Category Archives: wonders

Create

It moves and rattles the deepest reaches within. Like a geyser preparing to spew its contents that have been too long constrained.

It squeezes both heart and marrow.

It wedges between mind and spirit.

Until no longer can it be contained and pen meets paper or brush meets canvas or fingers meet piano keys.

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We are made for this. Creatives we are. Creatives we have always been.

His breath is within us – The Creator’s exhale – our life force.

Inhale deeply.

Exhale the “I am not’s.”

You were born for this.

Create.

 

 

The enemy cannot create. He can only intimidate…It’s time to take back the places of influence for God and see His beauty, holiness and Gospel become healing fragrance to restore people back to right relationship with Him.

“Born to Create”, Theresa Dedmon

 

 

Rainy Morning Chaos

wet leafI could hear the rain falling.  Well, truth be told it wasn’t in the falling but rather in its landing.   Clink, clink as incessant drops hit the siding and the gutter.  Into this clamor I awoke today and surprisingly, it felt gentle in all the noise.  Rainy mornings are like that – gentle.

As I settled in my chair, with coffee cup in hand, I couldn’t help but think of the cleansing that was happening.  Nature being bathed in this glistening liquid and at the same time, it was washing awake in me a restlessness.

I wanted to go out and walk in the downpour – to be bathed in its falling liquid wonder.  I craved to smell the freshness as it was being poured out but I found myself instead sitting dry in all my wishes.

Not for long, though.

I am not one to wander on the wild side.  Ask anyone who knows me.  I don’t walk in the rain because of the inconvenience it causes – wet clothes and bad hair.  In a life that loves order inconvenience creates chaos.

But friends, this has been a week – a very good one – full of opening and shutting with lots of purging in between.  This week I have purposely sought to disturb all that has settled these last few years.  One can get quite comfy when life accumulates around you.  A little welcomed chaos does wonders for the home and for the heart.

So as I sipped my coffee, I pondered the rain and my current state of cozy dryness.  I came to the conclusion there was no good reason to sit here dry in my wishing while there were many to go and risk the soaking.

So, I did.

I welcomed the chaos.  I walked in the rain.  I stood face up in its downpour.  I can say with clothes and hair clinging wet, friends, I was right.  It was worth the soaking.

A Morning Hymn

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The bullfrog’s bellowing has ceased and in the absence, a symphony of birdsong arises.  Slowly, gently the sun kisses the horizon and the music of the night is quickly replaced with a morning melody.  For these creatures – bellowing frogs and singing birds – their hymns continue day and night for the length of moment they can call their own.

Man, on the other hand, we are an odd lot.  Our songs too quickly fade in the midst of the living.  We lose the “awe” at the wonders ever before us.  Our eyes and ears become dull.  Schedules fill and slowly life empties away from us – a lingering dance of burnout and death.  Our hearts beg for revival and yet…

 

Each morning carries the hope of resurrection as the dark of night gives way to the bright of day.

When the quiet hush of the night breeze passes and songbirds awaken a slumbering world.

While the eerie mist hanging in a darkened sky quickly burns away in the warmth of a rising sun.

Joy comes again to hearts that are fading.

 

May our heart this day be resurrected into the fullness of our Creator.

May our mind experience a new birth of thought and intention.

May our hands and feet find new ways to express a Savior’s love.

May our life today be better than yesterday as His breath becomes our own.

 

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns,

where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.

Psalm 65:8

Holy CPR

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Early this morning the sky blazed as the sun broke through the night sky.  Oh, how I am grateful to have seen His brushstrokes upon the horizon.   In a fleeting moment, His hand created a masterpiece that resuscitated my soul.

We all need that now and then – a holy CPR.

In an instant, beauty kindled an awareness of His Presence.  With each compression of my heart His essence flowed through my every cell.  With each breath that left my lips, His love was made manifest.  A love that bellowed life to me and burned white hot in each face I encountered today.   I saw Him.

He was there.  He is there.  He will always be there.

Here

With me

With you

Oh friends, I pray in the midst of your ordinary moments today that you too have seen Him.  For as much as He permeated the morning sky, He invades our every moment.   It’s an awakening of soul and spirit.   Welcome Him in and be revived.

Can’t touch this

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Time…

We don’t control when ours begins or even when it ends – only God.  Yet even still, He allows us control over the moments falling in between.  It is the proverbial dash between the dates found on too many tombstones.  In His creative, expressive love He has sketched out our lives but it is up to us to live the dream.

This year has been a wildly busy year with very little tangible worth.   Worth, however, isn’t always found in the items we hold or touch.  Sometimes and often more importantly, it is found in the things that touch us and change us.  In that, this year has been overflowing.

When I left my nursing career, I thought I would have all this “extra” time – time to get home and hearth in order; time to spend with friends sipping tea and eating lunch and time to pour out my words from heart to paper.  Yet, it hasn’t quite been this way.  On occasion, what I think will happen does not.  Such was this year. 

Instead of ordering home and hearth, I have been flying by the seat of my pants trying to maintain equilibrium.  I am a creature who thrives when things are clean and rightly placed.  Not compulsive by any means but life happens with more clarity when my surroundings are together. 

Instead of spending time with friends, I have been lucky to find a moment in a hallway to reconnect.  This has made a lonely year.  It is a funny road us introverts walk when our needed refueling occurs in quiet and solitude yet we desire not to do life alone.  Often, we struggle between the two.  This year has been a struggle.

Instead of writing with abandon I feel like I have abandoned my writing.  When life is a blur and tasks are overwhelming, the work of writing falls down the “must do” list.   What once used to flow now burps and spurts.

Worth carries a high price but it isn’t what you may think – it is me (and you).

I have found in the letting go of what I thought would happen – I get to embrace what He has designed.  The cost is me.  Only I can surrender myself.  Only I can allow eternity to inhabit my present moment.  He has given me that control.  When I release it back to Him, the infinite invades.  What I once sought to measure, I can no longer confine much less define.   In Him is found the exceedingly abundant more than all I can ask or imagine.  When eternity invades, His power is at work within. 

I may not be able to touch it but I have been changed by it.

And that has made this a very good year.