Moments

  Do our circumstances determine our attitude?  Is the weather in our lives the determinant of how we feel about life, how we embrace life, how we see God? Do we resent having to go through all these hardships when you supposedly gave your heart and life to a loving God?   Are we living by feeling rather than faith? Or, are we content in our faith no matter the circumstances?  Are we at peace, and like Paul, who said he learned that in whatever state he was in, to be content? In doing so, do we move closer to a life lived by faith? Have we fully submitted our lives to God and trust God, no matter what?  It's not that easy sometimes. It's a learning and growing experience, and it means allowing God's power to  come into our weakness so He can give us the power to "do all things through Him that strengtheneth me."  Amen

    In our darkest moments, we don’t need solutions or advice.   What we yearn for is simply human connection- a quiet presence, a gentle touch.   These small gestures are the anchors that hold us steady when life feels like too much.   Please don’t try to fix me.   Don’t take on my pain or push away my shadows.   Just sit beside me as I work through my own inner storms.   Be the steady hand I can reach for as I find my way My pain is mine to carry, my battles mine to face.   But your presence reminds me I’m not alone in this vast, sometimes frightening world.   It’s a quiet reminder that I am worthy of love, even when I feel broken.   So, in those dark hours when I lose my way, will you just be here?   Not as a rescuer, but as a companion. Hold my hand until the dawn arrives, helping me remember my strength.   Your silent support is the most precious gift you can give.   It's a love that helps me remember who I...

  Inside me is another person.   That person is greater than myself.   He is the person I aspire to be. The person I could be, but haven’t reached quite high enough yet.      My performances and conduct are constantly being monitored by him for his approval or disapproval.   He is not a conscience.   Right or wrong are involved, but not in the traditional sense.   What is traditionally called right or wrong is often contradicted by my other self.   I find myself doing the right thing according to him and the wrong thing according to traditional concepts of right and wrong.     Pleasing everyone else is not nearly as important to me as pleasing this “other self,” this higher self, that I am called to be.   This self is hard to live with when I let him down.   Therefore, my performance and or behavior is not necessarily judged in terms of others, but in respect of how good he thinks I can or should be.   ...

 Read this in a Charles Stanley brochure called "A Quiet Heart."   I found it inspirational and encouraging as well as challenging.  "The Lord isn't asking you to move mountains.  He's asking you to be faithful in the little things, to be present where He's placed you.  The outcome isn't your job.  Showing up and letting Him work through you is." Showing up and letting Him work through me; my challenge and my calling this day. It would seem to do so I would need to surrender more of myself to Him.  In fact, I need to surrender it all.  Like the song says, "I surrender all.  All to Him I owe."  I owe all, and that is the quantity to be faithful; I must surrender.  Jesus paid it all, not some, not almost all.  He surrendered all.   Lord help me surrender all this day .

  The day started cold and clear in central Texas.  A calm day with a deep blue sky and fall crispy in the air.  The kind of day that makes the calves run and play:  the kind of day that is living in the country at its best.  Cutting firewood with a lifelong friend, bending the back, swinging the axe, good conversation, laughter, heavy wood, and the feel and sound of the wood cracking at the strike of the axe.  Ah, what a great axe.  It has been in the shed, silent and still, for over a year, but today it is the star performer, an object of praise and appreciation.  There was no stopping the work. This day, like the relentlessly fading daylight, just won’t last.  As dusk settles, quietly bringing crisp fall air, only a pile of lifeless wood and a settled place inside ourselves is left to commemorate this day.  It was a good day; indescribably good, without a good reason for it being so.  Without a known reason, reflection upon the...

  Be the man you have always wanted to be," That is the wording of some spam sent to me, suggesting I get their product to pump up my masculinity, so to speak. I smiled. But something about the phrase made me think a little deeper. Am I the man I have always wanted to be? Setting aside the masculinity stuff, I pondered the question. I thought back over all I have done; all the places within and without that I have been, and the direction I am heading; the path I am on. Am I the man I have always wanted to be? Goodness! But I have taken a lot of wrong turns; done some things I needed a lot of forgiveness for. I have made enough mistakes and fallen often enough that I just have to laugh at myself. But, I have been forgiven, and I have been freed; picked up and set aright, and put back on course. Now, with most of my lifetime behind me, my days are drawing closer to the finish line. It brings forth the vision of me at the end of a race. It is night. Lights are beaming all around....