Time Out

 March 22, 2021

Quarantining isn’t all bad. We have plenty of groceries and 2 1/2 acres to be tended, I have a wife who is a pretty good imitation of a warden, and I really feel quite well. The complications we read about in the papers haven’t visited this home, so we are grateful. Without places to go, I have plenty of time in the mornings to not only read, but really meditate on the Scriptures and to pray. I can’t say as there have been any great breakthroughs, but I do feel a bit more settled because I’m getting through my entire prayer list daily. Too often, I get started only to think of something needing to be done, whereupon I jump up and tackle the matter, hoping to get back to prayer later on, which of course, often doesn’t happen. 

When you are quarantined and feeling well, your daily options are tantalizingly limited. Today, after firing up the Ural for the first time since last fall (It sounded so good to hear it running!), I mounted a huge daisy on the front of the house for Linda, and started cleaning out my shop. The only real effect of COVID that I’ve seen is my endurance is limited, so after a couple hours, I was done. The old saying still holds true: “Yard by yard, life is hard; inch by inch, life’s a cinch.” When I look at the COVID statistics, the numbers are on our side, but nothing is guaranteed, as the half-million deaths have proven. I am grateful for the health I enjoy, for God’s provision for our needs, for the strength I’ve received for this day, and even for the interruption in my normal schedule which makes me slow down and attend more seriously to some spiritual disciplines. I am blessed far more than I deserve, and for that, I am thankful tonight.