"And the twelve were with him" (Luke 8:1b).

I rediscovered the beauty of being. I am eternally gratefully that God is a gracious God. The gift of life that we have comes at a price that has already been paid. God did it for us. All other religions are about doing, you must follows such and such a law, achieve such and such level of goodness. But God has set the bar of goodness and we all fall terribly short. In fact, a lifetime of doing good things could never bring us from the bottom rung to the top. And that's the beauty of grace. We can't do it, so He did. He did. He bridged the gap, He did the deed we could not do. So we've got to stop trying to do, it's been done!

God calls us not to do, but to be. To be with Him. He calls us to abide in Him. To live closely and intimately with Him, to love Him and rest in Him. And that is a beautiful thing!

The twelve were with him. They followed him and watched his every move. They spent time with him and learned his character and learned his heart. He didn't give them a manual of instructions or rules to follow, He simply allowed them to be close to him. And He models how we should love others, how we should minister to others. There's no list to follow, of tactics and right words to use, we ought simply to be with people, to share our lives with people, our time, our laughs, our tears. Be with Him. Be with them.  

These are the things, the simple, not so mysterious, ordinary, yet extraordinary things that bring us joy as we revel in God's presence.

81. tea with a friend
82. making dinner with a friend
83. whispers of love between the covers of a Bible
84. closed eyes with African voices bringing melody to their Maker