I've found a really nice place to relax.  Through the trees on the other side of the field where I have been going to relax is a little trail that leads to a fresh gravel road.  It barely looks like it has been driven on at all.  I'm sitting on the side of the road that I came from.

I'm now sitting on the other side because there's a rock here to sit on and also it's not so sloped.  The road looks fairly narrow now.  It's so quiet.  Just the sound of wind and the creaking of trees, also the very distant chirping of birds.

I don't suppose this is our property, but it's a good place to think.  I feel younger than I've felt in a long time.  I feel like a kid again.  Another good thing about this place is that I can run across the field to get here.  Running through a field of green in the warm sun...  Really, my favorite color is the color of sunlight on fresh grass. It's the color of nature and the color of youth.

I think this is private property.  There's a gate a ways up the road.  Still, though, I can't see the end of it the other direction.  Who says this is anyone's property anyway?  The government?  Can anyone own a forest or even a tree?  Is it theirs when they didn't make it?  And when they make a house, is it really their property?  God made the trees they used for the wood for their house, and He made them so that they can build a house, live, or do anything at all.  He created everything.  We just use the original materials that are all His.  He's the real owner.  Why, then, do we make another world for ourselves?  Why do we manipulate His world?  All glory belongs to Him.

This will be a nice place to pray and think.  I never want to leave His creation.  Our mutations are so flat and dull!  Yet, even there, I'm always in His presence.  We're always near Him.  We're standing on Holy ground.  Knowing that, what do we do to that ground?

We are so quick to praise ourselves and to praise others.  People seem to achieve great things.  We build monuments, we run races, we do many things which make us praise one another.  We say how great someone is for what he has done or said, but everything that really matters comes from God.  Everything with beauty or meaning comes from God.  All great works are only works of inspiration.

We only live by the grace of God and we only live in the grace of God.  Everything I've ever written is contained within materials that are all temporary and vounerable to time, even my own body.  Yet, I remain, for God remains.  His truth remains and all that I could ever write is only a pale reflection of that truth.  To see the Lord as He truly stands is a very humbling vision.

We seem to strive for self esteem because we think we lack it.  We tell each other to think of ourselves.  I've heard countless songs that say to find love within yourself ("The greatest love of all is learning to love yourself").  We think we're too humble, but we're not humble at all.  We have a bigger ego than we want to believe.  I know that's been too true for me many times.  What we're really feeling from rejection is not humility, but is self pity.  So, we either pity ourselves or we're proud of ourselves.  True humility is realizing that we are all equal in the sight of God, that we are nothing without Him, yet He loves us.  He loves us because He made us.  We belong to Him.  He made us beautiful creations, not to praise ourselves or each other, but to praise Him.  He is our comforter.  He is our redeemer.  He is our creator.  Where we stand is in His presence.