Dark and thorny is the desert

By Jim Thompson
HCP columnist

My morning routine is fairly rigid. Alexa awakens me and tells me the weather prediction for the day. My actions start with getting out of bed and doing all the things one does when arising. We’ll not go into those.   

The last thing I do on the second floor, where all these things take place, is hang my reading glasses around my neck. I then descend two flights of stairs to the basement where my office is, get a cup of coffee, which is already brewed, and settle in to do my morning devotions in my wife’s aunt’s rocking chair, which we inherited.  

Devotions come first in my official day, for I can’t think of anything more important than talking to our Creator. Yes, I talk to him all day, but this is a special time.

The first activity is my prayers. I follow Tim Keller’s example of how to pray – ACTS: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. Supplication – that’s asking for stuff – takes the longest portion of this devotional time. You are likely on my supplication list (kept on my phone), for it is wide ranging in physical location and time. It is currently about 87 items long and nothing ever comes off it, even if answered (and many have been answered – they just turn into prayers of thanks).

It was about this time this morning, that I realized I had not brought my reading glasses from the bedroom. I thought about it: Should I interrupt my routine and trudge back up two flights of stairs to get them, or should I experience what those who may not be seeing well are coping with? I decided to continue with my devotions.  

Next on my devotion routine is to read a passage from a book of devotions called “His Footsteps, My Pathway.”  

It has a passage for every day of the year. I have read it over and over for a number of years, because it is always fresh when I return the next year. It was a struggle this morning without my readers, but I made it through.

I close my devotional time with a song from “Still Waters,” a hymn book many Mennonites and Amish in Highland County and elsewhere will recognize. Don’t worry, I don’t sing it; I just read the words. I don’t want to offend God by reminding him what a lousy singing voice He gave me. And not to worry, He gave me many other talents.

I pick the song by opening "Still Waters" randomly and reading the song on the right-hand page where I opened it. Oh, sometimes I read the song on the left-hand page, but I tend toward the right-hand page. I must admit, in my human weakness, I am often hoping for a song with few verses.

With my diminished sight today, I wondered what God had in mind today. Was I going to get off easy, or was there another lesson to learn?

I randomly opened the book to Number 272, “Dark and Thorny is the Desert.” It started on the left-hand page and continued to fill the right! Seven verses! It is a complete allegory of our life on this earth. I struggle through it with diminished vision. It is a beautiful song if one studies it.

Now I could go get my glasses with a smile on my face. God will bless you every day if you just let Him.

Jim Thompson, formerly of Marshall, is a graduate of Hillsboro High School and the University of Cincinnati. He resides in Duluth, Ga. and is a columnist for The Highland County Press. He can be reached at jthompson@taii.com.