Partial Exposure

A sheer snapshot

A summer in Europe believe it or not presented me with much time and space for reflection. I had ample time to do things like; people watching in Munich, Guitar playing in front of a drifting Swiss sunset, and watching hearts be melted into the palm of Jesus' hand in a foreign language. All of these things triggered a response within me, a yearning for an explanation, a desire for answers to the questions I’ve been asking all my life. "Why me?" "Why here?" "Why now?" I know with unfailing certainty that the response my loving heavenly Father gave me was a simple and sustained, "Why not?"
As I sat before the Wecht River in Ommen, Holland at six-fifteen on a Sunday morning I allowed my mind to float away. Thoughts of my future wife, my future ministry, my future kids and even a spotted dog named "Spotless." An abrupt sound of water splashing being caused by springing fish startled me and shook me out of my day dream. I realized that my common problem is that I have been so fearful of the past I’ve thrown myself in feet first into the future. By doing so I tend to miss the beautiful simplicity of the present. I have partially traded the validity of His awesomeness now for that of the future. Sitting before the still (mostly) water and just singing to the Lord I saw so clearly that He just wants me to be Ben Strength; now and here, nothing more. Anything else severely prohibits Him from truly guiding and leading; He just wants me to be.
To merely "Be" and not to "do." It seems like such a transition, a switch of roles. Gladly I walk with this new revelation in hopes that I may not miss a glimpse of what our creative maker is doing before me. I don't want to take a Bavarian Bubble Gum sunset for granted ever again. I don't want to simply pass by the majestic English Gartens of Munich. And I definitely don't want to just sprint past the princess God could set before me.

I am here. Waiting. Patiently. I am comforted in the stillness of His hidenness. Knowing He's here working in me; even though I cant see or feel it.
What a great God we serve...