Ruthless trust is the way for this ragamuffin.
If it be your way, the sign you can trust will be the slow, steady, and miraculous transformation from self-rejection to self-acceptance rooted in the acceptance of Jesus Christ.
– Brennan Manning
I walked a mile to school today
In the snow
Uphill both ways
Not my favorite type of snow,
But still beautiful and exciting.
Wind gusts blew me around
Making me fight to keep my ground
Snow spitting in my face
Felt like salt or sand
I pulled my hat down and squinted
As I walked I sang the old hymn
The prayer of my heart
Open my eyes
That I may see
Glimpses of truth you have for me
Place in my hands the wonderful key
That shall unclasp and set me free
Silently now I wait for Thee
Ready my God
Thy will to see
Open my eyes
Illumine me
Savior divine
When I reached my school,
Branford River,
I grew silent and allowed my soul
To open to the beauty
the wonder
it continued as I walked my return path
returning
I felt again the birds flying above me yesterday
Free falling
Catching the wind
So graceful
and sure
and I realized my fear
the fear I had learned
Fear of falling
All my life
Taught I was clumsy
that I would crash if I tried
That I couldn’t fly
Couldn’t dance
my problem identified as
Not very graceful
What if that was not true?
What if?
I picture myself jumping from an airplane
Soaring like those birds
I float and fly
smoothly and gracefully in my head
then I dance
Gliding across the floor
with the man I love
and am surprised
I enjoy this feeling
of my grace
my freedom
School has been amazing today
You just never know
What you will learn in
God’s life class
3/7/13
Discerning God’s Presence
The Gospels are filled with examples of God’s presence in the word. Personally, I am always touched by the story of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth. There he read from Isaiah:
The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
for he has anointed me
to bring good news to the afflicted.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to
captives, sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord.
(Luke 4:18-19)
After having read these words, Jesus said, “This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening.” Suddenly, it becomes clear that the afflicted, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed are not people somewhere outside of the synagogue who, someday, will be liberated; they are the people who are listening. And it is in the listening that God becomes present and heals.
The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now.
The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the word? Where do I discern the healing hand of God touching me through the word? How are my sadness, my grief, and my mourning being transformed at this very moment? Do I sense the fire of God’s love purifying my heart and giving me new life? These questions lead me to the sacrament of the word, the sacred place of God’s real presence.
Henri Nouwen
Excerpt from Henri Nouwen’s With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life
http://www.henrinouwen.org/
Most of our Advent traditions formed centuries ago among Christian and pre-Christian Celtic and Germanic peoples, as they approached the winter solstice. So there’s a lot about darkness, stillness and silence. Farmers removed idle wagon wheels to make wreaths with candles, reflecting on the fallow season of waiting and hope. All this darkness and cold might sound a little off to you who live in Australia, where summer’s about to begin, or South Africa or Brazil, or for that matter even Texas. While we’re singing about the “bleak midwinter” the folks in Corpus Christi and Adelaide go to the beach.
We call this a season of silence and stillness―notice how may carols have silence in them―but we’re rushing around, busier than ever, and making more noise than usual ringing bells and singing in public, if you can believe it! We’re playing music and stringing up extra lights as if to banish the very darkness and silence we adore.
The darkness and quiet of December in the north country is a symbol, but not the whole of it. After all, there isn’t that much bleak, dark midwinter in Bethlehem―and actually Jesus probably wasn’t born in the winter anyway. “The dawn that breaks upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” has nothing to do with latitude. The darkness of Advent is the darkness within, and the darkness of a fearful, competitive world. The silence is the deep silence at the center of our souls. That’s where Advent happens, and the birth of Christ unfolds.
Where is the darkness in your life? Where are the places in your life where you can’t see, where the known disappears into the unknown? Where is that place in your awareness where you can be without “seeing,” without knowing or understanding, and be at peace?
Where is the silence in you? You won’t find it “out there.” Go within. Sit with it. Sit with it a lot, and let it speak to you in the language of angels, the language of God, which is silence.
Your wagon wheels may not be idle, but there is a place of quiet in your soul. Where are the empty places in your life? We might feel uncomfortable about emptiness, but an empty place is one where the Christ child can come when there is “no room in the inn” elsewhere. Perhaps even the painfully empty places―the places of loss, bereavement, poverty or fruitlessness―maybe these are places where even now angels are gathering.
Don’t expect the world to offer you darkness, silence and stillness. Go to where they are, and wait there. God will meet you there.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
To a man who lives unto God nothing is secular, everything is sacred, because the sacred has absorbed the secular. ~ Spurgeon
And what God had cleaned, she could not call common again — her there in a sacred mess of grace.
– Ann Voskamp
He is jealous for me, Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden, I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.
And oh, how He loves us oh,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all
And we are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If His grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way…
That He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Yeah, He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves us,
Oh how He loves.
Lyrics David Crowder Band.
a grown man meets himself.
Himself at just ten.
With the light in his eyes.
And the world in his heart.
He sets out to explain to his young self why he’s taken the road to someone else’s somewhere.
But he can’t.
And in the deafening silence he shakes uncontrollably.
As the years of an unconsidered life spill over.
And in that silence everything changes.
Forever.
Perhaps the ten year old had been his very soul in disguise.
Come to shake him from the prison of his daytime.
Psalm 23David declares, The Lord is my shepherd.
1 The Lord is my ashepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
______________________________________________________________________________
God’s grace covers us all~
Regardless of who we are and what we bring...He loves us.
In sickness, rebellion, fear, and abandonment…He loves us.
With all the stories we bring from our past…He loves us.
In our times of great joy and terrible despair…He loves us.
Do you ever question God’s love for you?
Words and Photo from by:
Junelle Jacobsen
blog~ http://www.yes-and-amen.com/
In August I did a Newsletter Issue featuring Junelle and her awesome inspiration over at
http://songsfromthevalley.com/August%2012%205.13%20Inspiration.pdf
S
itting here at the end of words
Moving into spaces wide and deep
On the sharpest edge of knowing
Silence saying so much more
Than I could ever say
Teaching me as I learn to speak
In language of the rocks and trees
Listening to the swirling sunlight
All along the way
We are travelers on this journey
Made of dust
Filled with stars
Dancing in the moonlight
Floating on the clouds
Connected to each other
Filled with care
Made to share
We only have this moment
To give. to live out loud
Raindrops kissing our tearstained faces
while our dancing steps are tracing
Dewdrops diamonds winking
It’s our time to shine
Laughter sparkling like fine wine
We are here
we’re meant to be
A charming dimple in eternity
Joyfully circling for infinity
AL 10/7/12
and if you want everything you must experience
knowing what it is to have nothing but your heart
– cliff kayser
www.XperienceIT.com
www.KayserRidge.com
Your mere presence has always been enough for the birds to sing, the waves to roll, and the sun to shine… so why do you ever feel you should be more?
Love yourself as we love you,
The Universe
Notes From the Universe
http://www.tut.com
God invites us into the present moment, invites us to be present for God, who is perfectly present for us. Start now. Come as you are. No cover charge, no entrance requirements, no dress code. Just be here. Really, you already are.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
Deep peace of the
Running waves to you.
Deep peace of the
flowing air to you.
Deep peace of the
Quiet earth to you.
Deep peace of the
shining stars to you.
Deep peace of the
Son of peace to you.
life: acoustic & amplified 
