Compassion & Trust
Personal disasters may be small in the grand scheme, but they are no less devastating for that. Even the smallest wounds should be tended by loving hands. If you care in the small things, people will trust you with their tragedies.
Love & Joy
Love is sharing of an intimate, unpredictable kind. Its beauty cannot be fully seen. Its worth cannot be fully expressed. It is ultimately selfless and abundantly joyful. Joy is more predictable, though less known. Joy is a constant, unending delight in God - even in sorrow, even in the darkness to be felt. It is there, delight battling despair, coming out victorious, though perhaps bruised and bloodied, but all the purer for its wounds. Joy is marked by maturity, by a "settledness" that comes from love - we have joy because Christ loves us with love incorruptible.
Hope & Light
If Christians share Christ only in the good times, and fall into despair and hopelessness in the bad times, then what are they doing? We are not only lamps in light, but in darkness as well - especially darkness. That is where the world will see us shining, and wonder at the sight. They may look at the world and see nothing but shadowed tragedy, but there is light. Christ is the great Challenger of darkness. He has overcome it. Through Him, we have also overcome it. God is not only God in our joy, but in our sorrow too. He keeps His flame burning in us, and we need not fear the pitch.
Thursday, 30 May 2013
Friday, 24 May 2013
Walk out in the moonlight
near the fireside.
Hear the drums, the strumming strings.
Somebody sings to match the cricket symphony.
White picket fences line the trail.
We run on sailing feet.
The wind is fleet around us.
Flying high to carry on
with every song.
There is a story to be told;
a dream unfolds and now
I see you standing still
afraid to move and break the spell.
We'll never tell a soul about this sight.
Near the fireside,
in the moonlight.
Catch a dream in your hands, my dear, and keep it close to you
Forever.
Wednesday, 8 May 2013
What if
What if I began to be mesmerized by beauty?
What if I adored the adorable?
What if I loved the lovable?
In this way what if my love grew more and more, until finally
it overflowed and I could love the unlovable too?
What would happen if I started with the most lovable and spilled down from there?
If I watered others with grace and love, flowing down from the Source, from the Spring, from the Fountain -
God?
God is love.
What if I start with loving God?
From there I would have a strong foundation on which to stand.
From that strong foundation of love to God I would be able to reach out and
to love even those who do not love me in return;
because the source of my love is not found in their love for me,
which can be fickle or nonexistent,
but in God's love for me, which is infinite and neverending.
We rely so much on equal parts in a relationship.
We give only as much as we get, and no more.
What if I gave more?
What if I ventured into the unknown?
What if I exhausted myself in loving others,
poured myself out in showing others the beauty and mercy of
the Beautiful Merciful One?
What if I cared nothing for what I received in return,
only what I could give?
Why am I so afraid?
I want to grip the hands of my Father in heaven and let him twirl me around,
lift me into the air and set me down in a different place -
a place that might even be precarious, were it not for
his steady hands holding me tight.
If I stand on the brink.
If I take a deep breath.
If I plunge in.
What then?
Monday, 6 May 2013
imperishable beauty
...but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. (1 Peter 3:4)
What a humbling verse this is. It rebukes me for my senseless forsaking of the better things. I trade matters of the heart for matters of fashion and outward appearance. I am often just like Narcissus, so wrapped up in myself that I forget others, blind to everything, even my own state.
There are some things I must daily learn and apply in my life:
- hidden
Unlike outward appearance, this adorning is never for show. It is concealed. Often we can have competitions with others regarding how we look on the outside. We are critical beings, gazing with our self-appointed-expert eyes upon others and giving them a thumbs up or down. This adorning, this hidden person of the heart, is an adornment that only God can see. With this hidden adornment, we do not say, "I thank you God that I am not like these terrible-looking other people....", modeling and parading ourselves in front of others in order to raise ourselves just that much higher. Taking care of your outward appearance is fine, but it is far more important to take care of this hidden beauty of the heart.
- imperishable
Physical beauty changes and fades, but this beauty is incorruptible, immortal, never out of style. It is an eternal beauty, which makes it far more important - and far better. Outward beauty is good, and caring for our appearance is not an evil. But we ought to pay attention to the imperishable, spiritual beauty.
- gentle
The first thing about this hidden and imperishable beauty is gentleness. Gentleness is "demonstrating power without undue harshness". It is reserve and strength, power and self-control. It is having power and strength, but restraining it. It is giving a soft touch when you could give a falcon punch.
- quiet
The second thing is quietness. It is being peaceful, tranquil. Steady, "settled due to a divinely inspired inner calmness". It is not lashing out with words and actions, but "keeping one's seat". Being able to control yourself rather than exploding in anger or frustration.
- precious
Of all the reasons to cultivate a gentle and quiet spirit, this is number one: God finds it precious. What he finds precious ought to be our number one desire. That it is precious means it is of great value. Costly. Excellent. Of surpassing worth. In God's sight, a gentle and quiet spirit is very precious. Friends, let us see the value just as God sees it, and let us seek to cultivate this gentleness, this quietness, that we may better represent Christ and better love one another. Amen.
What a humbling verse this is. It rebukes me for my senseless forsaking of the better things. I trade matters of the heart for matters of fashion and outward appearance. I am often just like Narcissus, so wrapped up in myself that I forget others, blind to everything, even my own state.
"Narcissus so himself forsook,
And died to kiss his shadow in the brook."
There are some things I must daily learn and apply in my life:
- hidden
Unlike outward appearance, this adorning is never for show. It is concealed. Often we can have competitions with others regarding how we look on the outside. We are critical beings, gazing with our self-appointed-expert eyes upon others and giving them a thumbs up or down. This adorning, this hidden person of the heart, is an adornment that only God can see. With this hidden adornment, we do not say, "I thank you God that I am not like these terrible-looking other people....", modeling and parading ourselves in front of others in order to raise ourselves just that much higher. Taking care of your outward appearance is fine, but it is far more important to take care of this hidden beauty of the heart.
- imperishable
Physical beauty changes and fades, but this beauty is incorruptible, immortal, never out of style. It is an eternal beauty, which makes it far more important - and far better. Outward beauty is good, and caring for our appearance is not an evil. But we ought to pay attention to the imperishable, spiritual beauty.
- gentle
The first thing about this hidden and imperishable beauty is gentleness. Gentleness is "demonstrating power without undue harshness". It is reserve and strength, power and self-control. It is having power and strength, but restraining it. It is giving a soft touch when you could give a falcon punch.
- quiet
The second thing is quietness. It is being peaceful, tranquil. Steady, "settled due to a divinely inspired inner calmness". It is not lashing out with words and actions, but "keeping one's seat". Being able to control yourself rather than exploding in anger or frustration.
- precious
Of all the reasons to cultivate a gentle and quiet spirit, this is number one: God finds it precious. What he finds precious ought to be our number one desire. That it is precious means it is of great value. Costly. Excellent. Of surpassing worth. In God's sight, a gentle and quiet spirit is very precious. Friends, let us see the value just as God sees it, and let us seek to cultivate this gentleness, this quietness, that we may better represent Christ and better love one another. Amen.
Friday, 3 May 2013
Thursday, 2 May 2013
Hope
Simmering silent in my heart's secret corners, there lie my hopes.
They hide in the depths and the dark.
They have been bruised before.
Not crushed; despair has never yet quite won over my hopes.
There has been no total devastation.
Hope might be a flickering flame, but it is a stubborn one.
It will not so soon be snuffed.
Thursday, 18 April 2013
SORROW AND JOY
Sorrow and joy,
striking suddenly on our startled senses,
seem, at the first approach, all but impossible
of just distinction one from the other,
even as frost and heat at the first keen contact
burn us alike.
Joy and sorrow,
hurled from the height of heaven in meteor fashion,
flash in an arc of shining menace o'er us.
Those they touch are left
stricken amid the fragments
of their colourless, usual lives.
Imperturbable, mighty,
ruinous and compelling,
sorrow and joy
- summoned or all unsought for -
processionally enter.
Those they encounter
they transfigure, investing them
with strange gravity
and a spirit of worship.
Joy is rich in fears;
sorrow has its sweetness.
Indistinguishable from each other
they approach us from eternity,
equally potent in their power and terror.
From every quarter
mortals come hurrying,
part envious, part awe-struck,
swarming, and peering
into the portent,
where the mystery sent from above us
is transmuting into the inevitable
order of earthly human drama.
What, then, is joy? What, then, is sorrow?
Time alone can decide between them,
when the immediate poignant happening
lengthens out to continuous wearisome suffering,
when the laboured creeping moments of daylight
slowly uncover the fullness of our disaster,
sorrow's unmistakable features.
Then do most of our kind,
sated, if only by the monotony
of unrelieved unhappiness,
turn away from the drama, disillusioned,
uncompassionate.
O you mothers and loved ones - then, ah, then
comes your hour, the hour for true devotion.
Then your hour comes, you friends and brothers!
Loyal hearts can change the face of sorrow,
softly encircle it with love's most gentle
unearthly radiance.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
striking suddenly on our startled senses,
seem, at the first approach, all but impossible
of just distinction one from the other,
even as frost and heat at the first keen contact
burn us alike.
Joy and sorrow,
hurled from the height of heaven in meteor fashion,
flash in an arc of shining menace o'er us.
Those they touch are left
stricken amid the fragments
of their colourless, usual lives.
Imperturbable, mighty,
ruinous and compelling,
sorrow and joy
- summoned or all unsought for -
processionally enter.
Those they encounter
they transfigure, investing them
with strange gravity
and a spirit of worship.
Joy is rich in fears;
sorrow has its sweetness.
Indistinguishable from each other
they approach us from eternity,
equally potent in their power and terror.
From every quarter
mortals come hurrying,
part envious, part awe-struck,
swarming, and peering
into the portent,
where the mystery sent from above us
is transmuting into the inevitable
order of earthly human drama.
What, then, is joy? What, then, is sorrow?
Time alone can decide between them,
when the immediate poignant happening
lengthens out to continuous wearisome suffering,
when the laboured creeping moments of daylight
slowly uncover the fullness of our disaster,
sorrow's unmistakable features.
Then do most of our kind,
sated, if only by the monotony
of unrelieved unhappiness,
turn away from the drama, disillusioned,
uncompassionate.
O you mothers and loved ones - then, ah, then
comes your hour, the hour for true devotion.
Then your hour comes, you friends and brothers!
Loyal hearts can change the face of sorrow,
softly encircle it with love's most gentle
unearthly radiance.
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
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