Verse of the Day for July 13

Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law. The wondrous things are already there. He is not asking God to add them. He is asking to see what has been on the page all along.

That is worth hearing when progress feels slow. Often the problem is not that nothing is happening. It is that our eyes are fixed on the one thing that is not moving, and miss the many that are.

He also says, I am a stranger in the earth. A stranger walks slowly. He does not know the streets, he has to ask directions, he gets lost and turns back. The psalmist accepts that about himself and asks only, hide not thy commandments from me. Let me keep seeing the way, even if I walk it slowly.

His first request is modest too: that I may live, and keep thy word. Not that he may succeed quickly. That he may stay alive long enough to keep going.

If you have prayed for the same change in yourself for years, reading in the same chair every evening, ask for new eyes rather than a new chapter. There may be wonders on the slow page.

Slow is not the same as stuck.

A stranger who keeps asking directions still arrives.