Reflection

Nature as prayer……

In an interview with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Dan Rather asked her, “What do you say to
God when you pray?” She thoughtfully said, “I listen.” Flustered, he tried again. “Well, then what does God say?” Mother Teresa smiled…….”He listens.”

Yesterday I felt like the whole day was a prayer. God spoke through His creation once again……

……….and I listened. Nature speaks more clearly of God than anything else I can think of. If we only open our eyes and ears and let Him speak through it. So I give you some photos from yesterday’s trip north to a place I used to live.

The Psalmist wisely says……

“The Heavens are telling of the glory of God; and their expanse is declaring the works of His hands. Day to day pours forth speech…..

And night to night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech, nor are there words; where their voice is not heard.

Indeed, God has touched every last corner of the earth with His nature, and only the coldest heart is untouched by it…..

Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world…..

In them He has placed a tent for the sun.

It’s rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit to the other end of the world.

Down to the smallest detail……..God has brushed our earth with His divine fingerprints. It is up to us to find His mark…..it is everywhere!
My soul exults. I breathe a prayer of thanksgiving once again for His marvelous works.

All pictures taken in and around Payson, Arizona and Tonto Natural Bridges State Park

And it was very good.

Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

noun /ˈnərCHər/ 
1.The process of caring for and encouraging the growth or development of someone or something
– the nurture of ethics and integrity

verb /ˈnərCHər/ 
1.Care for and encourage the growth or development of

I was thinking about the word and process of nuturing this morning when I went out to collect the daily offering of okra from the garden. What is it that makes this one little task so satisfying? Because I was there in the beginning. I saw the little seeds when they came in the mail. The little seedlings even had to be taken on a vacation when they first came up. They were coddled, protected, nutured…..and even so some didn’t make it. That made me sad…..I had invested in them.

They had attached themselves to me in a way, or I had attached myself to them.

The ones that did make it were tenderly transferred to the ground that stood ready to recieve…….all spring and part of the summer we waited……watered……spoke encouraging words to.

Oh, the excitement when they began to grow taller and straighter……almost as if to defy the odds, their small heads reaching for the sun……soon they were strong enough to withstand the elements of wind and the pounding summer rain.

The whole process gave me a sensitivity for those who depend on their crops for survival. Those who look to the skies to study their signs and signals; who read the Farmer’s Almanac and study the weather report. The heartbreak of the ruined crops. I was upset over a few little plants, but imagine someone watching their livelihood dry up?

Now as tall as me, they have been producing like crazy for the past 3 months. Sometimes I just go out there and sit. I swear you can almost watch them grow. These plants have been one of the most satisfying joys of this long hot summer.

In the beginning God created………and then He nurtured. I am so glad He didn’t stop at the creating part. I am so glad He didn’t create us and back away.

Well, our work here is done……hope they make it.
He knew it wouldn’t work with plants or people.

And I am so glad.

When resentments cloud our prayers

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth cannot sustain itself forever, ultimately both parties end up blind and toothless.” Gandhi

Yesterday morning prayer time was wonderful……I went outside and instead of being greeted with stifling heat I was met with a blessedly cool 75 degrees, something that is a distant memory between the months of May through early September here. And something else I have longed for, prayers accompanied by a little sprinkling of raindrops on the roof.

Afterwards, I went to look for my patriotic flag to hang for September 11 and remembered that it was a bit weather worn and I had thrown it out. I decided I needed to fly a real flag, so off I went to Walmart at 6:30 in the morning. Not many people there then. I drove home with my precious commodity and proudly hung it out…..red white and blue……glory against the backdrop of Arizona sky.

Today’s prayer didn’t go quite so well. It was clouded by a resentful thought that I could not dislodge. It came about halfway through prayer and stuck there…..

Instead of praying about it, as I should have done, I decided to keep it for awhile…..mull it over. It started me asking questions. Those irritating whys…..Forgiveness is good and right and Godly……..yet so difficult when you have to live it out day in and day out.

How do you forgive someone when they have hurt someone you love?

When you are the caretaker for someone who has never cared for you, never treated you well, wounded you emotionally?

When you don’t have to live with them it’s easy. Out of sight, out of mind. But what if they are never out of sight? What then? It’s like reopening old wounds every day.

Living out the Christian faith is easy when it’s never tested. Our faith doesn’t grow if it’s not challenged. That’s when we grow closer to Him. When we’re tested. The challenge is proof that He loves us.

It’s our love for God that motivates us to leave behind those things in us that are not Godly. Those things in me He wants me to change. The Holy Spirit does not deserve to live in a body and mind steeped in resentment….fear….anger. It helps to remember the sacrifice.

The terrible price that was paid for us. The ultimate price.  “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6: 19, 20

As I sat in a beautiful church service yesterday, remembering the sacrifice of all those people running into those burning buildings, and saw all the names of those who died streaming down the wall…….my eyes streamed too. Four candles lit, one for each plane down.

They paid with their lives for the evil someone else did. He paid with His life, for what He didn’t do.

“For I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Could it be that sometimes God’s blessing comes from those who have been our biggest challenge in life? Could it be that He is heaping treasure in Heaven for us through this very person, these very circumstances that are the source of so much pain?

Is the very act of forgiveness the thing that will bring about the salvation for us all?

This one thing I know to be true…….God is building something eternal in us right here and now. It is something so big and so great we can scarcely imagine it. Everything we do with His help and by His power changes us forever.

Thankfulness wells up again, and again as I remember this…….

Remembering

September 11, 2001 was my first what I call, “Where were you moment” I thought it fitting to quote from a piece of Gordon MacDonald’s journal. He was a Pastor who volunteered as a chaplain for the Salvation Army as soon as the events unfolded that day. Here is what he wrote…..
“And more than once I asked myself–as everyone asks–is God here? And I decided that He is closer to this place than any other place I’ve ever visited. The strange irony is that, amidst this absolute catastrophe of unspeakable proportions, there is a beauty in the way human beings are acting that defies the imagination. Everyone–underscore, everyone–is every else’s brother or sister. There are no strangers among the thousands at the work site. Everyone talks; everyone cooperates; everyone does the next thing that has to be done. No job is too small, too humble, or, on the other hands, too large. Tears ran freely, affection was exchanged openly, exhaustion was defied. We all stopped caring about ourselves. The words “it’s not about me” were never more true.”
No church service, no sanctuary, no religiously inspiring service has spoken so deeply into my soul and witnessed to the presence of God as those hours last night at the crash site.
In all my years of Christian ministry, I never felt more alive that I felt last night. The only other time I can remember a similar feeling was the week that Gail and I (his wife) worked on a Habitat for Humanity project in Hungary. As much as I love preaching the Bible and all the other things that I have been privileged to do over the years, being on that street, giving cold water to workmen, praying and weeping with them, listening to their stories was the closest I have ever felt to God. Even though it sounds melodramatic; I kept finding myself saying, “This is the place where Jesus most wants to be.”
George MacDonald, volunteer Chaplain for the Salvation Army on 9/11/2001

Saturday Wonderings

If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy Spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference. A.W. Tozer

I sometimes wonder how much of what we do in the church today is just stuff. I think a lot of what goes on once we leave the building is church. The conversations we have or don’t have. They way we live within the walls of our own homes. At work. I guess you could say I am preaching a sermon to myself today.

Sometimes I ask myself why the person I see in my mind, the one I want to be,  is so much different than the living breathing version of me.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if all the churches emptied out and went out into the streets on Sunday mornings like a big flash mob of love.

I wonder.

“The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers used to meet together in Solomon’s Colonnade. No one else dared join them, even though they were highly regarded by the people. Nevertheless, more and more men and women believed in the Lord and were added to their number. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and mats so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by. Crowds gathered also from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those tormented by impure spirits, and all of them were healed.”

Simply Thankful

“And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.” Colossians 3:15 

This little dove doesn’t have to try to be a dove, she just is. She sat there looking at me as I rounded the corner one morning, just being herself, doing what doves do. I think she can teach me a lesson on just being. Being who God made me and resting in the Holy Spirit. With Christ reigning in my heart I don’t have to work at getting peace, I already have it in Christ. I need to stop working at it and rest in who He is.


There are so many things trying to rule over our hearts these days, things that threaten that peace……but when I close my eyes and know, really know, that Christ is ruling my heart, I feel myself calm, then my heart starts to beat with His. I am seeing turbulent waters grow calm. I think of how He smoothed out the waves that early morning in the boat…..I hear Him say….”Peace, be still……” to the waves and to my heart.

One of the best ways to feel at peace and to honor Him is by giving thanks. When I give Him my gratitude, I acknowledge where the blessings come from. So today I offer up my list of little things, which are really not so little at all.

I have almost made it through the last of my 12 hour shifts this week feeling under the weather. That was my goal, to finish out the week. I have four days off to look forward to. I had a good night’s sleep and that makes the day go much better. I know I will get better, and there are many who won’t. I have food, and I have free fruit and drinks all day here at work. All these little blessings are what some would give anything to be able to give to their children.

I know God appreciates it when we stop and realize how rich we really are.

I think of the conversations I have had in the past two weeks, some with family and some with friends who are going through very hard things. One thing stands out. One very important common denominator.

In spite of everything, they hold fast to their gratitude. They are thankful because they know that with God they have it all, but without Him they have nothing.

The Human Condition

I was swept along by a terrible dust storm last night after fighting through my 12 hour shift with a head cold. I was literally running down the hall trying to make it to the bathroom to the kleenex box by days end. Then, I had to go back in after I got all the way out to my car because I forgot something in the fridge at work. Part of dinner, actually. The picture above is one that was posted all across the country after our “big” storm on July 5th. I found it on a Google search, and it turns out this one came from “The Ecuador Times,” of all places!

Last nights storm wasn’t nearly as bad since I did have visibility on the freeway, but you have to be aware of debris hitting you. Birds were trying to fly and being carried off course….and when I was almost home I noticed a dust cloud, we call them “dirt devils” touching down on the freeway, right in my path. I watched the other cars (Yes, I realize this is faulty logic) as they cautiously drove through, and so I figured it was safe enough for my little bug, which holds the road like a tank. I gripped the wheel, all the while visualising my bug and me being sucked up into the vortex like Dorothy.

Once on the other side of that, the rain started along with the wind……along with a healthy amount of lightning striking all around. Meanwhile, I had used the last of my Kleenex and was resorting to my sleeve to catch drips….Ughhhh!

I looked to my left off the freeway and noticed smoke. I followed it down to ground level and it led to flames which were shooting through the roof of a house! I could see them even from the freeway. I assume it was started by the lightning. I could see the lights of Emergency vehicles already on the scene. I said a silent prayer, hoping that all had gotten out safely.



I was starting to feel like I was driving home in the middle of a disaster movie!

I thought of it all, the little and big things we go through in a day and how much of it would really matter if someone told me I was terminally ill. I also thought that I would probably treat the people in my life better if I were terminal. See things a bit differently.

So many times I feel like a kid trying to work up tears when I commune with God and tell Him I’m sorry for mistreating one of His people. I want to be so sorry that it motivates me to change…..Sackcloth and ashes kind of sorry. The kind that leads to repentance and doesn’t ring hollow.
This is the human condition. The thing we all have in common. And the things that we have in common, also have the power to bring us closer together.
Help me Lord, to treat my friends, my family, myself better. To treat my friends like treasure instead of trash, knowing that each one you brought into my life, you brought there for a reason. Help me to love more. Turn my heart of stone into one of flesh. Help me to treat others as better than myself and to not be afraid to be honest. To myself, and others and You. And help me to remember that we are all weathering storms of some kind, help me to be sensitive to that and keep my heart ready to listen. Amen

Hide and Seek

“God takes everyone he loves through a desert. It is his cure for our wandering hearts, restlessly searching for a new Eden… The best gift of the desert is God’s presence… The protective love of the Shepherd gives me courage to face the interior journey.” — Paul E. Miller (A Praying Life)

I almost missed these little guys as I walked by…….Sometimes it is hard to find the beauty in a day, sometimes there is turbulence in the soul that distracts us from it. But it is there all the time.
 
This morning the sunrise made the clouds blush a wonderful pink…….God was telling me, look what I did for you! At every turn, He does something stunning in nature and it never stops. An ever changing piece of His artwork.
 
Life and noise try to compete for it, but we must not let it get the best of us.
 
That’s all I got today. Getting ready for another trip to California to visit the family.
 
Camera ready!
 
Peace and Blessings for a wonderful weekend opening your eyes to what God shows you……
 

pics taken with iphone on a walk in the desert this spring

The Accessible God

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

Just imagine, this is what God says about us. So today, practice saying this to yourself:

“I am God’s special possession”

Now repeat……

and again.

There are a vast number of people on this planet that don’t have a clue that this is even possible. That the God of the Universe, who set the moon and the stars in the sky with a word, who keeps it all going….

keeps them going……wants so much for them to turn in His direction, just to open their heart to Him, so He can give them an inheritance that is beyond their wildest imagination. There are so many obstacles thrown in the path of people to prevent this.

Warped concepts of who God is and isn’t.

Horrible treatment by people that were supposed to love them, cherish them, make them feel safe. Things they see wrong with the Church.

Jesus came so that we could approach God without reservation. Without fear. He walked in our dust. He wasn’t afraid to come down to our dirty planet….To sweat, get tired, deal with the masses…..be God with us.

Jesus removed our roadblocks. He is the accessible God who draws us to the Father. Holds us all together with His Spirit. Let yourself believe that He wants you today.

And say it again with me:

“I am God’s special possession.” Feels good, doesn’t it?

Eden Restored

“Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our heart is restless until it finds it’s rest in Thee.” St. Augustine
Everything the world is seeking so desperately can be found in the person of Jesus. Finding Him is like finding our forever home……
Drinking from the river of life is possible right here and now. I can stand on it’s shore, cup my hand under the crystalline waters and drink deep. Because of Him and what He made possible.
He is my quiet country lane I seek when I want peace…..my cool breeze in the sweltering heat of a desert summer. My bridge to Eden……My everything I have ever longed for, every desire of my deepest longing, even the ones I don’t know about, is satisfied in Him and through Him.
But without Him I am never satisfied.
I could ache like I do, for the pines or for the ocean swells and go to that quiet place, a closet even, and find that I have come out just as refreshed as if I had just spent time watching the waves upon the shore or hearing the wind making the pines sigh.
It is part of my oldest memory, this earth. Part of me and I cannot ever separate myself from it, nor do I want to, for He grew me out of it, this soil, this earth, and to it I will return one day.
Until such time as I reach that Eternal shore where will meet me……Restored.
 He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears
from all faces;
he will remove his people’s disgrace
from all the earth.
The LORD has spoken.

 In that day they will say,
“Surely this is our God;
we trusted in him, and he saved us.
This is the LORD, we trusted in him;
let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.”
Isaiah 25:8,9