Home Tools for your Journey July 7

Monday, July 7

I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation; see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
—Psalm 40:9

We don't have much trouble telling our good news. It seems natural to share when good fortune smiles down on us. When we receive a report from the doctor saying that we don't have a dread disease, when we are offered the job that will finally give us the space to spread our wings, when our child who has struggled so in school graduates with honors, when someone steps into our life and ends our loneliness, when we receive money that will ease a financial burden that has kept us bound, we want to tell someone. We readily share what has happened to us with those closest to us and with those who are a part of our community.

It's not sharing that is hard to remember; what's hard to remember is to link the good news with the hand of heaven. To recognize and admit that, were it not for the Holy One, our news, though good, would be incomplete. The eye of the Holy One is always upon us even to the point of knowing the number of hairs on our head.

While we may have a part in the unfolding of our life, we do not, on our own, create the good news in our life. God reaches down and clears the path for blessing to flow. When we are aware of that heavenly action and share it, we find that our gratitude and joy for the goodness in our lives increases as a ship's outline increases the closer it comes to shore.

O God, let me not, in my haste to share my joy, forget that without you I could not breathe in even a single breath.

The Signposts for July are written by Renée Miller and originally appeared on explorefaith.org in 2004.