numb

media rush
news floods fresh
streaming video
words, images
instant graphics
and prayer requests
how many wounded?
fatalties?
children lost
or broken?
I care
or want to care
but I am muffled
a numbness
settling around me
not ice, not fire
no, instead the absence of
like sleep, thick and heavy
here, it is safe

yet I fear the waking

I know all the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold. I wish that you were one or the other! But since you are like lukewarm water, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth! Revelation 3:15-16 NLT

Yes, pray for the hurting, the lost and the broken in Oklahoma, and feel

Linking up at the pub today

 

Abundance

We stayed up late last night, talking and laughing with friends in the warmth of our own living room.  We talked about today, about yesterdays and about what we think the future has waiting for us.

This morning I stayed snuggled under the quilt longer than usual, attempting to recover lost sleep.    The extra time was ripe with dreams.

Dreams of abundance.

Not an abundance of things, or money or any other sort of material wealth.  What was being stretched out before me was an abundance of opportunities.  Each time I would being work on a project someone would come along and offer something else that sounded interesting, fun or challenging.

I was asked, again and again, what I really wanted to do with my time.  My answer was consistent.

I want to write and prepare for whatever long term mission work God sets before us.

Dreams exposing my heart.  Dreams revealing the heart of God.

Watch out sings my spirit.  Doors are going to start opening like crazy!

This is what the Lord, ·who saves you [your Redeemer], the Holy One of Israel, says: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you ·to do what is good [what is best; or how to succeed], who leads you in the way you should go. Isaiah 48:17 Expanded Bible

  
 

Thirsty soul

As the deer pants for streams of water, 

so my soul pants for you, my God.

 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. 

When can I go and meet with God? 

Psalm 42:1-2 NIV

 

singing with Deidra and the Sunday choir

 

Breathe to My rhythm

We need never shout across the spaces to an absent God. 

He is nearer than our own soul, 

closer than our most secret thoughts.  

A. W. Tozer

He knows what I'm thinking before I utter a single word.  He knows my struggles and my fears.  His response this morning, in the quiet of the dawning day:

You still need to learn to breathe to the rhythm of My timing, as irregular as it may feel to your flesh.

There will be times you feel like you can not keep up, as if there is not enough air to fill your lungs.  Lean into Me.  I Am what you need.

Other times you will feel that is you remain still one more moment you will burst.  Again I say, lean, press hard, allow Me to keep you in the place I have set you.

My plans.  My time.  My purposes.

It is all faith.  All trust.


in the quiet with Sandy

and abiding with Cheryl

 

Pleasantly disturbed, again...

For some reason it feels like Friday.  I have been thinking Friday all morning.  It is, however, Thursday, and though my friend Duane stopped his weekly link-up long ago, I am feeling pleasantly disturbed.  So here, in no reasonable order are random thoughts fluttering through my head today.

Wood ticks.  While I am happy to report I have not noticed a singe mosquito yet this year, wood ticks have made their presence known. Just thinking of them makes the crawly feelings begin and I find myself scratching, swatting, checking and rechecking every inch of myself for invaders before they have a chance to take a bite and burrow in.

Rick was out taking pictures of a unusual cloudy sky the other night and couldn't resist snapping a few shots of Faith.  I was thrilled that her beautiful blue eyes were visible without the typical camera red-eye glare.

But what's that at the top corner of her eye?  I didn't recall Faith having a beauty mark.  She doesn't!  Upon closer examination, the spot was indeed a wood tick getting ready to grab hold. Here come those creepy sensations again....  I know that God has a reason for all things.  I'd be quite willing to listen to His explanation for creating these noxious pests.

Our garden tractor needs repairs but the grass is not willing to wait. So this morning, instead of my usual cycling or video aerobics workout I walked in circles with the power push mower.  Around and around and around, longing for the 54" cut of the tractor but not able to imagine how one could push such a thing.  I trod and pushed until I ran out of gas, using quads and hamstrings, triceps and pectoral muscles.  I could have used the time to sing, or pray or ponder a solution to world hunger, but instead I seem to have spent the ninety minutes numb brained, thinking of nothing at all.  Perhaps the synapses needed the rest.

Every day there has been the scent of smoking stubble drifting by as farmers burn their fields before cultivating and planting.  This is an effective and natural technique that never fails to frighten me.  No matter how safe they try to be, man can not control the changing directions of the wind and fire has a life of its own. Disturbing indeed, but the smoke and ash in the air help create stunning sunsets.

Duane Scott who first dreamed up Pleasantly Disturbed Thursdays is graduating from nursing school.  I applaud his efforts and his ability to continue writing, loving, and giving God glory through his time of studying.  He has even redirected some of his excess creativity into painting.  Stop by a give him a shout at his site Scribing The Journey.  You might want to mention squirrels, one of his disturbing pleasures.

This is not a squirrel.  If you thought it was, you might have already started celebrating Thursday a bit too early.
 

Enter into ice

As always, Spring has returned to the Canadian prairies. Brown and grey are quickly being replaced with all the shades of green that only the Master Creator can imagine.  The breeze stirs hearts towards warm.  Thoughts turn to planting, bright days and long evenings.

Yet all is not well.  The heat combined with strong winds have caused havoc at the lake, freeing ice to crash into the shore with unforgiving force.  Cottages and houses were buried or splintered like toothpicks.  All this the announcement of the new season.

At another beach it was easy to imagine we were in the Arctic, as we snapped picture after picture, the cold from the ice clashing against the warmth of the sun.

The natural appears unnatural

there seems to be a way to enter

crawl deep into the ice

as if there might be refuge there

a peace in confronting the heart of the cold

and then, the melting

walking with Emily and the broken redeemed

 

Dream of a door

image found at http://www.thechinabeat.org/?p=2520

In a dream this morning

my attention was caught

by an old stone building

the solid gray wall, empty

but for one closed door

high, second story

without steps

I stared, puzzled

and sensed an inner voice

there are some doors not ready to be opened yet

The image lingered, and I pondered this with the Lord.

My spirit resonates with His reply

what you saw is true, true indeed

but remember, I can create stairs at any time

But I’ll take the hand of those who don’t know the way, who can’t see where they’re going. 

I’ll be a personal guide to them, directing them through unknown country. 

I’ll be right there to show them what roads to take, make sure they don’t fall into the ditch. 

These are the things I’ll be doing for them—sticking with them, not leaving them for a minute. Isaiah 42:16 The Message