Shortcuts to the Sweet Stuff

For the first time, I am trying my hand at cooking maple syrup. Abe tapped some trees here in our yard and we have been collecting the sap as it comes. I am told it takes an average of forty gallons of sap to cook down into a single gallon of maple syrup. And oh, how sweet it is!

I preheat the sap on the stove and then pour it into an 18 quart roaster in the garage. It gets all moist and steamy out there. Hours, then days, go by, and eventually there is a pint...then two...then three... sitting on my counter.

In the meantime, I find myself thinking of ways to use the sap without cooking it all the way down to syrup. I've learned it makes really good chai, tea, probably any sweet drink, to just cook it until it has the sweetness I like. There is also a lovely delicate flavor to it, very mellow. In a fraction of the time it takes to make even one fourth of a cup of maple syrup, I have a gallon of very good cinnamon tea, all sealed in jars to enjoy ice cold on some hot summer day. It might be my imagination, but it tastes more exotic, just knowing it is purely maple sap, cinnamon, cloves, and mint, no sugar added.

But sweet tea is a far cry from maple syrup.

THERE ARE NO SHORT-CUTS TO THE TRULY SWEET STUFF.

The thoughts on my mind and on my heart today have been a struggle to hold out for the sweet stuff. The tea is pretty good, after all, and there's nothing wrong with tea. It's just not maple syrup and never can be.

And I want the maple syrup.

Sometimes it seems like God takes such a long slow route to get us to the sweet stuff. I do know the sweetness of waiting on Him, not trying to force His hand, and seeing Him work out more incredible sweetness than I can comprehend. But I am still so prone to impatience.

Suddenly this afternoon, I heard His voice through the process of making maple syrup. I choose, in the issues that are in my life right now, to wait and be still, to trust God to distill away whatever He needs to in me, and to trust Him to work in the lives of those nearest and dearest to me, to the same desired end - the sweet stuff.

Another thing shouted loudly to me today.

Damaris has been steadily progressing in learning to play the piano. I am amazed at what sounds she can make come rippling out from under her fingers already!

For the last few weeks she has been playing over and over something her cousin taught her, very pretty with a nice rhythm to it. I assumed it was some sort of finger exercise, it had no real "tune" to it.

This week her piano teacher (Judy) is back after being gone for over a month, and we were there for a lesson. While she was taking a phone call, Damaris was playing through some of the things she enjoys, the "finger exercise" being one of them. To my surprise, Judy says, "Why, that's "Heart and Soul" she's playing!" and promptly joins her in the duet I didn't know it actually is. The part she played was the "tune", and if I thought the "accompaniment" was pretty, I am here to tell you, it's just the accompaniment.

That was Wednesday. It took me until today and the battle I was in, to see the beauty in it all.

I think our God wants us to get it through our thick heads that what we have experienced of His goodness so far in our lives is only the accompaniment, to what He really longs to pour out on and in us if we will only keep saying yes to Him in our hearts and lives. It's still the "sweet tea".

He is the "Heart and Soul" and will put heart and soul into everything we let Him. He is the one Who made the life-blood of the tree, so that when it is distilled out into it's purest form, it is a product of utter sweetness.

The cross is another tree similar to the maple.

I want to hold still, not meddle in His work, and just abide in Him.

I write this all in much weakness, feeling the need to put it down in black and white. - Janelle

To eat, or not to eat...

Recently, through a chain of circumstances not linked by me, a new aspect of an old truth about myself was hit home to me, hopefully to an ever-increasing depth.

It seems like time and again God has brought to my attention that any excellence in my life must be of God, and not of myself.

One day, in what felt like a random phone call, I was called to account for how friendly, or in this case, how "not friendly" I had greeted someone in the local Walmart. No matter what I said, I could not convince this person that I hold no ill feelings whatsoever toward the person they thought I slighted. To keep a long story short, I felt very attacked, from out of nowhere. It really rattled me.

Some days later there was an entirely different encounter that also made me really question myself and threw me into a certain degree of turmoil.

Then one afternoon, as all this was brewing on the simmer burner in my heart, I started asking God to show me what it was that He wanted me to see, 'cause I could sense there was something.

I always find it so incredible, how God can take something that feels like such a muddle, and shed such clean light on it, when I open it up to Him.

He showed me once again, how important it is to me to feel "right". Funny as it may seem, the thought that helped me see it clearly, was about Jesus walking through the cornfield on the Sabbath, and plucking the ear of corn, and eating it.

If that was me, I would have went hungry.

I know it's not violating the true Sabbath to pluck and eat the corn. But I am strong enough in myself that I would have denied myself the bite to eat, for the sake of not stumbling someone, for the sake, truly, of not having someone look cross-eyed at me for my actions.

If Christ picked and ate the corn, it was for a very good reason (besides being hungry).

My not eating the corn would actually be a mis-representation of Christ. I would be choosing self-rightness (actually self-righteousness) over the liberty in Christ that we are exhorted to STAND FAST in.

It breaks my heart, how prone I am to self-righteousness... one could walk away from that cornfield feeling superior to the others munching their ear of corn, that I had the discipline or self control to do without. What a load of garbage! In all reality, I would be the one grieving the heart of my Father! It is not a virtue, to have, but not walk in, the liberty and life that is in Christ. It is actually setting myself up as knowing better than God...and that is shades of you-know-who! God forbid!

So, I walk away from this, feeling an ever growing determination to let Christ live and move and have His being in me, to be nothing and no one in my own eyes first of all, and then to forget about the ones who might look cross-eyed at me and just concern myself with whatever He says to me. I want to completely be God's girl...not my own.

For we have this treasure in earthen vessels,

that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

2 Cor. 4:7

I want to spend all the rest of my days discovering the joy of what it feels like to live for an audience of ONE! To stand or fall by His measurement alone...because He is so very rich in mercy!

Conundrums and Rest

The sun is shining brightly on a new day, and yet for me, today is a day of remembering...

Today my firstborn daughter would be a teenager.

I feel like I am on an emotional roller coaster ride. Yesterday we heard the heartbeat of the baby in my womb. It is the sound of LIFE, yet still a life that is never ours to control, or keep as our own. It is a gift, to be lovingly held for as much time as we are given.

This winter I have been puzzling over the blessing and brevity of life. It seems like every few days we hear of some new joy or sorrow, in this endless cycle of life and death.

Like the death of an almost-two-year old that was born with a heart defect... then the birth of a daughter to a couple who have longed and waited for a baby for years...

Answers to prayers come in all shapes and size, sometimes joyfully and sometimes most painfully, but always accompanied by GRACE.

I have not arrived at any concrete conclusions in my pondering of all this...only that life is full of conundrums that we may never grasp. The thing is, God, who made each of us, knows us and knows what completes us, and He is committed to complete the good work He has begun in us.

He also NEVER leaves us comfort-less.

Today the girls are excited to celebrate Carolie's birthday. It is a special occasion, even to them, who never met her. We will make some special foods and maybe watch home videos of her... watch her bottle feed the baby deer in Bolivia...scolding it and smacking it's head every time it butts her over... and laugh like we always do. There'll be tears too. My cheeks feel like a well-watered garden already. But I'm so glad God gave her to us! It is worth the pain.

I am so glad that Jesus thought we were worth His pain. Ours pales in comparison.

"Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless 'til it rests in Thee." - Augustine

New Beginnings

It's about time to post an update on here! I had a couple of drafts I intended to post, but sometimes if I can't quite put into words what I want to say, and if it doesn't feel right to me, there it sits until I feel ruthless and delete.

December was full... Chloe and Abigail had their birthdays, which we celebrated by having a tea party. Abi is four years old now! She strives to keep up with her big sisters in all things.

When I was shopping for her birthday, I asked her what is her favorite thing to play with.

After some time, she said, "Mommy, my favorite thing to play with is my sisters!"

Chloe is six years old. She is discovering the joys of reading, this winter. Also, she and Hadassah spend as much time as possible playing outside if there is any snow. We have clean fresh snow blanketing the ground again today!

Chloe wanted these pink snowballs instead of birthday cake this year, which was a blessing for this morning sick mom! Also special because they were a favorite of my Dad's!

Yes, one of the new beginnings for us is the expected arrival of a baby in July!

We are most excited, since there are miscarriages in my past. I am now in the beginning of the 15th week, and so far there have been no complications. The girls are tickled at the thought of a baby in the house. It will be a bit different for me, having older children to help. Last time my oldest was 6, with a 4 year old, and a 2 year old. Damaris will be 11 the same month the baby is due, and the others will be 8, 6, and 4. I am already gearing towards using their help a bit more than I have been. There are simple things they are learning to cook, etc. that will be a welcome assistance with a newborn in the family!

Another new beginning is that Damaris has started taking piano lessons. Our closest neighbor lady offered to start teaching her what she knows, which is very sweet of her and convenient for us! We just trudge up over the hill. On these snowy days, we don't need to venture down our hill, nor up her even longer one.

It seems like 2010 flew by on swift wings. We have before us an uncharted year. It will be interesting to see what events the grace of God will see us through, what new joys and old hopes are fulfilled in the days ahead. I'm just so glad that mercies are new every morning!

May our days be numbered by the many blessings of being saved on a daily basis, growing into the image of our precious Lord Jesus!

Emmanuel - God with us!

The stable was the first place God dwelt with us in the flesh, because first things first.

A king was born one silent night,

Not in a castle, but out of sight

In a cobwebby stable that smelled of hay

God ushered in a brand new way.

He came as a babe, for as we all know,

To learn to obey is the way we should go.

He humbled Himself and came as a son

Who went on to be the Obedient One.

He says the humble shall hear

And the humble shall see.

Humble yourselves in the sight of Me.

I'm looking for room, in hearts, don't you see?

Please humble yourselves and dwell with Me.

Let's join Him in the manger...

The manner of His entrance into the world was known and orchestrated. It was not impromptu.

As He stepped into time, He was also conducting the orchestra of His life.

He chose every word and action to perfectly reflect His Father, and ours.

He did not dodge any aspect of difficulty that being a true son of His Father might give rise to. He was a man, in the truest sense of the title. He was also "God with us".

In order to experience His abundant life, we need to follow Him, and be in all points, as He is.

He was born into impossibilities... no room in the inn, a king set to kill him, appearing of not only doubtful, but shameful parentage.

May we surrender the "impossibilities" in our lives and hearts to Him, who is so able to turn dirges into dances, cold dark nights into bright sunny mornings, and all that is meant for evil into astonishing good!

GOD BLESS US, EVERYONE, WITH EARS TO HEAR AND EYES TO SEE.

May we know, in the deepest recesses of our hearts, just WHO our Saviour is.

May we grasp in an ever-deepening way, what "God with us" really means, experiencing it every day of our lives.

Happiest and most Blessed Christmas to each of you!

No Vision

The creativity that went into this flower causes me to stop and contemplate...
People who create anything, whether it be a tasty meal or an object of art, usually have a goal in mind. Something they are trying to say, or portray... something that has significance to them, that they wish to communicate to, or share with, those around them.
Creativity comes from somewhere...it cannot be conjurred up.
Behind true creativity, I believe there is vision.

It requires inspiration to capture emotion in painting a picture, etc.
If that is required to put on paper a replica of something that already exists,
how much more inspiration (or) vision, did it take to make the original?
Can you imagine the joy and satisfaction experienced in creating a flower like this?!
To set up the process in which a flower buds and grows to full flower?

I have been thinking lately about this statement:

"WHERE THERE IS NO VISION, THE PEOPLE PERISH."

I see many lives that are evidence that this is a fact.
Some folks live their whole lives like sleep-walkers, just going thru the motions.
No vision.

Then there are those that scorn the sleep-walkers, knowing enough to know that this is no way to live.

Still no vision.

You can fill your days with deciding, most determinedly, just what your life will NOT be about.
Yet still no vision...
Still perishing on the inside...

It's not that hard to decide what you don't believe in.
It's all too easy to curse the darkness.
No vision.

Even trying to "go light your world" somehow doesn't cut it.
Your light is too weak, too feeble to be effectual.
The problem is too big for you.
The darkness is too dark for you.
No vision.

The Creator that created the flower, and us, has vision.
His creations are imbued with life and light.
They effect us, because they are meant to.
There is vision and purpose behind everything.
We are made to have a vision, a purpose, to believe.

What do you believe?
Does your belief give you purpose?
Or does your unbelief darken your vision...

As it seems?

A few nights ago, I snapped these pictures of the sky. It was a beautiful evening, and these poor pictures in no way capture it.

As I looked at them on the camera screen, I was struck by the thought that if you turn the picture upside down, it looks like you are on top of the clouds, like when you're looking out the window of a jet...

...or
it looks like the ocean.

A song I heard recently came to mind, by Lifehouse.

"Storm"

How long have I been in this storm?
So overwhelmed by the ocean's shapeless form
Water's getting harder to tread
With these waves crashing over my head

If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I'd see you
This darkness would turn to light

And I will walk on water
And you will catch me if I fall
And I will get lost into your eyes
I know everything will be alright
I know everything is alright

I know you didn't bring me out here to drown
So why am I ten feet under and upside down
Barely surviving has become my purpose
Because I'm so used to living underneath the surface

If I could just see you
Everything would be all right
If I'd see you
This darkness would turn to light

And I will walk on water
And you will catch me if I fall
And I know everything will be alright
I know everything will be alright

There are a lot of wordless thoughts rolling around in my heart. It feels like it's not necessarily my business to tame them into words. I will just say that I trust God that everything will all be made right one day. What feels like an ocean we are drowning under might turn out to be the sky, because after all, things are not always...

AS IT SEEMS.

Lean Not

We are creatures of habit. I've heard it said that a habit is something we do without thinking. I have a notion that we are just as much creatures of habit in our ways of thinking, as we are in our actions. I'm glad we have the opportunity to rely on Someone whose wisdom is much greater than ours. We can trust the One who formed us in our mother's womb to lead us away from leaning unto our own understanding.
It can be very enlightening to see things from a new, or different, perspective. I pray for open minds and hearts, that we could invite our Creator to renew our minds... and create in us, clean hearts.

The same thing... just from a different angle...

When we start to see something from a different angle, pretty soon it opens up a whole new world.

The possibilities are endless.

I have also noticed, from behind a camera, that it is good to not be afraid to get up close, and personal,
even maybe getting wet or dirty (ie: uncomfortable).
I think the same is true when it comes to viewing our own lives. There is more to be gained, than lost, if we have the courage to do so.
Just some thoughts I had while snapping these pictures...

15 Years!

Fifteen years of yesterdays ago, it was our wedding day... Time has flown by. It is incredible to think of who we were then, and who we are now. I wouldn't change us back... oh, yes, Abe had a bit more hair and I had a few less pounds... :) ... but in the things that matter, we are so much richer. Our feelings for each other have been tested, and have grown.

I like to think back and remember. We sang a song together at our wedding, and while I knew the words to be true then, I never knew it to the extent that I know it now. It goes like this:

"I could never promise you

On just my strength alone,

That all my life I'd care for you

And love you as my own.

I've never known the future,

I only see today.

Words that last a lifetime

Would be more than I could say.

But the love inside my heart today

Is more than mine alone.

It never changes, never fails,

It never seeks it's own.

And by the God who gives it,

Who lives in me and you,

I know the words I speak today

Are words I'm going to do.

So I stand before you now

For all to hear and see

And promise you in Jesus' name

The love He's given me.

And through the years on earth

And as eternity goes by

The life and love He's given us

Are never going to die."

I am so glad that the love of God never fails. I know it to be a sustaining power!

If the next 15 years are anything like the first 15, I will say it has been an amazing ride! The enormity of the volume of growth and change that I know has gone on inside of me is almost shocking for me to think about. And yet in some ways, nothing has changed. What I saw to be true then, what I knew I could depend on, is the same today. As life happens, what was once new and fresh and beautiful gets tested by the fire. It either emerges purified or proven false and better abandoned. On the other side of testing, it is stronger, more durable. A butterfly's wings harden and strengthen after it emerges from it's cocoon, making it ready to fly to places it only dreamed of, as a caterpillar.

Dandelions & "Someone Else"

"Someone else!" her heart did cry.
"This should not be mine to bear.
The ridicule, the scorn, indifference,
Responsibility and blame,
Should be someone else's game."

She longs for someone else
To bear the brunt, remove the scrutiny.
"Why should I be singled out?"

("Someone else!" He must have cried. "Remove this cup from me!")

Someone else, to step up to the plate.
"Someone else" will seal your fate.
Life will pass you while you wait
For someone else.

"From the throngs that crowd life's lanes,
I have selected you.
Not someone else."

(He still looks for someone else, with whom to share His life.)

Someone else! I know this cry.
I've heard it in my heart.
Surely there is someone else
Who's not afraid to die!

Some One else - He steps right up.
"I'll be the first.
I'll be the way.
I am the Truth and Life.
I'll be your "Some One Else"."

Let me be like a dandelion that is blown by the wind, wherever it listeth. Soft, and susceptible to the tiniest puff of Your breath.

May Apples & Cherry Trees

He speaks in so many ways. I am learning to listen and see.

May apple, under
Your umbrella, hide away,
Content He sees you.

Cherry filigree,
leaves uncounted shiv'ring praise,
You live out your days.

Trunk, branches, and twigs,
Life-sap running in your veins
Upholds and sustains.

Working From The Right Premise

Well... by these pictures one might assume that we made it to the ocean on our recent trip.

You would be correct.

You would be "working from the right premise".

premise: a basis, stated or assumed, on which reasoning proceeds

:to set forth beforehand, as by way of introduction or explanation

The other day I was listening to a song by Rich Mullins. It is one I have always liked. It was interesting to me to note the way I felt differently about it, than I remember I used to...

The song goes:

"You who live in heaven, hear the prayers of those of us who live on earth,

Who are afraid of being left by those we love and who get hardened by the hurt.

Do you remember when You lived down here where we all scrape

To find the faith to ask for daily bread?

Did You forget about us after You had flown away?

Well, I memorized every word You said, still I'm so scared I'm holdin' my breath

While You're up there just playin' hard to get.

You who live in radiance, hear the prayers of those of us who live in skin.

We have a love that's not as patient as Yours was, still we do love now and then.

Did You ever know loneliness? Did You ever know need?

Do You remember just how long a night can get?

When You are barely holdin' on and Your friends fall asleep, and don't see the blood that's runnin' in Your sweat...

Will those who mourn be left uncomforted?...while You're up there just playin' hard to get.

I know You bore our sorrows, and I know You feel our pain.

And I know it would not hurt any less even if it could be explained.

And I know that I am only lashing out at the One who loves me most

And after I have figured this, somehow, all I really need to know...

Is if You who live in eternity hear the prayers of those of us who live in time?

We can't see what's ahead and we cannot get free of what we've left behind.

I'm reelin' from the voices that keep screaming in my ears.

All the words of shame and doubt, blame and regret.

I can't see how You're leading me unless You've led me here

To be lost enough to let myself be led.

And so You've been here all along, I guess...

It's just Your ways and You, are just plain hard to get."

Hearing this song again took me back to whenever I last listened to it. I remember feeling so familiar with the feelings it expresses...

But not so much anymore... He doesn't feel so hard to get... which set me to thinking and wondering... what's changed?

That's when the phrase "working from the wrong (or) right premise" crept into my mind.

Which stirred the question... "What is the "right" premise?

I mulled it over a bit... love? God is love. The 2 greatest commandments... Everything works together for the good... His thoughts towards us are good...

Lots of thoughts flickered in and out.

Suddenly, clearly, I had my answer...

"I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it MORE ABUNDANTLY!"

This is the premise, from which all our wonderings and reasonings should proceed. This is the end He is working toward. If we can believe this, His ways are no longer so hard to get.

This premise is His promise to us.

Choose life!

White Nights & Haiku

I was recently introduced to haiku. I find myself charmed. The dictionary definition reads like this: (hi' koo) a Japanese poem or verse form, consisting of 17 syllables divided into 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables, often about nature or a season.
I love words... how so much can be meant or understood or felt in a single word, and yet also how sometimes words are such inadequate means of conveying what you feel...
Sometimes a word feels so powerful, to use too many feels like it would detract. Less is more. Other times it seems like there are not enough words to express the magnitude! Hense the charm of the haiku.
The snow we have been getting this winter has been affecting me. It has stirred all kinds of thought and feeling. It feels a bit strange considering I grew up where snow was the norm in winter. I am left to conclude that it is where I am inside that is making the difference. I think my eyes are more open than they used to be, maybe my ears too.
So... here are a few haiku of my own...

Snow inspires, moves me
Another time, pace, embrace
Always rewires me


White night of snow light
Moon hides but snow refracts
Soft glow defeats dark


Make me white as snow
So I may reflect the light
You shine upon me


Utter darkness fails
To consume the night made light
By pure driven snow

Snow From Heaven

Isaiah 55:10

"For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven..."

I love how it traces every twig...

"Stopping by woods on a snowy evening..."

Out from under the pine tree... a place of refuge... maybe one of the many shapes the "wings of God" take...?

My little neighbor from the springtime long ago abandoned her home.

We have more snow right now than we have had for quite a few years. So white, so clean, covering so much... It makes me think of love, covering a multitude of sins.

Our yard has a lot of work to be done. There is still a cement mixer out front, a pile of sand, a couple bins of discarded stones, weedy piles of topsoil... it is still a work in progress. The snow covers it all so beautifully!

Is that like me?

"She is not afraid of the snow, for all her household is clothed with scarlet." Proverbs 31:21

Is being covered by His blood what makes me clothed with scarlet?

I have been reading the different references to snow in the Bible, and I cannot say that I have it figured out. All I know is I have a feeling of affinity growing, a sense of God saying something through it. Even if my mind is not grasping it, it feels like my heart "gets" it.

May the "work in progress" that is "me" be as sufficiently and beautifully covered as our unsightly yard!

This verse has been precious to me lately... "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power MAY BE OF GOD and NOT OF US!" (2 Cor. 4:7) He did it this way on purpose!

Stirred Thoughts...

Getting on Facebook and finding old friends and aquaintances has got me thinking. I wonder how we would feel to get together, would it be awkward. On Facebook you can keep your distance pretty easily. Do we really have much in common... or have we become different enough that we really would have no interest in renewing acquaintance. If we lived next door, or even in the same area, would we be "close"? Sometimes distance helps us preserve a lie. We can hope or pretend we have the same goals, and share a closeness that is based primarily on history. What if that "history" was less than we wish it was?
Being real honest, I guess the feeling that rises in my heart is, "Would I fit in?"
Since that is a question I don’t really have an answer for, my line of thought headed in a different direction...
Where did Jesus fit in?
The "church " of his day plotted to destroy him. He ate and drank with "sinners". Was he careful of the company he kept? He was too liberal for the "conservatives", surely! They wondered why he did "what is not lawful"... He shamed them with his purity, but gave them lots to find fault with.
But He was also too conservative for the "liberals"! He asked for more than the law did! Second mile... love your enemies... your cloak also...etc.
He was discredited by his own people, those who should have known him best. They said he was "out of his mind". Educated folk thought he was possessed.
Those who affirmed him did not rank very high. Crude fishermen, yes, lepers, thieves, and even those who were responsible to carry out his death said, "Truly this Man was the Son of God!"
Where did He fit in?...
But even more crucial... today... where does He fit in?
That’s the question I want to concern myself with.

Prism Living

prism (priz’em) n.1. Optics. a transparent solid body, often having triangular bases, used for dispersing light into a spectrum or for reflecting rays of light. Etc.
Th dictionary definition of prism is prosaic, at best. It does not in any way capture the simple delight of vivid rainbows landing on you, or spinning wildly around the room.
I have one hanging in my kitchen window. It has been working it’s magic on me...
I have loved prisms ever since I first knew what they were. Some years ago on my birthday, my sister-in-law gave me a couple. (Thanks again, Mandy!) I’ve had them hanging in the windows ever since, and have been learning some things from them.
Prisms need direct sun shining on them for their true beauty to be seen. They don’t look any different, one way or the other, but the difference in effect is startling! It takes strong sun shining through them to reveal their true purpose.
They are truly "receivers", and "achieve" absolutely nothing. They are "being", not "doing". The more facets they have cut on them, the bigger and more glorious the rainbows that come from them. They do not strive for attention, quietly unassuming, they simply transmit the sun to us in colored form. They have no color of their own...
God, make me like a prism.

His house - whose house we are...

Too eager I must not be to understand.
How should the work the Master goes about
Fit the vague sketch my compasses have planned?
I am His house - for Him to go in and out.
He builds me now - and if I cannot see
At any time what He is doing with me,
"Tis that He makes the house for me too grand.

The house is not for me - it is for Him.
His royal thoughts require many a stair,
Many a tower, many an outlook fair,
Of which I have no thought, and need no care.
Where I am most perplexed, it may be there
Thou mak'st a secret chamber, holy-dim,
Where Thou wilt come to help my deepest prayer.
-"Diary of an Old Soul" by George MacDonald

Summer is always a time of busy-ness. This one has been no different. It has been full, and rewarding. It seems God is equally busy... I feel like it has been a seasons of steady "building". Somehow, I have not had the words, or the direction to share them, on this blog. Maybe because, I am not important, or unique. God is building each of us, growing us each night and day, we know not how.
I am looking forward to this winter, when we can enjoy the fruit of our labors. I have a notion that God might feel the same way. He looks forward to enjoying the fruit of His work in us.

"O Christ , my life, possess me utterly.
Take me and make a little Christ of me.
If I am anything but my Father's son,
'Tis something not yet from the darkness won.
Oh, give me light to live with open eyes.
Oh, give me life to hope above all skies.
Give me thy spirit to haunt the Father with my cries."
-George MacDonald

You've Won My Heart!

At the foot of the cross where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me Your love through the judgement You received
And You’ve won my heart, yes, You’ve won my heart!
Now I can trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down.
This is not the first time I have quoted this song, and it probably won’t be the last time either. The line that is on my heart since yesterday is: "You’ve won my heart..."
I got thinking about it... Is my day to day walk, my experience, my life, going in such a way that my heart is being won more and more to my Savior? Is He "sweeter and sweeter as the days go by"? Is this journey that I’m on leading me closer to Him? Do I stand increasingly more in awe of Him?
If this is not so, then I think we are not actually growing up in the measure of the stature of the fullness of God. We may grow in knowledge of and about Him, also grow in virtue, without growing in Him. Are we feeding on "life" and experiencing it more abundantly? Are we struggling to discipline ourselves to hunger for what we know we should be hungering for? Has He won our heart?
The fact of the matter is, HE IS BEAUTIFUL! If we aren’t seeing it in ever increasing measure, then something is hindering our sight. Do we have eyes to see? Ears to hear? Are we coming to God with a contract we’d like Him to agree to, and sign? Or are we coming to Him with a blank sheet with our name signed at the bottom, BEFORE we ever know what He will fill in the page with?
Let your heart be won by the One who loves with everlasting, unfailing , unconditional love. Let Him steal away your cares as you learn to trust and rest in Him. Responsibility does not rest heavily on a dead persons shoulders. Let your government be upon His shoulders in ALL aspects of your life. Dare to believe He will lead you where He wants you to go and never forsake you in the meantime.
Someone once said (actually more than once) that we have as much of God as we want. At first thought, that pricks. Then as we let it judge us, and acknowledge the truth of it, it becomes a catalyst that spurs us on to dying, so that He can live more freely in us. Mrs. Charles Cowman said, "We get no deeper into Christ than we allow Him to get into us."
We love Him because He first loved us! He is already keeping His end of the relationship. His name has already been signed...it’s my turn to give my life away!

Blessed Be Your Name

For a while now I have been listening to and singing this song, over and over. I've been wanting to post it, and suddenly realized I should post it today...

Blessed Be Your Name
In the land that is plentiful
Where the streams of abundance flow
Blessed be Your Name.

Blessed be Your Name
When I'm found in the desert place
Tho' I walk through the wilderness
Blessed be Your Name

Every blessing You pour out I'll
Turn back to praise.
When the darkness closes in, Lord,
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be Your glorious name.

Blessed be Your name
When the sun's shining down on me,
When the world's all as it should be,
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
When there's pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name.

Every blessing You pour out I'll
Turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord,
Still I will say...
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be Your name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Blessed be Your glorious name.
You give and take away.
You give and take away.
My heart will choose to say,
Lord, blessed be Your name.

Carolie, you are not forgotten. You are missed. You are loved and longed for. Blessed be the name of the Lord, who daily loads us with benefits. You enrich our lives, from a distance. The only way to be near you, is to be near our Father's heart. One day, we will share His lap.

Heartwood

The other evening I noticed this tree...

I was struck by the way it has been ravished... the elements have taken their toll. At some point, it has been wounded to the core.
It's heartwood has been exposed.

But it is still a thing of beauty... a testimony to endurance.

With it's scars very evident, it still lives and glorifies.

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree..."
Jeremiah 17:5-8