiet place, and it is ours. Whenever we
look up into the face of our Father . whenever we reach
for His hand . whenever we quiet our spirit to hear His
voice . we have found a place of refuge and intimacy that
nothing in this crazy world can take away.
A Step Closer
God is our refuge and strength,
A very present help in trouble.
Psalm 46:1, nasb
Please pray with me: Lord, even though I face a busy day
(or have just lived through one!),
even though I find myself running from this to that,
from here to there, I still want to crawl into the shelter of
Your arms. Even though my life moves at a blur,
I want to still myself in Your strength.
I want to rest in Your protection and tender care,
even when I feel like I'm wrestling alligators.
I take refuge in You, Jesus.
This day, all day, and all days.
(Continues.)
