[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Tuesday, December 31, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good day to most of you who are still in your last day of December and that of the year 2013.  As this is being written over half of the world which recognizes our common calendar is already on January 1, 2014.  I hope that, as we individually look back on this old year, that we can find something for which to be truly thankful to God for.  I know that I can, and that is the plethora of friends I've had the pleasure of knowing through my association with SAMNET, the System Access Mobile Network and its voice chat area.

What do we have for the last day of the year? Well, just by coincidence (That's what the world would say, but we know differently.), in yesterday's mail there came into my hands the January 2014 issue of the Braille edition of the "Tract Messenger Magazine" published by the Lutheran Braille Evangelism Association of White bear Lake MN.  And it just so happened that, on Page 32 of this particular issue, there was a lovely poem written by the late Helen Steiner Rice entitled "Let Us Seek God," rendered as follows:

As the threatening clouds of chaos
Gather in man's muddled mind
While he searches for an answer
He alone can never find,
May God turn our vision skyward
So that we can see above
The gathering clouds of darkness
And behold God's brightening love.

For today we're facing problems
Man alone can never solve,
For it takes much more than genius
To determine and resolve
The conditions that confront us all
Around on every side,
Daily mounting in intensity
Like the restless, rising tide.

But we'll find new strength and wisdom
If instead of proud resistance
We humbly call upon the Lord
And seek Divine assistance,
For the spirit can unravel
Many tangled, knotted threads
That defy the skill and power
Of the world's best hands and heads,
And the plans of growth and progress
Of which we all have dreamed
Cannot survive materially
Unless the spirit is redeemed.

So as another New Year dawns
Let us seek the Lord in prayer
And place our future hopes and plans
Securely in God's care.

Well, if Mrs. Rice's contribution for today didn't speak to your innermost inner longing in your hearts, minds, souls and spirits, I don't know what did.  I know it spoke to me, and I pray that it did to you also.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, next year there will be another daily thought message for you to hopefully enjoy reading.  See you all next year! Your Christian friend and brother, Paul