Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Finished



+ + +

So much ground covered
Soul searing soil which seemed insurmountable
Terrain which towered over us
Heartbreaking in its apparent invincibility...

But look behind,

See,

This Way we thought impossible
impassable
utterly implausible

Now threaded with our footsteps
taken one by one
by one
by one...

and Finally,

It Is Finished.....

Now,

It Begins...

*** 2015 ***

+ + +

"Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has the mind of man conceived 
the things which God has prepared..."
-1 Corinthians 2:9

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

The Last Word


"In The Beginning was The Word"
John 1:1

+

The Word
Which became Light
Which dealt the deathblow to darkness
In The Beginning

Still speaks
Still shines
Still writes on our lives
Authoring and Finishing
Our Story
in
Light

The deepest night
is no match
for this Dictum
The Word goes deeper still

In The Beginning
In The Middle
In The End

Light will have The Last Word

+

"I AM The Alpha and the Omega,
The Beginning and The End,
says the Lord God,
He Who Is
and Who was
and Who Is To Come,
The Almighty
The Ruler of All."

-Revelation 1:8

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

...Let there be Light, a Hanukkah blessing...


"Let There Be Light"
-Genesis 1:3

+

The lengths we will go
to procure this primal need
even synthesizing it
with phones, tv's, trifles,
these cubic zirconia counterfeits of what was given "In The Beginning"...
which fall into our stomachs, our base appetites,
but miss our Hearts entirely, where the true Hunger lies...

The True Treasure
Buried under the impedimenta of our lives
Waits for the soul, the seeker
who will not settle for 
smoke and mirrors...

Our deepest selves Know,
and still seek Him
and will not be satisfied
with sparkly substitutions
ersatz ephemeral fulfillment...

We Hear, through the din of false diamonds
True Light
Tireless Beacon Calling us Home
Bidding us Follow His Voice
Out of darkness,
Into our 'Let There Be' Beginning...

+

"What you seek
Is Seeking You."
-Rumi

Friday, December 12, 2014

Faith




+

Remember what was shown you
The Glimpse Given your Eyes-To-See
on the Mount
those High Places
that Day...

Hold to Heaven's View
Gifted you

Choose the Lens that Lifted you
that Lifts you
that will Lift you
into Landscape intended all along

Navigate by this View

Do not settle for the simple way
the base elements
ubiquitous
easily attained

Hold to Wings, My Love
Hold to High Places
Choose the Way where there seems to be no way
The Sacred Ground your beautiful feet
were Created to traverse...

Lift your eyes, Love
Raise your sights once again...

Faith, My child!

Faith!

+

"We walk by faith, not by sight"
2 Corinthians 5:7

Monday, December 8, 2014

Dew


"I will be like the dew to Israel."
-Hosea 14:5

+

A gentle thing
An Annointing
Arrives quiet
Anticlimactic
After such a Long night...

Such a Long
Long
Night

Settles, feather down soft
Soaking
Covering in halcyon Healing
Culling deep Grief

Barest Touch tending to
the bloody blows endured
merciless, devilish destruction
and dark deeds done

finally spent

Silenced

Displaced by this Delicate Dictum

Blanketed in this,

Morning's Benediction.

+

"The night is far spent"
-Romans 13:12

Monday, December 1, 2014

...



+

I Love you.

-God

+

Friday, November 28, 2014

Dots...


"Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed, and in Your book they were all written, the days fashioned for me, before ever they took shape, when as yet there were none of them."
-Psalm 139:16

+

Dots, like a constellation, run through our lives,
Seemingly disconnected
Disjointed
Their place against the black sky
Deceptively random
and Irrelevant

but Zoom Out
and See
A form emerges
A cosmos where there was only chaos
Method where there was madness
Something to steer by

Events, previously unrelated
become a Path

Providence, thought fickle and heartless,
becomes a Master Planner

What makes no sense
What tears out our hearts
What brings us to our knees

when looked at through the lens of the long run
becomes 
Meaningful

Wait for it,
Have a little faith...

The Finger that flung out the stars

Will one day

Connect all the
Dots

+

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

When the fog lifts...


"When the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, 
the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys."
-Exodus 40:36

+

"The woods are lovely, dark, and deep..." is what Frost wrote, an eloquent word picture of what this Life so often looks like...

I'm not sure how "lovely" I think it all is.....sometimes it just feels "dark and deep" and not so lovely, not at all.....sometimes it just feels menacing, unending, oppressive.....sometimes I feel closed in and claustrophobic, barely seeing the hand in front of my face, holding to the tiniest thread and semblance of a path......Could this really be The Path?  

I want meadows, and clearings, wide-open spaces and lookouts that let me see for miles......not this plodding, this panting, this praying for daylight.......

I long for Frost's "Lovely"......I tire of "Dark and Deep".........but he tells me the two are not mutually exclusive......the paradox of "Lovely" and "Dark and Deep", paired, purposely, quite purposely, like a chess move playing out, plotting itself, into my Path.  And the thought comes that perhaps, perhaps, all this "Dark and Deep" belies something extraordinarily, exquisitely, and unexpectedly "Lovely", which, though hidden, pervades the Whole.  Perhaps, without "Dark and Deep", there is no "Lovely"....not the lasting kind of "Lovely" anyway......

....I want the Lasting Kind.  For myself, and for all others who will follow in my footsteps, the ones who will come behind, who will also lay Lovely ground...

So if "Dark and Deep" must coincide with "Lovely", if they are the inseparable companions Frost made them out to be, and if embracing dark and deep means I will also hold in my arms Lovely, for a world who is starving for Lovely, then Let It Be.....And with Isaiah, regarding these Woods, this Life, I say, "Here am I, Send me."...

...Bring on the Dark.  Bring on the Deep.  

Bring on the Lovely.

+

"I am dark, but lovely, oh daughters of Jerusalem, 
like the tents of Kedar, like the curtains of Solomon."
-Song of Solomon 1:5

Saturday, November 15, 2014

breadcrumbs...




"We're all just walking each other Home."
-Ram Dass

~~

My book, a compilation of posts from this blog, is now available on Amazon for Kindle.

My friends, I've walked this path with some of you for years, 
some of you just weeks or days...
All of you have had a part in the creation of this book, 
of the Life it took on, the Breath that it holds.
  
You shone your light, you lent your perspective, so generously into my life and onto my path; we journeyed together through calm waters and crucibles, through light and dark, holding each other's hands and helping each other to see, just a little bit farther down the road.

It is with a humble and deeply grateful heart, deeply grateful to each and every one of you, my traveling companions, that I bring this offering to our table,


~~

"I am God's pencil.  A tiny bit of pencil with which He writes what He likes.  He writes through us, and however imperfect we may be, He writes beautifully."
~Mother Theresa

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

breadcrumbs




"We're all just walking each other Home."
-Ram Dass

~~

My book, a compilation of posts from this blog, is now available on Amazon for Kindle.

My friends, I've walked this path with some of you for years, 
some of you just weeks or days...
All of you have had a part in the creation of this book, 
of the Life it took on, the Breath that it holds.
  
You shone your light, you lent your perspective, so generously into my life and onto my path; we journeyed together through calm waters and crucibles, through light and dark, holding each other's hands and helping each other to see, just a little bit farther down the road.

It is with a humble and deeply grateful heart, deeply grateful to each and every one of you, my traveling companions, that I bring this offering to our table,


~~

"I am God's pencil.  A tiny bit of pencil with which He writes what He likes.  He writes through us, and however imperfect we may be, He writes beautifully."
~Mother Theresa

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Wide Water II




+

The Water is wide,

But there are Wings...

and there are boats that carry two......

There is a light on that far shore

coming into view

The same currents that battered us,

That broke us,

bent us to their mysterious will,

now carry us

and plot our course,

into the stream intended

all along...

+

"He shepherded and guided them"
-Psalm 78:72

Monday, October 20, 2014

Lost?


"What you are seeking
is seeking you."
~Rumi

+

Apparent contradictions exist,
carefully pointed out
with our self-made scepters
our limited scope, 
based on our combined five minutes of experience we've had on this planet:

Contradictions in the Book of books,
The Word we follow,
even where God Himself is concerned....

In Reality,
There are no irreconcilable differences,
Only finite minds which cannot span Infinite Distances.

Enter the Way Himself,
the Truth,
the One who came to bridge the gap

Our Path Homeward is plotted through Paradox,
Soaked in Mystery;
So much depends on knowing the Unknowable,

Faith asks us to begin at the end, 
to find rest in the Final Analysis,
The Constant of our Equation:

that God Is.
that God is Good.
That God is Love.

If the factors you're currently considering
do not add up to this end,
keep seeking...

You will Find,

and in the finding,

You will be Found.

+

"May you be rooted deep in Love and founded securely on Love, that you may have the power to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Love; to know the Love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
-Ephesians 3:17-19

Friday, October 10, 2014

Mercy


"Deep calls to deep"
-Psalm 42:7

+

You carved and dug

Deep into me

Mercilessly
(or so it seemed)

And made of me
Your Well
in this desert

For all who are thirsty
For all who would drink

Deeply

of Your

Mercy

+

"They shall partake of the abundance of the seas,
and of treasures hidden in the sand."
-Deuteronomy 33:19

Wholehearted....




+

The Heart is enlarged in still small spaces
Multiplied in Solitide
Woven Wide across worlds when given to One…

Thus stretched
This canvas can hold multitudes,
and more Beauty 
than ever it held ashes…

When willing to wait at the empty table
For it to be filled
The heart becomes a feast
even its broken
loaves and fishes fragments
become food
and fill to the brim
the baskets
of His Beloved.

+


Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Calling all angels...




+

Standing on this precipice

between 
terror of Falling

and
the 
thinnest 
thread 
of 
hope 
for
Flight


.....Wish me Wings


+++


Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Which Way...


"He made known His Ways to Moses,
His acts to the children of Israel."
-Psalm 103:7

+

The children of Israel saw the cart,
Moses saw the Horse;

The children of Israel witnessed the effect,
Moses knew the Cause

The children of Israel benefitted from second cause,
Moses interacted with the Primum Movens Himself.

We can settle for outer court living,
protected, certainly,
provided for, of course,
partaking of what has been parceled out to us in God's word
Experiencing Providence from a distance,

Or

We can Live
in intimate interaction
with God Himself
Knowing First hand the Word
which becomes what we see fleshed out all around us

We can become conduits of creation,
not just the beneficiaries of what has been created

There is More than we've been settling for
There is So Much More

We can settle for making a living, for making our way,

or we can Know The Way Himself.

+

"Show me your way that I may know You"
-Exodus 33:13

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Held




+

no matter how many rugs are pulled out from under us, 

underneath,

Still,

are the Everlasting Arms.

+

"There is no one like God,
Who rides the heavens to help you...
The Eternal God is your Refuge,
and underneath are
the Everlasting Arms."
-Deuteronomy 33:26, 27

Monday, September 8, 2014

Matrix




+

It's not about how good we are, 
It's about how Loved we are.

And we are so very Very Loved.

+

"For God So Loved the world..."
John 3:16

Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Simple




+

We serve a Savior Who chose a stable for His birthplace,

A God Who preferred the company of Fisherman to that of Pharisees,

A Lord Who advised the rich young ruler,
not to follow hundreds of laws,
but instead, said simply, "Follow Me."

When offered a thousand rams, ten thousand rivers of oil, even His followers' first born in some twisted attempt to procure His favor,
He gently redirected their well-meaning but misguided efforts with the simple dictum,

Just Do Justly,
And Love Mercy,
And Walk Humbly With Your God.

There is no song and dance necessary to secure your salvation,
No hoops to jump through
that will make Him love you more

Jesus died an agonizing death
to forever join your heart to Heaven's,

He did the hard part

So you could keep it Simple.

+

"My yoke is easy, My burden is light."
-Jesus

Thursday, August 21, 2014

Stable




+

God has a thing for stables

The frills seem lost on Him
The fancy-schmancy doesn't seem to float His boat

We have a God
Who digs
Raw and Real

Who would rather be up to His elbows
in the nitty-gritty of our lives,
than to have the wrapped-up-pretty version
we so often offer,
the one that obscures the Gift inside,
the complicated-messy-conundrum He's so crazy about.

He wants your Voice,
not your script

He wants your Heart
not an Excel spread sheet

He wants to confide
without having to cushion and clean it up
He wants to sit in silence
with one who hears anyway

When given the choice
between homogenized and humble
between white-washed and weathered
between the insulation of the inn
and the blood and sweat of the stable,
We have a God Who chooses the Stable,

Every time.

Who makes Himself at home there,
So we can make ourselves at home in Heaven.

+

"For now I have chosen and set apart this house, that my name may be there forever; 
My attention and my concern will be there always."
-2 Chronicles 7:16

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Yet


"...Although my house is not so with God, 
Yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant,
Ordered in ALL things and Secure."
-2 Samuel 23:5

+

Yet

The Game Changing Word

The Difference between
serving The Living God
and any other god

This tiny word
contains the entire gospel,
contains All the Amazing Grace
we will ever need

Our Soundness,
Our Salvation,
Our Second and Forty-Second Chances

are Sealed and Secure,
 we are Covered and Kept,
Not because we so perfectly keep our promises,

But because He Always 
Always,
Always

Keeps His.

+

"...This is All my Salvation,
and all my desire."
-2 Samuel 23:5

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Modus Operandi




~~

To Live

So that we Leave

A shadow of a doubt,

A wondering,

If we were,

Indeed,

Their angel

Sent From God

~~

"As He Is, so are we in this world."
-1 John 4:17

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Finished?


"It is Finished."
-John 19:30

+

Finished.
Done For.
Down for the Count.

So was Jesus.

Hanging
Helpless
Bloodied and Beaten

The words, "It is Finished" on His lips.

And yet

And Yet,

That agonizing utterance precipitated
The Greatest Beginning
in History.

When we, too, are hanging,
When even that all-important Last Thread has snapped,
When the dreadful feeling fills our hearts,
the one in our terrified bewilderment that we barely dare to utter,
"My God! My God?!  Why have You forsaken me??!"

We may also be,
Paradoxically and Providentially,
At The Beginning.

...and this very paradox, agonizing as it is,
would dictate that when we, too, are Finished
what has been Authored can finally come to pass

In this Divine Economy,
Death sets the stage,
becomes the Doorway,
and is servant to,
Always
and Ever,

The Resurrection.

"Life comes back.  Life Always comes back."

+

"Death is swallowed up, utterly vanquished forever, in victory.  Oh death, where is your victory?  Oh grave, where is your sting?  Thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory and makes us Conquerors with and through the Lord Jesus Christ."
-1 Corinthians: 15:55-57

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Soak


(Chincoteague Island, Virginia)

~~~

Soaking with You,
in You,
You in me...

Every cell, every synapse
engorged
in this ethereal effusion,

Heart, Mind,
Body, Spirit

Enjoined,
Beautifully,
One

Thus saturated,
Thus enmeshed,
I emerge,
Brimming withYour Being,
Your very Essence...

...Through me
Slake the thirst of thousands,
Let tears be traded
for the Torrent
of Your Presence

Into this desert, wring out the Deluge of You,
once again, drench dust with the Divine,
Quench the deepest place in every parched heart,
Rain out of me,
and Flood
Your Beloved.

~~~

"Passing through the Valley of Weeping, 
they make it a Place of Springs;
The Rain also covers it and fills the pools with blessings."
-Psalm 84:6

Friday, July 11, 2014

Thursday, July 10, 2014

The Offering


"The people will come to your light,
and Kings to the brightness of your Rising"
-Isaiah 60:3

~~

Burned

Utterly Consumed

Ashes

Alter empty of All-that-was
The body that held
Life,
Love,
Breath

Fed, Mercifully,
to Flame

Now Spirit, Caught Fire,
Can Burn,
No longer suffocated,
starved of Air,

~~ It Rises ~~

Engulfed in this Gorgeous Fiery Light,
Flesh burns away in a few painful hours,
But Spirit is Fuel for Eternity,
Spent like the Sun,

For The Son

A Lamp
For All who are lost,
Lovely Luminary Shining

For Worlds upon Worlds,

Showing

Weary Warriors,
Languishing Lovers,
and Every Precious Prodigal,

The Way to go Home

~~

"Those who would be Light
Must endure Burning."
-Dr. Viktor Frankl


Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Out of the Woods.....


"Who is this, coming out of the wilderness,
leaning on her Beloved?"
-Song of Solomon 8:5

~~

Come Out of the Woods now, Beloved..

Just this Way...

You see the Light
begin to Flood your Path
from the Clearing up ahead.....

.....Just Up Ahead......

And you know

And you Realize

Afterall

After All,

That I AM,

Indeed,

The Good Shepherd

~~


Monday, July 7, 2014

...a little slice......


Blue Ridge Sunset from the top of Wintergreen...

...i.e. "Heaven"

Friday, July 4, 2014

Freedom


(Blue Ridge Mountains seen from the top of Wintergreen)

~~

"God gives Wings to those who are not content to ride an ass."
~Rumi

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Beloved II .....


"In this union and communion with Him, love is brought to completion and consummation,
because as He is, so are we in this world."
-1 John 4:17

+

Equal parts
Humanity
and Divinity,

We move between the two,
marrying the two,
as He did,

Effortlessly,
Beautifully,

Between 
Groundedness
and Godliness,

A bridge from
Holy Ground
to Holy God,

Jacob's Ladder,
Living,
Lifting others

With Hinds Feet footing
in our own Belovedness

We become the way
to the High Places,
to their place,

as Chosen,
as Cherished,

as the Beloved

+

"He has made my feet like Hinds Feet,
He makes me walk in the High Places"
-Habakkuk 3:19