Self-portrait – photo above.
So, how do we add some unexpected color to our lives?
(How do you need to add some color to your life?)
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new. It’s bursting out! . . . (Don’t you see it?)
My writing reaches people in 65 countries, so be uniquely you and join in with what everyone else is doing!
Last time we briefly touched on ecological mysteries that can both inspire us and are better left never thinking about again.
People in over 50 countries read my online writing, so be uniquely you and join in with what everyone else is doing!
Not so spiritual mysteries!
Spiritual mysteries always add a drop of water to our parched throats, and yet also increase our spiritual thirst for more.
Feeling like your spiritual life is a desert, and you haven’t seen any rain for a long time for your little seeds planted deep, that you desperately hope will emerge someday?
No problem.
Let the rain of God’s presence water the spiritual garden He has planted within you, as you meditate and chew on some more spiritual mysteries, including these three today:
I already definitively proved last time that apricots (and by extension – YOU!) are a profound mystery.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out . . . Body and soul, I am marvelously made! . . . You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Think about how AMAZING you are1 for a bit!
And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all.
There are . . . things that amaze me . . . that I don’t understand . . . how a man loves a woman.
Which reminds me – my husband and I are celebrating 25 years of marriage this month! Yes, marriage is hard at times2, but don’t worry – if you take my advice, such as that given (for FREE!!) HERE and HERE, you’ll find out that marriage isn’t really that hard, after all, for example! Oh! And don’t forget to lean hard on God and beg Him for help! That never hurts, if you are looking for more help than what I’ve already given in the articles I’ve linked to here!
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
I speak about the mystery of death HERE and HERE. Nothing ushers us into an awareness of the spiritual realm more than FINALLY admitting that this event MIGHT EVEN (!) happen to me (not JUST others! For example!), ONE DAY.
Behold! I tell you a mystery . . . . the dead will be raised . . . then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory. . . O death, where is your sting?”
But there’s better news than a black box and the lights going out forever, friends! It’s NOT just death, but something cool after death! Yah!
As the song below sings, “if eternal life is worth living, shouldn’t it start now?” consider pausing for a moment and sitting in the quiet space where the love of God is being poured out, like water from a tap. Got time to adjust your position and skooch a little more to the left (or right?) by adjusting our mindset so we can sit just under that tap for a bit, friend? Nothing turbocharges our spiritual journey like a drop of God’s love.
May you receive this love, poured out from the unstoppable faucet, today, friend, as you take a moment to meditate on the spiritual truths that are all around us, but that we are often too blind3 to see.
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credits: It’s Dry Out There, Some Days! by Clark Wilson on Unsplash, Wait, Water Was There All Along? by David Ballew on Unsplash
1 And by extension how AMAZING I am!
2 (Mostly because of HIM, I’m sure!)
So today we’re talking about mysteries.
Ecology has many mysteries that are a delight to plumb. For example, read about the wonder of amazing dragonflies HERE. And learning about some of the ecological mysteries of the dragonfly encouraged me on my life journey.
Click HERE to continue reading.
People in 58 countries (!) have read my online writing, so be uniquely you and join in with what everyone else is doing!
I’m mad at you! At all of you with a child over seventeen years old who left home! I hate you all! Why didn’t you tell me it would be this hard to say goodbye when they left for college!?
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Join people in fifty-eight countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
At church this weekend, thirty people turned away from their old lives and chose to embrace a new life of following Jesus.
Yup. Thirty new people of all ages and socio-economic classes. And the normal size of that church is about 150 people.
That’s a shocking amount of growth in just one week.
What happened?
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
Well, we (about twenty-four of us plus about 10 visitors from the United Kingdom) put down our iPads and buckets of ice cream, which is how we all normally spend our Saturdays, and instead struck up conversations with strangers. We spent about half an hour per day doing this over three days.
Instead of a pie in the face, we were shocked by the incredibly warm reception we received.
“A couple of Christians stopped to help us after my brother was hit by a car right here at this intersection,” one stranger named Mark told us in the first two minutes. He gratefully and lovingly recalled the care shown to him by the Christians. Mark continued, “Then the Christians got mad at the person who drove right by without stopping, yelling, ‘Hey! Slow down! Why don’t you stop? Can’t you see this person needs help?’ ”
Mark continued with his story, “Yah. Those Christians were loving and fierce at the same time. No matter how the movies portray Christians, they’re awesome!” I stood up a little straighter.
I’ve never met this guy, and he already likes me!
“Hey, why don’t we pray for you?” I offered Mark. I probably looked exactly like Ned Flanders right then, eager and sincere (in fact, I usually look just like that!), but I didn’t care just then!
“No thanks, I’m fine. Thanks for the offer!” He waved, and we parted, friends. “Wow! People like us!” I thought.
I didn’t even know that people liked me!
And with another stranger named Joel, his blue eyes pierced my soul as my husband gently assured him that Jesus loved him, after Joel unburdened his heart in the first five minutes of conversation. “No, thanks, not right now,” Joel continued. He didn’t want to commit to becoming a Jesus follower right then1, but our hearts shared some love and some joy on that street, rather than the glance before sweeping past each other, as is the normal custom among strangers.
Why not share our hearts, our joy, and our excitement about following Jesus on a journey with a few others?
Oh! And Jesus healed two people as we prayed for them in Jesus’ name, as well, which was also pretty cool. But that story is for another time. (It turns out that realizing that Jesus has given us authority to heal others in his name cracks open a bit more of the gift of healing he offers to all who love Him. That’s also sort of a bit awesome.)
And so after a few of us put our phones away for that half hour three times that week, and Oh – after we purged our own demons from our souls in prayer and lovingly listened to each other and prayed for each other just before hitting the streets (That’s another story) – a bunch of new people joined us at the church that Saturday night, to have a little taste of God.
Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see – how good God is.
It turns out that when we shave away the extra stuff we add to Jesus, people are actually super hungry for the food Jesus offers.
Who knew!
Hey! Got time for church? Top tip: Don’t look for a church BUILDING but a church COMMUNITY.
Find one that is learning together, to find and to eat the food of love He offers to satisfy the soul, and then ask them for a bite! Because when we do this, and try to love each other and those around us, well, Hey! Heaven breaks out sometimes!
Like it did that Saturday night, as many of us took to dancing during one of the praise songs to Jesus. Why not? We have been set free!
We might as well dance!
And that’s when about thirty more people2, most of them plucked off the streets and invited inside after half an hour or less of conversation, experienced the love of God.
And they will never be the same.
And neither will we.
As the song below sings, “We cry out for revival,” consider asking God if the cost of “pure hearts” (I.e., forgiving the IDIOTS in your church and family that you know, for example) is a price worth paying for spiritual revival in this season?
(It may just be.)
Oh!
AND having a cool place to go after you die is another awesome reason to pick up the phone when God calls you!3
You’re welcome!
Good luck!
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – Church is Cool! (Who Knew?) by Vince Fleming on Unsplash
1 We realized later that Joel DID want to become a follower of Jesus right then, but we misunderstood his French accent. Sorry about that, Joel! Better luck next time you pour out your heart to strangers, wherever you are in the world, friend Joel!
2 We have a picture of them, but I didn’t include it here because not everyone wants to be associated with my online writing for some reason! But please! I don’t ALWAYS say funny things about my friends and family online! “Have a bit of trust!” is what I told them!
My last post definitely proved that I am a good mother!
If that weren’t enough proof, check out this mug my daughter purchased for me!1
And now that I have established my authority as an excellent mom, let me tell you what I learned about becoming a slightly better Mom!
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Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
So previously I talked about the day that our child received the diagnoses of:
So clearly, the night skies weren’t predicting clear skies and smooth sailing for this child. These diagnoses were the first true storm that woke us up to trouble ahead. Up until that day, we thought our growing feeling of seasickness was due more to our own queasy stomachs than to the ominous, ongoing waves of the sea that were making us feel unwell.
Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
I was devastated by these diagnoses in all honesty. Our beautiful, kind daughter, the one who tried so hard, loved so completely, and who still had her whole life in front of her, seemed to be in a fog most of the time.
We tried to wake her up with “Enrichment Activities” the experts recommended when she was a baby, but she still slept for 20 hours a day, piling up her milestones behind her while she slept.
It seemed that the horizon of her future would be truncated and shorter than the full expanse that we hope for each of our children.
What now? We were ushered into the new world of “Autism and Special Education” appointments with experts, which were like annoying fire alarms set into our otherwise peaceful homeschooling days. Having fun quietly playing a board game with a sibling?
“TOO BAD! You HAVE to go to X appointment RIGHT Now!”
Sometimes, often, she would scream in protest at these new, unwelcome interruptions, but I would force her into the car, strap her seatbelt so she couldn’t resist, and drive away, my supermom cape trailing behind me as I drove.
“Experts knew best!” I reminded myself as I drove! Except when they don’t. And they usually don’t in these situations.
But that’s for another time.
Got a stomach that can handle some seasickness, friend? Maybe take some Gravol for the seasickness before you read on. There.
Are you feeling better?
And now let’s sit for a bit by the seaside before we decide to board that boat together. The journey I am suggesting will require learning some sailing skills and building our physiques. Up for a challenge?
If so, what challenge or storm has surprised you on your journey?
Let’s sit here by the ocean, friend, and ask God for your next steps.
And so, how do we find the path through your storm?
As the song below plays, imagine that Jesus is right next to you. He is! Smile at this knowledge! Do you feel your soul relax? As you ponder the lyrics, “You are the peace in my troubled sea,” or “Your great love will lead me through,” consider sitting in the quiet for a few minutes and asking Jesus, “How can I stand behind You, and then row this boat ashore, with You guiding and directing, to help us sail through this storm?”
And I pray that God leads you through your storm, friend, as you listen closely to Him guiding you.
The journey is a thing, but you’ve got this, holding the hand of the one who walks with us on raging seas and sometimes even calming the seas raging in our lives. Oh! And our child was healed of the negative challenges associated with all of these diagnoses.
But I’ll have to tell you that story another time.
Thanks for liking me! I like you too! – Proven HERE, HERE, and HERE! Let’s journey together!
Photo Credit – Some Storms May Look Like This by Marcus Woodbridge on Unsplash
She was a shell.
She was skinny and sickly, often lost in her little world. Her stomach racked her in pain. Friends were elusive.
She was unhappy, never having (even once!) exploded in childhood giggles that should have been her right.
My husband and I oscillated between worry and confidence that she would grow out of “this.” One of us, either he or I, carried the ball of fear for this child. The ball of concern never went away.
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Join people in over fifty countries who read this! (What? Hey, I don’t know why they read this, either! I think it’s because I’m cool.)
If we’re honest, like I am all the time, we sometimes feel (a bit!) lost or directionless in the fishbowl of life.
Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
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The amaryllis opened its two enormous blossoms this week, just before Easter, revealing pink and white splendor and raising the scent profile of the room to a higher level.
And I am that Amaryllis.
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Join people in over fifty countries who read this to gain valuable life wisdom! (Or maybe they’re just laughing at me? . . . Whatever!)
