Journey of Words

God’s joy moves from unmarked box to unmarked box,
from cell to cell. As rainwater, down into flowerbed.
As roses up from the ground.
Now it looks like a plate of rice and fish,
now a cliff covered with vines,
now a horse being saddled.
It hides within these,
till one day it cracks them open.

-Rumi

It is hidden behind
the bright green eyes,
under unmanageable blond hair,
of one who the world says
is odd,
is different,
is slow.

But it is this boy
who lives his life
broken open each
day
with the joy
that we search for
but rarely see from
amid the busyness
of the world.

Where do you find the hidden joy of God?

Many times throughout this journey, this adventure of life, I have felt deeply lost along the way. Yet, at the same time, not really lost. Alone. Not feeling the guidance which I believed was needed at a particular point along the path. Knowing though, that in that darkness, the light was still there, only hidden. By my choice? Maybe. By another’s? Possibly. But for what reason? Why is it necessary for each one of us to experience our own “dark night of the soul”?

I have found in my life that those were the times that offered much more growth than I would have had otherwise. These times allowed me opportunities to pray with such fervency, “I believe, help my unbelief”¹. Isn’t that what happens to each of us when we feel such abandonment by God? When we feel we have been left in the midst of turmoil to survive by our own devices? We easily come to believe that we are to solve all our issues on out own when the reality is far different. It is in these times we need His guidance more than ever.

We’ve not been abandoned. We have been given opportunity. A grand opportunity in the midst of our cries of despair and crises. A chance to stretch our faith. A chance to fall back on Him who is always near though we may not be aware of that closeness. A chance to ask Him to help our unbelief.

Yes, we do have many times in our lives where we believe we are deeply lost along the way. But we do well to remember that we are not truly lost. It is in this darkness that we are given a chance to ask Him, not for what we want, but for what we need, which He already knows. But he waits patiently and quietly for us to approach and ask. And it will be given.

1. Mk 9:24 [↩]

One need not tell god everything about the people for whom one prays. Holding them one by one steadily before the mind and willing that God may have His will with them is the best, for God knows better than we what our friends need, yet our prayer releases His power, we know not how.¹

1. Laubach, Frank C., Letters by a Modern Mystic [↩]

the mirror

the mirror stands as a testament to
imperfectly reflect that which is real,
the surface reflects what we need to do
we see dimly, looking hard for his seal
behind the veil which separates the worlds
of here and now and of eternity
which, in part, we are shown by his heralds,
glimpses brief ’til called to see completely,
our journey is not a means to an end
rather it is the end within itself
remember what is reflected will lend
chance to see reality of oneself
               hidden behind the veil for all to see
               what the reflection offers us to be

Faith is not linear. It is, indeed, a widening of the imagination, a leap into the transcendent, a taste of the numinous, a vision of the extraordinary in the ordinary. And our coach for the leap, the glue in the link, is our Muse, the Spirit of God.¹

1. Luci Shaw “The Partnership of Art and Spirituality” [↩]

I was standing at the kitchen sink tonight as my wife, son, and daughter were just sitting down to dinner. I was overwhelmed. Overwhelmed with a love that can’t be described and I just stood and thanked God for this wonderful, crazy, family that He has blessed me with. Like His grace, and undeserved, unearned blessing.

That’s it…nothing deep…nothing profound. Just a desire to share…

Twitterer @KMWeiland of Wordplay fame tweeted this quote recently. Being that it is from one of my favorite authors I thought it worth posting.

When the artist is truly the servant of the work, the work is better than the artist. – Madeleine L’Engle

…is something quite simple: one who loves the Lord with all of his heart, mind, and soul and loves his neighbor as himself AND lives his life that way.

How would you end that sentence? Go to Reflections of a Jazz Theologian and offer up your answer….

This piece started out as just a part of Christine’s (Godspace – see link below) Lenten synchroblog but ended up going a bit further when reading Marcus’ post for this weeks RAP at HCB.

I thought that I was meditating on temptation while reflecting on Christ’s temptation in the wilderness but it turned out I was wrong. What I was looking for was grace. The grace that comes from knowing that the one who saved me truly knows the temptations that I face each day. I pray that there may be something in my words that will touch you or give you pause to reflect this Lenten season as we journey toward the cross, the tomb, the raising. I welcome your thoughts and comments, thank-you for taking the time to visit.

i searched for grace

i searched for grace but
instead i found temptation
in conversation:

he said to you:

turn stones into bread,
leap, angels will bear you up,
world’s yours, bow to me;

you said to him:

does not live by bread,
do not test the Lord your God
worship only him;

i searched for grace in
the midst of temptation
and found salvation

Find more Lenten synchrobloggers over at Godspace

You see, you start out with jest so much caliker. You don’t go to the store and pick it out and buy it, but the neighbors will give you a piece here and a piece there, and you’ll have a pieve left every time you cut out a dress, and you take jest what happens to come. And that’s like predestination. But when it comes to cuttin’ out, why, you’re free to choose your own pattern. You can give the same kind o’ pieces to two persons, and one’ll make a “nine-patch” and one’ll make a “wild-goose chase”, and there’ll be two quilts made out o’ the same kind o’ pieces, and jest as different as they can be. And that’s jest the way it is with livin’. The Lord sends us the pieces, but we can cut ‘em out and put ‘em together pretty much to suit ourselves – and there’s a heap more in the cuttin’ out and the sewin’ than there is in the caliker.¹

1. From the forward of Smokehouse Ham, Spoon Bread, & Scuppernong Wine by Joseph E. Dabney [↩]