The leaves are gone....the tree stands bleak, alone. It doesn't look as cheery as it did in spring, doesn't shine as brightly as it did all summer. In fact it looks even sad! But is it really? There is a time for growth, a time for new life, a time to release, and a time to rest. In the rest we assimilate all that was discovered during the cycle of growth.

This is a tree that has embrace a wonderful year of growth. It has willingly let it's exciting leaves fall and blow into the wind. The leaves were its dreams...and the tree gladly gave the wind its dreams to scatter.

This is a tree that is ready. Ready for the change coming, ready for what might arrive under its branches, ready for what might still need a nice place to stop and rest. This tree has seen much.

Are our lives not like a tree? Sometimes we feel surrounded by growth, new life, beauty, and joy. Then comes the time of change. The leaves blow, the wind gets chilly, the grass turns brown, the animals huddle deep within. We are in the time of change, getting ready to hibernate into the sleep of reflection.

But for now...we must release, let go, and just be. Rest in the glory we experienced and breath in the lessons we discovered. The winter will ferment our wisdom and before we know it, we will walk out into life renewed, prepared, and ready.

Diligence & hope & BUT

Diligence and Hope...
   We travel a path in our lives, each week, each month- it seems to be the same, but there are slight variations that do occur. One day, we realize the path isn't as familiar as it once was, why? It looks the same, is the same path (isn't it?) but it just doesn't feel comfortable anymore, doesn't seem to fit. Sometimes, just one thought, one choice, or one experience changes the direction we are going. It changes our direction because we have been changed. When we are changed, we can't continue to walk the same way, the same path. But....

We continue to walk the path we know, it is safe. It should not matter whether it is enriching, we once were- that should be good enough, right? Lord, guide me! I am confused, unhappy, feeling lost even in the middle of the familiar...

Suddenly, we feel an urge to turn off the path. It is a bold move, but feels right somehow. There is a moment, feels like an impulse, off we go!

The new path has some similarities, but it is different. It is more enjoyable. We like the new path, we never felt so alive! We find ourselves singing songs of praises to God...BUT.

Is it too enjoyable? Is this wrong to feel so good? Have I made a bad decision in turning at all? I thought the old path was THE path I was suppose to walk...

Fear speaks: "Why did we want to turn? What guided us to turn?"

We argue back: "But this is such a nice path and the journey is so much nicer, enjoyable, enriching, fulfilling! God?" But we don't feel worthy of such joy...we hesitate.

Look! At the end we see a light. Inviting us, calling to us. We can go there, we can enter...But we're scared...BUT...

We forget....man and fear brings "but", God brings Hope...

If we are children of God, who with our faith KNOW that God guides our every step, then why are we doubting? Why do we feel fear? Why is fears voice and its doubts louder than God's?

Oh, we miss the familiar (but we weren't happy) and now we feel joy! Our Creator, God wants his children to live in joy. Joy brings love, grace, and His expression of glory onto this earth in its purest form.

Galatians 6: 9 reminds us that we should "...not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up". Don't we focus our lives loving God and doing good? Will we be able to embrace the harvest when it comes?

2 Chronicles 15: 7 encourages us "...as for you, be strong and do not give up, for your work will be rewarded". Reward? We get a reward?...Maybe that clearing is a place of rest?

Hebrews 6:18-20 states:
"God cannot break His word, and because his word cannot change, the promise is likewise unchangeable. We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promise of hope with both hands and never let go. It is the unbreakable spiritual lifeline; reaching past all apprearance right to the very presence of God where Jesus, who went before us, has already entered on our behalf and is guiding us (This is our anchor for the soul, firm and secure)" Oh (whew) I feel so much better! Jesus has already traveled this way...and has entered that clearing; God said I CAN grab the promise of hope and never have to let go! whew...I love God's promises, He does want me to be happy!

Faith IS knowing that God IS in control. He never stopped! I just forgot, and here I thought I was walking this path alone and just on a whim. God directly placed my feet on purpose onto the very steps I took! So, I found myself in a new place, it is not new for God (only for me). By golly He planned it!

So come with me, lets hold hands and sing songs of His Glory! Christ is the one who guided our feet, our direction; after all,  he has walked this path before us and For us.

With trust in God it is no wonder we forget our feet! We trusted Him and not our feet-and that is how it should be, don't you think?

Happy Journey

There is a truth to our lives that we as human beings are constantly searching for. Like a spiral our path carries us forth and then back again. We sometimes find ourselves in known territories, most time moving into that which unknown. But we continue on, are carried forth, in spite of ourselves. We feel disrupted, anxiety, even fearful. All movement involves loss of some type, especially when it is something we have to leave so we can move on to something that will help us grow. However, the loss is always and only that which is corporeal or what we embrace as the material world. But, it is not the substance we crave.

1 Corinthians 2: 7 speaks of "God's secret wisdom "...that which has been hidden, and that God destined for our glory before time began" Our glory being God's glory reflected here on earth through us.

1 Corinthians 2: 9 states "No eye has seen
                                         no ear has heard
                                      no mind has conceived
                                        what God has prepared for those who love him"

Does this help one navigate the spiral of our existence? The purpose of our lives?

Verse 2: 10 says "yes" for "God has revealed it to us by his Spirit".

Verse 2: 12 continues to instruct us: "...we have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us"

Verse 2: 14 reminds us that: "...the man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are [only] spiritually discerned".

And finally verse 2: 15 says: "...the spiritual man/woman makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: for who knows the mind of God that he may instruct Him?" But we do have the mind of Christ that we might understand.

The spiral.

We have the instructions of how to navigate this flow of movement-the development of our lives, maybe our very souls! We know that in the core resides union that will brings us completeness. We know that is why our first soul breath began so that it could mature us to eventually rest in that complete unity with God.

Along the way, God's Glory, represented in our lives similar to each colored, complex panel of the above spiral, has left moments of knowledge, support, and love to all who witnessed the passage. We cannot know what the next panel (or segment of our human lives) will look like. God is the divine Artist, only he knows what vision he wants to represent in our lives. That which will be reflected upon this world and that which will further illuminate His Glory, His Love, His embracing.

But...it is a scary moment when we find ourselves leaving one panel for another. We know we must, we feel compelled to do so. But, we have become so caught up in the panel we are, that we forget of the wonder of what will be. But God knows...and waits in warm anticipation.

Faith...courage...adventure. I think I will focus on the Light -the Core...God's shining Love and Glory...and just trust that I won't slip as I jump.

But wait! I have the hand of Christ to hold on to! (whew)

And if I glance backward, I see all the panels God has already created through me, and the beauty of it is breath-taking!...and ahead of me, works of God's art (me) yet to be created. Vague images...but possibilities. (wow)

Ready to jump?....1, 2, 3......................................
(don't worry, you'll know when, God will nudge you :-)

The miracle of a touch. It is not the contact. It is the space that occurs just before the contact. That space that reveals so much. The Truth of what is joining, the essence of what can be. A touch brings the potential of a possibility and the reality of knowing. Touch is a confirmation of what is to be united; and, the evolution of what is being created. A touch. Something so significant, yet lost in the distraction of connection.

Psalm 42: 7-8 records:

Deep calls to deep

   in the roar of your waterfalls;

all your waves and breakers

   have swept over me.

By day the Lord directs his love,

  at night his song is with me--

a prayer to God of my life...

Touch...the breath in-between...the communion of souls.

1 Peter 1: 8-9 writes about this moment of sincerest of love...this moment between the touch...engaging the communion:

"Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your soul"

God touched us and brought life...man touches us and brings the direction of truth...Christ touches us to direct our path. (his life is Truth)..Holy Spirit touches to move our faith.

Touch...communion...the pause. 

I have learned it is about "embracing the moment that is...not the moment that will be"

)..( = )(  Everything

Our lives....bright in some moments...dark in others.
Our days...and our nights. How do we handle the duality of our lives?
As the sun depicts, we feel lighter, can fly, see possibilities, even dream.
The moon reflects our emotions, which gets triggered by our dark time, becomes calming or harsh.
We are creations of God that have both in our nature. We zig, we zag. Bouncing from moment to moment.
Where is the joy? How do we grab onto the constant?

John 3: 21 (NIV) records: "But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God"

So how do we cope in a world of duality, so instead we can fly? The light of Truth, God and embracing goodness is the wings that lifts us above the duality we get caught in. It is easy to see the light, easier still to know the dark. But the truth is, there is a perception that is above both. A perception of illumination that ignites the soul and helps bring music to our wings so we can fly in joy.

Yes, we still have to walk in the shadows, the dark, but they don't grip as tight, they don't suffocate. To have the eternal life become a part of our soul song, we have a edge that keeps one from getting stuck, getting stained, getting lost.

In the moments of shadow and dark...sing the song of light, the goodness of God. By the very fact of singing God's Glory one finds themselves filled with a warmth, a light that brings color and possibility. And within possibility, the next step can be taken. Once the soul floods with color, a song is discovered deep within that makes moments delightful. The earth sun and moon is not what ignites the soul. It is the Light of Christ, given to us by God, through the Holy Spirit.

Easy, simple; but can only be embraced and experienced through the heart of love and the whisper of desire.

Want to sing? Than let's sing together...a song of life, hope, dreams, and possibilities. Why not? 

Welcome....
Spirit songs...
Fire songs...
Songs found within our souls...
Songs discovered within the rainbow
Songs realized only at the end...

Thoughts prompted by Spirit,
Words directed by God...
Together we can discover...
Wonders, maybe miracles, among us all.
Good Journey...