Have you ever tasted perfectly ripe wild blackberries, just picked from the vine?
Their sweetness and flavor are unrivaled by anything in the grocery store. Holding this basketful encouraged me, as God can grow sweet fruit among thorny vines along cement paths. He is growing good things in unexpected places of our lives!
I’ve been thinking about the sea, not only because I’ve been looking forward to an outing to our favorite beach, but because I’ve been thinking about a story that shows up in Matthew and Mark, where Jesus sends his disciples out on the sea in a boat without him. And they end up stuck in a storm far out at sea.
Is there an area of your life that feels like a storm you are stuck in, and it has been continuing a while?
It’s one of the moments I remember so clearly. I was driving in the car with a dear friend a few months after my father passed away. I had helped my mom sort through his office, deleted his cell number, wept when a military convoy drove by (he was career military), and had been processing “goodbyes” in countless other ways.
“Better is a handful with quietness…” caught my heart as I read Ecclesiastes. It speaks of contentedness, of saying “enough.” One hand is full, while there is still the reality of another hand that is empty. But the focus is on the “handful.” And by saying “enough” comes the gift of quietness and contentedness.
“Better is a handful of quietness, than two hands full of toil and striving after the wind.” ~Ecclesiastes 4:6 (ESV)
Live a Life of Love 