In Psalm 1, the Psalmist talks about “a tree planted by streams of water.”  If we, as Eugene Peterson suggests, focus on “a tree planted by streams of water,” and meditate on that picture, who knows what we will discover.  Consider that meditating is like “chewing on; digesting; taking into one self, and absorbing all the nutrients that are offered in food, or in this case in the image.  Consider that tree as Israel transplanted in exile in Babylon, a flat, and arid land with a network of irrigation ditches and that tree is transplanted there—by the water in an arid land.  This was an inhospitable land to the Israelites in many regards.  They were far away from the Temple in Jerusalem, how could they possibly pray in such an environment?

And yet, there, as they meditated on “the tree” and prayed, and meditated they put down spiritual roots, grew leaves, and produced fruit.  Most of us think that if our circumstances were different or better in some way, that we would find it easier to pray.  We may even think that if the circumstances were more favorable to us we would be able to pray.  And so we put off praying until the circumstances are more to our liking.

Eugene Peterson says: “We let fantasies or our circumstances distract us from attending to the word of God that is aimed right where we are, and invites our answers from that spot.

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I think if we would begin to wonder how God might speak to our hearts right now, where we are, instead of waiting for things to change and get better, that we would discover God speaking to us in the ordinariness of our lives.  It seems to me that God always works through the ordinary and the common place.  Jesus chose common men to be his disciples; God chose a stutterer in Moses to lead the people out of slavery; the prophets of old were ordinary people called to speak the truth to power.  God has a way of taking the ordinary, and transforming it into the extraordinary.  And God can do that with our lives too, it we only stop long enough to focus; to meditate, on something as simple as “at tree planted by streams of water.”

If we look at where we are spiritually right now, we can ask God to help us see what might be possible, and what we might need to do as we move forward in our relationship with God.  Other wises, we are always waiting for things to get better, things to change more to our liking—then we think we will be better able to pray and meditate on God’s word.   But if we don’t begin where we are right now, we’ll never get to that place we think we ought to be.                         So the question for you and me today is “where are you? and where am I?”  Appreciate this moment; these circumstances, and see what God might be doing in your life right now.