A Beach Towel
Reading Study Guide to “A Woman’s Call to Prayer” by Elizabeth George
Sitting in a lounge chair, on a thick white towel provided by the hotel – no, we didn’t need to bring the big, heavy beach towels from home that took up so much room m the suitcase – my eyes are drawn to the beautiful blue sky and big white clouds drifting by.
I close my book because Elizabeth George said to. She writes, “Stop where you are and set your timer to pray for 5 minutes. Easy… “God you are so amazing. Look at the way You hang those clouds iii the big beautiful sky you stretched out!”
In back of my head, just a few feet away on the other side of the lush hedge with red flowers, a weed eater that needs tuning starts and stops and starts and stops and…. Poor guy is just doing his job unlike me sitting here as a guest on this thick white towel.
Oh yeah … I was praying … “God of creation, God of salvation, thank You for saving me.”
My cell phone is ringing … or is it the lady’s beside me who is reading ‘”The Secret of Bees” (the cover says it’s a New York Times Best Seller)? I wonder what it’s about?
Oh yeah… “Dear God, thank you for this time away so that I can focus on You.”
I wonder if the front desk has a big box I could have to pack the beach towels in so I’d have more room in my suitcase? I actually prayed about what to bring on this trip. Did I not listen to the response? Was it so insignificant that God didn’t respond? Will we need the towels in the next two days to come?
There’s the weed-eater man again. Boy! He must have a really big job!
“Lord. Teach me how to pray – not to get answers but to commit my mind and heart to be sensitive to an indwelling Holy Spirit that I believe wants to be a part of me -that we are one -packing a towel, dealing with sickness and death, loving a friend, praying and caring for family, working out or just sitting on a thick white hotel towel. Transform me to be one with you – feet firmly planted on earth (although sometimes it feels like I’m up to the ankles in mud) with arms reaching up to heaven.”
“Hear me Lord. Hear me as I pray.” -Bonnie Raitt
Buddy just got back from his morning meetings -they gave him a beach towel as a remembrance of the conference.