Big Day

Psalm 108, 1 Samuel 7:3-15, Revelation 20:1-6

Today was a big day in our house. For the first time in over a year, we have the internet! Welcome to the future. Of course now is the soonest I could sit down for a minute to blog, so by the time you read this, it will be yesterday's news. Expect to see a rise in blog posts until the novelty wears off!

The other big news from today is that we ate from our garden for the first time this season! We harvested some lettuce and radishes and made a salad to accompany our leftover gas-station pizza (we don't like to let ourselves get too snooty ;)

beautiful radishes

salad, featuring garden lettuce, garden radish leaves, farm fresh eggs, store-bought tomatoes (apparently from Minnesota, but HOW), and some homemade dressing Steve made with mayonnaise, honey, vinegar, pepper, and green onions. Also some dirt that didn't get washed off. And a tiny little worm. I hope it was the only worm and that there isn't a family of worms nesting in my digestive tract.

Anyway, more on our lives soon. As for the Scriptures for today, the part that stuck out to me was how in 1 Samuel, the Israelites have to get rid of their foreign gods and turn their hearts to God alone. There is a lot of fear of the unknown, especially anything or anyone that is "other" throughout history, and now, even. I don't think that this about getting rid of anything that is foreign or other, but getting rid of anything that takes the place of God. For a bit of the afternoon that I read this passage, I wondered what foreign god the Israelites would have to get rid of if they had been living in my current country. And I think my answer is: the god of self. Of loving ourselves first and most. Still chewing on that and thinking about the implications. What struck you most from today's Scriptures? What do you think the main gods of today are? What gets in our way of turning our hearts to God alone?