"One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple."
Psalm 27:4 (ESV)"This is a divine prayer -- to be prayed by a divine life within. 'One thing' -- this is the language of a man who has got a distinct aim; he does not fire at random. He has set his heart upon one grand objective, and desires one thing with all his might. He is not a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways: he is a man with a centre, a purpose, a life. The man who has one point to live for is a man of force; he cannot be turned aside, for he is intent upon his end. May such singleness of heart be worked in us by the Spirit of God!"
Charles Spurgeon, *Treasury of David*"The discipline of solitude is the one that most quickly drives us to a decision about our own spiritual condition. Either we are face to face with God or we are not. Everything within the busy world of our minds screams against this silence, because silence reveals what we really are. It exposes our emptiness, our restlessness, our inward chaos. But only in silence do we discover the all-sufficient presence of the one who fills all things. Solitude is not the absence of something -- it is the presence of Someone."
Dallas Willard, *The Spirit of the Disciplines*"Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! And behold, you were within me, and I outside, and I sought you outside, and in my unloveliness I rushed headlong among the beautiful things you have made. You were with me, and I was not with you. Those things kept me far from you, which, if they did not have their being in you, would not exist at all. You called and cried out and broke through my deafness; you shone and gleamed and put my blindness to flight; you breathed fragrance, and I drew in my breath and now pant for you; I tasted you, and now hunger and thirst for you; you touched me, and now I burn with longing for your peace."
Augustine, *Confessions*, Book X, Chapter 27"No one can live in the presence of God without discipline. It is not the discipline of the ascetic who withdraws from the world, but the discipline of one who is called to walk through the world with the world's Maker always before his eyes. Without the discipline of the Word, we are left to our own imaginations. Without the discipline of prayer, our hearts grow cold toward the very One we claim to love. Without the discipline of community, we deceive ourselves into thinking we can follow Christ alone. Discipline is not the enemy of liberty -- it is the shape of liberty in a disordered soul."
What is the "one thing" you are actually seeking right now -- and would you be satisfied if you got it?
"At dawn, when you have trouble getting out of bed, tell yourself: 'I have to go to work -- as a human being. What do I have to complain of, if I'm going to do what I was born for -- the things I was brought into the world to do? Or is this what I was created for? To huddle under the blankets and stay warm?' … So you were born to feel nice? Instead of doing what you were designed for?"
Marcus Aurelius, *Meditations*, Book 5:1Mist | 38°F | Humidity: 87% | Wind: ↗ 6mph
-- St. Clair, Michigan