of health and growth

i just find this humorous:

the guy sitting in front of me is looking over here repeatedly, and it is not meant to be a flattering gaze... he is looking at me because i continue to cough incessantly, and i admit, it sounds horrible. it sounds like all the vitamin C and B and D and Z and whatEVER else pills i've been taking have just made a little vitamin drugstore in my lungs and are rattling together mocking my efforts to get well... despite the care i am attempting to lavish on my immune system and health, still this stranger sits gazing at me with his occasional (and pointed) throat clearing. i will choose to believe that this throat clearing is his attempt to make me feel better about my own cough, and less alone in my ill health... how precious.

- - -

we just completed weekend 4 of tour... only 9 more to go. this morning, i had some time after JAM church (our tour Sunday morning service) to find some quiet and just think, and pray for a few minutes with no one around. i find these times to be rare on tour - there are so many people around, relationships are just begging to be formed everywhere you turn. but this morning's worship time was a great reminder that although other relationships on this tour are very worth developing and discovering... there is only one relationship that must take first priority, always. such a simple reminder, but the nudge was needed. it is one thing to read the Word and make time to take of daily bread... but it is an entirely separate disciple, to "be still and know", and to reflect on the fullness which the bread makes evident. this familiar truth sunk into my heart a little bit deeper today, and i am grateful for simple reminders and accountability in faith. it amazes me how simple ideas, simple things can be such catalysts for growth inside of us. one simple verse served as the catalyst this morning... for His Word is Life. any truth we take hold of is, on the one hand, often as simple to understand as the science of seeds and fruit, of yeast and bread, of vines and branches... but it is nothing simple to understand and acknowledge that only He makes these things grow. only He makes life grow within our hearts. He made it grow a bit more in mine today.

- - -

"He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30

... indeed.