life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “action”
miracles of losing
I lost my shadow to find myself
I lost my house to find my home
I lost my money to find my value
I lost my motherhood to find my children
I lost my belongings to find my treasure
I lost my song to find my words
I lost my words to find my silence
I lost my illusions to find my voice
I lost my ego to find my truth
I lost my knowing to understand
I lost my anger to find my peace
I lost all my people to find my friends
I lost my insecurity to find my joy
I lost my surety to find my mystery
I lost my perfect to find my human
I lost my dogma to find my divine
I lost my seeing to find my sight
I lost my pride to find my beauty
I lost my fear to find my faith
I lost my religion to find my love
I lost the world to find eternity
I lost my failure to find my victory
I lost my light to find my dark
I lost my dark to find my fire
I lost my will to find my life
I lost my life to be reborn
Sometimes you have to lose everything you think is most important,
to find what really is.
AL 8/22/14
offering
Offer your bodies as a living sacrifice.
—Romans 12.1
Because it is holy,
God’s gift to you,
molded from God’s clay,
and not some bad thing,
root of sin, vessel of shame—
holy, every part of it,
even though you could lose a few
or cut your hair different,
it is what God gave you,
it is all you have.
Because it’s how you sacrifice yourself,
giving it to God and not getting it back,
every moment, every step,
every gesture a prayer.
Because it’s wonderful,
the webbing between your thumb and finger,
the landscape of your palm
and its memories,
the stories around your eyes.
Because it is your wisdom,
the muscle memory of faith,
like the lobsterman whose legs know
the sea and the boat and the weight,
how you know the weight
of the water you take the plants,
the food you’ve given,
the feel of bowing in gratitude or humility,
the rush of singing poorly, joyfully,
head back, eyes closed,
the heat in your chest when you risk
some love or forgiveness.
Because it is how you move in the world,
what and how you eat,
your nearness to others,
your breathing in and out, so faithfully.
Because how else will God know
what it is like
to walk on this earth?
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
yes
You do not have to choose the bruised peach
or misshapen pepper others pass over.
You don’t have to bury
your grandmother’s keys underneath
her camellia bush as the will states.
You don’t need to write a poem about
your grandfather coughing up his lung
into that plastic tube—the machine’s wheezing
almost masking the kvetching sisters
in their Brooklyn kitchen.
You can let the crows amaze your son
without your translation of their cries.
You can lie so long under this
summer shower your imprint
will be left when you rise.
You can be stupid and simple as a heifer.
Cook plum and apple turnovers in the nude.
Revel in the flight of birds without
dreaming of flight. Remember the taste of
raw dough in your mouth as you edged a pie.
Feel the skin on things vibrate. Attune
yourself. Close your eyes. Hum.
Each beat of the world’s pulse demands
only that you feel it. No thoughts.
Just the single syllable: Yes …
See the homeless woman following
the tunings of a dead composer?
She closes her eyes and sways
with the subways. Follow her down,
inside, where the singing resides.
“Permission Granted” by David Allen Sullivan
Modern religion has tended to degenerate into a decent formula whereby people can embellish an otherwise comfortable life. – Alfred North Whitehead
And the bottom line is: We will be known by our fruits — not by what name we call ourselves or by what fame we want to be known for. We will be known for our actual fruits, not the intentions of our imaginations.
The greatest of these is love. And love’s actual fruit is service: Love bears service. Love says: Let me serve.
And the actual fruit of serving is peace: Service grows peace. Service says: Let me help bring peace. Which means — all of us are simply just one hand reach away from working for world peace.
– Ann Voskamp
Life is never about being correct, but only and always about being connected. Just stay connected. At all costs stay connected. Our only holiness is by participation and surrender to the Body of Love, and not by any private performance. Because Love is One, and this Love is either shared and passed on or it is not the Great Love at all. The One Love is always eager.
– Richard Rohr
both the receiving of love, and the letting go of it for others, are always. very real dying to our present state. Whenever we choose to love, we will – and must – die to who ever we were before we loved. Our former self is taken from us by the object of our love. We only realize this is what has happened after the letting go.
– Richard Rohr
every little thing
We have to go the “second mile” with God. Some of us get played out in the first ten yards, because God compels us to go where we cannot see the way, and we say – “I will wait till I get nearer the big crisis.” If we do not do the running steadily in the little ways, we shall do nothing in the crisis.
– Oswald Chambers
At the end of the day: do others feel loved in your presence? This is the spiritual bottom line. – Masin Kipp
I have walk long and alone. I have sought truth in my life and I have been careful about sharing it with others – even in my closest relationships.
I thought it was mainly because of the dogma of fundamentalism I grew up in, but I have recently discovered it is mainly because of the rejection, control, verbal, mental and sexual abuse I have been through.
Holding my truth, my way of living as sacred to me was my way of protection.
I am seeking to be more open, more honest with my truth, open myself in new ways in close relationships. I must admit, it is somewhat terrifying – which makes me know it’s the right thing.
As I walk into this brave new place I am aware of all that has brought me here, and I am grateful for all of my learning which allows me to step into this personal place of revealing my naked truths to others. I believe in the importance of it. I believe it is the only way I will truly overcome the shadows, wounds and pain of my life and come into the fullness of joy in my life.
Life is a process. Only love can break a heart. Only love can mend it again.
We are here for both parts – IF we will step into the place which will allow us to fly and be free – even with patched up, broken and battered wings.
safety vs. joy
That our God would only be safe if He were dead.
But He is the Living Word and His Word is a flashing, double-edged sword and He doesn’t write Himself into neat five-point outlines but He is like the wind — and He speaks in parables that subvert and poetry that ignites and metaphors that jolt and there is nothing safe or small or stiff about Him.
That’s what I am thinking as I scrub smudge marks off cupboards, try to wash away all these marks. Thinking what the Beaver said of Aslan:“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver.“Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
There is nothing safe about the Christ who rent the veins and the veil to save us — He is Divine and He is Dangerous and He is Detonating. He is no tame lion.
What did Randy Alcorn say and in the most Scriptural sense? “It’s dangerous faith in our untamed Savior that leads us to the joy we crave.“
And what the world desperately needs is more dangerous disciples of an unsafe God.
He is wholly unsafe and He’s the untame lion whose claws tear into the scales of my thick sins and the ripping away of everything filthy dragon can feel like a burning right through to the heart. I need His perfectly dangerous ways.
Real love is never safe.
Because grace is a dangerous thing and too often those who speak the most about grace are the most graceless of all.
I am just beginning to learn it and see it painfully in me: The modern-day Pharisees focus on avoiding sin and not on ardently loving our Savior.
What all us Pharisees need to experience is this: Ardent love for your Savior is the most direct path of sin avoidance.
What all us Pharisees need to experience is the mystery of the whole of holy Scripture and real crazy love.
“The holy wild is always pervaded with mystery,” writes Mark Buchanan.
Maybe faith isn’t as much formula as the mystery of being drawn to, surrendering to, the overwhelming love and will of the most dangerous Reality in all the universe?
– Ann Voskamp
read full blog at http://www.aholy experience.com
On this day of your life I believe God wants you to know…
…that safety is not the thing you should look for in the
future. Joy is what you should look for.
Security and joy may not come in the same package.
They can…but they also cannot.
There is no guarantee.
If your primary concern is a guarantee of security,
you may never experience the truest joys of life.
This is not a suggestion that you become reckless,
but it is an invitation to at least become daring.
Neale Donald Walsh
http://www.nealedonaldwalsch.com
there will be miracles
I don’t want another Raven!
(even tho I’m so grateful for all of them, don’t get me wrong)
I don’t want more manna,
or water out of rocks –
spoken to
or struck in desperation –
I don’t want another temp job
regardless of pay
or qualification.
I want my life’s work.
My soul sustaining work.
My love song to the world work.
I don’t want to look back with sad eyes to the
‘What if’s’,
trying not to turn into a pillar of salt,
or Rip Van Winkle,
dreaming of the ocean,
springtime in Connecticut,
apple trees
and dandelion wishes.
I’ve cleared the past,
scoured the memories,
returned the hooks,
and the books.
Burned the bridges,
learned the lessons well,
made room for the new,
the view,
the unlimited possibility
of today.
I don’t want a fan,
someone to control me,
abuse me,
or a man to take care of me.
I want a life partner.
A co-builder of eternal structures.
A co-architect of a life full of goodness,
truth,
kindness
and sharing.
I don’t want to sit still any longer.
I don’t want to let another important day go by.
my patience has been monumental,
my obedience marathon,
My testing long and brutal.
I’m ready,
I’m so very ready.
and so I ask –
for no more stop gaps,
no more ravens,
no more small or large miracles in this particular arena of wilderness.
God, take me forward
into new battles,
new playing grounds,
new levels of faith.
allow me to step forward
today,
this very moment if it pleases You,
into my work,
into Your will and work.
As in all things,
Your will be done
here in me on earth
as it is in heaven.
today
and everyday
may it be so
Amy Lloyd
7/22/14
there is enough loveliness, enough beauty, enough peace, enough love in this world — enough food in this world – if we would just share?
– Ann Voskamp
life: acoustic & amplified 