life: acoustic & amplified

poetry, quotes & thoughts about life

Archive for the category “Glory”

27 Jul 2012

as much as we want

I don’t want you to get all A’s in life. I want you to get life. I want you to get God. A.W. Tozer said that you can have as much of God as you want.

It’s wild to think about that: How much of God do you really want? How happy do you really want to be? Why would you avoid Him and all your joy — when you could hunger for Him and have as much happiness as you want?

Ann Voskamp/July 10, 12
http://www.aholyexperience.com

——————————————————————————————

The sun rose this morning
with more light than you know what to do with.
More beautiful green living things
reach out to you
than you’ll ever have time to consider.
More birds sing to you than you’ll ever listen to.

Immeasurable grace
is poured out upon you,
splashing,
most of it rivering down your legs
and into the floorboards.

More of what you need to carry on
is secreted into your heart than you believe.
There is hope enough folded into this world.

Of forgiveness and tender delight
you are given more
than you can ever use or comprehend.

Of the darkest mystery,
dense with love
like the billioning stars,
you are given so much more,
even in your bleakest droughts,
your dustiest griefs and desolations,
than you can know.

And of you yourself,
given with confidence to this effulgent universe,
there is so much more than you can see,
so much more.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

Posted in awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Choice, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, Growth, Happiness, healing, Imagine, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, People, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, success, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, truth | Leave a comment
23 Jul 2012

sing your song because…without music life would b-flat – Unknown

Posted in Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Choice, confidence, courage, create, Dancing, determination, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, Relationships, Smile, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today | Leave a comment
20 Jul 2012

Who is my neighbor?

“Love your neighbour as yourself” the Gospel says (Matthew 22:38). But who is my neighbor? We often respond to that question by saying: “My neighbours are all the people I am living with on this earth, especially the sick, the hungry, the dying, and all who are in need.” But this is not what Jesus says. When Jesus tells the story of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:29-37) to answer the question “Who is my neighbour?” he ends the by asking: “Which, … do you think, proved himself a neighbor to the man who fell into the bandits’ hands?” The neighbour, Jesus makes clear, is not the poor man laying on the side of the street, stripped, beaten, and half dead, but the Samaritan who crossed the road, “bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them, … lifted him onto his own mount and took him to an inn and looked after him.” My neighbour is the one who crosses the road for me!

– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/

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Last week Ann Voskamp, and her son Caleb, were in Haiti for Compassion http://www.compassion.ca/child_list.asp read her blog posts about this experience http://www.aholyexperience.com/ – if you are not moved to action, you must be dead!

Check out the newest issue of my newsletter at www.songsfromthevalley.com – it is a very personal one. At the preent moment, I am in the middle of a big faith walk, so please pray for me today as God calls me to your mind.

I read Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail yesterday and one sentence especially jumped out at me – ‘Actually, time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively.’

What are we going to do with our time here? It is always our choice!

Posted in Adventure, art, attitude, awareness, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, Blog, Choice, commitment, compassion, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, Newsletter, Passion, People, Reality, Reflection, Relationships, Songs from the Valley, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, truth | Leave a comment
13 Jul 2012

friends with benches

Benches are special things aren’t they?

They themselves sit and rest, in the sun, in the shade, in the rain, in the snow, at three in the morning…
there to welcome whoever might pass by.

And for what purpose?

To give a soul a moment to rest, to look out, to think, to plan something, or to get over something.

And in their most special times, most special for these benches, are when two people meet and share themselves. Communicate and think more completely than they could or would if they were still walking.

Then after minutes or hours the people rise.
They are different forever because of those minutes, or hours.
Different in very minor ways most times I’m sure.
And at other times, profoundly changed.

They look back and the bench seems physically unchanged, but we know otherwise.

A person was there, moments after measurable warmth remains,
albeit slowly spreading out to be no longer measurable.
The world is different.
Relationships,
interconnections,
changes in perspective.
A reaffrimation of love in the broadest sense.

That maybe god did not make man in his image. That maybe man arrogantly makes god in his image.
God did not make only man,
and I don’t think everything else was made for only for man’s purpose.
Maybe what we find so beautiful and comforting is that nature,
the cosmos,
god,
free will,
the opportunities to do good or ignore other’s needs,
the choices to try and give more than we take,
or take all we can,
the always present capability to pursue happiness…


are all here as are we,
with a purpose we will always look for,
and never completely find,
and all of it as part of a whole incomprehensible to us.
Such joy possible just knowing we are so fortunate to be part of it.

God has no limits, none whatsoever.

On a bench,
realizing we are part of it all,
and always will be,
and sharing
that there is no necessity to understand it all.

– Sunny

http://pinterest.com/al513/friends-with-benches/

Posted in Adventure, beauty, Becoming Yourself, Beginning, Beliefs, Blessing, Choice, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, Miracles, nature, Passion, Poetry, Reflection, Relationships, soul and spirit, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Vulnerability, words | Leave a comment
10 Jul 2012

have no fear…they are all God’s Particles

GOD PARTICLE

Last week they found the Higgs boson!  For all you non-calculator-carrying mystical meditating un-geek poetry-reading hippie types, this is a really big deal.

When scientists came up with the math that explains how the physical universe holds together, they had a perfect equation, except for one thing.  It explained a universe in which nothing had any mass—there was no substance.  In order for things to have mass, there had to be one more factor, that they called the Higgs field, named for the guy who did the math.  It’s a dimension of the physical universe that gives things mass when they interact with it. If it’s there, the math says, then there should be a tiny particle, called the Higgs boson.  If they found that particle, it would prove almost everything. Trouble is, for 48 years, since it was predicted in 1964, nobody’s been able to find it. It’s been humorously called the “God particle”—not by scientists, but the popular media.  In fact some scientists have suggested calling it—pardon the scientific jargon here—the Goddamn particle, for its elusiveness and the trouble and expense it has caused among those trying to find it.  Until last week.

(Higgs Boson walks into a Catholic church.  Priest says, “How dare you call yourself the God particle!  Blasphemer!  Get out!”  Higgs Boson says: “Well, OK—but without me, you can’t have mass!”)

One thing I love about this whole thing is the “faith in something not seen” they had.  Another is the sense of wonder.  And another is the Higgs field.  Present in all the universe, it gives things mass when they interact with it.  Isn’t that sort of like God?  God is present in all the universe, and when you interact with God, you are given substance. Nothing else gives you substance, not what happens to you, not what you do, not what others think of you.  It’s God’s interaction with you.  You aren’t responsible for the substance of your existence: it’s a gift from God. In a way youare a God particle, a tiny manifestation of the holy mystery that holds everything together.

So celebrate with the particle physicists.  Like the Higgs boson, it turns out you’re more than just a figment of the world’s imagination. You’re proof of the existence of God.

 

__________________  

Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

 

Posted in attitude, Beliefs, beloved, Blessing, create, Dreams, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, Imagine, Impossible, inspiration, Letting Go, Life, Love, nature, People, power, Prayer, Proof, Relationships, Respect, soul and spirit, thankfulness, Thoughts, time, Today, Trust | Leave a comment
09 Jul 2012

I am finally in Ohio!!! More tomorrow!

20120709-084534.jpg

I am so thankful for this amazing trip I just took to Connecticut & Boston!!! Still driving! 3 more hours…

Posted in Adventure, beloved, Blessing, Encouragement, Faith, Freedom, fun, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, home, Hope, inspiration, Joy, Judging, kindness, laugh, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Miracles, Party, Passion, Patience, Peace, People, Prayer, Proof, Relationships, Smile, soul and spirit, success, Sweet, Tears, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
07 Jul 2012

don’t loose the simple definition: God is love

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Yes, the people around us, and these lives we lead, are becoming more and more complex. There is no denying that the world is becoming a smaller and smaller place, as we have faster and faster means to get anywhere we want to go. Nothing seems to be very simple, yet at the root of everything in our lives, hearts, world is this one simple need: to feel loved and to give love – to be accepted and acknowledged for who we truly are.

Into that need comes our creator and He wants us to realize this truth: He IS love! We are His beloved! Pure and simple. He makes sure we all know – if we don’t have love, and live love – we have nothing. There is nothing else that is this important. Nothing else that is life changing and world shaking.

Today, sift through all your laters of complexity in your over-stimulated, over-scheduled, uber busy life and ‘turn up the quiet, cause love wants to dance’!

 

Posted in attitude, beauty, Becoming Yourself, beloved, Choice, Dancing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Growth, Habits, Happiness, inspiration, laugh, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, People, Quotes, Relationships, soul and spirit, thankfulness, time, Today, truth, Uncategorized | Leave a comment
06 Jul 2012

what motivation am i (are you) choosing?

There are two basic motivating forces: fear and love. When we are afraid, we pull back from life. When we are in love, we open to all that life has to offer with passion, excitement, and acceptance. We need to learn to love ourselves first, in all our glory and our imperfections. If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create. Evolution and all hopes for a better world rest in the fearlessness and open-hearted vision of people who embrace life.   – John Lennon

Posted in Becoming Yourself, beloved, Blessing, Choice, courage, create, Dancing, determination, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, fun, giving, Glory, Gospel, Gratitude, Growth, healing, inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, light, Love, Passion, People, Relationships, Smile, soul and spirit, strength, success, thankfulness, Today | Leave a comment
29 Jun 2012

oh yeah…it’s gonna be alright

Posted in attitude, Beliefs, Dancing, Encouragement, Faith, find art at pinterest, Glory, Gratitude, Happiness, inspiration, Joy, Letting Go, Life, Love, music, Smile, soul and spirit, strength, success, thankfulness, Thoughts, Trust, worry | Leave a comment
26 Jun 2012

our words become us

A Courageous Life

“Have courage,” we often say to one another.  Courage is a spiritual virtue.  The word courage comes from the Latin word cor, which means “heart.  A courageous act is an act coming from the heart.  A courageous word is a word arising from the heart.  The heart, however, is not just the place where our emotions are located.  The heart is the centre of our being, the centre of all thoughts, feelings, passions, and decisions.

When the flesh – the lived human experience – becomes word, community can develop.  When we say,  “Let me tell you what we saw.  Come and listen to what we did.  Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us.  Wait until you hear whom we met,”  we call people together and make our lives into lives for others.   The word brings us together and calls us into community.  When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people.

– Henri Nouwen
http://www.henrinouwen.org/

Posted in Becoming Yourself, Beliefs, Change, Choice, Faith, find art at pinterest, Freedom, Glory, Growth, Habits, home, inspiration, kindness, Letting Go, Life, Love, People, power, Quotes, Relationships, soul and spirit, strength, Tenderness, thankfulness, Thoughts, Today, truth, words | Leave a comment

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