A poem prayer

 Dear God,

When the sun shines,

it feels as though You are looking at me.

And when clouds cover the sky,

it feels as though You have tucked me into bed.

I know You are infinitely bigger,

but the sky is the biggest expanse I can see,

and the sun is the largest object my eyes perceive.

Infinitely smaller than You,

they make me think of You,

Who are infinitely bigger than all the Universe,

which is incomparably larger than our galaxy,

which is incomparably larger than our solar system,

which is exponentially larger than our dear planet earth,

on which we exist like tiny specks traveling hither and yon.

Like the exponentially tiny particles that comprise us,

we are tiny particles on earth,

under Your wise watch and care.

You know everything from the quarks that form a neutron

to the light-year distances between galaxies.

You made it all.

You track it all.

You direct it all.

You are too much to comprehend.

Silly me.

I simply imagine You smiling on me when the sun shines

because that is the warmth I feel on my face.

I love You.

Thank You that You are faithful and good.

~Amen~

//(Note as of 4/7/2021 -- I have given up writing posts of 75 words or less.  I am not a good enough writer to keep that up.)//

Legacy

 The memory of the righteous

is a blessing

but the name of the wicked

will rot.

~Proverbs 10:7

We continually create our legacy.  

C.S. Lewis said, "Good and evil both increase at compound interest.  That is why the little decisions you and I make every day are of such infinite importance."

Each decision marks a path.  If we seek the Lord and His righteousness--which is, practically speaking, love of God and love of our neighbors--then our paths will bless others.

Lord, let me walk the path of Jesus, who humbly gave His life, demonstrating Your love.  Let me not neglect an opportunity to do good or make right.

Passion, Desire and Delight

(Disclaimer: this is more than 75 words.)

 Delight yourself in the Lord, 

and He will give you the desires of your heart.  

~Psalm 37:4

Many quote this verse, assuming it says:

Delight yourself in your natural passions and desires,

and claim the blessing of God on them.

He will surely indulge your wishes

because He loves you.

However, it does not say that.

It says:

Delight yourself in the Lord.

It's another way of looking at the Greatest Commandment:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. 

(Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)

Which is a restatement of the First Commandment:

You shall have no other gods before me. 

(Exodus 20:2)

To love anything more than we love God is to commit idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, a serious and potentially deadly sin.

You adulterous people!  

Don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? (James 4:4)

Anytime we take hold of a besetting sin and cosset it, excuse it, cherish it, insist that it is an integral part of who we are, we are denying the power of Christ to deliver us as He promised.

He never said it would be easy.  

He said, "Take up your cross daily and follow me," (Luke 9:23).  

Take up your cross.  Daily.  Persevering.  

Take up your cross.

Then Jesus invites us to come to Him when we are weary and tired of carrying the heavy load, because He will give us rest.  He will help us.  He already carried The Cross, and He will come under our crosses too, supporting us with everlasting arms as we carry the weight, making the burden light.  (See Deuteronomy 33:27, Matthew 11:28-30)

But we must love Jesus above all.  We must delight in Him more than anything, far more.  We must listen to His voice and abide in His Spirit, and believe Him when He tells us that something will get in the way of our fellowship with Him.  We must perceive that He is everything--He is life itself--and anything that erodes our unity with Him is a serious danger. 

Like the man who found the treasure in the field 

and then joyfully went and sold everything he had 

so he could purchase the field, 

which was vastly superior to anything he was giving up (Matthew 13:44), 

we must delight in the Lord.

Delight in the Lord, for He is worthy of all glory and honor and praise.

There is no good thing apart from Him (Psalm 16:2).  

He is the one who makes known the path of life, in whose presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11). 

If we would be united with Christ through His Spirit,

if we would be His beloved bride,

then we must forswear all the places we sought satisfaction 

when we lived according to the flesh, 

and look to Him only to meet our every need.  

The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want of anything (Psalm 23:1).

We must not accept His grace and then tell Him, "But I have this other thing I need to keep if I am to feel whole and happy, this thing besides you.  Since you want me to be happy, I know you will not mind if I bring this other thing into our relationship."

That is like a wife saying to her husband, "I know you love me so much, you will not mind if I bring this other fellow into bed with us at night.  I love you very much, but I cannot be satisfied unless I have him beside me, too."

May it never be!  God forgive us for our divided hearts, show us where we go astray, and help us turn back to YOU.

Check out 1 Corinthians 6:12-20.  Read it and ponder it both on the literal level, and as a metaphor for spiritual adultery.  It is true on every level.

//(Note as of 4/7/2021 -- I have given up writing posts of 75 words or less.  I am not a good enough writer to keep that up.)//

Listening to a dog who was listening

When last night shadowed darkest,

Duffy barked, awakening me.

“What?” I asked,

rising to pet him.

He jumped, growled, barked again.

I opened the blinds.

Right outside my window stood an enormous deer.

Duffy howled.  I rapped on my window.

The deer fled.

Duffy kept barking.

Shawn turned on outdoor lights.

I opened bathroom blinds, knocking on another window

as numerous deer at wood’s edge slipped away.

Stillness. 

Back to bed.

Cold feet.

Spewing fewer words

 Since my word for 2021 is listen,

I am going to write short blog posts, under 76 words.

Good listening listens beyond the surface:

What did the speaker intend to say?

What do the speaker's words reveal about his heart?

Is the speaker aware of his underlying motivations?

How does God's Spirit direct me to pray in response?

Should I offer some sort of practical help or advice?

What am I learning?

Listening

Listening is not as easy as simply being quiet.

You have to focus.

Also, I have learned, you have to be careful.  There are many sounds out there, many voices, and many messages.

Even if listening doesn't draw you in to some dangerous fraud, it can make you vulnerable to great disappointment because others have been.

"This is my beloved Son," Father God said on the mountain of transfiguration.  "Listen to Him."

(Luke 9:35)

listening well

With the new year coming tomorrow, I found myself perusing my blog a bit in contemplation, looking back over the path I've trodden.

My word for the year has been Abide.  It was the perfect word for this year.  With Covid quarantining and sheltering at home, a focus on abiding brought peace and comfort.  Even the concept of sheltering at home becomes different and beautiful when I realize that Christ is my home, and I take shelter in Him (Psalm 57:1).

Today, meandering through past posts, I came across this one, which is about abiding, but I never would have remembered by the title.  It is astonishing to me that way back in 2015, God was already teaching me about sanctification through His indwelling Holy Spirit, being transformed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another by Him, His power, His presence.  It is always astonishing to me when I see a record of what I was learning years before I learned it again on a deeper level.  His grace is astounding.  He truly has been my dwelling place throughout all the decades of my life, when I have been aware of Him and, even more unfathomably, when I have not.

I do not think I can give up the word Abide in 2021.  I still need it desperately.  Yet, I feel led to connect my abiding with listening.  

Listen.  It seems a good word, important, and with potential to instigate growth in humility.  The past couple of days, I've been looking for my new verse-of-the-year to go with Listen.  Presently, I'm considering Mark 9:7, or a repeat of James 1:19.

I've been thinking about listening, what it is and what it does:

Listening is being still, and opening yourself to someone else.

When you truly listen, you stop thinking your own thoughts, and absorb the thoughts of others.

You allow yourself to consider their perspective, 

or perhaps you push yourself to do this, force yourself.

Good listening is hard work, until someone has practiced for a long time.

You do not have to agree with the people you listen to, 

condone their opinions, or celebrate their choices,

but you do have to hear, consider, imagine what it is like to be them.

If you think you are listening, but you are not trying to understand,

then you are only hearing sounds.

Listening well is listening for the heart, 

being eager to discover what the other person wants me to understand.

A good listener uses both ears 

and both eyes, 

as well as heart and gut.

It is scary for me to look deep into people's eyes, but I will need to 

as I strive to listen better.

I can also watch people's bodies, 

the tilt of a shoulder towards or away, the angle of a head up or down, a jawline loose or clamped.

Are hands open, active, reaching out?  Tightly clasped or wringing?  

Arms circled protectively around a threatened body?

What is behind the loudness or softness of a voice?

A good listener looks behind everything, gently, kindly probing to bring out the truth.

A good listener asks questions to clarify what she thinks she understands, 

and she is willing to change her understanding as information unfolds.

A good listener never reverts to pinning a speaker to the wall because of specific words he spoke,

placing the importance of a moment's phrase above the intent of the heart.  Never.

A good listener believes that winning is understanding and mutual benefit;

the other kind of "winning", where someone beats someone else, where there is a loser...

in relationships, that is not winning at all.

A good listener works hard to draw out;

when a speaker is reticent, frightened, overwhelmed,

a good listener asks pump-priming questions,

and keeps going.  A good listener does not quickly give up on a conversation

or pridefully assume that she tried and gave her all, but the other person was not cooperative,

especially if the other person is simply quiet and slow to speak.

A good listener prays for the Spirit of God to help her as she listens, 

to help her not be afraid to let go of forming a rebuttal,

to help her hear, empathize, enter in to the other's experience,

consider the validity of the other point of view.

A good listener knows that she is as fallen and fallible as anyone,

so when she sometimes hears things that she knows are a result

of someone being deceived by the spiritual forces of evil,

she responds by remembering her own failings,

and how utterly hopeless and lost she would be without the grace of God.

When one becomes a truly great listener,

compassion will always trump anger, 

and each exchange will communicate hope.

Relationships will heal over time, with good listening.

Listening to God is the best listening of all,

and a healthy relationship with Him

will breathe grace into all other relationships.

Are you as astonished as I, to think about how 

God listens attentively to our prayers?