Do you remember how when we were children we would watch clouds with an intense interest and imagination? We would rest on our backs on the cool grass on a warm summer day and examined God’s blue pallet. “Look, there is a giraffe.”“Over there, a speeding car.”“And if I squeeze my eyes till they are almost close, I think I see a marshmallow being stretched apart by two gorillas.”Meteorologists tell us that every cloud contains a weather message. God sculpts all types of clouds as messengers of hope from Him to help us weather the storms in life.I love looking up each day and seeking what God is telling me in his heaven. You see, I am a cloud chaser.· Cloud chasing involves looking up. This physical act of raising the chin lifts the spirit and provides a momentary pause by focusing on new possibilities instead of our problems.· Cloud chasing invites us to look inward and to indentify what is churning within our hearts. · Cloud chasing reminds us to look beyond our … [Read more...]
My Utmost Prayer
Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet. Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. This fun meme has now progressed to the letter U and that leads me to think about the word:UTMOSTUtmost is not a word I have thought about much. Utmost does not rank high on my vocabulary list.Daily I read Oswald Chambers well known devotional, My Utmost of His Highest. I study this classic each year and continue to find gems I never noticed before or words that warm my heart in new ways.Chambers coined the phrase, “My Utmost for His Highest” and used it in his writings and talks so much, when his wife compiled his thoughts into daily devotionals; she knew it had to be the title.Utmost? What is my utmost? Why is this word calling … [Read more...]
God’s Spirit is Right Alongside – Lectio Divina
The moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. Romans 8: 26-28 (The Message)God's Spirit is right alongsideCome Holy Spirit. Come.You are our Helper. Our Companion. Our Light in our darkest moments.You are our Guide. Our Protector. The barely Noticeable Nudge on our shoulders and Quiet Whisper in our heart.You are the Soothing Breeze refreshing our soul. And You stay right alongside us always helping us along.When I am tired – You lift me up.When I don’t know how to pray – You pray for me.When I can’t even find the words – You connect me to the Word.When only my tears flow and … [Read more...]
God’s Delight – Quote of the Week
God made the world for the delight of human beings-- if we could see His goodness everywhere, His concern for us, His awareness of our needs: the phone call we've waited for, the ride we are offered, the letter in the mail, just the little things He does for us throughout the day. As we remember and notice His love for us, we just begin to fall in love with Him because He is so busy with us -- you just can't resist Him. I believe there's no such thing as luck in life, it's God's love, it's His." — Mother Teresa (A Simple Path: Mother Teresa) … [Read more...]
Five Lessons about Discernment
Each January I record in my journal a list of spiritual hopes, dreams and goals for the upcoming year. Then throughout the year I try to reread this entry and reflect on what is holding true, what is growing deeper within me, and what died on the vine and disappeared.Many times ideas on the list come from my ego driven self-centeredness. On January 1 this year I actually read a quote from Tozer that echoed this confession: “What a pity when we plan only the things we can do by ourselves.”So true. I wrote this quote in my journal. But it is the two next entries that have driven my year and shaped my plans.Right after I read and recorded that quote, I wrote “Lord I want to be open to God-sized dreams and impossibilities this year.” (Watch what you pray for, right?)Then I wrote one word. A word that dripped from my pen uninvited by my ego. A word that has continued to surprised me this year and has pursued me by popping up in unexpected places.Discernment.I pause this May morning and … [Read more...]
A Powerful Response to the Question: How Are You?
Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet. Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. This fun meme has now progressed to the letter T. The letter T starts my answer to the question:How Are You?We all do it. We pass each other with the causal, not expecting an honest answer, to the question of “How are you?”I read recently some blog conversations challenging us to answer honestly. To stop and really listen. I wonder how many of us answer exactly how we feel. Do we in truth want to slow down and hear someone’s reply?Do we say?:To be honest, I am not feeling well. Or I feel alone and abandoned today and cried myself to sleep last night. Or even I can’t believe you are asking me when I know you really don’t care or … [Read more...]
All I Have is Yours, Lord – Lectio Divina
I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. John 17: 9-10 (NIV) All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. Lord I absorb Your words from this week’s Gospel. I am awed with Your prayer for Your disciples…for us… for me.What a prayer of loving surrender: All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. May this also be my prayer from deep within me: All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. All I cling to within my soul.Everything my heart cherishes.My treasures I think I must need. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. I love the intimacy of this prayer, Lord.Its words draw me near to Your welcoming arms.My heart beats in unison with Yours as I breath this prayer.All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. All I have is yours, Lord. … [Read more...]
Patience – Quote of the Week
"Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something.Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are.When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else.Let’s be patient and trust that the treasure we look for is hidden in the ground on which we stand."- Henri Nouwen … [Read more...]