Ambition? Oh, I know that slave driver............

I know ambition alright. 

She calls my name. She tells me I'm not enough yet. Maybe I will never be enough.
She blurs my perspective so that I can't see the goodness right in front of me.
She tells me that I must try harder, work longer, stop slacking off, do better and go farther than
I am right now.

But then these words--

1 Thessalonians 4:11 NIV

New International Version

"Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you..........."

 

What?

I don't know this ambition.
It sounds so much more like my Savior.
The One who calls me to smallness, stillness to peace and life.
The One who whispers, "You are enough in me because I am enough in you."
The One who stops me from striving, who gives me permission to slow down, who tells me my worth is already won forever.
Yes, this is the ambition I want to live with, to live for.
A quiet life...especially on the inside.
Where all the demands and lies have been silenced.

And all that's left is ambitious, outrageous, scandalous
Love calling my name.

Thank you, Lord!!

Wake Up... We are not Alone.

There is no greater waste of one's time than worrying over what someone else may or may not feel, think or say about you. *

We Are Not Alone!!

 

No natural need can exist without that which has been created to directly answer it. For instance, a creature couldn't thirst for water if water didn't preexist its need to drink. This feeling of attraction that we have -- whether to take a drink of water or connect with the world above us -- is proof of the existence of two parties. First, is the part of us that feels this draw, and then there is by necessity something acting upon us to create the longing itself. As paradoxical as it may seem, if we are moved to seek the Divine, it's because the Divine is calling us!

Let's pause here to see how this celestial need expresses itself through some simple examples that are common to all of us: Where does our longing for someone to love originate? Is it not with the awakening of an internal force urging us to explore and experience the deepest parts of ourselves? When we say -- or feel toward another -- "You complete me," what we're really saying is something like "Through you I've realized parts of myself I wouldn't have known even existed; you have helped introduce me to who I really am."

Perhaps we've a yearning to learn how to paint, write poetry, climb a mountain, or become a chef. We are drawn to that pursuit -- whatever its nature -- for much the same reason we search for a lover. Something in us knows that it is only through this relationship that we will be introduced to -- awakened to -- our own higher possibilities.

C. S. Lewis, the great author, essayist, and Christian apologist, supports this important finding:

All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it -- tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if IT should really become manifest --if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself -- you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, "Here at last is the thing I was made for." We cannot tell each other about it. It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our spouse or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows spouse or friend or work. —The Problem of Pain

The need for whatever it may be that we're drawn to is the yet to be realized presence within us of that very thing to which we are drawn. This means that no matter how distant seems our guiding star, or how isolated we may feel in our journey towards its light, these higher truths we're learning would have us know otherwise; we are not alone....

* I am reading a uniquely captivating book just now.  Part of the above is excerpted from that book entitled  The Seeker, The Search, The Sacred: Findley 

John Keats' Eremite

Bright Starby John Keats

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—
Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night
And watching, with eternal lids apart,
Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite*,
The moving waters at their priestlike task
Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,
Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask
Of snow upon the mountains and the moors—
No— yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,
Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,
To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,
Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,
Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,
And so live ever— or else swoon to death.
*Eremite: a hermit, particularly a religious recluse who lives alone in the wilderness

Choose Something Like a Star

Some friends and I have been engaged in an online debate with an atheist. It’s not a debate really. We try to reason. He mostly rants. One of the points we’ve tried to make him see is that human beings need some external standard for things like morality, ethics, justice, love, even beauty.

So, I thought of a poem by Robert Frost that I memorized in High School. It expresses this human need. It was set to music and we performed it at the State Choral Competitions. I still sing it some days.  The poem made no sense to me when I learned it, but over the years I’ve discovered the wisdom for interpretation.

O star (the fairest one in sight)
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.

It is difficult to understand things that are high above us. Other things (like clouds) come between and interfere. Darkness is not a fit metaphor of this difficulty since Light shines in darkness.

Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone, repeat.
Say something! And it says, “I burn.”

Why does mystery turn into pride? It made no sense until I was reminded that “becomes” can also mean “makes attractive” as in, That color becomes you. So, the lack of understanding makes marvelous things more majestic.
The poet gets frustrated by the complete silence of the star. The silence is broken by two words which echo what Moses heard at the burning bush. Is that enough? The poet doesn’t think so.

But say with what degreeof heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.

My atheist friend is all about the scientific understanding of things. He thinks science demonstrates that we don’t need God. Robert Frost knows better. Even though science is helpful (“does tell something“), it cannot supply what we need (“strangely little aid“).

And steadfast as Keats’ Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.

“Keats’ Eremite” refers to a sonnet by the Romantic poet who wished he could remain in a moment of bliss with his lover. He wanted to remain constant and unchanging as a star he called “nature’s patient, sleepless eremite.” (An eremite is one who has left human society to focus on spiritual growth; a hermit.)
The poet has run out of questions, so now the star does the asking.

It asks of us a certain height,
so when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,

Ever been there? Criticized unjustly, or justly but without grace. Or lauded until it goes to your head. Humans almost always go too far!

We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

And be Staid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Keats' Eremite is a reference to am excerpt from a poem by John Keats. Keats wanted to take a blissful moment with his lover and store it way like a hermit hides from civilization, to make it last forever. Eremite is another word for hermit. So when Robert Frost says 'and steadfast as Keats' Eremite/ not even stooping from its sphere,' he's describing the star's constant place in the sky for us to focus on in difficult times.

 

How May We Allow Everything in Life to Work For Us?

Nothing in Real Life actually works against us... other than when our sleeping mind starts resisting its own imagined conclusions.

There is a The Hope and Promise of Timeless Ideas...

What if timeless ideas like the ones you are about to read were introduced to the whole world in such a way as to reveal their secret story? Could the light of these truths -- the hope and promise they hold about our own latent higher possibilities -- help liberate us from the host of fears that hold our consciousness hostage?

By the very thing you seek.
To know when to stop
To know when you can get no further
By your own action,
This is the right beginning!
—Lao Tzu (ca. 570-490 BCE, China)


It is only when everything, even love, fails that with a flash, man finds out how vain, how dream-like is this world. Then he catches a glimpse...of the beyond. It is only by giving up this world that the other comes; never through holding on to this one. —Vivekananda (1863-1902, India)


Most people, even though they don't know it, are asleep. They're born asleep, they live asleep, they marry in their sleep, they breed children in their sleep, they die in their sleep without ever waking up. They never understand the loveliness and the beauty of this thing that we call human existence. You know, all mystics -- Catholic, Christian, non-Christian, no matter what their theology, no matter what their religion -- are unanimous on one thing: that all is well, all is well. Though everything is a mess, all is well. Strange paradox, to be sure. But, tragically, most people never get to see that all is well because they are asleep. They are having a nightmare. —Anthony de Mello (1931-1987, India)


The only sane thing to do with the world is to let it struggle with its own problems. You can do this only when seeing clearly that the world prefers to struggle painfully with its problems, never really wanting solutions. —Vernon Howard (1918-1992, United States)


Insights such as these illuminate the skies of passing time, like stars on a moonless night. Yet, by their far-flung light, we don't just read the history of our possibilities, we are also made aware of a latent interior greatness that awaits us now. This means that regardless of when in time, or where on earth, one of these truths appears, its effect is always the same. By its deft touch, "the sleeper awakens" and the meaning of our life takes on a whole new magnitude.

Sometimes the Difference You Make is Hard to See

In the morning I type blessings, looking through the screen at the faces of people I love who live halfway across the country or even on the other side of the world.

And, sometimes, in the quiet moments I wonder if what I do really makes a difference.

“You can’t see it in person,” hisses the enemy, “You can’t touch it. How do you know it’s real?”

Then I think about how I should be doing something tangible–rocking a baby, handing out food, building a house. I feel a heart-hunger to know the results with my five senses.

I whisper this to Jesus one morning as sunlight spills in through the open window. I ask Him if I’ve gotten it all wrong–if I should be doing something else.

A verse pops into my heart like a present left on the front porch…
Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

I’ve always thought of those words in the context of believing in God.

But this morning it seemed the One Who Loves Us whispered that part of faith is also about believing that our obedience makes a difference–even when we can’t see the results.

Sure of what we hope for…that our words matter in the world, that hearts out there really are encouraged, that the flicker of a screen can bring light to a life again.

Certain of what we do not see…that that the bonds we make, the needs we meet, the prayers we lift up are as real as what’s right in front of us–that the great I am is everywhere and in all we do in His name.
I think then of a conversation I had with Ann many months ago about much the same thing. We tossed and turned thoughts around between us until at the end we nodded, smiled and said…
How can we say that the virtual doesn’t matter when the Spirit is virtual?

The Kingdom has always been about more than what we can sense. It’s more about what we know in our hearts–and about following faithfully the One who whispers to us there–believing that in all things He is working together for good.

Sometimes that good is something we can see, touch, taste and smell.

And sometimes it’s built of eternal things that we won’t know until heaven.

And in the center of that musing the little bells jungle...... 13 notes in repsonse to todays "Blessing Project"
Hearts warmed.  Tears shared.  Love exchanged. All as I was pondering. Obedient.

Keep the faith.

Do what you do, be who you are, walk in that sometimes blind, always beautiful obedience.

Yes, each of us really makes a difference.

The Right Doors Open

You try one door after another, yet no one responds to your résumé.
No university accepts your application. No doctor has a solution for your illness. No buyers look at your house.

Obstacles pack your path. Road, barricaded. Doorway, padlocked. Do you know the frustration of a blocked door?

God uses closed doors to advance his cause.

He closed the womb of a young Sarah so he could display his power to the elderly one.

He shut the palace door on Moses the prince so he could open shackles through Moses the liberator.

He marched Daniel out of Jerusalem so he could use Daniel in Babylon.

And Jesus. Yes, even Jesus knew the challenge of a blocked door. When he requested a path that bypassed the cross, God said no. He said no to Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane so he could say yes to us at the gates of heaven.

It’s not that our plans are bad but that God’s plans are better.

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isa. 55:8–9 NLT)

Your blocked door doesn’t mean God doesn’t love you. Quite the opposite. It’s proof that he does.

In the stillness............... safety.

Peace first.  Passion second.


It’s a simple recipe for a fully successful life.  Still, few cook it up.


Relax.  Forgive yourself.  Trust where you stand in your life right now.  Trust the crinkle-eyed Magician who lives and rejoices within.


From a place of self-love, self-knowledge comes.  Wonder resides.  Direction emerges.  Passion spreads its wings.  Air currents align.


The relaxed know how to fly. 


Those who push to the front of the line, struggle to tear answers from their heads, count the seconds wasting from their lives, and blame their mothers, husbands, left wing leaders, muscle pain and lousy local economy-- do not light upon genius.  If you’re always irritated, you’re never blessed—especially if you’re angry at yourself.


Fear attracts fear.  Love attracts love.


And love doesn’t just muck around in striped flannel pajamas cherry picking channels.  Love starts listening to inspiration.  Love receives the frequencies of a higher intelligence.  Love stirs hearts and beats the jungle drums around it. Revolutions start.  The world is never the same again.


Peace of mind is so underrated in a world of grasping achievers.  Yet it’s a portal.


It’s not passive or numbing.  It’s a different brain chemistry.  And a new orbit.  New galaxies, guaranteed.  

Are you trying to push forward in something?


How would you feel about your situation if there was no urgency?


What if you didn’t feel guilty?


Relax for a second or a year.  What simple step emerges now…just for now?  


Peace first.  Passion second.

Revenge is an ugly substitute for justice.

[This message was preached on September 13, 2001--two days after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2011. It is republished in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of those attacks. An extended reflection on these events from the perspective of 2011 will follow.]

Preachers are expected to speak when no one else has any idea what to say. This is not an enviable position. Standing at the graveside, the dying bedside, the scene of the accident, the preacher is supposed to know what to say, when nothing seems right to say.
Sometimes, saying nothing is best. We can be too hasty to speak, too eager to explain, too superficial in our answer, or too arrogant in our presumption. At other times, silence would be mere cowardice and the abdication of calling and responsibility. To fail to speak in these moments is to deny one’s calling and to fail the supreme test of authentic ministry.

The Book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak” [Ecclesiastes 3:7b]. It is often hard to know the one from the other. In most cases, we should carefully speak and prayerfully answer and fearfully explain. This is one of those moments.

Thousands of preachers will stand in pulpits this Sunday and speak with trembling lips to congregations loaded with expectancy. It could hardly be otherwise. The pictures are replayed in our minds and on our television screens again and again and again. We are watching the unbelievable transformed into the undeniable.

Modern airliners filled with passengers fly through a beautiful sky right into two of the tallest buildings on earth. We watch transfixed, and watch over and over again. The human mind can take only so much reality at any one time. We soon saw images of a burning Pentagon building and then the unimaginable-two 110-story skyscrapers falling into the ground, reduced to a horrific mound of rubble and debris.
We knew that thousands of human beings were dying as we watched. We had seen persons jump from windows, preferring the quick death of a fall to the terror of the fire. And then we saw the collapsing towers, one by one, with disintegrating concrete, glass, and steel reduced to particles of dust and fragments of debris.

The symbolism was unavoidable. These two towers represented the might and energy of the American economy, sending a message to the world of our national power and influence. Like modern towers of Babel, they represented our ambition to build great towers that would touch the sky and defy gravity. Now, millions of pieces of paper floated through the sky like grotesque confetti.

The Pentagon is so powerful a symbol that the name needs no further explanation. The Pentagon can unleash the power of the world’s greatest military force. Now, the Pentagon sits like a wounded giant on the ground. The world’s last remaining superpower doesn’t look so powerful through a veil of smoke.
We know that the world will never be the same after this. We do not want to exaggerate, but exaggeration seems almost impossible. There are no words adequate to convey the horror, the grief, the outrage, or the sense of disbelief.

Oddly enough, at the very same time we cannot help talking. We are glued to our televisions and computer screens, afraid to miss what may come next. We are a nation of voyeurs watching a pornography of death and destruction. It hardly seems right to watch, and it hardly seems right not to watch.

This is a crucial test for the Christian church. We must measure our words carefully. We must think biblically and seek a proper perspective into which we can put all of this. This is not easy, but authentic ministry often comes down to saying what you know to be true when people are desperate to hear it and no one seems to know where else to look.

Look with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 13, starting at verse 1:
1 Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
2 And Jesus said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?
3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
4 “Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?
5 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
6 And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any.
7 “And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Behold, for three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’
8 “And he answered and said to him, ‘Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer;
9 and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’ ”
This is one of those hard passages of Scripture. Tragedy and theology intersect in the teaching of Jesus, and end up in a parable. The background events are genuinely tragic. The context is a call to repentance, national and individual. Most importantly, Jesus has just warned the people of the danger of missing His own messianic identity.

“When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?” [Luke 12:54b-56]

Now, in chapter 13, Jesus is presented with news of a tragedy-indeed an atrocity. Pontius Pilate has caused innocent Galileans to be killed apparently within the precincts of the Temple, and their blood was mixed with the blood of their sacrifices.

A more heinous crime in Israel could hardly be imagined. Murder is mixed with the desecration of the Temple. Jesus should be outraged, and undoubtedly He is, but He turns the issue on those who raise it. “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate?”

This must have been a hard question to answer. Evidently, those who were asked the question assumed that these victims had been allowed to die because they were more sinful. Or, perhaps more to the point, the living may have assumed that they were therefore more righteous than the dead.

Jesus then turns to another tragedy. A tower had fallen in Siloam, killing eighteen men. Were these victims also more sinful than others, particularly those who live in Jerusalem? “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

The Christian Gospel and the Problem of Evil
Every thoughtful person must deal with the problem of evil. Evil acts and tragic events come to us all in this vale of tears known as human life. The problem of evil and suffering is undoubtedly the greatest theological challenge we face.

Most persons face this issue only in a time of crisis. A senseless accident, a wasting disease, or an awful crime demands some explanation.

For the atheist, this is no great problem. Life is a cosmic accident, morality is an arbitrary game by which we order our lives, and meaning is non-existent. As Oxford University’s Professor Richard Dawkins explains, human life is nothing more than a way for selfish genes to multiply and reproduce. There is no meaning or dignity to humanity.

For the Christian Scientist, the material world and the experience of suffering and death are illusory. In other religions suffering is part of a great circle of life or recurring incarnations of spirit.
Some Christians simply explain suffering as the consequence of sins, known or unknown. Some suffering can be directly traced to sin. What we sow, so shall we reap, and multiple millions of persons can testify to this reality. Some persons suffer innocently by the sinful acts of others.

But Jesus rejects this explanation in the two cases here recounted. We should note that the problem of evil and suffering, the theological issue of theodicy, is customarily divided into evil of two kinds, moral and natural. Both are included in this passage. The murder of the Galileans is clearly moral evil, a premeditated crime-just like the terrorist acts in New York and Washington.

Natural evil comes without a moral agent. A tower falls, an earthquake shakes, a tornado destroys, a hurricane ravages, a spider bites, a disease debilitates and kills. The world is filled with wonders mixed with dangers. Gravity can save you or gravity can kill you. When a tower falls, it kills.
People all over the world are demanding an answer to this question. It comes only to those who claim that God is mighty and that God is good. How could a good God allow this to happen? How can a God of love allow killers to kill, terrorists to terrorize, and the wicked to escape without a trace?
No superficial answer will do. Our quandary is well known, and the atheists think they have our number. As a character in Archibald MacLeish’s play, J.B. asserts, “If God is God He is not good, if God is good He is not God; take the even, take the odd . . . .” As they see it, God can be good, or He can be powerful, but He cannot be both.

We will either take our stand with God’s self-revelation in the Bible, or we are left to invent a deity of our own imagination. The Bible quickly excludes two false understandings.
First, the Bible reveals that God is omnipotent and omniscient. These are unconditional and categorical attributes. The sovereignty of God is the bedrock affirmation of biblical theism. The Creator rules over all creation. Not even a sparrow falls without His knowledge. He knows the number of hairs upon our heads. God rules and reigns over all nations and principalities. Not one atom or molecule of the universe is outside His active rule.

The sovereignty of God was affirmed by King Nebuchadnezzar, who confessed that God “does according to His will in the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and no one can ward off His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’.” [Daniel 4:36] Process theologians have attempted to cut God’s power down to size, rendering the Creator as one power among others. The evangelical revisionists pushing open theism have attempted to cut God’s omniscience down to size, rendering Him as one mind among others.

Rabbi Harold Kushner argues that God is doing the best He can under the circumstances, but He lacks the power to either kill or cure. The openness theists argue that God is always ready with Plan B when Plan A fails. He is infinitely resourceful, they stress, just not really sovereign.
These are roads we dare not take, for the God of the Bible causes the rising and falling of nations and empires, and His rule is active and universal. Limited sovereignty is no sovereignty at all.
The second great error is to ascribe evil to God. But the Bible does not allow this argument. God is absolute righteousness, love, goodness, and justice. Most errors related to this issue occur because of our human tendency to impose an external standard-a human construction-of goodness upon God. But good does not so much define God as God defines good.

How then do we speak of God’s rule and reconcile this with the reality of evil? Between these two errors the Bible points us to the radical affirmation of God’s sovereignty as the ground of our salvation and the assurance of our own good. We cannot explain why God has allowed sin, but we understand that God’s glory is more perfectly demonstrated through the victory of Christ over sin. We cannot understand why God would allow sickness and suffering, but we must affirm that even these realities are rooted in sin and its cosmic effects.

How does God exercise His rule? Does He order all events by decree, or does He allow some evil acts by His mere permission? This much we know-we cannot speak of God’s decree in a way that would imply Him to be the author of evil, and we cannot fall back to speak of His mere permission, as if this allows a denial of His sovereignty and active will.

Our confession of faith states it rightly: “God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events; yet so as not in any way to be the author or approver of sin nor to destroy the free will and responsibility of intelligent creatures.”

God is God, and God is good. As Paul affirms for the church, God’s sovereignty is the ground of our hope, the assurance of God’s justice as the last word, and God’s loving rule in the very events of our lives: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.” [Romans 8:28]

We dare not speak on God’s behalf to explain why He allowed these particular acts of evil to happen at this time to these persons and in this manner. Yet, at the same time, we dare not be silent when we should testify to the God of righteousness and love and justice who rules over all in omnipotence. Humility requires that we affirm all that the Bible teaches, and go no further. There is much we do not understand. As Charles Spurgeon explained, when we cannot trace God’s hand, we must simply trust His heart.
The Reality of Evil and the Impossibility of Moral Relativism
Moral relativism is one of the hallmarks of the postmodern worldview, and it has become foundational to modern academic culture. As Allan Bloom recounted in The Closing of the American Mind, “There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.”

Professor Robert L. Simon of Hamilton College has updated Dr. Bloom’s observation:
Although groups denying the reality of the Holocaust have raised controversies on some college campuses, in more than 20 years of teaching college students, I have yet to meet even one student who has expressed doubts about whether the Holocaust actually happened. However, I have recently seen an increasing number of students who, although well-meaning, hold almost as troubling a view. They accept the reality of the Holocaust, but they believe themselves unable morally to condemn it, or indeed to make any moral judgments whatsoever. Such students typically comment that they themselves deplore the Holocaust and other great evils, but then they wind up by suspending moral judgment.

This collapse of moral judgment is not only a slander against the victims of the Holocaust, but also a denial of the entire moral order. This cowardly abandonment of moral judgment, the inevitable product of the postmodern worldview, collides with reality when we see evil acts in others and in ourselves. The Apostle Paul reminds us that this law is known to all. We are quite efficient at ignoring or denying this knowledge in everyday life, but the sight of airplanes deliberately turned into missiles and flown into skyscrapers brings this knowledge into stark and undeniable sight.

We dare not lack the moral courage to call these acts what they are-murderous acts of mass terror. We dare not dignify the murderers by explaining their cause. No cause, however righteous, can justify such acts. And, no righteous cause could produce such acts.

President Bush rightly characterized these murders as “evil, despicable acts of terror.” We must call evil by its proper name and refuse to slander the victims by ascribing rationality to the terrorists’ cause. These murderers were driven by an irrational rage into diabolically rational plans for death and destruction.

Our Christian vocabulary is absolutely essential, and “sin” is an indispensable explanation. These acts of terror were not merely attacks upon individuals, or attacks upon America, or attacks upon civilization-these were attacks upon God’s dignity, God’s creatures, God’s law, and God’s glory.
Some persons seek a psychological explanation. The modern therapeutic worldview assumes that all persons are basically good, and that “antisocial” behavior is explained by environmental causes, a lack of education, persistent frustration, or inadequate socialization.

The prophet Jeremiah records God’s analysis of our human condition: “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” [Jeremiah 17:9] Our heart tells lies even to ourselves. We are skillful self-deceivers. Human evil is real and it is an abomination in God’s sight.
As a matter of fact, the resolution of the sin problem can come only by God’s power, and will be found in accordance with His own righteousness. God will judge all of us, and we will bear the full wrath of His judgment except we be found in Christ, covered by His own righteousness imputed to us by faith.
Evil is real, not illusory, but evil will never have the last word. The righteous judgment of God will establish justice, and display His glory among the nations.

The Mandate of Justice and the Temptation to Vengeance
The blood of the victims and the sufferings of their loved ones call out for justice. Final justice belongs to God, but our Creator has assigned the cause of temporal justice to earthly rulers.

As Paul wrote to the Romans:
For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. [Romans 13:3-4]
Even the unbelieving ruler, who never acknowledges God, points to God’s righteousness when he executes justice. The Bible reminds us that justice is not merely a goal, it is a mandate. We are to seek justice and demand punishment for evil deeds.

Any nation that would allow evildoers to go unpunished is an affront to God’s dignity. The American people are right and righteous in demanding that the perpetrators of these acts be identified and justice must be executed. Those who would kill forfeit their own right to live, and those who would harbor them bring equal judgment upon themselves.

According to Romans 13, earthly rulers have not only the right but the responsibility to protect their citizens from such murderous acts, to uphold justice, and to maintain law, authority and order. Justice should be swift and order must be restored. The entire world hangs out of balance so long as such crimes are unpunished. This is no time for moral cowardice. We live in a real world of real evil and our national leaders bear full responsibility to ensure that the murderers are punished and the threat removed.

At the same time, sin can also be manifested in a desire to see others suffer as we have suffered. Justice is proportional to the crime. If a man kills the wife of another, justice does not allow the second man to kill the first man’s wife in an act of revenge. Justice is directed at those who bear moral responsibility, not at other innocent parties.

Revenge is an ugly substitute for justice. Americans must not direct our hatred at an ethnic group out of which murderers have come, but we must demand justice and demand that all persons whose hands are clean of innocent blood join and assist in this mandate. To refuse this demand is to join the murderers in complicity.

We must avoid moral cowardice disguised as pacifism and moral arrogance disguised as warmongering. Instead, we must pray for our national leaders as they demand justice and act to remove the threat of future acts of terrorism. All the peoples of the earth are threatened when international order is undermined by terrorists.

Temporal justice is God’s requirement of earthly rulers. Ultimate justice will come when God’s righteousness is established among the nations.

The Clash of Civilizations
Underlying these acts of terror is the development of a worldwide clash of civilizations. Many Americans live under the fiction that all persons share a common perception of justice and a common commitment to human rights. This is simply not the case.
Many persons and cultures around the world do not share our commitment to modern democratic values. The most important flashpoints in the world order fall where different civilizations with contrasting and conflicting worldviews come into contact.
For most of the twentieth century, western civilization faced its greatest challenge from fascism and international communism. These rival systems of belief were locked in a contest for world domination. They held very different conceptions of human rights and human dignity, and this led to almost categorical opposition on any issue of importance. The conflict with fascism led to a world war. The contest with communism led to a cold war.

Western civilization faces a particular challenge from the civilization of Islam. We must be very careful here. It would not be fair to accuse all Muslims of participation in violence or of celebrating these acts of terror. This would certainly be both inaccurate and unfair.

At the same time, the Islamic worldview is opposed to many of the most important pillars of western civilization. Though western secularists seek to deny the obvious, western civilization is based upon a Christian civilization and worldview. From the Judeo-Christian worldview of the Bible we gained our respect for human rights and human dignity. We have never held these ideals with full faithfulness, but no other worldview holds human life to be sacred because each human being is made in the image of God.

We face what Samuel P. Huntington has identified as a “clash of civilizations and the remaking of world order.” The victims and the perpetrators of these acts of terror represent two rival worldviews with irreconcilable aims and principles. Islam has turned its wrath upon the West, Israel, and Christian culture. Most particularly, Islamic culture hates western secularism and the moral relativism and corruption it has produced.

As Huntington explains:
Muslims fear and resent Western power and the threat which this poses to their society and beliefs. They see Western culture as materialistic, corrupt, decadent, and immoral. They also see it as seductive, and hence stress all the more the need to resist its impact on their way of life. Increasingly, Muslims attack the West not for adhering to an imperfect, erroneous religion, which is nonetheless a ‘religion of the book,’ but for not adhering to any religion at all. In Muslim eyes Western secularism, irreligiosity, and hence immorality are worse evils than the Western Christianity that produced them.
America has given the Muslim world many reasons to consider us decadent and dangerous to their concept of national righteousness and international order. The world-wide growth of Islamic civilization presents the West with its greatest contemporary challenge. This is hard for secularists to understand, but in the end, theology matters.

Is This a Sign of the Lord’s Imminent Return?
Callers to radio programs and Christians in chat rooms are debating whether these acts of terror are signs of the imminent return of the Lord. Let us be cautioned against the twin sins of understatement and overstatement.

Our Lord commanded us to be aware of the times and the seasons. Signs of His coming are identified, and a coming wave of unleashed terror is foretold. Nevertheless, we are also warned that we must not jump quickly to conclusions and over-read events as signs of the Lord’s immediate coming. In the end, He will return as a “thief in the night,” and the timing of our Lord’s return is unknown to us.
In the meantime, we are to live in the hope of the Lord’s coming, keep our hearts and lives ready for His coming, look always for His coming, and live in this expectancy. This much we know, every day we live brings us one day closer to the Lord’s return.

Furthermore, we know that the Lord’s return will bring the justice and righteousness for which we pray. In that light, we pray Maranatha, Lord come quickly.

The Call for Repentance
Jesus took the occasion of the tower’s fall in Siloam and asked, “Do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
The falling tower in Siloam killed eighteen persons. The falling of the World Trade Center twin towers alone may have killed over 20,000 persons. They went to work Tuesday morning as any other day. They ate their breakfasts, kissed their husbands or wives, took the dog out for a walk, read the paper on the subway, got about their normal business and died in our greatest national tragedy.
This generation will remember that Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001, as other generations remembered the attack on Pearl Harbor or the assassination of a President. We remember where we were standing, and the sense of unreality that came over us all. Reality has set in.

We are now facing one of the greatest challenges known by any people. International terrorism is unlike any foe we have ever faced. We are certain to be called upon to make sacrifices. Our way of life and our most cherished ideals, are at stake. The nation must rally around our leaders, pray for national righteousness mixed with rare wisdom, and work to rebuild a trust so horribly violated. We must reach out to pray for all those in peril and suffering loss, and offer material assistance wherever we can.
Jesus took the occasion of the tower’s fall and turned it into a call for national and individual repentance. Given our assurance that God is in control, and working even in this unspeakable tragedy to accomplish His will, dare we not see the horrors in New York and Washington as an opportunity for America-and Americans-to repent as well?

The parable of the fig tree makes the warning clear. The owner of the vineyard demands that his fig tree produce fruit, but there is no fruit. Cut it down, he orders. Why does it even take up space in my vineyard? The vineyard-keeper pleads for time to tend the tree that it might bear fruit.
“Let it alone, sir, for this year too, until I dig it up and put in fertilizer; and if it bears fruit next year, fine, but if not, cut it down.”

It would be arrogance to claim that we have special knowledge of what God is doing through and in the midst of this horrible tragedy. But this biblical text explains that all such events are signs of our need for repentance. Thousands must have died in New York and many died in Washington. Like the Galileans in Jerusalem and the victims in Siloam, many may have died impenitent and unrepentant.

Our Lord’s warning is clear, for “unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.” Clearly, Jesus was not warning that those who heard these words were in immediate danger of Pilate’s sword or a falling tower. They were, however, in immediate danger of God’s judgment, and so are we.

This is a time for repentance, and in the midst of this national horror, Christians will face unprecedented opportunities to share the Gospel and tell sinners of salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. We will be called upon to explain these events and to give an account. We must tell the truth in a time of terror. By God’s grace, may we find the right words to speak, when we dare not be silent.

For Jennifer

Rev. Dorothy-Yorke Alloway, Ph. D.  10.8.1998

You light some jasmine incense.

Smoke imitates a bird, a feather, then disappears.

You sit on a woven mat, your spine facing West to East.

Balance resides in your presence

paying homage to the sun radiating in your smile.

You have offered your spirit to the absence of strife.

Peace rests on every object now...

your periwinkle scarf draped on a polished silver hook,

a verdant marble egg, the pale yellow teapot filled with steaming milk and a plum blush held captive in your warm sable brushes resting on worn battenberg.

Outside the crisp air exhales crystal faeries in a blur

skipping across the frozen sill.

You close your eyes, breath deeply

filling your center with translucent calm.

Exquisite to behold!

You arrive at this place elfin yet wearied of life’s tricks.

The hype, the funk, the veneer,

all trappings of another time.

You’ve given up your designer affair,

the glamour of upper mobility faded and worn.

You’ve given over your father’s name

and run from man-made fiber and the skins of chickens and all that lurks beneath.

The lure of flash and pan no longer seduces you.

I sit still in my twice stuffed chair watching, unable to write or move,

drinking in your sense of self and the peace that fills the space. 

I marvel, thinking, that entire body came from within me.

Your torso dips and sways

lithe as a frond in the pool

your arms splayed like tender petals

your hair shining and floating, comes to rest at your side.

It is obvious you know intimately the very essence of water.

Have I told you how I admire your spirit, your strength, your resilience?

Life has taken many things but it has not stolen your grace or tainted your innate beauty.

My baby's toes...

"Dreaming of my baby's toes"

... tiny niblets strung together. I always wondered at their strength. Those toes have taken her feet to many places and swept her along for the ride.  I held them while she nursed... tickled them in the bath... blew them dry with kisses and marveled at how it is that my body knew exactly how to design each one so perfectly.  Oh, she isn't a baby anymore.  In fact she has two of her own now.  Babies that is. But I can close my eyes and feel those tiny buttons on the hollow of my tongue ... and love her so deeply I can scarce breathe.  All of that over ten little toes all grown up.

p.s...................

when life hands you Lemons,
ask for Tequila and Salt then call me over!

Get Over it............ ???

 Oh, NO!!!    Has someone ever said to you {or perhaps you've said to yourself}, "just get over it"? 

As a therapist, people often tell me that advice is far easier said than done. And they usually feel guilty that's the case. But our inability to "get over it" quickly isn't a failure. It's actually part of how God wired our minds. 

When we have a negative experience, our brains release certain chemicals that correlate with what's happening. Those chemicals act like helpful little messengers that tell us about what's going on in our world.

Yes, our thoughts have influence on what we feel but there is a decidedly physical aspect too. That shouldn't surprise us--with almost everything intangible God ties a physical manifestation to it {ex: the Word made flesh}.

So long after you've decided that you will indeed "let it go" there are still those chemicals floating around in your body. It's like you have an emotional hangover. 

Fortunately, there are some ways to speed up the process of moving past negative emotions...
1) Take a walk - Actually, any kind of exercise helps because it releases endorphins, the "feel good" chemicals God put in our brains. Those endorphins replace the negative chemicals and give our moods a boost. Even ten minutes of exercise can help.

2) Listen to upbeat music - Music also impacts us physically in some mysterious ways. It helps release endorphins as well. And if you move around to your favorite tune, even better. 

3) Find flow - The state of "flow" is described as when you do something that's enjoyable, challenging, and makes you lose track of time. You are completely "in the moment" and everything else is forgotten {including that experience you just had}. Flow might come for you by cooking, writing, painting or any other activity where you mind is fully engaged. 

4) Pray honestly - When we have negative emotions, we can pray some pretty cliche prayers. It's okay to say, "God, I'm really mad/hurt/disappointed." Throughout the Psalms David fully and deeply expressed ALL of his emotions--we can too. 

5) Spend time with a positive person - If you're down in the dumps, find someone who's a little closer to cloud nine. Research has shown that because we're created to be social, we often "catch" each other's moods much like we would catch a cold {but in a good way}. Being with someone uplifiting really can make a difference. 

If you try all of the above and there are still some traces of negativity hanging around, then it's time to wait it out. As you do, give yourself grace. It's okay for it to take time to get over hurt or frustration. It's simply a reflection that you are human {and a wonderfully made one too--even in those moments}. 

What helps you move past negative emotions? 

The smaller one's character, the bigger the shadow it casts.

Character is the foundation of a human being's actions. Character is what determines the course of our life, and it is also why the world wobbles the way it does, because this planet is filled with human beings who believe that making others believe we have character is the same as having it. Where we go, what we do, all of the things that we treasure are all connected with this idea that has nothing to do with real character but with forwarding what we think our character is.

What kind of character do you have? Part of character is being willing to hold up the mirror to ourselves and really take a look. But we don't want to look at ourselves because if we look in the mirror and it shows us something we don't want to see -- everything that we are, all that we have, all that we've done -- what's it going to mean? So rather than look to see what is true, we'll put the mirror aside and look instead at a thousand pictures of the way we want to see ourselves.

The essence of character is what a human being is in relationship with. Constancy for example is a quality of character. Constancy means doing one thing all the way. The man or woman without character is a creature of circumstance -- the object of whatever thought or feeling passes through them. Look honestly at yourself: Do you have a constant character, or does every circumstance determine what you are? Is what you think about determined by what other people think about?

The measure of what a person is in relationship with is that they are able to put principle before person. What are you putting first all the time? What is your principal concern? Is it to be self-loving, self-interested, self-serving? Do you care nothing for what you are in relationship with as long as it satisfies?

We are meant to go through a transfiguration on this earth, a change internally that leaves our character like nothing it was before. We are meant to rise above this present character of "me first." To do so, we must learn to put principle before person. This means putting Truth first and ourselves last. Currently we put Truth first as long as it serves us to do so. There is no character, just the search for comfort. So our new intention is to go in a straight line, to be constant to the principle of Truth instead of to ourselves.

If you want to become a different order of human being, you have inside of you a true character that yearns to break out. You aren't supposed to spend your day thinking about money or worrying about what other people are worrying about. You're not supposed to spend your days serving yourself. You are intended to spend your days sacrificing that self for the higher principle called Character or Consciousness. That means regardless of how you feel about any situation, you put the Truth first instead of yourself.

Are you willing to learn about Real Life? Are you willing to call into question everything about yourself? Are you willing to doubt your present character? Are you willing to stand upon what you see when you're willing to look at your character? Are you willing to do without what you must if you see certain things that tell you that what you are embracing is destroying everything, including your chance to be a true human being?

These are the things you have to ask yourself.

It isn't hard to do. What's harder is to remain a human being without character.

Your life is being frittered away. Do you want to squander it? Then put principle before person!

Understand as often as you can that you need to have one first, and that first is not something determined by your self that's created in any condition of the moment.

How can you put Truth first?

If nothing else, every day, at least make a new aim to watch yourself, to hold up the mirror and work. Do what you can do so Truth can do what it's meant to do for you... and it will.

I am Forgiven...

I messed up. Again. I sat on the porch thinking about what a failure I’d been. What must G-d think of me? I was writing in my journal as I had been every day. Lately, I felt G-d had been impressing on me to only write good things—compliments people gave me, ways He used me, blessings in my life. I didn’t know why He wanted me to do this, but I felt compelled to do it. But on this morning I sat and stared at the blank page. I began to write about my mistake. I finished and looked at the black and white evidence that I was a failure yet again. Then I seemed to hear a whisper in my heart. “Rip out the page.”  I paused and listened closer. “Rip out the page.” “G-d, what are You saying? What do You mean, rip out the page? I need to record this mistake. I need to remember it.” Again the clear message came. “Rip out the page.” I touched the white page of my journal, now covered with writing. Then slowly I pulled from top to bottom. The paper made a sharp sound as it separated from the journal. Only a few fragments of white paper remained where my mistake once had been. The picture couldn’t have been more clear. Forgiveness. Mercy. Grace. It was all right there on the clean, white pages of my journal. G-d seemed to whisper to my heart again. “All of the mistakes and failures you remember, all the secrets you run from, all the regrets and remorse…they are all gone. Every one of them has been torn from the story of your life. You are forgiven. You are accepted. You are loved.” My heart was overwhelmed. I kept thinking about what G-d had spoken to me on the porch.  Later in the morning, I prayed about it again. This time I sensed G-d adding something more to what He had whispered. Daughter, do you know why I wanted you to keep a “good things” journal? It’s because that’s what My journal about you is like. If you were to read the story of your life, that’s what you would read. Not mistakes or failures, but the times you were a blessing, the ways you please Me, the love you show others. The good things I think about you. G-d’s love was so real and strong, so much bigger than I even imagined. I realized at that moment that G-d loves me. He doesn’t just tolerate me. He doesn’t just put up with me because I’m a Christian and He has to. He really, truly loves me. So wherever you are, whatever mistake you have written in the journal of your life, know that G-d has ripped it from the pages. There’s only love. There’s only grace. The story of your life is far different than you imagined…and the Author loves you far more than you ever dared to dream.

This Independence Day why not write your own Declaration of Independence?

What do you want to declare or break free from?

I want to break free from holding back my power. I no longer want to live with only my low beams on. I want to shine so unequivocally that others decide to abandon their own shadow choices. I want to break away from the undermining thinking of the “realistic” world --- and choose some independent thinking, some firecracker, celebrating, birth-giving thoughts. 

As of this very second, I allow myself to be blessed.

I allow myself to be uncorked, unabashed, and showered with delicious good in every facet of my life.

I don’t need to fit in anymore, in the world of struggling, suffering, complaining, belittling. I am going nova and that’s okay. I am willing to have things be easeful and brimming with sheer wonder and I am willing to deserve this. None of us deserve this. That’s why it’s grace. It’s not about deserving. It’s about allowing the Holy Spirit to love and give to us.

Creator, I am willing to allow you to give to me now. My work here doesn’t have to be oppressive. I don’t have to plod up hill anymore, dimming my song, or accepting crumbs and crusts and bowing my head. I can keep my heart wide-open and parade through wide-open doors in a welcoming world. I believe you want every golden circumstance for me. I believe you want me to experience more fun, jubilance, connection, generosity, nurturance, and synchronicity than ever before. I believe you want me to know your nature and your nature is not one of limitation or punishment or lack of any kind. I believe there are doorways to your kindness that I haven’t opened yet. There are oceans and skies I couldn’t see because I subscribed to the map of the world. There is honey I’ve never tasted, bounty not of this realm. But I am willing now to let go of the familiar and allow your unparalleled love.

I am willing to let go of what I think is possible or right or worldly or to be expected---and I am willing to allow you to dream through me, dance through me, breathe through me, grace through me, vibrate through me, peace through me, burst through me, light through me, laugh through me, gleam through me, dream through me.

I am willing to co-create with you and I am now willing to no longer limit your power with silly, tired thoughts about my own. I am no longer willing to shape your destiny by crunching mine into a little ball of stunted possibilities.

Finally, I am willing to allow myself to be cherished and loved and nourished wherever I go and in whatever I do and it’s not too much to ask , it is barely enough, because there are so many dimensions of goodness and promise that I have yet to experience. The more I allow myself to receive---the more I can open up to receiving and giving my true love to this world as I have never given before.

 In the end we only regret chances we didn't take.
The relationships we were scared to have and the decisions we waited too long to make
There comes a time in your life when you realize who matters, who doesn't, who never did and who always will.

 

 

 

Dead-End Relationships

 The Secret of Letting Go of Dead-End Relationships


We are never more alone than when surrounded by those dark thoughts and feelings that gather together to throw us a pity party!

We all know exactly what it is like to be certain we have let go of something sorrowful or worrisome, only to find ourselves in a similar sad situation moments later. Merely wanting to let go of an unhappy circumstance or nagging emotional ache is not enough. Wants are desires, and desires replace one another like bees waiting in line at an open flower.

 

Dropping this person and picking up that person doesn't end the loneliness that drives us into dead-end relationships. This isn't letting go. We have only managed to put the emptiness on hold.

The truth is that letting go is very simple and, above all, natural; as natural for you and I as it is for a tree to shed the heavy, sun-ripened fruit that clings to its branches. Why? Because both man and tree, in fact all living things, are created to drop what is no longer needed. For the tree, the falling fruit carries its matured seed to the ground. No unnatural force is necessary. In a similar fashion -- that is to say, under higher but equally exacting laws -- these same friendly forces are waiting to do for you what you haven't been able to do for yourself. You need only learn to cooperate with these powerful and timeless principles to be able to let go of any emotional bitterness, relentless regret, anxious worry, or troubling thought. The rest will be done for you.

This is what the secret of letting go is all about. First must come the understanding that we are still carrying around the accumulated defeats of a lifetime, and that these weary weights have only served to make us someone sorry, not someone special. This initial shock may shake us, but it is really a major breakthrough. It heralds the first in a series of miraculous self-separations in which we begin to see that we have been living from an unseen part of ourselves: a self that thinks clinging to wreckage is the same as being rescued! Now we understand why all of our past efforts to let go have only left us holding a new problem. But now we also know, at last, exactly what it is that must be dropped. We must let go of this sorry self that is certain it is better to suffer and feel like someone than it is to just let go and quietly be no one. It is the higher part of yourself alone that has the strength and wisdom to gently open your hand so that out of it may drop all that has been making you unhappy.

Believe me, you are on the verge of the single greatest discovery any human being can make. The secret of letting go not only holds the keys for ending what is unwanted, but locked within this same supreme secret is the beginning of your new life -- the birth of a new nature that never has to hold on to anything because it is already everything.

 

Snowy Day Blessing

 

I hated missing school. However, I've grown to appreciate snow days. There is a quietness that only happens when the world around me is thick in snow.

 

It brings on the muse. The true desire to write... to open the gallery and tent flaps to listen and snuggle into the absence of chatter

 

Small birds scatter across the snow under the ancient walnut tree outside my office window.  I can't imagine there is anything there for them to treasure. But they

are looking anyway. The wind whipping small tornadoes of glistening fluff into a pas de deax along the ridges of drifts make not one sound. No howling. No blustering.

Simple elegance.

Do the winds bluster where you are? They say that birds won’t sing in winter and regardless of season they will not sing in the wind. . Who are 'they' anyway?

I suppose 'they' have not been in the forest in February. Is it because the birds have no song or because they can not find the words to express Winter?

 

There are seasons when it’s hard to find words.  Because no matter what anyone says, words are not cheap. They do not always tumble lithely off the fingers

and onto the QWERTY.  Words, if they are real words, must incarnate. Take on skin. Take on shape... just as the dancers on the drifts. To lay bare ones words

for others to read does not come without great risk and vulnerability. And, my friends, that comes at a price. Perhaps about the cost of a sliver of soul. A gasp

of sweet breath...  "Send" is quite a risk.  It needs to be Larger and in neon, alarm red.

 

"Yes" takes on an entirely different definition in light of nail-pierced hands.

Uttering even one word, a singular yes, to a spouse, a child, a neighbor, lays down a bit of our beautiful, courageous, vulnerable self.

The whisper of just one sorry can seem exorbitant — but it’s the most authentic way to extend grace... a smidgen of healing balm to each soul-- the giver's and

the receiver's.

There's a deep frost in the corners of the window panes here today. The tiny glint of opaline light just distracted me from the words. I wonder where the

tiny sparrows of last week huddle as the blizzard visits. We can take solace in this — G-d has never failed yet to send Spring.  And our words will make a way through

the silence. And the supposedly silent small birds will once again herald joy!

And then there are the Chickadees! They sing in the snow.

 

 Clustered there just outside my window. Singing for me to hurry to the feeders! Staring me into action.  Singing into the wind, believing... trusting... calling... knowing... because really, is there a wind that can ever carry a song off course? 

The words we speak, the words we conjure, the words we write, the words we serve to our own little world, they are meant to only be echoes of the Word.
Meant to make Him smile. Meant to make a way back to their source, the Word G-d, who can’t stop writing His heart onto ours. 

What shapes the way we speak, the way we think, the way we compile, conjure, dream, imagine, the way we apply our words, need only be the Word Himself. Glory!

And so I thought, "What if all our words were just bird-song free, jubilant expressions of love sung for G-d alone?"  Even without the promise of Spring.