Choosing Life

Today is an incredible day in California.  Spring is here in full force.  All the trees are budding, pristine white and pink, like curls of white chocolate, freshly shaved.  A warm breeze floats over hills, rustling the palm trees above my head.

Spring is here, but am I present enough to experience it?  Am I aware of the beauty and the wonder of life that surrounds me?

If I don't take time to truly see, the sun shines for nought and the trees bud in all their glory with no one to appreciate.  If I don't take time to truly hear, the bird songs are lost to the wind.  If I don't take time to experience, all this incredible beauty goes to waste.

And God, He tries to speak, but I shut my Bible too quick.  He whispers truths, but I turn on the noise of my daily tasks.  He beckons me to come and drink of His living water, but instead I start supper.  He points to the flowers, the hills, the birds, asking me to stop and meditate on His creation, but I hurry along to the store.

But there comes a point when I can no longer ignore His invitation to truly experience, truly live, truly worship.  His call pierces through the static like loons calling over the dark waters of my home away from home.

And I remember that I have a choice to turn off the static.  Each morning I have a choice, as Allie so aptly put it, to climb the mountain with God, or stay huddled at the bottom.  I have the choice to follow His voice in the direction of people, places, words, and feelings.  I have a choice.  So I choose, yet again, to turn off the static, to put away the clutter in my day, and to deeply experience life.

The thief comes only to steal and destroy.  I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly.    
- John 10:10