From this morning

"One thing that has become more apparent over the last year is the reality of my inadequacy- my inability to do something truly of myself. This becomes more recognizable as I look at some, but what I see in them, is not really of them. It is of God. It is their dependence on God to work in them and through them. They have accepted and reckoned their shortcomings and weakness and then turned to God to be their sufficiency and the strength.
To be sure God does make and gift us each with unique skills and abilities, but this goes beyond that- this is like a white flag that says, "I can't do this on my own", but at the same time it is like blowing a horn on a battle field that says, "with You, I will surely taste victory."
In the seemingly small and mundane daily tasks this difference is hard to perceive; in the miraculous works of God, it is so blantantly obvious that we overlook it; but in all the things in between, it is easy to miss it, yet it is definitely noticeable. You see it in the people's lives. It is in a sense becoming a blank page and allowing God to write a wonderful story upon it as only He can. We look at the page and read it and think it is the person's story, but if we look closer, we see that it is truly His story.
Somewhere in between the white flag and the battle horn is where the "magic" happens. It is where truth leads to faith and faith leads to hope and obedience and it is all sealed in love. If we try to break it down like a scientist, we mock its existence; or if like an alchemist we try to mix up this brew to "make gold", we labor in vain.
I know it is out there and it is real, so I take my compass and my map and I search for it, even though it may be found in the person seated next to me... or closer."