Fresh Start Devotionals

Flatlanders Growing up on the plains of West Texas is pretty much the same one place as it is another. The land is flat-everywhere. No hills, mesas or mountains, just flat land. The folks that live out there have learned that if you add a little water to the flat land, it makes a pretty good place to plant cotton. And that’s what they do. Farming and ranching fuels the economy. There isn’t tourism where I grew up, after all, who wants to see flat land? On a clear night we could see the glow from the big city some 90 miles south of us. We can see a long way out there-no mountains to obstruct the view. Now, I don’t want to give you the wrong impression-not all the land is flat. Just to the East of where I grew up is the Caprock-a beautiful system of canyons that plunges into the earth-an inverted mountain of sorts. From the top of the caprock, it is easy to see different colors of soil and rock layers, vegetation and wildlife. I can still close my eyes and see it. I don’t know if it is growing up a flatlander or not, but I have the unreal expectation that my spiritual life will always be level. But it isn’t. My spirituality has its ups and its downs. It has moments when I soar and other moments when I struggle. How about you? Are you always on a spiritual high? Or are those moments mixed with lows too? Are there other times that are just sort of flat? Isaiah made a promise to those who would pray, he wrote, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 Whether you’re soaring with eagles, running or struggling to walk without fainting, God has promised to renew your strength if you’ll pray. Jim L. Wilson, Fresh Start Devotionals (Fresno, CA: Willow City Press, 2009).