Here are the verses that have been rattling around in my soul all day. I woke up thinking about them. God's gift to me today I think. I journaled about the first verse ... and those thoughts are below as well.

HABAKKUK 2:1-4 / NEW AMERICAN STANDARD

1 I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.
2 Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision and inscribe (it) on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.
3 "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
4 "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith."

THOUGHTS ON v. 1 …

God, I've been standing at my "guard post" and remaining as attentive as I can be -- out on the "rampart" for a long time. And yes, I do know what "rampart" is. I looked it up in a dictionary. It means "a defensive wall of a castle or walled city, having a broad top with a walkway and typically a stone parapet." And a "parapet" is "a low, protective wall along the edge of a roof, bridge, or balcony."

Of course, all of this is a metaphor … a word picture to describe that for the past fourteen months I've invited You to be my defense – both in the things I have left behind, and in the new things I have reached out toward as potential new beginnings.

Along the way I've invited You to be the "spacious place" where I have found my breath and my bearings, and where You have serendipitously been my vision … pruning and refocusing me in just the right ways and t just the right times. And You have also been the "broad space" under my feet so that my ankles have not turned (PSALM 18:19; 36).

And from this position of safety and loved-ness, You are teaching me to see what You are up to with the eyes of an eagle ... and to hear what You are saying with the ears of an owl. I'll admit that not everything I have seen You do (in me and through me), and not everything I have heard You say (directly, through Your WORD and through the words of others) has been easy to accept.

Solomon said over and over again in his book of riddles and rhythms, that "a fool rejects instruction." And so out of a desire to not be a "fool" but also wanting to see the "meaning behind my experiences" You've taken me through, I have sought to remain teachable.

And so for granting me the joy of accepting Your will for my life, and for all that You have done and are doing for me, and in me, I am today, above all else, a man whose heart is grateful. I will BLOG on the other three verses of this passage in the next few days. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg