I'm struggling these days. Always itching to be somewhere else. Doing something else. The restlessness in my spirit is hard to interpret. Is it dissatisfaction? If so I need to practice, like the apostle Paul did, the art of being content in any situation.

Contentment is a challenge for those of us in North American society. Everything tells us to look for the new and improved. We easily forget that new and improved rarely measures up and doesn't fill that aching hole within us. Like Jeremiah preached, we all too often are trying to fill our souls from broken cisterns. (Jeremiah 2:13)

I've been wading into a new learning curve in my Christian walk. A place of questioning. Perhaps even doubting glib Christian-ese that I've been hearing or speaking for years. I am growing beyond simply grabbing others glib statements. I want to know that these 'truths' are indeed Truth. But, this stage is awkward to explain to others. They either think that I'm backsliding. Or, that I'm rebelling against God. I suppose that what others' think isn't really important. I must journey this confusing place, resting in the knowledge that God is still with me. And, He is still my resting place.

Images that have been implanted in my mind from Pilgrims' Progress give me much encouragement as I move through the different stages of my spiritual travels. There are sloughs of despondence, castles of doubt, places of respite, and long long patches of montonous travail. I think I need to read that book again and thank God for the many wayfarers who have tramped out the paths ahead of me.