Moments with Mel: like David did.

Moments with Mel: like David did.

A dear soul wrote the following words on a red piece of stationary, in a short letter I’ve carried around with me for the last several months:

“Never doubt that your singular life is indeed a significant part of the big picture…”

I can’t pinpoint the month or the day this letter arrived in the mail, only that it has revived my spirit with each reading since.

“Make me to know your ways,

O Lord; teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me,

for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.”

[Psalms 25: 4-5]

Today, I’m encouraging you to pause. Slow down for just half-a-second in a fast paced world, to let these words wash over you like a cool refreshing rain in the midst of a dry hot summer. Your singular life is indeed a significant part of a bigger picture. In other words, put simply, you matter. Your story, your today, it matters.

Where you are, today, matters. Your choices, your response to life’s curve balls, your engagement with those around you— it all leaves a mark on this world and the people surrounding you.

Whatever yesterday held to bring you to where you are today is left in yesterday… it cannot be changed.

Be it days filled with happy, or be it days filled with shame. Today, is something entirely new. Today, worth living boldly, bravely, and with courage; is it not?

In the Psalm quoted earlier, King David [a man who failed forward on a regular basis, a man who murdered, a man who was consumed by lust, a man who knew sorrow & loss, a man who knew love, a man who was feirce– a man who loved God in the midst of every short coming, and a man God knew as his son]; is crying out to God from the depths of his desire.

I’ve been meditating on these words for quite while now and this is what I’ve come to believe, I think, David is a lot like us or rather we are much like him. He is praying from a place of needing to know there is a purpose; a place of needing to know He’s not been forgotten or abandoned. A place of surrender, for earlier he writes,

“To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust…” 

Maybe in our moment of pausing, and self reflection, we too should ask for a teachable spirit. May the eyes of your heart be enlightened to see— to read believing over and over again:

You are so loved.

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Learning to pray like David did:

 Father,

         You are so good. Your plans and your thoughts are higher than mine. I lift up my soul to you alone. O my God, in you I trust. Let my soul not be put to shame. Make me to know your ways, O Lord. Teach me your ways and lead me along the paths YOU would have me go. Lead me in your truth, as I surrender my soul to you. For you, Father, are the God of my salvation. Teach me how to wait well. Jesus help. Teach me how to wait actively with integrity, purpose, purity, and passion. Continue to teach me how to love you with my life. My soul, yerns to know you more. Remember your mercy and your steadfast love.

Amen.