The Springing of Spring
Make It Count

Digging Deeper in an Emergency

 

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What is emerging from this frenzied emergency?

Is it focused action built upon predetermined objectives, rooted in enduring principles? Or is it reactive and mindless flailing after perceived winds of crisis?

Is it urgent? If so, what is the source of the urge? Is it essential? Then of what is it the essence?

Things are not always as locked in as they seem. This is the soil in which I will prayerfully dig at the crest of a new day. Perhaps I will hit bedrock and build my day on that. Perhaps I will still be digging at midnight. If so, there will be hope for a fruitful tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going for today.

God is with us as we think and that awareness lays the foundation of prayer. It is bringing God into our thoughts, though He is never far off, and thinking in concert and conversation with God. Prayer focuses us and directs us as God grounds us.

With enough prayer, we can know our urges, sort them, trust them, and be guided by them without allowing them to rule us.

With enough prayer, essentials will be discerned more clearly based upon the essence of what and who we are in relationship with Him who is eternal in nature and purpose.

With enough prayer, something enduring and purposeful will emerge from each emergency in profound contrast to the knee jerk reactive thinking of our precarious times.

With enough prayer, we will waste less time and accomplish more than we thought we could.

So, while there are no guarantees of immediate results, I am going to dig a bit in prayer, assured that the emergency is just part of the process of something being born through me and may not be what it seems on the surface.

DIG:

D = Dig for DEFINITION. If we can't name it, we can't claim it. If we can't wrap our minds around it, we need to keep seeking. Definitions must be held loosely in our hands and minds, but even a tentative definition of our issues can focus our attention on positive outcomes. It can also help us sort through the fluff that tends to dominate and waste less time, energy, and resources on lesser goals.

I = Dig for INSIGHT. Just as there may be far more dark matter in the universe than known and observable matter, there is far more that we are yet to know than we now know and far more that we will never know in this life than is possible to grasp. However, a glimmer of insight into ourselves, our times, other people, and the meaning of our circumstances through the knowledge of the Holy Other can catapult us to far better decisions today than the ones we made yesterday.

G = Dig for GRATITUDE. When prompted by crisis to act and act now, focus often diverts to self-interest and survival. We might be very successful at survival while utterly failing at the purpose of our survival. We have lived another day without really living at all. We have added nothing to our world. Real accomplishment is rooted in gratitude for what has been given. Gratitude is the human response to divine grace. It receives, gives, and gives thanks. It loosens our belts without letting our slacks fall to our socks. It relaxes us while it energizes us. The attitude of gratitude seasons our legitimate and holy discontent with enough flavor to make our work palatable and productive. If I am having difficulty being grateful at the beginning of this day, I just need to dig a little deeper.

So that is what I. have been given this day to direct my day.

 

 


Picture Credit: “DIG IT!” by Paul Irish is licensed under CC BY 2.0

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