The 4th Day

   Yesterday afternoon, Mayre and I went to the closing of the Emmaus weekend, and that occasion is always a treat to attend. Each of the pilgrims that want to speak are given a couple of minutes to answer two questions about their time.

   What did you experience on the weekend?

   What are you going to do with it?

   The pilgrims tell of what God has done for them, or what God has impressed on them, or what spiritual baggage they have unloaded from their lives. They then proceed to tell the group what they plan to do with their new-found inspiration when they get back to the "real world". It is easy to get caught up in the moment of a spiritual high and be able to see how your life will be different when you go back to living it in your everyday world. This is termed the 4th Day, and the pilgrims are eager to put into practice their resolutions and spiritual insights.

   The 4th Day is not always a piece of cake. The problems and situations that were there when you went to Emmaus on Thursday evening are waiting for you on Monday, and the same people that were a thorn in your side are still around also. Maybe not the first Monday, when you begin your life again, but the 4th Day lasts for a long time and covers a lot of Mondays and Tuesdays and........

   How is that scenario any different for me as I write this today? I get up in the morning, read Chambers and the Scripture that goes with it, I pray about what I have read, and then I write what I feel God has impressed me with that morning. Then I resolve to let that teaching impact my thoughts and actions from that point on, and I go on my way into the activities of the day.

   What brings me up short, a few minutes, hours, days or weeks down the road, is the realization that I have not lived out my good resolves of the 3rd Day, as I wanted to, in the 4th.

   The only way to follow through on all of this is to stay in close contact with the One who gives me the spiritual inspiration in the first place. God gives us the insights and the motivation to think and act as we should, and to follow His promptings, but He wants us to actually stay close to Him so that His strength will make it possible.

   Now to just do it....