The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
     he refreshes my soul. (Psalm 23:1-3)

TODAY, after missing several weeks, I have resurrected my “Wednesday Video-post” feature. Please take a couple of minutes to take a look, at this link: my Youtube channel – Derek

POST – This morning I have several layers of complex thoughts floating around my consciousness, and most of the ideas concern faith, doubt, open-mindedness, narrow-mindedness, and the choice to believe.

But I’ve just about decided to let my ponderings percolate a little longer, and – instead – share a couple of cell-phone photographs that have been speaking to me since I captured them yesterday evening.

FLORIDA: The first – as you can see – was taken from a parking lot; we were leaving Books-A-Million. Rebekah and I enjoyed a dinner-date together at Mimis, followed by a cappuccino and a lazy stroll around the Brandon mall.

Walking out toward the car I looked to the west, and it struck me that we have a very limited supply of Florida sunsets in our future. So I opened the passenger door for Rebekah, threw our “spoil the grandchildren” toys in the back, then clicked a quick snapshot of the sky while walking around.

I couldn’t help but think about how the sunset is often the most beautiful part of  the day, and I prayed to God that as the sun goes down on our time here in Brandon, that we will all experience some undeniably glorious moments of light and affirmation, and that the light of living faith will be abundantly evident, and that the quality of the radiance will speak to the promise of a new day.

EVENING: When we arrived home I took Scout Labradoodle for a short walk. She sniffed around, she chased a couple of lizards, she huffed at the neighbor’s cat, she contemplated chasing a squirrel, and then we headed down the sidewalk before crossing the road and turning west.

And there, kind of like a punctuation mark, or italics, the last of the light spoke a reminder of what I already knew: “The transition from a time to another time, or a season to a season, can hold the most beautiful moments of all.”

It’s curious what we are able to see, or what we understand, when we approach an experience with a spirit that has already thrown open the windows in anticipation of the breeze.

FAITH: I guess that’s part of what’s been on my mind about faith and the choice to believe. I have made the decision to open the door to my heart and to throw the windows wide open. It’s not that I now see God everywhere I look simply as a projection; it’s more that I have ceased the practice of narrowing my viewpoint to the exclusion of the divine. I have taken off the blinders that come with the decision not to believe. Either way, there’s a choice… and then an either narrowed, or expanded, ability to see.

So here I am, thinking out loud again. Welcome to my mind! I pray you find some inspiration and encouragement here – DEREK