Feb. 28, 2013

Psalm 63:1

You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you in a dry and parched land where there is no water.

A pitfall of winter: cracked, dry and chapped hands. This is the time of year my nails, cuticles and hands are a mess. I use hand lotion all the time, like 10-15 times a day. Rick says my hands are so wimpy because I use too much lotion. Is that really possible?

Last week at church, we had this discussion about the best hand cream for cracks that develop around nails this time of year. The deep ones where the skin actually separates for no reason other than they are chapped. The ones that hurt. Even the men were comparing their cracked hands, including my husband. Wise Louise advised us what is THE BEST hand cream on the market.

I have this container of hand paraffin in my night stand. During the winter, I use it every night. It’s super thick. My wedding rings have remnants of the paraffin on them. On the bottle, it suggests wearing special gloves for 20 minutes a day or all night to heal the cracks. I have the gloves and booties for my feet. When I’m desperate, I put them on for a night.

Several weeks ago, I realized our house needed moisture in the air. I dug out the humidifiers and set them out. That’s when I remembered I had thrown away the filters last winter and had not gotten replacements. I went online, ordered them and waited. Meanwhile, the humidifier was still sitting in the living room. Rick dutifully filled it and turned it on. When the water level didn’t go down and I turned it off, I shared that it probably would work better with a filter. “Oh, is that why it wasn’t working?” he asked.

As much as my hands and skin thirst for water, does not my soul thirst for the Lord even more? Our culture is becoming an ever increasing dry and parched land with little or no watering of the Lord in our daily lives. The distractions pull us farther and farther into a parched land and too often, we are only willing participants. I’ve been contemplating how I refresh my soul this week. If I’m really honest with myself, I would say that recently, I’ve not been doing a very good job. And I wonder why I feel as if I’m in the badlands. The humidifier only works when there is a filter and water. Moisture for my spiritual soul only happens when I take time to filter out distractions and intentionally water myself with rituals that restore me.

I have been praying daily for the Lord to speak to me. “Help me hear your voice,” I’ve prayed daily before getting out of bed. Yet, God seems eerily quiet. Maybe I just haven’t been lathering my soul with the right things: time away from God. I have forgotten to filter secular culture for the water to become moisture in my life. Most importantly, maybe I’ve forgotten that a lot is going on when I don’t think anything is going on.

Whether we are going through a dry time in our lives or we remember a recent dry time, speak to us. Help us remember the ways we best suck up the moisture our spiritual soul needs. Encourage us gently to filter out those things that pull us away from you. Speak to us. And if you seem quiet, remind us that you still work in us this day. Amen.

Blessings –

Dianne