"Footprints" Revisited....

Dan Denardo Photography

"My precious child, I love you, and I would never leave you; during your times of trial and suffering, where you see only one set of footprints in the sand, it was then that I carried you."

-excerpt from "Footprints"

~***~

Once again looking back at footprints in the sand...

Hoping they connote being carried in Your Hands

Hoping that my wanderings are being numbered still

Straining to see Your shepherding in my stumblings...

I press on along what I hope is the path

Feeling more and more like a foreigner here

I find myself longing for familiar ground

for the comfort of home

for safe and sound...

But my wings are more willing and will not wait

They are eager and determined still

To fly and find their beautiful Fate

To soar into Your wondrous will...

They lend their courage to my cowardly heart

And bolster my bent-over soul

Till once again I walk in a Way

where there seems to be no way at all...

I lift up my eyes to meet Your gaze

and see dancing there an ancient dare:

To leave all behind and follow You, The original Pioneer,

To let go of "good enough", to not settle for less

Than to follow your Footprints

Into Your Highest and Best...

 ~***~

"So He shepherded them according the the integrity  of His heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of His hands."

-Psalm 78:72

Peace

"Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'Be of good cheer!  It is I; do not be afraid.'"

-Matthew 14:27

~***~

Relief, not fear

When Jesus comes near

it is to save

not condemn

It is to steady

And still the storm within...

He is the Way

where there is no way at all

When we're all out of options

When our faith is so small...

"Let there be Light!",

He cries into our night

Displacing Despair

With New Hope for New Life...

He covers our frailty

passes over our sin

gently taking our hand

He bids us begin again...

~***~

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 4/18/11, First Day of Passover

Clean

"Wash me and I will be whiter than snow"

-Psalm 51:7

The Potter saw fit to form our bodies in such a way that they require daily maintenence, regular cleansing, a ritual routine of renewal.

Why, then, do we consider it anomalous that our spirits require the same sort of regime?  When we wash, do we wash once and for all?  When a toddler is bathed, does he feel embarrasment or shame when bathtime rolls around again?  More to the point, would a good parent chide the child for needing such care? 

Of course not, certainly not, and laughably, decidedly, unquestionably not.

Let us settle in our hearts, once and for all, that we have a Loving parent in God.  When the world we are steeped in soils our souls, when weariness overtakes our best intentions and well laid plans, when all we can do is ask Abba to clean us, let us feel Him gently lift us from the grime and from the dust, let us soak in His tenderness and His unrelenting love, let us know that in the end, it is He Who makes us "good", as He did "In the Beginning", so He does in me and you.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God"

-Psalm 51:10

  ~***~

Birth

"The night is far spent; the day is at hand"

-Romans 13:12

***

Dawn displaces darkness

shooing away wintry shadows

nudging me out of my nocturne

and blowing on the smouldering coals

of long dormant dreams

held in abeyance

rousing them to life with the soft breath of the season

bidding them take flight after their long repose...

I pause for just a moment

in this space between spaces

letting my eyes adjust to new light

to new Day...

Then, flooded with freedom, 

feeling the updraft of Your faithfulness

 I take my first step

letting new legs carry me

into come-what-may...

...Lead on, my Lord...

Lead Thou me on...

***

 "Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?"

-Song of Solomon 8:5

Attention to Detail...

"See how the flowers of the field grow, they do not labor or spin, yet not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these...if this is how God cares for the grass of the field, will He not much more care for you?...So do not worry."

-Matthew 6:28-33

~***~

Our tendency to "toil", to "labor and spin", is tenacious at times and can so easily get the best of us.  When we take our eyes off the little things around us - (my mom calls them "the post-it notes from God") - the things that clearly show God's concern over even the seemingly inconsequetial, the cosmos we see when we "consider the lilies"...when we take our eyes off these things, it can, indeed, send us "laboring" and "spinning", forgetting the Maestro Who meticulously conducts His composition, the compassionate Creator Who directs the minutiae of our lives and tenderly attends to the fine print on every page.

May we come to know the peace of being held in Heaven's hand; may we know the comfort of being cared for by the One Who covers and cradles it all.

~***~

"Christ above you, Christ below you, Christ behind you, Christ before you."

-a Celtic blessing

Be Still...Know God

"Be still and know that I Am God."

-Psalm 46:10

~***~

Jesus gently calls us to stillness in His presence; it is in this stillness that misconceptions of our Maker are dispelled. 

When we stop fearfully fumbling with our fig leaves and stand, sin and all, in His light, we find forgiveness, we find tenderness; He enfolds our exposure in royal robes and offers for our running the harbor of Homecoming.

He holds in His hand not a stone to hurl at our missteps, but a rod and a staff that comfort us.*  We find not a fickle Fuhrer, but a Faithful God whose "coming to us is as consistent as the morning"*

We find, as we are still, and come to know I AM, that I AM is with us, that I AM is for us, that I AM loves us, not based on our goodness, but based on His. 

"Let us know, Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD."

-Hosea 6:3

 ~***~

*Psalm 23:4

*Hosea 6:3

Grace II

"Mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and bliss have kissed one another."

-Psalm 85:10

~***~

What follows is the most beautiful description of Grace I have ever read in my life...I hope it fills your cup as much as it did mine...

"'Man, my friends,' said General Loewenhielm, 'is frail and foolish.  We have all of us been told that Grace is to be found in the universe.  But in our human foolishness and short-sigetedness we imagine divine Grace to be finite.  For this reason we tremble...We tremble before making our choice in life, and after having made it again tremble in fear of having chosen wrong.  But the moment comes when our eyes are opened, and we see and realize that Grace is infinite.  Grace, my friends, demands nothing from us but that we shall await it with confidence and acknowledge it in gratitude.  Grace, brothers, makes not conditions and singles out none of us in particular; Grace takes us all to its bosom and proclaims general amnesty.  See!  that which we have chosen is given us, and that which we have refused is, also and at the same time, granted us.  Ay, that which we have rejected is poured upon us abundantly.  For mercy and truth have met together, and righteousness and bliss have kissed one another!'"

-Isak Dinesen, an excerpt from Babette's Feast and Other Anecdotes of Destiny

~***~

GRACE

~***~

A life riddled with Grace

trademarked by Grace

God's unreasonable, unrelenting Grace...

Behind            

Before

Above                   

Below...

Lavishly, Unreservedly, Overabundantly Given

Behind, a Parted Sea

Before, a Promised Land

Above, the Open Windows of Heaven

Below, the Everlasting Arms...

I journey on,

Held in this Lover's Embrace

of Breathtaking, Utterly, Amazing

GRACE

~***~

"Christ behind you, Christ before you, Christ above you, Christ below you."

-A Celtic Blessing

Hope

The final fragments...

Brown leaves letting go their grip...

Life displacing death

"Life comes back...Life *Always* comes back..."

~***~

Winter's Womb

~***~

This Place In Between

seed sown

and Heaven's Harvest

From a barren land

to a Bountiful Country...

Held in this holy hush

This pregnant pause

this Crossing...

Your Word is woven into flesh

Your every thought toward me takes shape...

Traveling through these trimesters
This meaningful metamorphosis

Treasuring the transformation of time

Till fully formed,

Delightfully Designed

I am Born

into Brand New Day.....

~***~

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."

-Jeremiah 29:11

New Clothes.....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

New clothes always accompany the transition from season to season, from slavery to freedom, from old to new, from night to day...

The Prodigal Son's return was trademarked by the trading of his tattered rags for a royal robe

Joseph's turning point transpired when he donned the coat of many colors

Esther spent twelve months changing out of the clothes of a commoner into the clothes of a queen

In the same way, from season to season, from slavery to freedom, from old to new, from night to day, the LORD offers us a change of clothing.....He offers a garment of praise in exchange for a spirit of heaviness, the armor of light in exchange for the works of darkness, bridal garments in exchange for prison garb.

And most meaningfully of all, He offers Himself with the incomparable invitation in Romans 13:14 to "Put on the LORD Jesus Christ..."

the ultimate covering

the exquisite exchange

our temporal attire for His eternal embrace...

~***~ New Clothing to wear into Newness of Life ~***~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation, He has covered me with the robe of righteousness"

-Isaiah 61:10

Peace be with you...

"

"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."

-John 14:27

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"...not as the world gives..."....that tentative, tenuous, temporary "peace"...that fleeting flimsy false sense of well-being that comes from pills and potions, the desensitizing din of distractions, the clamor of  competing deities attempting to drown out the chaos...

....but palpable permanent pervasive Peace.  Peace that "passes all understanding".  Peace that is a guard and a sentry surrounding our minds, hovering over our hearts.  Peace that is His manifest Presence poured out unreservedly from the Cross, paid for in full, bought with His blood, for You, His Beloved.

Peace be upon you, Peace undergird you, Peace guide you and keep you...

~***~Peace be with you~***~

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the Peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 4:6,7

Consider the Lilies.....

Dan Denardo Photography

"Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

-Luke 12:27

~***~

The bloom buried, wrapped within the Gift

Will break forth and blossom in time

Invisible inner workings of Providence's plan

transforming the mundane into the miraculous...

...Beauty will unfurl

Love will unfold...

...As it always has

As it always will...

...and the simplicity embodying the complexity of Creation

will give way,

at last,

to insuppressible Life

~***~

Sacred Segue...

"I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.  I stooped and fed them."

-Hosea 11:4

~***~

This umbilical cord between Creator and Creation
Woven between worlds
Between Here-and-Now
and Kingdom-Come

Love's lifeline
Delicately tethering me into Tenderness
through which Living Water flows
and bread of Life is lavished...
His Lifeblood given...

...infinitely...

...immeasurably..

...extravagantly...

...exorbitantly...

"Lilies and birds"
Providence's Provision
Love's plaited pathway to my heart...

~***~

"Who is this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved?"
-Song of Solomon 8:5

Beloved....

"'I will deliver you...and this is the sign to you from the LORD, that the LORD will do this thing which He has spoken: Behold, I will bring the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down with the sun on the sundial of Ahaz, ten degrees backward.' so the sun returned ten degrees on the dial by which it had gone down."

-Isaiah 38:8

~ * ~

The implications of this verse are stunning, and, barring divine intervention, earth-shattering.  These words were given by God to Hezekiah in answer to his petition for deliverance from death.  

Moved by His beloved's prayer, God quite literally moved heaven and earth to save Hezekiah, to deliver and defend him.  In response to one person's cry for help, the Creator of the universe altered the course of everything that makes the world go 'round.  Flaunting physics, daring the sun to defy Him, He demonstrated His deity over His own creation for the sake of His chosen, His child.

As we approach the new year, and all it holds, let us remember Who holds us...let us remember the place we hold in His heart...

Beloved

~ * ~

"He delivered me because He delighted in me."
-Psalm 18:19

Rebirth...

~ + ~

Conceived in more love

than human passions can imagine

Embraced in the serene solitude of this embryonic season

A Garden enclosed

in the womb of Your keeping

I find myself,

Born Again...

~ + ~

"They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born, that He. Has. Done. This."

-Psalm 22:31

Lift

~ ~ ~

High Places, Holy Ground

The heart I thought I'd lost I've found

Precious flight, powerful wings

How can I help but fly....

~ ~ ~

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet"  10/24/10

fettered faith

~ ~ ~

Overripe fruit

hanging heavy with longing

for His harvest hand...

for His touch...

for His voice...

that still turns water into wine

~ ~ ~

~ ~

~

~

~~~

"Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now."

-John 2:10

Crucible

"And in the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying,

"Eloi! Eloi! Lama sabachthani?"

-Mark 15:34

~ ~ ~

He Understands

With the same bewilderment and despair He cried out as we have,

My God!  Why have You forsaken me?

He knows how it feels to be met with silence in that moment

He knows how it feels to have that last shred of faith slip through your fingers

To be out of lifelines and left alone

He Knows

He knew we'd need a God who "Gets It"

He knew we'd need a God who could reach us,

in the deepest valley

in the lowest pit

even at the doorway of death

So he made sure His reach would stretch that far

He's been there and beyond, He's done that and more

His reach does stretch that far

You are not out of His reach

You are not alone

~ ~ ~

"Now my soul is in agony, but what shall I say, 'Father, save me from this hour!'?  No, it was for this purpose that I came to this hour."

-John 12:27

Dinnertime

"Come!  All you who are thirsty!  Come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare."

-Isaiah 55:1-2

~ ~ ~

Which credentials carry the most weight on our religious resumes?  Which assets do we prize on the pages of our portfolios?  What do we bring to the table when called on to feed a hungry and thirsty world?

Are the impoverished souls surrounding us forced to settle for silver and gold, or can we, like Peter, say to them, "I have what you really need, and what I have I give you..."

What did Peter have?

He had Jesus.

Are we serving up superfluous sundries or something of substance?  Christ or cubic zirconias?

For too long we've offered tokens, trinkets, and trifles to a world starving for the Savior.  For too long we ourselves have been content to nibble around the edges of Who God is, to fill up the gaps of our faith with garnishes...

...But Immanuel is inviting us to feast on His fullness, to know Him as Peter knew Him, to know the breadth and length and depth and height of Him, so that we can, in turn, invite others to the table, so that we have solid food with which to "feed His sheep".

So come to the table

Pull up a chair

Make yourself comfortable

***It's Dinnertime***

~ ~ ~

"Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who boasts boast in this: that he understands and knows Me."

-Jeremiah 9:23-24

Fall

Psalm 90:10

~ ~ ~

paper leaves pirouette to the ground

in a brazen crimson cacophony of color

like prima ballerinas

turning 

               twirling 

fluttering

                      falling.....

their grande and golden finale

And coming to rest

to curtain's close

they lay their bodies down

a prismatic pall blanketing the earth

awaiting burial,

funereal rest

finally

               Finally

finally

    Rest.

~ ~ ~

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 9/24/10

~*

Harvest

"Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy."

-Psalm 126:5

~ ~ ~

Those who sow in shadow and rain

Reap in laughter and light

Gathering in where once they had scattered

Hope is Harvested

Souls ignite

The once barren fields bequeath a banquet fit for royalty

And yet the King bids you and I

“Come to the table!  Dine with Me!”

Hearts that were hard, dry as the dust

Parched and completely past feeling

Are filled to the full

Quenched and made whole

An Epilogue of Healing

~ ~ ~

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 11/08

Bridge

~ ~ ~

Seasons change,

inevitably

imminently,

They change

Suddenly, everything and nothing is different

But there has been a change

And time will tell more stories

The plot will thicken

And hopefully richen

into more than just Deja vu

of days gone by...

The self-same death and dawning

The crux of old and new

The bated breath in between...

it begins...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 9/21/10

It's Time...

"Remember Lot's wife."

-Luke 17:32

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Regret.

It's the rear view mirror on our life, the thing that holds us hostage in the hallways of the past till we're lost in the labyrinth of time gone by, the ashes of opportunities lost, the illusion of a life not lived

Regret is the riptide that sucks us into the undertow of tearful remorse and restless ruminations

It halts forward momentum, freezes us in our tracks, puts our dreams for the future on hold, and taints our appreciation of the present

It's a stalemate between then and now

It's the siren song that entices our attention from the business at hand, i.e. Living

Yes, there is "a time to weep" and "a time to mourn", but there is also a time to heal, a time to laugh, a time to dance, a time to build, a time to reap...

...and there is a time to Live..............

.....Time to get on with your Living.....

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind"

-Philippians 3:13-15

9/11

Two towers fell today ten years ago

Two lives torn apart and ten million more

Two parties came together and cried out to One God

Dual towers downed ending duality on our sod

But oh what ephemeral unity

Was born of death that day

That Tower fell so swiftly

So silently gave way

To ambivalence and bickering

To answers we could not find

To forgetfulness of heroes

To the novocaine of time

The best of human nature

Could not stand the test

But sadly deferred

Humbly bowed

And laid itself to rest.

 

-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 9/11/10

~ ~ ~

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity...For there the LORD commands the blessing"
-Psalm133:1,3

Fear not, for I AM

"He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He rescued me from my strong enemy"

-Psalm 18:16-19

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Fear not, for I AM 

It was the fourth watch of that fateful night, the proverbial eleventh hour, sometime between three and six AM...the darkest time, the do or die time, right before dawn.  The disciples had been battling a behemoth of a storm that must have felt like all hell had been hurled against them. 

They were beyond exhaustion, terror-stricken, utterly spent, beyond hope...

...Or so they surmised.....

Jesus was fast approaching, with the fear that was buffeting his beloved under His feet. 

The oft mistranslated moment of Truth came as He drew near: It wasn't the quieting of the chaos outside; it wasn't Peter's walk out onto the waves; It wasn't the rescue of this impulsive disciple from drowning.  The moment we miss surfaces when Jesus first comes on the scene; it was the Word He wielded, the signet ring of His Sonship that He spoke sternly to the tempest strangling their hearts:

Take Courage!  I AM.  Don't be afraid.

And with that annunciation, the storm was settled. 

"Fear not, for I AM with you; be not dismayed, for I AM your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

-Isaiah 41:10

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Love Life

+

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”

So he answered and said, “ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’”

And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”

-Luke 10:25-28

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"What shall I do to inherit eternal life?" the man asked.

Jesus' answer was scandalously simple.

You. Shall. Love.

That was it.  The million dollar answer to the million dollar question.

You can almost hear the pharasaical protestation:

What about the "do's and don'ts"?  The "Thou Shalls" and "Thou Shall Nots"?  Repentance and Right Living?  Holiness and Good Deeds?

But Jesus didn't go there.  He simply said,

Love

and that said it all.

Love God and Love each other.  Do this and you will Live.

We Love, We Live.

It's that simple.

 +

"God is Love"
1 John 4:8

Time to Fly

"Those who wait on the LORD...shall mount up with wings..."

-Isaiah 40:31

mid-life-crisis?

~ ~ ~

"Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved?"

-Song 8:5

~ ~ ~

(written in response to a friend who is finding her way...)


...A feeling of "suspended animation"...yes, I can relate to this feeling exactly...a feeling of Chrysalis...hoping there are wings on the other side of the waiting.......so far there has just been more waiting...

...feels like a string of false finishes sometimes...just when I arrive at what I think is the end of the course, there are still "miles to go before I sleep"....

...is my need patience? endurance? trust in God's timing?

Whichever, it is definitely a stretch right now......my soul is being stretched beyond what I thought I could bear....but here I still am, bearing it...not broken......

Hard to walk/wait without a roadmap...there is the fear sometimes that I'm missing the boat entirely.....

It is a struggle right now....one that I hope means growth, one that I hope is not futile fumbling...one that I hope leads to a crack in this cocoon, one that will let in some light...one that will result in flight....

In the analogy, "Hinds' Feet on High Places", the main character, Much-Afraid, whom the Good Shepherd has promised to take to the High Places, is speaking with the Shepherd....In one defining moment, near the end of the journey, near the top of the mountain, in a chapter called "In the Mist", He asks her with utmost solemnity,

"Do you love me enough to be able to trust me completely, Much Afraid?"

Much Afraid answers, "You know that I do love you, Shepherd, as much as my cold little heart is capable..."

The Shepherd replys, "Would you be willing to trust me, even if everything in the wide world seemed to say that I was deceiving you - indeed that I had deceived you all along?"

Much Afraid answers hastily, "Why, yes, I'm sure I would, because one thing I know to be true, it is impossible that you should tell a lie..."

The Shepherd looks deeply, compassionately into her eyes, and very quietly asks, "Much Afraid, supposing that I really did deceive you? What then?"

Much Afraid looks into His eyes, then bursts into deep sobbing tears and then, after a time, she decides, and, looking straight into His face says...."My LORD - if you can deceive me, you may. It can make no difference. I must love you as long as I continue to exist. I cannot live without loving you."

At this point the Good Shepherd laid His hands on her head, then with a touch more tender and gentle than anything she had ever felt before, repeated as though to himself, "If I can, I may deceive her." Then, without another word he turned and went away.

...In the end, Much-Afraid makes it to the High Places intended for her all along.....But the path takes her first through, not a mid-life-crisis, but a crisis-of-faith...A place of decision...

I believe that is where we are at...I believe that it is necessary, critically necessary, that we go through this, though we do not understand just now. But it is a crucial piece of the journey. A conduit to the bursting cocoon.

When the disciples were on the boat, in the middle of the raging storm, completely without their bearings, Jesus comes on the scene. They were in a "mid-ocean-crisis"...

Though Jesus momentarily permitted it, His ultimate intent was not that they should leave the boat and walk on the water, but that they should invite Him into the boat with them, so that He could take them to the other side, out of the storm, safe to shore, where a new part of their lives would begin, with greater trust in the One who navigated them through.

See you on shore, my friends, perhaps just a short time from now...

your friend and traveling companion,

Hindsfeet
 

"Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him."
-Job 13:15

~ ~ ~

100

"A woman came to Jesus with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table...Jesus said...'She has done a beautiful thing to me.' "

-Matthew 26:7-10

~ ~ ~

 

One hundred holy heartbeats mutually shared

One hundred heartcrys between souls dually bared

One hundred pieces of myself passed out as broken bread

One hundred fragments multiplied for His Beloved to be fed

 

One hundred footprints follow, though obscured in desert sand

The burden of this journey borne as we've traveled holding hands

So little ground behind us, So much further yet to climb

the moments shared so fleeting, the double-edged sword of time

 

One hundred psalms, One hundred prayers

poured into this vessel for this purpose prepared

This alabaster jar of my heart's hard-earned treasure:

The perfume of pain, of loss, of surrender

Emptied out here, poured out to my Lord

Transformed into beauty

redeemed

and restored

 

~ ~ ~

 

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart-
These, O God, You will not despise."
-Psalm 51:17


(written to mark my 100th post)

Trust

"But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say 'You are my God.'

My times are in Your hand"

-Psalm 31:14,15

~+~

The cliche "pregnant pause"

"bated breath"

and "deafening silence"

that presently pervade my path

are Cliche because these things are common to man

Cliche because they are the go-to tools of the Potter

the primary privations used to teach His timing

used to teach us Trust

And so I wait

And so I watch

And so I brace myself against voices

which flatter me into false starts
and premature emergence
which promise a counterfeit exodus

and countermand Christ's call to "Wait"

I endure the strain of stillness

And quiet myself to hear...

I know, in the end, "I shall see God"

~+~

* Job 19:23-26 *

Letting Go.....

"Whoever finds his [lower] life will lose it [the higher life],

and whoever loses his [lower] life on My account will find it [the higher life]."

-Matthew 10:39 (Amplified Version)

~ ~ ~

So many "Letting-go"s on this pilgrims' path...

Letting go of anything that diverts His flow through me

Letting go of, not just sin, but of the good that is not His best

Letting go of "the lower life" that I cling so tightly to at times

Letting go, Living in a state of surrender, Clinging only to Christ as the ever-changing world ebbs and flows around me.   Loosening my grip on everything that would shake me from that still centered place.

I sometimes find myself resisting this release, prefering the synthesized sense of security that my pacifiers of choice afford me, but the letting go that God calls us to does not leave us empty handed, rather, it leaves us open handed to take hold of His "higher life", His many blessings, the very hand of God.

~ ~ ~

Vigil

~ ~ ~

She watched the smoke signals turn from rosy gold to lavender grey as the day dipped into dusk...Harbingers sent from a heart held very dear...a heart she knew in spirit, like the ethereal wisps hovering overhead....they looked as though, at any moment, they might rain down on this desert of hers...


She gazed at these precious messengers moving slowly across the sky until they blended into shadow, until their whisper was enveloped into evening...Seven geese sailed into their wake and diminished in the distance...


The apparitions disolved into darkness and soft milky light soaked into her sky from somewhere very faraway...Resting from her vigil, she leaned her head back and closed her eyes....She didn't have to see the moon to let its light settle into her soul.....it was there, out there somewhere, that was all that mattered......

~ ~ ~

Compass...

"Let the peace of God rule in your hearts"

-Colossians 3:15

~+~+~+~

We've all been there: we turn a corner, or take a step to the right or to the left, and suddenly, no peace.  Our internal umpire tugs on the reins in an attempt to reel us in.  At that point we have a choice (ah the double-edged sword of "choice"):

We can hit the pause button long enough to let God speak into the situation and correct our course,

or,

We can press through the un-ease and drown out the dinging alarm with a myriad of distractions, rationalizing away this harbinger of the heart entirely. 

My mom use to say, "If you feel like you're pushing string, Stop.".  When something we're doing feels forced, when we feel like we're suddenly slogging through mud or trying to run under water, it's time to stop, check our compass, and turn until the needle is pointing toward Home again.

I like how the Amplified version of the bible puts it:

"Let the peace (soul harmony which comes) from Christ rule (act as umpire continually) in your hearts [deciding and settling with finality all questions that arise in your minds, in that peaceful state]"

-Colossians 3:15

There are times when there is joy in the journey, there are times when there is pain on our path, there are times when we walk through the darkness of the shadow of death, there are times when our way is like the light of dawn.  Wherever the road leads, let the litmus test be Peace.

~*

"Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."

-Isaiah 30:21