Monday, December 31, 2012

New

 
+++
 
Genesis beckons
into Journey beyond
what we have known
what we can see...
 
into courage for Crossing
from death into Life
over our Jordans
into all that will be
 
Our souls are laid bare
as the past falls away
we long to be clothed
with dawning of Day
 
Life will not be bested
so brave steps ensue
He gives beauty for ashes
 
All things will be made New
 
+++
 
"The Lord God is my strength,
and He will make my feet like hinds' feet,
and he will make me walk upon mine high places."
-Habakkuk 3:19
 
 

Friday, December 21, 2012

Incarnation

 
"In the beginning was the Word...
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us..."
-John 1:1, 14
 
+++
 
As in the beginning,
The Word still seeks
safe harbor
in hearts that
would become
willing wombs...
 
These hearts of dust
become Heaven's creche,
bearers of Gospel,
Word, again, becomes flesh

+++

Merry Christmas dear ones,
love,
Elizabeth "Hindsfeet"
 
"Then Mary said, 'Behold the maidservant of the Lord!  Let it be to me according to your word.'"
-Luke 1:38

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

lamentation

 
 
+++
 
hearts hang,
battered,
half staff
 
with Jesus
we weep
 
+++
 
"Jesus wept."
-John 11:35
 
while my heart cannot wrap around the grief
of the Sandy Hook tragedy,
my hope is in my very small way to weep with those who weep,
and in so doing,
bear with them their grief
 
-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"


Saturday, November 3, 2012

Beautiful Fall

 

~***~
 
Live
 
Live this Life
 
We linger but for awhile
But Oh! How lovely the lingering can be
When we allow it to be
 
When we are freed from fearfully grasping
hanging on too long to moments past
clutching tightly to the present
weighed down with angsty wringing of hands
with shoulds and could haves and would haves...
 
Allow Love
Allow Joy
Yes, allow even frivolity
fearless leaps
new beginnings
second chances
 
We linger for such a short while
then we flutter
and fall...
 
Live so that in the falling
there is no longing
no looking back...
only a knowing
that Life was Lived...
 
Live so that when you fall
your fall is not tragic
but a tantalizing display
a dignified denoument
a fearless fluttering
a beautiful fall
 
Live
 
~***~
 
"I came that they might have Life, that they might have abundant Life"
John 10:10


Saturday, October 20, 2012

Come...

"Come to Me, all you are are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you Rest."
-Matthew 11:28
 
***
 
Center down, get quiet, calm your mind, still your body
 
Know the Still Small Voice that brought about this Great Big World, and let that lovely paradox wash through your reason.....
and your need for reasons.......
 
Let the peace of His Words resonate within you, till all is peace,
till every frenetic thing in you parellels itself with this plumb line.
 
Let it go now......let it all go......
 
Feel beneath you the Everlasting Arms
 
Feel above you, and all around you, His embrace...
 
Know that you are gathered in, safe now...
 
Know that you are loved beyond what you can imagine,
what you will ever be able to imagine
 
my dear, beloved friend,
 
Come now to the end of your endless searching

Lay it down....lay it all down....
 
Come instead to the place of being Found
 
Come as a child

Come as you are

as the wonderful beloved treasure you are...

He is waiting

He is here

He is Rest
 
Come
 
***
 
"Peace Be Within You"
-Psalm 122:7

Monday, October 8, 2012

Hope...

"yet now there is hope in Israel in spite of all this"
-Ezra 10:2

***

"...in spite of all this..."

in spite of the biggest messes we can make,
in spite of the worst that can happen,
in spite of disappointments and dead-ends,
mistakes and mis-steps,

There Is Hope.

What reassuring, resuscitating, no-matter-what Words

They come on the heels of Israel's utter unfaithfulness, going head to head with God's unflinching faithfulness...guess which one wins.

Hope indeed

How many times have I come to the end of my rope, head hung low, beggar's hands held out, hardly daring to hope for an Ear to hear, for my Savior to save for the seventy times seventh time...yet every time, without fail, underscored by unimaginable mercy, powered by a Love consumed with His beloved, He comes, help comes,

Hope comes

in spite of myself
in spite of it all

thanks be to God
 
***
 
"Why are cast down, O my soul?  And why are you disquieted within me?  Hope in God; for I shall yet praise Him, the help of my countenance and my God."
-Psalm 42:11

Saturday, September 29, 2012

Lilies and Birds....

"Consider the lilies...Consider the birds..."
-Luke 12:24-28
 
***

Lilies and Birds...
...having in common uncommon comeliness
diminutive beauty for beauty's sake
meticulously mixed metaphor
written between lovely lines...
 
...an invitation to total abandon into unseen Hands
painstakingly penned on petaled parchment
inscribed in winged word
 evidence of the Everlasting Arms
underneath, undergirding,
 
harboring, holding...
 
this delicate unfolding
 
of petals, of wings
 
this Becoming, this Being
 
till flight and flowering reach a sacred crescendo
and I flourish in your Hands once again
 
***
 
-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"  9/28/12

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Storm

"...the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary...Jesus went to them, walking on the sea...the disciples cried out for fear...immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, 'Be of good cheer!  I'm here!  Don't be afraid!'...and Peter said, 'Lord!  If it's really you, command me to come to you on the water!'"
-Matthew 14:24-28
 
 
***

When we're in the middle of a storm, our instinctive response is, "I want out!"

When Peter was in the boat, terrified by the turbulence, his cry to Jesus was, "I want out!", even if it meant plunging into the very sea that was at the heart of the stormy seige. 

Talk about "out of the frying pan, into the fire".

At that point, panic had prevailed over practicality....all he knew is, he wanted "out". 

Aren't we sometimes like that?  When we're really in the thick of it, anything can seem preferable to the predicament we're in....all we know is, "we want out!"

It didn't occur to Peter in the middle of his panic, that maybe Jesus was there because He wanted in.

Peter's water-walking heroics was not what Jesus intended when He came to His loved ones' rescue -- though it makes for an interesting story on Sunday mornings -- Jesus allowed Peter to get his escapist escapade out of his system, sustained him through it, and then, between the lines, we can almost hear Jesus asking, "ok, now are you ready to invite me into the boat?"...

The wind did not cease when Peter got out of the boat....the wind ceased when Jesus got into the boat.

Instead of heeding the voice of primal fear which is screaming "I want out!" and plunging ourselves into futher peril, may we have the grace to stop, to wait, to breathe, to heed instead the voice of Jesus saying "I want in"......

He is waiting to take us safely into shore.
 
***
 
"When they got into the boat, the wind ceased."
-Matthew 14:32

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Found

 
 
***
 
I find, once again,
 I'm sitting in front of
a blank canvas
 
A little daunting
A little disheartening
 
As I thought i would
more or less
pick up right where I left off
 
But someone shook the etch-a-sketch
while my back was turned
 
So I must begin again
 
to create
 
this time,
 
with the Creator
 
***
 
"Behold, I AM making all things New!"
-Revelations 21:5

Monday, September 10, 2012

Lost

 
"What do you think? If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off?"
Matthew 18:12
 
***

I wandered,
looking
longing
for Home

I thought I'd find it here
It was here just a moment ago

But someone has stripped the props
Changed the scene
Same stage
Different Play

Sideways

A neon sign hangs over my head
exposing my ugly duckling un-belonging

Just a moment ago I was a swan
How did things go so wrong

And once again I need the One
Who leaves the ninety-nine

To come make right as only He can
To find His child in a strange land

To call my name
To gather me up
To call me Found
To carry me

Home

***

"The Lord is my Shepherd"
Psalm 23:1
 

Friday, August 17, 2012

prayer II

"Trust Him always; pour out your heart to Him;
God is a refuge for us."
-Psalm 62:8

***

I've numbered all your wanderings
I hold all your tears in a jar
I'm here to listen to your heart, my dear one
tell me , my love, how you really are

My Lord, life feels so unwieldy
life and the choices it brings
what happened to my little hindsfeet
what happened to my wings?

I Am your wings, my brave one
You need have no alarm
I Am the Path that bears you up
Underneath are my everlasting arms

But I don't feel so brave, my Love
I don't see what you see
I am so flimsy, frail ,and fickle
How can what you say be?

(Love leans in with the most tender smile
and takes my face in His Hands...)

My Darling, listen close to Me
I see how hard you try
to make sense of all that is at hand
to navigate what feels like shifting sand

Remember the Lilies and the birds?
and all the lessons that you've learned?
yours is not to worry about tomorrow
I Am your Shepherd, all you need to do is follow

I do not trust my feet just now
or my eyes to see
or my ability to hear
each step I take is met with fear

Then trust My Footsteps in the Sand
I carry you, I hold your hand
Trust that you are the apple of My eye
Trust My ears to hear your cry

My dearest love for whom I gave all
Do you really think I'll let you fall?
You are the one who has ravished my heart
You are Solomon's song, life imitating art
Remember you are royalty
Remember who you are!

Now rise, my love, my fair one,
and leave your worries be
It's not so important that you know the way

What matters is that you know Me

***

"You have been upheld by Me from birth, you have been carried from the womb: Even to your old age, I am He, And even to gray hairs I will carry you!  I made you and I will care for you; I will carry you, and will deliver you."
-Isaiah 46:3, 4

Thursday, August 16, 2012

prayer.....


"At the beginning of your supplications the command went out, and I have come...for you are greatly beloved."
-Daniel 9:23

***

When we need something from God, I mean really need something, what sort of response do we expect from the Most High?  How do we perceive His posture toward us?  Do we see a God "afar off", arms crossed, awaiting our polished prose and practiced petitions for help?  Is the assumption that we must make our case with carefully measured monologues, forty day fasts, lobbying, as it were, for even an audience with our Leige?  Do we feel the need to pound down Heaven's door to be heard? ..........Remember, it is He who stands at our door and knocks........

Here's the deal: We ask, God answers.  The answer may not show up for awhile; we may attribute it's arrival to our dutiful self-deprecating demonstrations, assuming our song and dance finally warranted the Almighty's attention, but the truth is, God sets an answer in motion the moment we ask, sometimes before we ask ("Before they call, I will answer"-Isaiah 65:24).  We have a God who is "ready to save" (Isaiah 38:20), an "In The Beginning" God, a God who answers not based on our "righteous deeds", but based on His mammoth mercies (Daniel 9:18).

So next time you need something, really need something, just ask;

the answer may already be on its way.

***

"Do not fear...for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come..." 
-Daniel 10:12

Sunday, August 12, 2012

Homecoming


***

The One Who makes His home in our hearts invites us to make our home in His.  He found His way into our stable so we could find our way into His Kingdom; He lived among men so that we could live among angels; He had nowhere to lay His head so that we'd always have somewhere to lay ours.

Hardly seems a commensurate arrangement.  Under the circumstances one might say Love is blind....

....I say Love saw clearly

....and came anyway.

***

"I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."
Psalm 23:6

Sunday, July 15, 2012

Rich


***

If I'm honest with myself - and with you - I'll admit there are a few things I want:

better health (she said, as she polished off the peanut m&ms)
a sense of Home
perhaps a happily-ever-after or two...

I must admit, however, that the things I do not want for
far outweigh any perceived deficit on my part:

living in a country with an unlimited supply of peanut m&ms
a job that affords me the freedom of flight
a heart deeply loved
a mind mostly at peace
a God who doles out do-overs as though they didn't cost Him a thing...

and this is just to name a few,
(not to mention a dream-come-true or two)
when held up against the things I lack,
I'd say I'm soundly in the black...

.....and counting......and counting....

...and counting......

***

"The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want..."
Psalm 23:1

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Home



***

I feel I've lost my voice of late....or perhaps it's my hearing of His that's gone......too far from Home to hear when He calls...
...I've wandered...

....longing for His Hearth, longing for that Rest.....longing to lay my head, once again, on His chest.....

Longing for the One who leaves the ninety-nine......bleating out my pleas....I may have lost my hearing, but I know He's not lost His.......

***

"Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you."
-Hebrews 13:5

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Come


***

What is it, exactly, in our ancient make-up, that tendency to settle for a single piece of fruit, in lieu of the garden we've been given?  Eve's leftover legacy, passed down to her posterity.

God has so much for us, yet we resign ourselves to basics and bare minimums; begging for crumbs when we've been offered a feast....settling for anxiety, when we're offered still waters, seeking survival though we've been offered abundant life.

I'm not talking about monetary gain, earthly riches, I'm talking about richness of spirit, knowing God, intimacy in the inner courts, versus an existence on the outskirts of our Kingdom.

Knowing God and finding, in the knowing, peace with the unknown.  Lingering long enough with the Lover of our souls, till life's pressing problems fall to the periphery, take their place proportional to the protection of the Overseer of our souls.

We've been offered a priveleged place in Heaven, VIP passes into the very presence of Almighty God; we were not made to grouse around on the outskirts of Grace.

“Come! All who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat.  Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy?  Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance."

-Isaiah 55:1,2

***

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

One Bright Morning...


***

our primal need for sky
-- juxtaposed against
an earth-bound plodding pilgramage --
compels us to breach our body's boundaries
adjures us to find our wings
to seize those rare moments gravity gives up its rights
and in this twilight hour unfurl Faith and take Flight

These Hindsfeet of mine
now bloodied and scarred
have carried me far
over impossible passes
through depths desolate and dry

I have clung for dear life to the Hand holding me
and beheld, broken-hearted, impassable Red Seas
I've followed in Footsteps down Gethsemane roads

I've learned how to die

It's time, 

finally, 

to Fly...

-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"  3/21/12

***

"They that wait upon the LORD shall...mount up with wings as eagles"
-Isaiah 40:31

Sunday, February 26, 2012

in short...


~*~

At Rest,
At Last.

~*~

"Come to Me, all ye who are weary..."
-Jesus

Friday, February 10, 2012

moving the needle


~***~

The impact we have in this life is measured,
not so much in grandiose gestures,
but in miniscule moments

not primarily by our moving the masses
but by our touching individual lives

It's in the micro more than the macro,
the Minutiae...

Jesus healed with a Word
Humanized "the least of these" with a loving look
Turned entire trajectories in a moment of Grace
Trumped tyrannical tradition with a touch

There's magic in the merest kindness
Seeing one accustomed to being unseen
(--and there's a reason a tiny straw can break a camel's back,
so careful how you dole out your straws--)

Our lives are made up of jots and tittles
more than broad strokes
The legacy we leave
built brick by brick
our journey taken step by step...

Let us tread intentionally
laying lovely ground
leaving in our wake
a Life well Lived

meticulously,
meaningfully,
moment by moment....

~***~

-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"  2/10/12

Monday, January 30, 2012

We got the poison, He got the remedy...


“...with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love”
-Ephesians 4:2

~***~

There is a sickness of sorts,
a malaise of mind,
sometimes of body,
the cure for which is offered freely,
but can be very difficult to swallow...
even when one is aquainted with the Heart of the Healer:

...It is our (my) very human tendency as very human beings to fixate on others' failings,
instead of focusing on the forgiveness offered for our own.

It is the difference between bitter and sweet waters;
we can be toxic waste or an oasis,
a seat of judgement or a Mercy seat.

We can finger where others are and where we think they should be,
or we can live knowing "but for the grace of God, there go I."

We can live liberated, liberating lives
or we can exist oblivious to our chains forged in contempt for our fellow man.

We can ignore our logs and pick at splinters
we can shift focus from ourselves to the other thief on the cross
we can rejoice in the incremental difference we gleefully perceive
between our brokenness and that of our traveling companions,
that thing that makes our brokenness look just a little less broken...

...or...

We ( I ) can acknowledge, and find freedom in the acknowledgement,
that we are all at the mercy of a merciful God...
all inexplicably esteemed as treasures in His trove,
equal parts  prodigal and prized,
ruffian and royalty...
...We can remember, and relax in the remembering,
that --Thank God -- His economy is different than ours,
His estimation of worth -- our own and that of the one we feel justified in judging -- is based on what He was willing to pay for us.

So the next time we find ourselves doling out damnation,
treating ourselves to the anesthetic, the incomparable intoxicating cocktail of Self-righteousness and Superiority,
May we see on that person the pricetag
placed there by Providence
May we see them as He sees them
as priceless...
as deeply Loved
and in so doing, may we see ourselves clearly,
fearlessly,
as priceless,
as deeply Loved,
and in turn,
be Healed.

"Judge not, lest you be judged."
-Matthew 7:1

~***~

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Crossing II



~***~

Emerging from this Womb
This season that has held me
Now fully formed
Recreated
Ready for the Light...

...Tenuous steps...
Trepidation
As I Let Go what I know
And Lean In to a new landscape...

...Face Flooded with the warmth of rising sun
of a new circle
Seemingly just begun...

Nocturne's veiled vigil ends
and tireless, tenacious, determined Day
finds me,

Raised
Radiant
Rebirthed...

...and once again Ready
for Flight...

~***~

-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"  1/11/12

"For I know the plans I have for you...
plans for hope and a future."
-Jeremiah 29:11

Thursday, January 5, 2012

In the Beginning, God....

"In the Beginning, God"
-Genesis 1:1

***

"In the Beginning, God..."

Those four Words,
potent with powerful encouragement
comprising such comfort
as we embark on the year to come...

...Not solitary,
but setting out
with One Who knows the way
Who made the way,
and Who is the Way.

Not only here, now,
at the genesis of our journey,
not only "in the Beginning, God",
But throughout our days and weeks and months ahead, God.

In our Beginnings, God
In our Middles, God
In our Endings, God....

...from cornerstone to capstone,
Alpha to Omega,
Beginning to End...

God

...We can trust Him to carry us through.

Happy New Year, my dear friends,

-e.a.a. "Hindsfeet"  1/1/12

***

"He who began...will also complete"
-Phillipians 1:6