Back 'home'

After a few days away in Singapore, it was really good to see our landscape again......in Singapore, it's blocks and blocks of almost similar flats and then more of the same.....in the housing area where I was staying. i even went for evening walks and found, to my surprise and delight that there are many birds in the trees lining the streets. The public transport is cheap and efficient - a great blessing, gives one plenty of exercise and reduces the need to drive everywhere. Of course it is good to be back in a less congested area, though some parts of KL are getting overdeveloped.

I managed to have a couple of quiet days of 'vacation with the Lord' - a refreshing time that helped me refocus my gaze upon the Lord. It is just too easy to avert our gaze in the rough and tumble of daily life. This gazing upon the Lord and allowing him to gaze upon us is a spiritual discipline that does not bear quick fruit or solve problems, yet in the long run, the vine grows healthy and begins to bear good fruit that ripens in the Lord's timing. Compare the taste of tree ripened fruit to the artificially ripened type we usually get because it is 'quick and efficient'.

Awareness of the Lord's working in our lives is a slow proces. Our eyes, ears and all our senses need time to become attuned....sometimes it's very subtle - comes when we notice a change in our usual ways of reacting to people and situations. And the change happens without real effort (in a 'wilful' manner) but just naturally. That is grace.....His power at work within us (Eph. 3: 20), the Lord's answers to our prayers, if we would just notice and receive the gift.