May 10, 2011

5-10-11 Tuesday, 6:52 am Springfield, 74 degrees, cloudy.

We had a very smooth trip home yesterday. I am still amazed at modern air travel, being able to wake up on the west coast and go to bed in the Midwest. I know this has been possible now for 50+ years, and it is still a wondrous feat of modern engineering and public safety. Yesterday morning I did run 6.4 miles, going north on Santa Anna to Colorado, and west toward Pasadena (with no sidewalk). My longer runs in California have been very strong. I am tentatively planning to run the Disney Marathon in January, 2012.

Today there will be much catching up at the office, worship planning at 10:15, and our Life Group meets tonight. I am missing the gathering of large church pastors in Columbia, yesterday and today, an event that I helped launch 10 years ago. Given the trip to California, there was no way I could attend.

I Sam 8-9
Samuel has grown old, appointed his sons as judges, and the people demand that he appoint a king over Israel, so they can be led like the neighboring countries. When Samuel takes this to God in prayer, God tells him “they have not rejected you, they have rejected Me.” Samuel is then instructed to warn the people about the costs of having a king – sons drafted, crops taxed, daughters conscripted for service of the king. The people heard this, and still demanded a king.

God led Saul into contact with Samuel, while he was looking for his father’s lost donkeys. At God’s direction, Samuel prepares to reveal to Saul that he will be the first king of Israel. He tells him not to worry anymore about his father’s donkeys, they have been located.

Reflecting on these two chapters, I realize that people often fail to recognize the Lordship of God, and desire a physical, human leader. Today I reaffirm the presence, power and authority of God, in my life and in the affairs of humankind. As Saul went about his ordinary daily work, God was preparing him for something greater, that he could not see (and in which he would eventually stumble and fall in a tragic fashion). I must daily be conscious of the unknowable plans that God has for my life, and for each of us, as I go about the “regular” work of the day. Guide and lead me today, o unseen hand and ruler of the universe.