Incognito

We may ignore, but we can nowhere evade the presence of God. The world is crowded with Him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come awake. Still more, to remain awake.

-C.S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm

To go through the day with this in mind changes ones perspective. It makes me remember to open my eyes and pay attention. I have been trying to do more of that, anyway. You know, pay attention, smile and be friendly to strangers, and show everyone kindness. People stop me to ask for directions quite a bit, and I always oblige. I sometimes wonder if I just got them lost, though. If someone holds the door for me, I thank them and smile. Don't underestimate simple manners. Have I met God in some of these people? Have I ignored God? The latter question is the one that cuts deep when I realize that I know I have.

Most days during my lunch break I take a walk down to the lake and sit and read, then walk back. Getting out and about has presented me many opportunities to get fresh air, get to walk, and possibly help someone with something simple. Like information about downtown, or directions.  What a thought to imagine God walking down by the lake, too. Is He the homeless person sitting on a bench with bags of possessions? Or the visitor who clearly looks like he's from the north? Or the business person walking around talking on his cell phone?

Unveiled

Unseen it sits on a gentle sea

Waiting, in patience, for me

Unclear of direction, I'm rather slow

And I'm guarding my heart as I go

Untold is the story I enter into

Where my soul seeks what is true

Unknown, I drift along the endless blue

Quietly desperate to be known by You

Unfold Your plans and map me a line

Where my life and gifts beautifully combine

Unveiled will everything be in due time

Thankfully, in Your time, not mine.

More?

Want more to read? Of course you do.

Visit Catapult Magazine for the newest issue: Living on Less

Look for my new article!

Here is the link:
https://www.catapultmagazine.com/

Our Giving Tree

Each Wednesday night I volunteer at my church's little store called "Our Giving Tree." It is a unique bookstore/gift shop that, in addition to books, sells fair-trade products handmade around the world. All the profits go to missions.

This Wednesday, we kept busy in the store sorting cards, talking to customers, and sneaking a plate of food from the new members class in the room next door (we were so hungry and it all smelled so good). Other people stopped by just to say hi. I get to meet and talk to such a myriad of people, it's really quite fun. You never know who is going to stop in, or what they might be looking for. And there's always going to be interesting subjects discussed.

I left "Our Giving Tree" last night amidst the strange, warm January air.  I walked outside and saw the moon was a slim crescent, shaped like a bowl, about to catch Venus, which was bright and clear.

The beauty of life from many angles. It is all around. In the church gift shop, above us in the night sky, and many places we overlook as we hurry through our week.

Wake Up, Oh Sleeper

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.

-Romans 13.11

The Gospels tell us of it. The Disciples all thought that Jesus would return and the world end in their lifetime, so their sense of urgency is obvious through their talks. They preached to the people to be ready, to be prepared, to not waste time in drunkenness and stupidity. Most people don't want to think about the inevitable. It's like avoiding going to the dentist when you sense something is wrong. Sooner or later you're just going to have to believe that the work you do to try to keep your teeth healthy is not enough. The dentist needs to handle it for you. The work we try to do in our lives is not enough to maintain a healthy soul. God needs to handle it for you.

But the point is to let God handle that for you now, as the time will come like a thief in the night, and nobody will know when that will be. so we are to stay awake, alert, and prepare ourselves by following Jesus, reading Scripture, and living the Word.

Live the Questions

You are so young, so before all beginning, and I want to beg you, as much as I can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answers.  

-Rainer Maria Rilke

Rise Up and Build

The Town Walls of York, England

"Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes."
Nehemiah 4.14

Nehemiah's dream was to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. The city had fallen and many of the citizens were taken captive. Whenever you have set out to fulfill your dream, do you ever come across opposition? So did Nehemiah.

Now when Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he was angry and greatly enraged, and he jeered at the Jews. And he said in the presence of his brothers and of the army of Samaria, "What are these feeble Jews doing?... (Nehemiah 4.1-2)

There will always be plenty of naysayers and people who try to get in your way. But don't lose hope and don't give up when you fail the first time, the second time, or the thirtieth time. That is a hard thing to do. I know. When I remember the good that I can do through the gifts God has given me, I know good will come out of it. I know God will lead me in the right direction if I keep going, even through failure and discouragement.

People can jeer. They can think that I won't succeed, but my dream isn't there for nothing. It has purpose. It's part of God's plan for me. He is directing my path with these dreams I have in my heart.

I look ahead with joy at the thought that God is actively getting the path readied for me. The same is being done for you. He is setting up the people and the situations so that it all rolls out in His time. And those things in your way won't even matter. Lord, please help me follow only Your path. Keep my focus on You.

You Didn't Know You Were a Poet

The light of poetry us bit only a direct but also a reflected light, that while it shows us the object, throws a sparkling radiance on all around it.

-William Hazlitt

Poetry is the language of the imagination.

Poetry is not just letters written on a page with rhyming words and short verses. There are so many different ways of composing poetry. I have read song lyrics that are absolutely beautiful poetry. Unexpectedly deep and thoughtful. And I am drawn in.

Every once in a while, I catch my friends or family, who don't really have an interest in poetry, describing something meaningful to them with such lyrical expression, they don't even realize how poetical they are being. I love noticing those moments, and pointing it out. I am amazed by the spoken poetry, impromptu style.

In nature, poetry is all around. Look at the morning rise, the glimmer of dew, the intricate patterns of creatures, the perfection of a flower, the fog nestled in the valley, the monarch butterfly dancing in the breeze. Smell the opening flowers in the morning, the scent after rain, the fresh dirt. And hear the owl talk to you in the evening, the rustle of grass, or the slush of fresh snow.

We are all poets if we tap into our imagination and pay attention to that which we see, hear, feel, and smell. You may not write down your words, but the poem expands through you as you observe and appreciate.

Birthday of my Life

Raise me a dais of silk and down;
Hang it with vair and purple dies;

Carve it in doves and pomegranates,

And peacocks with a hundred eyes;

Work it in gold and silver grapes,

In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys;

Because the birthday of my life

Is come, my love is come to me.

-Christina Rossetti (1857)

Here Goes...

A man's opinion on tram cars matter; his opinion on Botticelli matters; his opinion on all things does not matter. He may turn over and explore a million objects, but he must not find that strange object, the universe; for if he does he will have a religion, and be lost. Everything matters- except everything.
-G.K. Chesterton, Heretics





Jesus says-
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life.
-John 5.39-40

It's like living a lukewarm life. The most dangerous kind- where we get comfortable in ourselves and don't have the desire to make any real decisions. Or real moves. No passion. Won't stand up for something.

With an attitude of 'just do what makes you happy' the loss of any real decision runs deeper than the nonchalant demeanor shows. That attitude is simply avoiding looking into the depths of the soul and finding a hole that is needing to be filled by God.

It is in the passions and taking chances with the gifts we are given that we learn more deeply about ourselves and how to love others. Through many learning processes (including failures) we come away grown in wisdom and hopefully, love.

Here goes nothing
Here goes everything
Gotta reach for something
Or you'll fall for anything
Take a breath, take a step
What comes next, God only knows
-Bebo Norman

Listen to the song, here.