Who do we want to lead us...a king or a hero?

Something to think about from the book of Samuel......When Samuel grew old, he appointed his sons as judges for Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second was Abijah, and they served at Beersheba. But his sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice. So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him, "You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have." But when they said, "Give us a king to lead us," this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD. And the LORD told him: "Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected Me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking Me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do." Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots … He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." When Samuel heard all that the people said, he repeated it before the LORD. The LORD answered, "Listen to them and give them a king." (1 Samuel 8:1-22) Thanks to Laura Hollis for her blog. To see her complete blog go to: http://townhall.com/Columnists/LauraHollis/2008/10/26/america_asks_for_a_king?page=full&comments=true

Where do you place your trust?

The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy,
he is the one you are to fear,
he is the one you are to dread,
and he will be a sanctuary;...

Isaiah 8:13,14

Be Still and Know, Who is God

Worship grounds me again in the real world of God's creation, dislodging me from whatever world I have imagined for myself. I have come to believe that when we despair of praise, when the wonder of creation and our place in it are lost to us, it's often because we've lost sight of our true role as creatures-we have tried to do too much, pretending to be in such control of things that we are indispensable. It's a hedge against mortality...a kind of comfort in being busy. The danger is that we will come to feel too useful, so full of purpose and the necessity of fulfilling obligations that we lose sight of God's play with creation, and with ourselves.
-Kathleen Norris

Do you feel as if life is meaningless?

We want life to have meaning, we want fulfillment, healing and even ecstasy, but the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not where we wish we were. We must look for blessings to come from unlikely everyday places-out of Galilee, as it were- and not in spectacular events, such as the coming of a comet.

-Kathleen Norris

Light

For with You is the fountain of life;
In Your light do we see light.
-Psalm36:9

New Life

Another school year is here. My daughter is off to college. She needed a table for her printer. Rather than buy, my husband used his carpentry skills to make one. The dark wood is from an 80 year old black walnut tree that that fell in our yard during a storm a few years ago. My husband had a friend cut up the wood into boards at his sawmill. Our majestic tree lives on.

Reflection of a Summer Day

The memory of the long day's glow remained at the door to keep the summer night from entering. -Haruki Murakami, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Happy Birthday West Virginia!

Yesterday evening my husband and I sat on the back deck watching my tall, burly 16 year old son, and his equally sized friend, toss the football back and forth, wrestle, and joke with each other. We were all enjoying the cool, clear evening. My son's friend, A., was wearing dress clothes left on from an appointment earlier in the day. His dress shirt was unbuttoned displaying a WVU Mountaineer t-shirt. A. has been known to proudly proclaim, "My family has lived in WV for generations." As the evening wore on, and my son and A. became tired, they proceeded to sit on the back swing filling up the entire seat with not an inch to spare. They rocked as if in a huge rocking chair, quietly talking. As they talked, A. turned up his I-pod for all to hear the song he was listening to ...."Almost Heaven, West Virginia....." West Virginians love their state -- all generations of them. Being a transplant, this is novel to me even after 20+ years. The loyalty and simplicity shown by A. was refreshing. So, West Virginia, have a wonderful birthday.

The path of life leads upward for the wise to keep him from going down to the grave.
Proverbs 15:24

If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. C.S. Lewis

Why do we live like we are going to be here forever? Why do we seek what cannot be with us for eternity?