“Bukankah burung pipit dijual dua ekor seduit? Namun seekorpun dari padanya tidak akan jatuh ke bumi di luar kehendak Bapamu. Sebab itu janganlah kamu takut, karena kamu lebih berharga dari pada banyak burung pipit.”
{Matius 10:29-31}
[AkhirZaman.org] Ini adalah musim dingin pertama kami di kawasan gurun California selatan, dan musim dingin ini begitu basah, dingin, dan banyak hujan. Selama beberapa hari saya bahkan merasa kesepian karena suami saya bekerja di sebuah proyek di Loma Linda, yang berjarak sekitar satu jam dari rumah kami. Selama ia pergi, saya tidak memiliki mobil untuk bepergian. Bukanlah ide saya untuk menghabiskan waktu kami di sini sebagai “burung salju.”
Sekarang pekerjaannya sudah selesai, dan sekarang sudah hampir saatnya untuk berkemas dan pergi ke daerah utara, namun saya masih merasa sedikit tertipu. Selagi saya berdoa supaya Tuhan memberikan perilaku yang lebih baik, suami saya masuk ke rumah dengan tergesa-gesa untuk memberitahu saya bahwa kami memiliki sebuah sangkar merpati di pohon palem di samping teras kami, dan ada satu lagi di ranting bougenvile yang menaungi garasi kami. Dia memasang tangga, mengambil kamera, dan bergegas keluar untuk memotret.
Beberapa hari kemudian, entah bagaimana, setelah terjadi hujan angin yang hebat yang jarang terjadi, suami saya berkata bahwa anak-anak burung itu terlempar dari sarangnya pada waktu malam hari, dan mereka berkerumun di tanah, dengan ayah dan ibu burung yang berdiri di kedua sisi mereka, mungkin bingung apa yang harus dilakukan. Pada waktu itu terpikir oleh saya betapa berharganya burung-burung kecil itu bagi Bapa yang di Surga.
Namun sebagaimana Ia mengasihi dan peduli kepada burung-burung kecil itu, Ia mengasihi kita lebih dari burung-burung itu. Saya merasa malu karena telah menggerutu tentang musim dingin yang saya anggap menyebalkan. Tuhan menunjukkan pada saya betapa banyak hal yang dapat saya syukuri. Dia adalah Bapa Surgawi saya, dan Dia peduli pada saya. Hujan yang mengisi hari-hari kami telah membuat padang gurunnya menjadi sangat indah dengan tumbuh-tumbuhan hijau dan bunga-bunga. Saya berhasil menyelesaikan beberapa proyek dalam hari-hari kesendirian saya. Musim dingin ini tampak tidak terlalu buruk lagi sekarang. Kami memiliki teman-teman dan saudara yang rumahnya bisa dijangkau dengan jalan kaki, dan jalan kaki itu sendiri baik buat saya. Saya mengerti sekali lagi bahwa kebahagiaan dan kepuasan kita lebih bergantung pada sikap kita dalam menghadapinya daripada keadaan di sekitar kita.
Tuhan, tolong saya untuk mengingat bahwa saya ini jauh lebih berharga daripada burung-burung kecil yang jatuh dari sarangnya. Engkau peduli terhadap perasaanku, dan saya berdoa supaya saya selalu datang mencariMu untuk meminta kasih dan tuntunan.
Oleh : Anna May Radke Waters
If patience for careful reading is rare these days finding sites that reward it is rarer still, and a stop at brightwinner extended that rare reward, the diminishing returns on shallow content reading have made me more selective about where to spend reading time and this site is meeting the higher selectivity bar consistently.
Now adding the writer to a small mental list of voices I want to follow, and a look at progresswithdiscipline reinforced that follow intention, the few writers whose work I actively track are writers who have demonstrated sustained quality and this writer has clearly demonstrated that sustained quality across the pieces I have sampled here today.
Closed the laptop after this and let the ideas settle for a few hours, and a stop at ideaprogression similarly rewarded reflective time, content that benefits from sitting with rather than racing past is the kind I want more of and the kind that this site appears to consistently produce week after week here.
Reading this in pieces during a long afternoon and finding it consistently rewarding, and a stop at buildtractionnow fit naturally into the same fragmented reading pattern, sites whose posts can be read in segments without losing the thread are well suited to how I actually read these days and this one is built well.
Strong recommendation, anyone interested in this topic owes themselves a visit, and a stop at actioncreatestraction extends that recommendation across more of the site, this is the kind of resource that makes me more optimistic about the state of the open web than I usually am these days actually for once which is genuinely refreshing.
A clean read with no irritations, and a look at buildclearoutcomes continued that frictionless quality, the absence of small irritations is something I notice only when present elsewhere and this site is one of the rare places where everything just works and lets me focus on the substance rather than fighting the format.
Worth recognising the absence of the usual blog tropes here, and a look at growthwithoutfriction continued that fresh quality, sites that avoid the standard moves of the medium read as more original even when the content is on familiar topics and this one has clearly chosen its own path through the conventional terrain skilfully.
Appreciate the thoughtful approach, the writer clearly took time to make this readable for someone who is not already an expert, and a look at signalthefuture kept that going nicely, easy on the eyes and easy on the brain which is always a winning combination when reading on a busy day.
Reading this slowly because the writing rewards a slower pace, and a stop at urbanriders did the same, the pace at which I read content is something I now use as a quality signal and writing that earns a slower pace earns my attention as a reader looking for substance these days.
Worth recommending broadly to anyone who reads on the topic, and a look at igniteforwardmotion only confirms that, the rare combination of accessibility and depth in this site makes it suitable for both newcomers and people who already know the area which is hard to pull off in any blog format today and rarely managed.
Nice and clean, that is the best way to describe the writing here, no clutter and no wasted words, and a quick visit to progressmovesintentionally kept that going, I appreciate when a site treats its readers like people who can think for themselves without needing constant hand holding through every paragraph.
Decided after reading this that I would check this site weekly going forward, and a stop at modernpixels reinforced that commitment, deciding to add a site to a regular rotation requires meeting a quality bar that very few places clear and this one cleared it cleanly without any noticeable effort or marketing push behind it.
Took something from this I did not expect to find, and a stop at forwardthinkingcore added another unexpected useful piece, content that exceeds expectations rather than just meeting them is the kind that builds enthusiasm and earns repeat visits without any explicit ask from the writer or platform behind the work being read.