I threw the few scattered belongings I had grabbed into the backseat of my Volvo XC90 and descended the steep snowy road and headed home; selling our mountain house fully furnished left very little to be packed up, but still, I needed bubble wrap. My beautiful blue pitcher and bowl broke with my hurried handling.
How like my life. I try to rush through every move, even the natural rhythm of moving through each day. I am impatient and harsh and my fragile heart breaks with my rough handling of myself. Kneeling in prayer the other day I saw the little things wounding me: words that hurt, days that are too cold, a need for direction, feelings I can't understand. God whispered, "Let Me wrap you in Divine love and embrace and give you the protection you need. I want My love of you to inform all your actions and reactions. Move and live and have your being from a sense of My Holy handling of you and those in your life, then the words, the hurts, the trials, the misunderstandings won't hurt you so deeply."
Who's handling your heart and hurts? Trust the One who longs to wrap you in love
Medicine from Sacred Scripture:
"Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love, for I have put my trust in you." Psalm 143:8
Thursday, January 24, 2013
Thursday, January 17, 2013
SHELTERED PLACES
My thoughts are back in Ireland- maybe because New England is covered in fresh snow and I miss the green pastures and fluffy sheep, maybe I miss being alone with my husband and I have spent five fast weeks with a house crammed full of our children, or maybe I felt sheltered there?
In my mind I'm drawn to the protective walls of Kell's Priory. When we walked the grounds there was a sense of enclosure, you were wrapped around with these thick walls to keep you safe. I need safety. Thoughts swirl, life flies, children leave, friends move, we change. Where will we find our sense of security? Perhaps in the One who makes the snow, the pastures, the sheep, the children, the friends, the One who gives us our very lives? He promises, "For in the day of trouble the Lord will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle." Psalm 27:5
Medicine from Ancient Writing:
"If any by the wayside is trodden down by all kinds of thoughts, let him enter into more sheltered places, and not lie exposed for those who will invade for plunder."
St John Chrysostom Homilies on St. John Homily II NPNF:11; 14.9
In my mind I'm drawn to the protective walls of Kell's Priory. When we walked the grounds there was a sense of enclosure, you were wrapped around with these thick walls to keep you safe. I need safety. Thoughts swirl, life flies, children leave, friends move, we change. Where will we find our sense of security? Perhaps in the One who makes the snow, the pastures, the sheep, the children, the friends, the One who gives us our very lives? He promises, "For in the day of trouble the Lord will keep me safe in His dwelling; He will hide me in the shelter of His tabernacle." Psalm 27:5
Medicine from Ancient Writing:
"If any by the wayside is trodden down by all kinds of thoughts, let him enter into more sheltered places, and not lie exposed for those who will invade for plunder."
St John Chrysostom Homilies on St. John Homily II NPNF:11; 14.9
Saturday, January 12, 2013
TIES OF LOVE
I wonder what has broken your heart recently? Not everyone is walking around with their heart bleeding on their sleeve, but how many of us carry pain over our loved ones, their choices, their anguish, or even our own suffering? I don't have an answer, but I have a question.
What if God wants to bind up your broken heart? What if you sat still in His Presence and told Him everything that hurts inside of you and around you? I did this recently and I wept in God's arms. Not literally, of course, but as I spoke of my pain in prayer tears fell as He showed me it was time for heart surgery. With cords of kindness He gently sewed together the broken parts of my heart and life with the ties of His love; He tied up the loose ends- sorrow, expectation, disappointment and grief. Letting Him so close to my heartache doesn't change the circumstances, it changes me; some pain I surrendered to Him and what remains doesn't cut to the core of who I am, doesn't define me. My questions about suffering don't unravel me now, they still me and cause me to look up, not in, for the grace, truth and courage to face another day.
Medicine from Holy Scripture:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted..."
Isaiah 61:1
"It was I who healed them, I led them with cords of human kindness with ties of love." Hosea 11:3, 4
What if God wants to bind up your broken heart? What if you sat still in His Presence and told Him everything that hurts inside of you and around you? I did this recently and I wept in God's arms. Not literally, of course, but as I spoke of my pain in prayer tears fell as He showed me it was time for heart surgery. With cords of kindness He gently sewed together the broken parts of my heart and life with the ties of His love; He tied up the loose ends- sorrow, expectation, disappointment and grief. Letting Him so close to my heartache doesn't change the circumstances, it changes me; some pain I surrendered to Him and what remains doesn't cut to the core of who I am, doesn't define me. My questions about suffering don't unravel me now, they still me and cause me to look up, not in, for the grace, truth and courage to face another day.
Medicine from Holy Scripture:
"The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted..."
Isaiah 61:1
"It was I who healed them, I led them with cords of human kindness with ties of love." Hosea 11:3, 4
Monday, January 7, 2013
THE TYPEWRITER
How we perceive things that happen in our daily life and the way we frame our own history affects how we live. I woke this morning with a challenge ringing in my heart: what if my story isn't just my story, what if what happens to me isn't just about me?What if we have been given the job of recording and remembering and living in a way that tells God's story?
It sounds so trite and religious and unimportant, but it is a huge shift to live as if I have always been loved and always will be, as if I am enough and don't need to keep on striving and achieving, as if God has been and always will be with me. If I could place a typewriter in my soul with the words, "Good News" in bold ink it might help me change my perspective on so many experiences. The good news which brings comfort, joy and peace is, "Immanuel, God with us." He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love never changes, but our hearts and lives might if we believed this.
Medicine from Ancient Writings:
"Let him come continually to this house of healing, let him hear at all times the laws of the Spirit; for when the devil sees the law of God written in the soul, and the heart become tablets to write it on, he will not approach anymore. (let) the King's writing be stamped by the Holy Ghost on a mind loving God, and bright with abundant grace."
St. John Chrysostom Homilies on St. John Homily III.1 NPNF14.10
It sounds so trite and religious and unimportant, but it is a huge shift to live as if I have always been loved and always will be, as if I am enough and don't need to keep on striving and achieving, as if God has been and always will be with me. If I could place a typewriter in my soul with the words, "Good News" in bold ink it might help me change my perspective on so many experiences. The good news which brings comfort, joy and peace is, "Immanuel, God with us." He is the same yesterday, today and forever. His love never changes, but our hearts and lives might if we believed this.
Medicine from Ancient Writings:
"Let him come continually to this house of healing, let him hear at all times the laws of the Spirit; for when the devil sees the law of God written in the soul, and the heart become tablets to write it on, he will not approach anymore. (let) the King's writing be stamped by the Holy Ghost on a mind loving God, and bright with abundant grace."
St. John Chrysostom Homilies on St. John Homily III.1 NPNF14.10
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
THE KISS
"Why does the sun shine in the morning when I want to sleep?" Appropriate question for a teen at noon on the first day of the New Year. "Why does the sun shine at all?" Another teenage query. Really, can she be serious?
Then the question sinks into my soul. Why does the sun shine on the good and the bad? How can the sun go on shining when wars are being fought, people are dying and children suffering? I wonder. And the sun seeps further in. Some places are so dark in our lives: we want answers and we have none; we want a path, but we lose our way; we want health and we are sick; children and we have none or one to have and hold and love eludes us.
The kiss of the morning sun on that sleepy daughter is priceless; all her days the sun will wake her and wakes me and you just the same. We may not see it, but there is a strong Hand guiding us and a bright new day awaiting us whether we greet it with sleepy eyes, a weary soul, a ready smile- we choose to wake and lift our faces. Will I lift my eyes to my Creator in thanks and praise, allowing my heart to be lit by His light and love, or when my path is difficult will my heart walk in darkness?
Medicine from Holy Scripture:
"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5
Then the question sinks into my soul. Why does the sun shine on the good and the bad? How can the sun go on shining when wars are being fought, people are dying and children suffering? I wonder. And the sun seeps further in. Some places are so dark in our lives: we want answers and we have none; we want a path, but we lose our way; we want health and we are sick; children and we have none or one to have and hold and love eludes us.
The kiss of the morning sun on that sleepy daughter is priceless; all her days the sun will wake her and wakes me and you just the same. We may not see it, but there is a strong Hand guiding us and a bright new day awaiting us whether we greet it with sleepy eyes, a weary soul, a ready smile- we choose to wake and lift our faces. Will I lift my eyes to my Creator in thanks and praise, allowing my heart to be lit by His light and love, or when my path is difficult will my heart walk in darkness?
Medicine from Holy Scripture:
"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5
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