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“Lord, you have chosen me to be in a strange balance. It is a balance that one can only accomplish and hold on to while moving, in a dash. It is a little like a bicycle that cannot stand straight without rolling…Balance is not found riding it in place; it is found in lives lived out and sometimes eventful.” Madeleine Delbrel
“Make known to me your ways, Lord; teach me your paths.” Ps 25: 4
Life can be messy…but do not be afraid…
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Dig in….
Forget about stumbling on the past when you are walking in the present…
Forget about getting lost in the clouds of a future that hasn’t yet arrived.
Be at peace in the “sacrament of the present moment”
Dig into the “I AM”, grace filled now.
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And there find the sweetness of God…the joy of His presence in the messy of the present.
“You will show me the path to life, abounding joy in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever.” Ps 16:11
“They might not need me; but they might.
I’ll let my head be just in sight.
A smile as small as mine might be precisely their necessity.” (Emily Dickinson)
A smile takes such little effort…but given away can become a gift of utmost value.
May your weekend be filled with smiles given and received….they really are contagious you know!
God’s abundant blessings on you and yours this weekend,
The Heart of J
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Patchwork Post…
End of the year shuffle…graduations…traveling guests…days at beach…sunburns and sweet ice tea…friends…heart to heart talks…good news/bad news…joys and trials…laughs and tears…summer heat and barefoot…being grateful…being humbled…to do lists…bucket lists…books that inspire…”Word”s that convict…kaleidoscope skies…sleepy saturdays…zumba and park runs…prayer and presence…dogs and lemonade…stray kittens…going fast…going slow…family…taking deep breaths…inhaling/exhaling…joy in the eyes….laughter in the voice…fresh peaches…juicy tomatoes…flowers galore…fresh cut grass…the smell of jasmine…whirlwind days…everything’s connected…all is Grace…
the Stuff of “Life”…
Busy but Beautiful…
Bountiful and Blessed…
A “Gallimaufry”… (isn’t that a fun word?!)
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“I will praise you, Lord, with all my heart; I will declare all your wondrous deeds. I will delight and rejoice in you; I will sing hymns to your name, Most High. ” Ps 9:2-3
I’m knee deep in the “gallimaufry” of life…but promise to be back soon! From the Heart of J!
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Mothers hold their children’s hands for just a short time….
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But hold their children’s hearts forever!
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Happy Mother’s Day to all those women who share the gift of their Mother’s Heart with the world.
May you be blessed abundantly for the love you share.
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“Jesus,
I am one worn out tired branch…
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And I need the newness of the vine of you to start the hope-life running through the streams of me again.
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Lord, be my vine and I’ll be your branch…
But free me please from this withered cut off feeling…
And deliver others from the pain I carve into their branches.
Let your life-giving sap of grace flow into me constantly
That I become unable to survive without it.”
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(poem by Macrina Wiedrekehr and adapted by Tiny McPhillips)
“Remain in me, as I remain in you. Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.” John 15:4-5
If you aren’t a writer…be the story.
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If you aren’t an artist be the paint.
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If you aren’t a sculptor be the clay.
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If you aren’t a singer be the song.
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If you aren’t a dancer be the moves.
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If you aren’t an athlete be the fan.
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Discover “YOU”… the real version.
Because if you aren’t “YOU”…there is no such thing as a counterfeit!
“In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the one who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ.” Eph 1″ 111-12
Is “Wholeness” perfection?
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Or rather in this life is “wholeness” realizing we are sinners doing the best we can,
falling and getting back up as we journey through the chaos of the world?
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Always, however, embraced in His love and mercy.
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“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you everybody else,
means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight;
and never stop fighting.” (E.E. Cummings)
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“Have mercy on me, God, have mercy on me. In you I seek shelter. In the shadows of your wings I seek shelter till harm pass by.” Ps 57:2
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“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings glad tidings, announcing peace, bearing good news, announcing salvation, and saying to Zion, “Your God is King.” is 52:7
The deeds you do may be the only sermon some hear today! (St. Francis of Assisi)
Blessings on your weekend, fromtheheartofj
Outside in …the world shouts in a cacaphony of voices…
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Inside out…the small still voice within steers our steps.
image via askgramps.org
Outside in…relentless forces push and pull in confusion and deceit…
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Inside out…flows forth the waters of grace that transform our senses to taste and see how good the Lord is.
image via njtu.org
Outside in…the spirit of the world.
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Inside out…the Divine Indwelling
image via oneyearbibleblog.com
How will you choose to walk this day?
“We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God.” 1 Co 2:12
through Him with Him in Him... 