Thank you Lord for reminding me how few of my thoughts are married to wisdom.  Your ways are like the passing of the sun.  We feel its warmth incredibly from nearly a hundred million miles away, perfectly positioned to sustain our lives, though we rarely stop to consider its awesomeness.  You gave us a dependence upon sun, water, fire and earth such that few can survive without them.  Light, thirst, cold and sand leave us longing for our next drink, sight or planting.  These things represent a dependence upon you Father for without these things we cannot survive, how much more is this true about relationship with You.  Forgive me for taking Your Love and Grace for granted even for a moment.

I may suspect why You have chosen to wait for those holdouts, resisting Your truth to the end and beyond, but I do not truly understand.  Your Love is beyond me.  They have mocked, forgotten, dismissed, disobeyed, ignored, threatened, resisted and thwarted Your directions, yet You still wait with hope of their repentance.  You direct us to go to them with peace, love and sometimes recrimination, knowing that they may hit us with rocks or worse yet.  Must I mirror their disobedience by telling You, No, I shall not go to them proclaiming need for repentance?  Lord help me to respond immediately and positively to Your every direction.  For if You find them worthy of patience and every attempt though it even cost my life, I pray that I should love them enough to repeat Your message.  Teach me to forgive even before offense has occurred.  For the offense is not aimed at me but rather at You Father, therefore any judgment should be Yours.

If I may be an example or a pylon indicative of Your existence let it not be portrayal of resistance to Your Will.  Let unbelievers see only the delight that accompanies willing obedience to Your Plan.  I often must remind them they are worthy of love for this world has cruelly convinced them that they are not lovable.  You have loved them Father and that is enough for me.  What is the nature of hope that it confounds circumstances?  How do we as men rise to the level of believing when all worldly and scientific reason commands us to abandon reliance upon faith?  The answer, we do not fold ourselves into common thought just because it makes us acceptable to man.  I am not different to exercise some rebellious right of passage by bucking the trends of smarter men.  I have met God in my heart and I realize my place in the universe as servant, son, priest and warrior.  The tasks set before me have been given me by the Lord.  Loving you is the greatest thing I will ever do.  Thank You Lord God for that opportunity.

In Jesus Name.