Let Me Tell You One Thing

  Hot, arid air to breathe in a desert, Mixed with morbid, hurting, loneliness; Missing life, love  and connection, There you will find me. Seems like despair, with many there; Lets me know, however I feel, I am not alone. No matter who, no matter who with, There is still an empty space within us, Nothing will be complete until we are home again. We cannot fold, we cannot crumble,  There has to be a beacon of light For those who follow us, even from a distance. Carry on, never cease' If we do not tell them,  They will not find the way.

 Verse  1 O Lord, God of my salvation, I have cried out day and night before you.     ( Psalm 27:9)  Do not hide your face from me; do not turn your servant away in anger; You have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.      The writer in the 27th psalm has clearly been helped by calling on our Father.        This 88th psalm begins by a reminder to the God of my salvation that he has called or cried to Him day and night.      How can we ever expect God to answer prayer if we we are so sporadic with our prayers?  A consistency would seem a rather important thing      One of the things that stand out most is someone's faithfulness and determination in a certain quest.  If a person has a history of faithfulness, it seems  that God most certainly takes that into consideration. Verse 2 Let my prayer come before You; incline Your ear to my cry.       Incline means listen.  How fervently we have made a plea to our Father to hear us, to listen to us, to answer

   ◦ I look out into the world; I seem so insignificant behind the window. For just outside my window  There is space that moves and flows;  Flows beyond for thousands and thousands of miles. I am but a small particle in the mix  I am but a small being in the vastness of the universe,  Yet Christ has redeemed me. He salvaged my soul and my future. I will move into the vastness of eternity Like water flows in a waterfall!

  Paul had a mega job convincing the people of his time to embrace Christ and the resurrection. The Athenians seemingly were always looking for something new to tell or hear.   Philosophers were abundant,  practically on the street corners it seems; debaters were common. They accused Paul of being a babbler or picking up scraps of something new and peddling it. There was Epicureanism (tranquility seeking), Stoicism (acceptance of life as inevitable), and Polytheism (the belief of multiple gods).   They accused Paul of propagating a religion of two new gods, i.e. Jesus and the resurrection. It must have been very difficult for him to have to plow through all the ideologies, beliefs, and religions of the day.   He worked diligently, he and the people with him on the mission to tell others about Christ. He suffered prison, beatings, shipwreck, and the stress of leading and mentoring people of the power of Jesus Christ and the resurrection.   God empowered him with strength, abil

  Sometimes, when in therapy with an individual with a hole in their heart, I sometimes thought that perhaps that emptiness was there from birth, the hole was so deep.  It seemed that nothing could fill the space.  My client would go layer by layer into their heart until they could dig down in that empty hole and bring up so many painful, destructive wounds.  We would have to deal with them layer by layer.  But in the end, once the hole has been completely dug out, we could begin to fill the hole again with good things. When we love a child, or a spouse that has injured us emotionally,  or there is a wound that comes from a friend,  the hole in our heart becomes deeper.  We begin to layer protection around the heart until there is a cold,  frigid wall around our heart and we refuse to let anyone or anything in.  This can happen without our awareness and over a period of time.  As a result,  it seems there are many of us who seemingly are removed from emotion.  No matter what we experie

  When I was upgrading an old kitchen sink, I looked for a copper sink.  I needed a new sink for an old farmhouse that needed a lot of tender love and care to say the least.  My plan was to upgrade the counters, the sink, and the flooring and to add new cabinets. This I did. Since copper was farmsy and trendy, I looked for copper.  The owner of the granite tile company also offered order only sinks.   This I did.  He suggested that I may want to reconsider getting a copper sink unless I wanted to do a lot of maintenance on the sink.  Did I follow his recommendation?   This I did not do. Since that time, the owners words have rung through my brain many, many times as I labor and polish and buff my farmsy copper sink.  Oh,  it’s beautiful when it is smiling back at me with sparkles, but each time I polish and buff that sink, God speaks to me through that sink.  It is a lesson He teaches to me over and over.  This He does. We are sent good people to give us good information, but when we

  No matter how long you live, life is short.  Whether you die at 20 or 90.   It is true, Psalm 39:11 that we are just a vapor, mainly a puff of smoke, and no matter who we are, if we all got on a scale at one time, we would weigh out lighter than a puff of smoke.   I say that because Psalm 62:9 says that in so many words.  We just can't hang on very long in this life when we are like a blade of grass, one day we are green then next day we are withered. My granddaughter recently said to me, "Nana, why do we think we are going to live forever?"  This is a fourteen year old girl, who has a great deal of insight to be saying that, because most young people think they will never die and life will go on forever.  Even the oldies are in so much denial, they dance around that tree as well. I am saying all of this because, we are actually here for a purpose that we were sent to do on this great planet.  We came with a plan from God (Jeremiah 29:11).  He knew us before we were for

  Psalm 44:21 says that God knows the secrets of my heart...and your heart.  He knows the secrets of the heart.   He knows the things we says to no one, even what we think.  This means that he knows ME, my very intentions.   This makes me wonder if He is pleased with me, what is it that I can change to accommodate the plans God has for me? Most of us can put on our best face, smile, and go out into the world as if we have it all together.  We can decide how willing we are to let people see us. My defenses do not work with God, facades are invisible to Him.  How can I hide from the very one who made me. That is like me cooking a pie and not knowing what I put in it.  Job 33:4 says, " The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life."  It is sort of ridiculous to even imagine that we can hide ourselves from Him.   This gift of life is something to be treasured.  The question is, how am I using this gift of life?  Is there a way to do it better?  God t

  God is Close Take care to nurture the hurting and the wounded of life and the return will be the sweetness of God's breath. There Are No Homeless I never saw anyone that had no place to go,  their destiny is constantly beckoning them.  Whether for gold or poverty, for love or hate, whether for fame or anonymity, the road is a magnet.  Reminisce Back when is a thing to get lost in-but mostly it takes away from the right now. No Regrets Fill the void with things that are good, like love, joy and peace.  There are no regrets with these and they fill the heart with ease. Subtraction Take away the simple things in life and all that remains is the complex. The Pied Piper Make a noise and all will come running, be quiet and all will think you strange. The Stairwell I sat among the stairwell looming above and beneath-trying to decide the direction to take. Shall I go up or down-Up or Down?  Up or Down? What is at the top? What is at the bottom? My faint heart freezes me into sitting in t

Psalm 84: 7-9 Devotions in Psalms October 13, 2015 Vs 7 They go from strength to strength; each one appears before God in Zion.                Proverbs 4:18 But the path of the just is like the shining sun that shines ever brighter into the perfect day.                Isaiah 40:31 But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.                John 1:16 And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace.                2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. We often talk of people living from paycheck to paycheck.   It seems like a cycle that people cannot get out of.   Just when it seems there is light at the end of the tunnel, it seems the tunnel gets longer.   There is no way t

  Look, God is great and we do not know all things about Him.  He has never had a beginning nor an ending.  Eternity goes backward and forward and is everlasting to everlasting. We only know the parts of God that He allows us to know; but there are deeper parts He will show to us if only we let Him know we truly want to know Him. We may not understand all there is to know about God, but He desires to show Himself to us in a greater way, to move back the clouds that surround Him and show Himself to us more clearly. Even in His distance, we can learn of Him.  It is frightening to be separated from Him, but even in our fear of that, He has never and will never leave us.   No, we cannot understand all of Him; there are limits to our understanding of God,  but we can know Him more intimately by reading His book and by spending quality time with Him in meditation and prayer. God is God, we must take that as a given.  We are wasting time when we try to begin anyplace else.  God is God.  If we

  4/8/2019 This third year of his death is different.    It is as if I do self-talk and let myself know there is no way possible that I can go through another year of the pain I went through the second year after his death. Each day I have to make myself do some small thing or some big project to know that I am truly progressing and that I am truly alive. Today was an overcast day, then suddenly I looked out of my window and it was raining; a good steady rain, one that wouldn’t stop in a few minutes.   As I stood at my kitchen window, which looked over my backyard and the green grass and saw the rain coming steadily down, an image of Clyde as a young farmer filled my mind.   He would work so hard to plant and tend his crops.   He had no irrigation at that time and depended on the rain to water his crops.   It had been an unusual dry spell and the crops were so thirsty.   I walked through our bedroom and he was sitting on the floor by the window with the window raised.   I said,

  I am passing through this life, with all its' joys, goodness, and strife. I am passing through, only passing through. When I stopped and looked around, I saw others moving along the ground. People who are passing through with me, I am not alone, others are going, some seem on a spree. Some want to make it through quick, they do everything to be done, every trick. They harm themselves with their lifestyle, never giving a thought to the Christ child. But I can only do me, I cannot do them.  Each one of us has to decide to pull off the film. So I look back on my own path, looking ahead, knowing that surely soon all of us will be dead. I had better get busy, and try to make good, make good things happen, as I know I should. The upper, the lower, all people go forth, we are the same, each making our choice. We are all passing through, only passing through.

  Life in the fast lane gets more interesting everyday as I see the faces zoom by, a blur that passes me while all the time I am wondering what is happening behind that blur of faces.    What is the pain and the disappointments they are running from? It is all too vivid. Rather than seeing what the rush is accomplishing, I am seeing a highway filled with people who are unfocused, unproductive, and absolutely exhausted.   The final rest must come soon, or else, the spot I have chosen to sit upon along this road, along this fast lane, will have no impact.   I just want the blur of runners to see that it is possible to sit along the lane, and watch the fools rush by.    If they perchance glance my way, I can raise my hand and wave and hope that they will connect with a stationary person long enough to see the smile I am giving to them.

  If only I could see a red bird lighting on a tree, h ow very happy I would be! When I look out my window pane, there is no green or sun, it's insane! The summer is gone and the leaves are grounded, the mirth in my heart has been impounded. The sky has wept bitterly for days on end, overcast dripping is all it will lend. The lurking Covid has kept us down, the sky keeps it's constant frown. If only I could see one cardinal perched in a tree, the contrasting red to see;  I would get up from the depths of despair and know there is hope somewhere! If only...

Presume or Assume When I wake each day, I presume. I presume that today will be much like yesterday. The sun will rise, the oceans will wave. When I wake each day I presume. I presume I will procrastinate. I will drag my feet and bide my time. On the other hand: When I wake each day I assume. I assume that others know my thoughts. They will know I love them even though I don't tell them. When I wake each day I assume. I assume that if you know me you will like me You will look into my soul and know me. In the definition of presume and assume, Presumptions are based upon probability.  Assumptions are based upon feeling. Presumptions and assumptions are not cousins. When you read this, I presume you will understand  even if not interested. I assume you will find it thoughtful even if not entertaining.   

 No matter our circumstances, life is a gift. No matter our circumstances, we must shift. Shift to slow gear and then back into drive. Watching each crossroad, that we make it alive. Throwing all our cares to Him He never leaves us hanging on a limb. No matter our circumstances, life is gift. No matter our circumstances, we must shift.