A page from my journal

It's going down--journal time.
   Now we get to the thoughts beyond London again. The thoughts that search out the meaning behind traveling across the country. That wonder which people I pass on the street live fulfilling lives, let alone lives awakened to the plan created for them by Christ.
    This journal moment is brought to you by the beautiful Kingston park laying next to the river Thames. It is from the date July 11, 2011, a Monday, and it was inspired by all of Creation, which cries out to its creator.
    The context of this journal entree (I am really building this up aren't I?): I am laying across my slightly worn, fleece basketball blanket--comfortably resting my chin on my palm, my stomach on the ground. A high school rowing team is training on the river in front of me, and every so often I hear the faint instructions blasted from the mega-phone the trainer is holding. There is a line of trees just after the river and a circle of sunshine surrounding my head. Where else can a person expect to get inspiration?
   
   I am currently in a small meadow on my fleece basketball blanket, smelling the air drenched with lilac and listening to the alternating sounds of a breeze drifting though the trees and a motorboat passing by.
   In front of me I see little daisies and my green pencil--a little further on, an old couple is sitting on a bench--one reading a magazine the other a book. I'd like to think they reach over and grab each others hands from time to time.
    In front of them, the tranquil Thames, surging to the side as kayaks and other boats snip though its middle.
    This is beauty--but not quite heaven. How? Why?
    In a place like this, how can I not feel that sense of pleasure and accomplishment the world is so ardently searching for? Because I know true heaven. No matter what, I can cling to the hope I have found in Jesus Christ. Nothing fills. Nothing sustains. Nothing renews, but Him.
   For the things that are seen are temporary--but the things that are unseen are eternal.
   ...
   Jesus--today I simply want to cry out your name, to call on you, to be with you, to know you surround me, and live in me. I want to please you, live for you, glorify you. Jesus, grant me the knowledge to know how to do so.

   Some days we just need to be...still...and be. So that is what I got Monday--a day of simply watching , thinking, reading, napping, and praying that my time here in London is not a waste. That I am not living for selfish ambition, but that this is in some way furthering the kingdom of God. I know that if this is my mindset, nothing I do is meaningless or in vain.

    If I can do that in London, then surely you--whoever you are that is reading this--can take the time to do the same. Find a quite, or noisy place. Bring a journal, a book, and coffee. Watch. Write what you see. Take in others' lives. Pray for them. Pray for your life as well. Enjoy a book. Then do it again.