peeling away

worrying

wondering

thinking

pondering

praying

releasing

removing

surrender

praising

worshiping

humility

grateful

indebted

saved

freedom

joy

That's the way thoughts are.  You start with one and it progresses to the next and the next and the next. It's so easy to become stuck at one -- for me it can be worry -- and not continue down the chain.

peeling away

It's like peeling an orange. You have to keep removing the outer layer to get to the fruit.  Those outer layers can have such a tight grip on us -- and many times, instead of working to uncover the deeper meaning or find surrender, those layers are just left.  When I was crabby the other day I could have just defined myself as crabby.  Instead, the truth is, that I was allowing the emotion of crabby to take over.  I  wasn't living by faith, or the truth, or at my best.  Instead I allowed a feeling to lead.  When I examined this emotion it was linked to overwhelm, then anxiety, then worry, then fear.  Yet it came out as crabby.

Because I was trying to judge

-- to figure out the whys --

-- not living in the now --

-- not grateful for the gifts --

Then this morning I read this in Ecclesiastes:

There is something else meaningless that occurs on earth: righteous men who get what the wicked deserve, and wicked men who get what the righteous deserve. This too, I say, is meaningless.  So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 8:14-15

 which will I choose today?

I think I'll go with gladness.

truth