Ashes and Aspirations

I was driving alone the other day and perusing radio stations in the process. Suddenly I caught the snippet of a disk jockey's reflection on one of Nashville's Christian radio stations. Her words struck me with their simple beauty, as she spoke of learning to lay down and surrender the aspirations she had made for herself and her career across the past year. They had been "turned to ashes," she said with far more reverence than complaint, and she was learning to contentedly look to God to discern what was on his agenda for her to do next.

When she was done I turned off the radio. I did not want any other song or commercial or other medium of noise to disrupt the meditation happening inside of me. I thought of my own aspirations, the ones I have released and the ones to which I still firmly cling. Immersed in such an era of economic and social uncertainty, I am seeking to draw nearer to God and be willing to leave on the ash pile anything but my abandonment to his emerging life within me.

I wish I knew to whom the voice on the radio belonged. She helped me quiet my mind so I could more fully detect the voice of God.