This post is part of The High Calling’s community building project, there and Back Again (see below), and was inspired in part by Ann Kroeker’s post, Slow-Down Fast: Music and Silence.
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I drove into the heart of the Ouachita Mountains this evening. The giants, those “great sleeping Adams,” stuck up out the Arkansas valley like junior Rockies. They told me that God created them every bit as majestic, just not quite as craggy. One time a geologist argued that the Ouchitas and Bostons are actually older than the Rockies, said that Father Time had weathered them more, made them more hunch-backed. “Maybe,” I said. “Or maybe they’re just more humble, more God fearing.”
This evening I drove in silence, inspired by a Hoosier to seek God in the stillness of an Arkansas highway. There was this field outside of Y City; it’s greening up quite nicely this time of year. A calf, only weeks old I guessed, leaped and turned circles around a young red bud tree. I heard whispers of Malachi 4 so I eased up on the gas and coasted through the valley. Freedom and mercy sneak up on you sometimes, but other times you have to slow down to catch them.
As I rounded the bend and turned out of the valley, I left all that nuance in my rear-view mirror. I reached for my iPod, scrolled through some selections, found that hymn I was humming, and pressed play.
This is my Father’s World.
I am glad for the roads that cut through it.
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This part post is part of Charity Singleton’s community-building project for The High Calling, “There & Back Again.”
I went to TheHighCalling.org member Ann Kroeker’s blog and read her post “Slow-Down Fast: Music And Silence,” which inspired me to write something of my own.
Each Thursday, consider going “There and Back Again” yourself. It’s simple.
Here are Charity’s steps:
- Choose another High Calling Blogger to visit. It can be someone you have “met” before, or do what I do, and work your way through the “Member Posts” section of thehighcalling.com to meet someone new.
- Visit his blog, digesting the message until it becomes something that you can write about.
- Go back to your blog and write about it, being sure to link to the post that gave you the idea so that your readers can visit, too.
- Add the button to your blog so your readers know you are participating in “There and Back Again.”
- Go back to the Network blog and leave a comment so your new friend can feel the link love!
- Complete the journey by returning here, to Wide Open Spaces, and enter your link so that we all can benefit from the new High Calling connection you have made.