Reminder Notes : Mercy and Truth

Stay focused; do not lose sight of mercy and truth.
- Proverbs 3.3

This morning I was getting ready in my bathroom, and as I finished my hair, the sun was beginning to rise above the horizon. The orange glow was radiant, like a bulb rising slowly, with the shape and shade changing and shifting with each passing moment. I stood in awe and watched out my window, thanking God for the perfect sunrise window view I "happen" to have from my bathroom.

Sometimes I need a simple reminder such as this one to start the day. After several tiring weeks with bouts of feeling scattered in different directions (emotionally and physically), I know the need to be focused on truth is even greater. For these are the days that could lead to good things, or alternatively, not so good things. That is why the choices we make in the toughest moments can be absolutely critical.

Each morning I take some time to write in my journal. A few pages. Nothing grand is required, but just the focus of several minutes that I can let my thoughts go anywhere. Sometimes my hand struggles to keep up, scrawling hurriedly onto the pages in black ink. Writing each morning is something that helps me focus on the thankfulness rather than something else that might try to creep in. I hear the words of Screwtape (a devil from C.S. Lewis' book- The Screwtape Letters), in his letters to his nephew on how to trap us humans using our own thoughts that slowly shift just so that we barely notice, until it is too late. The devil wants us to lose our focus.

Writing my thoughts, whatever they may be, helps remind me of God's mercy that has rained upon me, so many countless times that I do not deserve. Putting these thoughts out there in writing brings me back to focus and centre on what I should be thinking. Reminder notes with my own handwriting. No matter what the rest of the day looks like, the moment of sunrise steeps soundlessly into my soul and can nourish me through the day. Writing clears the way for focus. Getting all these words out so more words can fill the spaces.