Discoveries

December 11, 2020 | Brian McCall

About the author: Brian and his wife Cynthia are active members at ZPC. Brian volunteers on the Worship Production Team on Sunday mornings. He became a grandpa this year and has another grandchild on the way!

THIS WEEK'S SCRIPTURE: ISAIAH 11:1-10

When Jerry threw down the 40 day challenge of meditation and study I was like “here we go again.” As often as I have tried, I simply can’t quiet my mind long enough to listen to God. You know the joke about getting distracted when a squirrel goes by? Well my mind is like the national breading ground for squirrels. It. Never. Shuts. Off. I also understand that quieting my mind is something (I’m told) that is necessary for growth in my walk with God. Maybe this time…

Fortunately, Jerry gave us a little formula: 5 minutes reading, 5 minutes meditating, 5 minutes journaling. He was even thoughtful enough to give us a verse. We began with Psalm 1, read it over and over. Ok, I can do this. 

Truthfully I was looking forward to it, I felt like I needed it. As I gave in to the process I discovered a few things. The first thing is I started memorizing the verse, something I’m patently awful at. And, as I meditated, my little squirrel sanctuary seemed to quiet down a little…a little. 

Another startling, and most gratifying thing I discovered was that as I was journaling, there were no squirrels at all. I was fully focused on that one thing; writing. Quite a revelation for me after 60 years. 

Then the request came to write something on peace as it related to Isaiah 11:1-10. When I read through that the first few times I thought they had either given me the wrong verse or the wrong theme. Hope and promise to be sure, even victory was evident in those verses. But peace was not the first thing I was drawing out of these passages.

About the 4th day I was ready to call the office at church and say they had made a mistake on the verse, but one more time I prayed and then DUH! Isaiah 11: 6 -7 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child shall lead them." This can’t happen if there isn’t peace. I couldn’t see it before but now I can’t NOT see it. I wouldn’t have discovered it if I hadn’t wrestled with it.

I’m over 3 weeks into the 40 day challenge right now and I’m honestly looking forward to it continuing. I’ve discovered it’s not as hard as I thought it would be. I’ve discovered that I start memorizing the verses I’m doing. I’ve discovered when I read verses several days in a row, new things in the same verse are revealed to me, and I’ve discovered my squirrels sleep when I write. 

But most importantly, even if only briefly, I’ve discovered peace. 

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