settling – Chasing Joy

Category: settling (page 1 of 2)

#10yearchallenge

January 19, 2019 / mel / 0 Comments

seeing this #10yearchallenge come up around the interwebs got me to thinking back. where was i 10 years ago? how old were my kids? what were we in the midst of?

~~~**~~~

man, that was a rough time

an investment that had gone south, ushering in a financial mess
early stages of journeying with children w/ sensory needs, needing OT, ST, GT, HT, ET*
feeling alone navigating a new way of living

all with 10 years younger kids (3, 5, 9) and self (36)

man, it was a rough time

~~~**~~~

however, from this place of looking back, i have a different view of it all:

all the fissures and gaping wounds, places of seemingly deprivation, lack, and impossible circumstances the 10 years ago me faced;
have been the very vessels
of opening my heart to joy
and equipping us to navigate life with less fear.

with this new perspective, there are some things i would tell my 10 years ago self:

don’t fight so hard to hold onto the things being taken
trust your God, trust yourself and the way He’s leading
don’t be afraid to embrace where He has you and how He leads you tho no one else understands it, believes it, supports it.
hang in there, help is on its way: a new OT, a new church, a title-1 public school.
enjoy walking to the library-even if your children are the only ones who can enjoy it too.
In 10 years you will snap a photo and not realize in the foreground is the very location so much came literally crashing down, but you’ll have forgotten that having been captivated by the beauty of the fog. (see above)

it’s true, He makes beautiful things out of ruin…out of perceived ruin

~~~**~~~

this has me thinking about story. the story we attempt to write for our lives, for our children’s lives. i think we’ve bought into a false representation about what makes a good story. we think having enough money, time, friends, and a little extra for travel makes for a good life. what really is good? when i look back, i see how Jesus has redefined that in me. and as is so many things in HIs Kingdom, it is the opposite of what my upbringing and culture declare.

one last thing i would tell that 36 year old;

all those who seem to be against you? who seem to misunderstand you, who think you’ve lost your mind to live as you do?
they aren’t against you. they want good things for you. it’s just a different definition of good than the One who knows you best and loves you most.

The Author and Perfector of your faith,

it is He who writes the best stories

and He who holds you in the palm of His hand

it’s true, He makes beautiful things out of ruin….out of perceived ruin.

but He knows the way that i take
when He has tested me, i will come forth as gold

*speech therapy, occupational therapy, gymnastice therapy, horse therapy, basically everything therapy

to draw further in; job 23:10 (quoted above), isaiah 35; isaiah 30:15-18; luke 1:46-55

this will do

June 14, 2016 / mel / 2 Comments

20160601_150740

sitting on the back porch the welcoming sounds of birds mixes with the edgy sounds of man and machine. windows open mean the sounds will follow me inside-even the bird songs make it through, soft as they are. the tea whistles and i cringe in fear i’ve ruined my quiet. i laugh a bit at the irony of the thought. but the birds and man and machine do not belong to me, nor do they require anything from me. it’s both voluntary and hidden, my response to their presence.

June is here. school has ended. mornings have slowed.

my front garden is wild with columbine and pansies that i didn’t plant. well, that’s not entirely true. when we first moved here i had planted pansies in a pot for the front step-they grew well there so i repeated the process the next year. but the squirrels and their constant overturning and digging and dragging them off finally had their way and i stopped altogether, throwing out the pots, now chipped and cracked from all the abuse. a few years back i received a columbine plant as a mother’s day present. waiting a bit too long i did nestle it in the ground, a lone beauty in a sea of unkempt attempts at making something of the plot of land i’d been handed.

but this year, my columbine, she has sisters galore. they stand tall towards the back as though they are watching over their young pansy charges.

their beauty invites me in to pull up all the thorny weeds and dandelions. i’ve been pining for a real landscaper with a real eye for composition and real knowledge of planting to come and give me something to work with, to joy in, to welcome me home. last night, for the first time in the 7 years we’ve made our way here, i walked the path to the door gazing at this bed freshly weeded and breathed;

this’ll do.

20160602_190734

my soul is weary from a long winter. spring arrived out the windows and moved into summer, yet my soul struggled to take notice or nourishment. aware of the bone deep fatigue all the while life buzzes around i have been paying attention. “this is why missionaries have furloughs” i tell myself. “you are not that type of missionary” i respond. and there is truth to those words. but the need for a ‘furlough’ of sorts is real along with the understanding that it will look its own way. so i’ve been sitting with myself, stealing moments when they come, gently requiring nothing of the time. no figuring things out. no formulating plans for a different way of living. instead letting the anger pour out, the sorrow, the loneliness, alongside the amazement and joy and beauty. allowing repentance to do it’s lovely work and security to come from being seen by the One who knows my frame.

I have always imagined gratitude as a kind of discipline. It is a practice. A choice. I still think this is true. However, I begin to glimpse a long-buried and misguided assumption. I have believed that the practice of noticing good gifts in my life would widen some sort of divine exchange. As if noticing the gifts and giving thanks for them could bring me more of what i noticed.

These days are dark, and I sometimes think I glimpse floodwaters rising. Yet because of November’s emphasis on gratitude, I cannot help but lift up my eyes to the mountains (Ps. 121:1)

What if gratitude is more about seeing the face of God? Of locking our eyes on his and remembering where our help comes from? Perhaps gratitude is not only a discipline but also a gift, one we are given in special measure just before we pass through the door to suffering.

–Christie Purifoy; Roots & Sky-A Journey Home in Four Seasons

frozen

December 7, 2015 / mel / 0 Comments

the Lord will fight for you, you need only be still.

discouragement threatens to take over like ice holding life captive. and i know what is true. i know Jesus wins. i know His light will break through darkness. i know His presence is real and true even though it isn’t felt. He keeps track of the stars, He holds the ocean in His hands.

still, reciting the truth to myself doesn’t seem to melt my heart growing cold.

i join other’s more faithful and rest my hands on a man who is suffering. and the words they fall short, they stumble under the tears and longings unmet for oh, just a glimpse of You Lord. Stephen, while being stoned, got to see heaven open before him, oh Lord, just a glimpse of you would bring such encouragement and strength to endure. please?

and grief sidles up next to the discouragement and they draw a wider circle around my heart. grief over my own lack of faith in the goodness of a God who gives and takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord. i’m pleading with the Lord with more doubt than faith, it seems these days there is more doubt than faith and i long to be a better lover to the Shepherd of my soul.

little baby,
i am a poor boy too,
i have no gift to bring,
that’s fit to give a king

the ice wraps around and knowing that my Sovereign God is faithful and true, oh so worthy of my trust, doesn’t melt the discouragement grief and doubt away. i know i’m struggling to trust Him. I know He is worthy of my trust. i preach the gospel to myself, i remember and remember and remember. but i can’t seem to create the trust i lack. i am a poor girl too, i’ve no gift to bring, fit for my King of Kings.

we’re driving along this beautiful winding road. the kids in the back seats delighting in the curves and hills, my capable and loving husband at the wheel taking his family from place to place, navigating the weather and traffic and enjoying the ride. He slows down for pictures and speeds up for tummy-tickling joy. i sit in the passenger seat missing it. i’m the drowning swimmer needing a slap in the face so as not to drown the lifeguard seeking to rescue her. i know this. i know there is no reason for the fear that has joined in with discouragement, doubt and grief. but the knowing doesn’t melt the ice. and i long to share in the joy of the others and for peace to descend out of the chaos and take a firmer hold of my heart. i pray and pray and pray.

and wait.

take heart, your redemption is near

dear ones listen, friends pray. hymns penetrate. tears fall freely while the worship band sings.

we are a flock unworthy, lambs frightened and silly and dumb. we are the sheep of His pasture. we are the sheep the babe came to save. we are desperate and needing redemption from a God who comes down.

the preacher reminds us of the cloud of witnesses, those who’ve walked in such darkness, who’ve seen a great light and bear witness to the glory of knowing Christ.

and the suffering one reads aloud…

though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Praise be to our God and Father, in His great mercy, He has given us new birth into a living hope through His own resurrection from the dead. set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

there is no hope in my ability to respond to the stuff of life with faith hope and trust. my hope is reduced fully to the grace given when Jesus Christ, the One willing and able to keep me from falling, the One who fights for me, the One who never leaves or forsakes even when i think He has, my hope is reduced fully to the grace given to me when this Jesus is revealed before me and i see Him as He is.

Abba, i belong to you. *

peace descends and the ice begins to melt.

to draw further in: Acts 7, Revelation 6:9-11, 1 Peter 1:3-13; 2:9-10, Isaiah 30-33; 40-42; O Come O Come Emmanuel, Christmas Canon

*Brennan Manning.

chasing joy | a cabin story: the foreword

October 14, 2015 / mel / 3 Comments

my daughter never reads the forewords or the prologues in a book, declaring her disdain and sense of pointlessness with them on a regular basis. i find that to be one of her endearing qualities and it makes me smile. she is passionate about certain things and is free to share it.

a foreword is typically written by someone other than the author themselves. it’s a word before the story meant to give insight into the story the book tells. in my case here, i’m writing to create a level of understanding of the foundations laid in my inner man regarding who God is and what it means to be loved by Him.

if you also share in my daughter’s disdain and prefer to just jump into a story, than you’ll have to wait a couple of days for it to begin. i’ve known i would have to go here in this series and have been struggling with how to go about it. this is the way forward for me, (pun intended).

Chasing Joy | A Cabin Story

foreword

i once read the book: The God I Love by Joni Eareckson Tada. it is a book full of wisdom words such as these. There is a chapter in that book where Joni wrestles with a friend over the concept of a God who is both Sovereign and Good (vs. either/or). a mere inches could have meant a different outcome for her that day. that chapter marked me.

in the dead of the night with my firstborn, i’d rock and nurse and hold this love of my heart. and the God who knit her together in my womb would bring to my mind one song. only one song; “Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus” and so that became ‘her’ song, and the truths contained within would overlay my own thoughts and prayers and needs as her mom.

with my second born, again there was one song, only ever one song; “The Love of God”

our first born delight was a very cooperative baby. this second born, not so much. about 8 months in we find ourselves far from home riding along in an ambulance wondering if he will survive the night. leaving our girl behind with grandma and grandpa we spent the next 5 days in the fight. the first hours included such depths of suffering and torture i will never forget. my husband was allowed to remain inside the ICU assisting the various docs while they worked for hours upon hours attempting to insert an iv into his dehydrated and failing body. i, however, was forbidden and exiled outside the closed and windowless door where i could hear his screams of pain, yet see nothing. the God of Jacob and i wrestled that night and i still carry the limp.

a mere inches could mean a different outcome.

Sovereign. yes. Good? after about the 5th or 6th failed (and extremely painful) attempt i began to wonder.

sometime in the middle of the night i was made aware that we were running out of time and options. i knew that the God of the Universe knew the outcome. if He was planning on taking my son, then get it over with already, why this needless suffering?

the familiar song flooded my mind and i could not stop the words.

I Am. I love you. I love zeke.

as i melted into a puddle of sobs over the reality that appeared to state otherwise, i was able to surrender to His Sovereignty and His Goodness co-existing in this place of torture and suffering. i leaned upon His breast and wept.

exhausted yet strengthened in my watchman’s post, a few hours later they handed me a limp body with an IV inserted into his scalp-the last attempt by the last person at the hospital that they knew to call in, inserted into the last place possible.

i have never understood that night. there has never been made known to us any type of outcome that makes sense or lends purpose to the suffering we all endured. (for it wasn’t only zeke who suffered and was afraid. hannah, barely 4, and jeremy and i also suffered and were frightened by that week.) the mystery remains to this day.

“I wished God were like He used to be, a few notches lower. I wanted Him to be lofty enough to help me but not so uncontrollable. I longed for His warm presence, times when He seemed more… safe.” -Joni Eareckson Tada

life | down paths i fear to see

August 27, 2015 / mel / 4 Comments

I said, “Let me walk in the field.”
God said, “No, walk in the town.”
I said, “There are no flowers there.”
He said, “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said, “But the sky is black,
There is nothing but noise and din.”
He wept as He sent me back,
“There is more,” He said, “there is sin.”

…

I pleaded for time to be given.
He said, “Is it hard to decide?
It will not seem hard in heaven
to have followed the steps of your Guide.”

I cast one look at the field,
Then set my face to the town.
He said, “My child do you yield?
Will you leave the flowers for a crown?”

Then into His hand went mine,
and into my heart came He.
Now i walk with a light Divine,
The path i had feared to see.
-What Christ Said by George MacDonald. 
find the complete poem here

ten years ago i found myself in the middle of packing boxes preparing to move into the tiniest house ever right smack dab in the middle of town instead of the dreamed and worked towards log cabin in the mountains. i remember clearly hearing the Lord’s whisper; “I am answering your prayers” It made no sense at the time for it felt like He was answering my prayers with a big fat NO! still i pondered His whisper in my heart and watched and waited. now, these 10 years later, i can see it. how my deep heart longings and desires for my children and family were answered with a big YES! via a path i would never have known to choose.

the children have grown from toddlers to teens, yet following my Guide down paths i fear to see has remained a consistant theme for me. what i’m beginning to grasp is that these are becoming the very places where He does His best heart work. where He grows us and heals us and frees us. these paths are often neither easy nor comfortable, and at times i’m being led straight into the valley of sorrow unable to comprehend the rivers of joy that await me on the other side.

141011_0001

recently i found myself praying during the long dark hours of the night. unable to sleep with an ache that can only be quieted by the One who knows, i walked circles in the floor and laid my heart bare before my faithful and wise God. daylight came and life continued on as it does, but there was a settling and a watching and a waiting on my capable Father. doors appeared and decisions were made completely unrelated to my late night longings….or so i thought. as far as the eye could see there was no connection between the ordinary goings about in that day and the restless wrestling of the night before.

150625_0003

but the One who governs the sun, moon and stars-He knew. and today i find myself completely amazed at the way He orchestrated such a perfect answer to those prayers that night. i’m in awe at the ways He is responding to the desires and secret petitions of my heart. here again it is on a path where i have said-out loud to other people-that i would not walk. a path i said wasn’t a good fit for our family. today-this particular path-is precisely what our family needed.

what if the thing we think we need will actually prevent our true longings from being fulfilled? what if the things we think will ruin everything will actually give us life?

could it be that some of the places we run away from are the very places that hold the deepest treasures, deepest freedoms, deepest joys?

He’s teaching me to go where He says go, when He says to –not because i understand, or even expect anything but more pain or frustration, or even have any notion of the connection between the latest command and prayer of my heart –no, i go because my Guide can be trusted where He leads, because He is for me, and He knows better how to fulfill my heart longings than my small brain can comprehend.

where is it for you? is there somewhere you are running away from, turning back because what is ahead is a valley of sorrow and you are afraid? confused? take heart! there is a whole cloud of witnesses cheering you on. david was afraid too as he trusted in his God. Abe was confused too when he reasoned that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead. and dear ol’ Paul, through learning, was persuaded that this One he knew and believed was able to keep that which he had committed to Him. and then there is JJ Heller….

He is able. i know Whom i have believed. i will trust.

a series exploring the concept of life- what it is and what it means to have it.

to draw further in

Psalm 37; 2 Timothy 1:12, Genesis 22:5; Hebrews 11:19

life | in anguish

May 19, 2015 / mel / 0 Comments

God does not keep a man immune from trouble; He says -“I will be with him in trouble.” It does not matter what actual troubles in the most extreme form get hold of a man’s life, not one of them can separate him from his relationship to God. We are “more than conquerors in all these things.” Paul is not talking of imaginary things, but of things that are desperately actual; and he says we are super-victors in the midst of them, not by our ingenuity, or by our courage, or by anything other than the fact that not one of them affects our relationship to God in Jesus Christ. Rightly or wrongly, we are where we are, exactly in the condition we are in.

“Shall tribulation…..?” Let tribulation be what it may-exhausting, galling, it is not able to separate us from the love of God. Never let cares or tribulations separate you from the fact that God loves you.

“Shall anguish….?” -can God’s love hold when everything says that His love is a lie, and that there is no such thing as justice?

“Shall famine….?” -can we not only believe in the love of God but be more than conquerors, even while we are being starved?

Either Jesus Christ is a deceiver and Paul is deluded, or some extraordinary thing happens to a man who holds on to the love of God when the odds are against God’s character. Logic is silenced in the face of every one of these things. Only one thing can account for it-the love of God in Christ.

“Out of the wreck I rise” every time.

-Oswald Chambers

a series exploring the concept of life- what it is and what it means to have it.

to draw further in; Romans 8

overshadowed

February 9, 2015 / mel / 1 Comment

while driving, i glance over and the perspective i see of those massive white peaks above massive blue ones is stunning. it is such a contrast as i can almost see the entire bustling city at its base.

they stand there-so strong, so constant, so unmovable, so still. i know that if i were to turn the car towards them and drive closer closer in, i’d lose that picture and see the hustle and bustle happening in their midst too, but here-this view- and they are saying something else.

…

arrows fly at lightning speed, aimed straight at those sore and weak spots of my heart. they fly from words without, but mostly from words within. they beckon me back into the courtroom before the prosecutor who always comes to steal and kill and destroy. the attack is always strategic, wolves tearing at flesh striving to snatch joy away. always striving to snatch joy away. and they come in all sorts of clothing.

those massive peaks remind me of what is true. like the city nestled at the base of those Rocky Mountains, i am small, resting in the Shadow of a Mighty Warrior. He stands behind me and the wolves scatter.

“But was you not afraid, good sir, when you see him come with his club?”
“It is my duty,” said he, “to distrust mine own ability, that I may have reliance on him that is stronger than all”.”
― John Bunyan, The Pilgrim’s Progress

this Stronger One has adjourned the court-the verdict is in. why do i persist in returning? my identity has been determined by the only One who knows everything, the One who calls me beloved even tho He knows everything. He is majestic, He is massive, He is formidable, He is mighty, and He is kind. The Lord Almighty is His name.

in my moments of clarity and hope, i entertain longings, desires, dreams; i look at my laundry/everything/dumping room and form a picture in my head and the steps to take to get it there. i look at my front yard full of hundreds of years of neglect and the weeds that love to grow and i imagine a new picture and all the ways to get there. i imagine the hospitality that i will offer and the enjoyment we will all share with the new space i will create. i look at my 40 year old figure and see the form of my days and how exercise fits just right-right there. i can visualize the enjoyment and joy of all 5 of us getting our heart rates up and the energy and whole body health that will come as a result….. just to name a few.

hope deferred makes the heart sick.

but then i get a call and bring 3 extra little boys home and it’s everything i can do to come up with enough dinner for all of us and a bit extra to send home with them to their sick mom.

but then i’m rinsing out a throw-up bowl one more time and making honey toast for another one who can now keep food down. i’m washing sheets and learning how to sanitize silverware and cups with no dishwasher.

a couple of days to recover, the desires and hopes flood in only to be hit with another round of illness or something else. and the only thing constant is my need for strength from the only One who can give it.

just three days ago i began to formulate a plan of execution for that laundry room. today as i’m walking though to bring medicine to another sick one it stands there mockingly. i let myself sob at all the ways it’s a representative of even deeper things, crying out to the One who delights to show Mercy to me. and together we go to all of the places of deferred hopes. i breath deep and remember that even if my children flunk out of school, even if we are not able to get well, even if i never tackle that laundry room, even if my husband’s travel schedule never ends, even if on this green earth all the people who want answers to our questions will never get them and will go on assuming how if we only did this or this we could be happy and healthy and wise. even if, even if, even if….those mountains crumble and fall into the heart of the sea…

…our standing, my standing, before the King of Kings will not be shaken loose. His delight in me will not be effected by failing grades or messy spaces, or sick bodies, or cancelled responsibilities.

i think back on those mountains, i can’t see them from where i stand, but i know they are still there. and i think of how sure and strong and steadfast my Mighty God is, how He is present in all His grandeur and glory, overshadowing the ins and outs of what feels like a crazy life. deep within i am filled with joy and awe at the constancy of my Everlasting Father.

i will rejoice in the LORD,
i will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
He enables me to go on the heights.

to draw further in: chapter 4 of Pilgrim’s Progress; The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness by Timothy Keller, Romans 8, Psalm 46, Habakkuk 3

insulated

February 4, 2015 / mel / 0 Comments

jack frost making art on my window

…

halfway down the hall he punches the wall, goes a little farther and slides down with his hood up and his head in his lap. insulating himself from his surroundings and his surroundings from himself. i pass on by saying nothing, carrying the contraband to the principle. i know he’s angry at me for catching him. i pray he doesn’t take his anger out on one of his 4th grade classmates, specifically-my son.

…

we talk about the superbowl and human trafficking. i mention an idea of skipping the commercials in lue of prayer. reading the response i’m aware of the desire to remain insulated instead. so i give up. my teen however was listening, and at her own party, she and a youth group mate talk about it and she does pray. she shares this with me later and i grieve that i didn’t even try.

…

i stand in the isle looking for a chocolate bar to give as a gift. i want to ignore what i know is true, but today i can’t. so i spend the extra and make the purchase of chocolate sourced justly and fairly. but i worry that the recipient will be offended by my choice. no one likes the feelings they get when made aware of the evils in this world. should i have chosen to express my love for them without expressing my love for children halfway around the world at the same time? would it be better to keep one insulated from the other?

…

i listen to someone speak passionately about their calling that is so very different than mine. it’s easy to mistake passion for condemnation i notice, and it makes me uncomfortable. but i keep returning to her place because it is so very different. she lives in a big house on a lake. she loves her people well with her made from scratch delicacies. i wonder if she grasps the gifts she’s been given in her big house on a lake. i think she does.

…

the feet are knocked out from under 3 of us for 2 days. i notice in my Daily Light devotional that this very day last year was a similar story. in my depressed sick brain fog i dream up all the ways i will fight to insulate my brood of 5-all the places i will refuse to go and the people i will refuse to see. i am fed up with always being sick. i think about that passionate one and the health of her family and how maybe if i follow her recipe for living we could enjoy health too? i dream of moving away, somewhere remote…near water sounds perfect. i fight battles in my head all the while my body fights sleep instead of the virus. realizing i’m spinning wheels that are going nowhere i begin to recite scripture to myself and pray instead. the Lord is my Shepherd, i want for nothing…..He makes me to lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters…. for the first time in days the needed sleep finally comes.

some hours later i find myself up and out and refreshed……walking behind an angry 4th grader punching the wall.

Restoring Wonder | Far As the Curse is Found

December 23, 2014 / mel / 2 Comments

oh the curse. my eyes have seen it. my prayers have felt it. my hope for change has been dashed in so many ways by it. and i’m tempted to think that Christmas has lost any Hope of Joy because of death or divorce or addictions or etc., etc., etc…

but then on an ordinary day driving an ordinary road He shows me the roots of my cynicism and the Wonder of Who. He. Is.
yet again.

and so, i find myself standing next to that old Grinch…..

Every Who down in Who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming! IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!

And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.

― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

….what if death and illness and loss and divorce and curse….can’t trump that Babe’s coming? can’t trump the joy of that Babe’s coming? No! it can’t! in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us;

He is enduringly strong.
He is entirely sincere.
He is eternally steadfast.
He is immortally gracious.
He’s imperially powerful.
He’s impartially merciful.
He is the greatest phenomenon that has ever crossed the horizons of the globe.

He is God’s Son.
He is the sinner’s Savior.
He is the captive’s Ransom.
He is the Breath of Life.
He is the centerpiece of civilization.
He stands in the solitude of Himself.

He is august* and He is unique.
He is unparalleled and He is unprecedented.
He is undisputed and He is undefiled.
He is unsurpassed and He is unshakable.

He is the loftiest idea in philosophy.
He is the highest personality in psychology.
He is the supreme subject in literature.
He is the unavoidable problem in higher criticism.
He is the fundamental doctrine of theology.
He is the Cornerstone, the Capstone, and the stumbling Stone of all religion.
He is the miracle of the ages.

Dr. Samuel M. Lockeridge
*august-as an adjective it means; inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic:

i am becoming convinced that what Paul said is true. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, divorce or illness, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.

Christ came! He came just the same!

to draw further in: Isaiah chapters 9, 40, 44, 61; with Luke 2 and Romans 8

Restoring Wonder | considering the sky

December 20, 2014 / mel / 0 Comments

These days have found me praying with my children over lost stuffed animals and substitute teachers and help with end of semester tests; while in my own prayer closet i’m beating my breast over broken marriages, sudden deaths, mysterious illnesses, and that despite all the wickedness in the world my love would not grow cold. (matt 24) I tell my children that the One who placed each star in its place and set the earth to spinning knows the hairs on their heads and cares about the big and little things. the words spill out of my mouth and my doubting heart listens.

sometimes you need to preach to your heart rather than listen to it.

-Jeremy Weinland

and so as i’m preaching truth to myself these days and keeping my eyes pealed for Wonder at this One who names those stars, words spoken long ago slip into the recesses of my mind and begin to do their work….

Look at the sky, can you grasp its height? Can you fathom its depth? its length? its width? That is how much your Father loves you.

-Amy Carmichael*