Category Archives: Religion and Spirituality

Be a Shout of Color…

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Picture Credit: Julianne Jackson

The fallen azalea flower…

far removed from its mother bush.

Bright pink, but face down in all the muck and mud that gathers before the opening of the drainage ditch.

Just the gentlest of showers could carry it into that darkest of places – forgotten.

But for now it is a shout of color within the dirty debris.

Being itself in the midst…as it is called to be…as it needs to be.

“Be who you are and be that well in order to honor the Master whose handiwork you are.” St. Francis de Sales

“When they walk through the valley of weeping, it will become a place of refreshing springs.”

 

+It has been awhile since I have posted on this blog and I hope now to return more regularly.  I have weekly been posting on my professional blog at http://www.lifelinesmobile.org/blog and you are welcome to visit me there. And yet I have missed this place, this bit of Godly sanctuary, and each of you my readers. I’m learning that in work we often wear seatbelts. I see God so connected in the all about me, it blesses me (and I h0pe you as well) to share those bits of light. In this crazy, mixed up world we need to remember God is with us. He is Emmanuel, and we in turn are called to be those shouts of color…that hope for the weary.

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Ready…Set…Go

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Isn’t life to be a verb?…

Do you hide from the negative?…From the chaotic, messy of life?

Engage the world with the unique gift of You…

That one of a kind fingerprint of you can help to hold down the noisy negatives…

Engage the world with the unique gift of You…

The world needs you…

Ready to move?…

Ready…Set…Go!

“The nation doesn’t simply need what we have. It needs what we are.” Edith Stein

A New Invitation…

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picture credit: J Jackson

picture credit: J Jackson

Suppose as you woke this morning, as you first opened your eyes, an image of Jesus with an outstretched hand was before you.

His outstretched hand reaching out to you in invitation…

How would this affect your day? Would you live your day differently?

Specifically, what would His hand outstretched in invitation say to you personally?

COME WITH ME…

In your fears of the day…in your worries…in your trials…in your concerns…in your difficult moments

I AM WITH YOU…

In your joys of the day…in your ponderings…in your prayers…in your conversations…in the movements of your day…in the everything of your day…

 I AM WITH YOU…

And yet, each day is a new beginning, filled with new graces, a new calling, a new invitation to take hold of His hand and walk…a new day with Him, Lord and Savior.

Yes, this day, Jesus with His hand outstretched to you in invitation is truly before you…

How will you live your day differently?

A Cheerful Giver…

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Mother Teresa of Calcutta once said…

“When I see someone sad, I always think, she is refusing something to Jesus.”

This quote has really touched my spirit. I think of the little annoyances throughout the day…or the larger trials all of our lives are punctuated with, and I think how easy it is to become sad or discouraged. Isn’t this an indication that I am trying to do things my way?

She goes on to say…

“Cheerfulness is often a cloak which hides a life of sacrifice, continual union with God, fervor and generosity.”

God loves a cheerful giver…and it is in giving to Him all that befalls us, that we discover deep and lasting joy. And it is this joy that is our strength. May this day we live the joy that is the fruit of the “blessedness of submission”, refusing nothing to our God… even our daily annoyances.

Everywhere You Go…

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kindness

A friend once told me that one of the most lasting lessons of wisdom her father taught her was,

“Everywhere you go, leave it a better place”

This has always stuck with me. What if we all adopted this mentality? …

“Everywhere you go leave it a better place”.

What would this look like? Remembering to say thank you to someone who has assisted you in any way, smiling at those who cross your path, pausing to say a kind word to someone whose day is troubled, offering to help when an extra set of hands is needed, really listening to another without any distractions, telling someone you love them when they least expect it…leaving everywhere you go a better place could take on so many different directions. It’s certainly something to think about…

“Everywhere you go, leave it a better place”

I challenge you today!

Risen…

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Deeper than feelings is the conviction that Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior…

A conviction not just spoken but lived…

This is the core of the peace beyond all human understanding we carry within…

For we are immersed in Him…the Great I AM.

He is risen today so that we may have life.

A Glorious and Joyful Easter to all!

Walking Into the Son…

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picture credit: from the heart of j

picture credit: from the heart of j

Early morn…first day of spring…nip in the air…

I began my morning praise walk beseeching the Lord to “open my lips and let my mouth declare His glory.

The sun was bright as I walked into its warmth…

And I thought…a  perfect posture as Holy Week begins…

Walking into the “Son”.

Walking into the presence of the Son as the steps of His passion are retraced…Walking into His light…Walking into His warmth…Walking into His Love…Walking into His mercy…walking into His glory…walking ever deeper into the Heart of He who is Our Savior.

May we all walk into the radiance of the Son this Holy Week and let the glory of His love for us change us ever new.

Break Down or Build Up…

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change

In the face of major, unexpected change…

whether within a significant relationship, a place of employment, within a family…

in the midst of all the emotional turmoil and chaos that results…

one is asked…

Will you be a part of the break-down or the build-up?

As Christians we are called to build up the kingdom…those who persecuted Jesus chose to be part of the break down.

In this world of unpredictable change and instability…have you asked yourself…

Am I part of the break-down… or the building up?

What does that look like?

“Just one thing: forgetting what lies behind but straining forward to what lies ahead, I continue my pursuit toward the goal, the prize of God’s upward calling, in Christ Jesus.” Phil 3: 14

Epiphanies…in the Here and Now

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image via from the heart of j

image via from the heart of j

“Upon you the Lord shines…and over you appears His glory…”(Is 60:2)

This seems such a beautiful description of heaven…and yet if heaven is in the here and now, then the Lord is shining upon you and me…and over you and me appears His glory.

In the here and now…

You, me, all of God’s children…

In the here and now…

“Your heart shall throb and overflow…” (Is 60:5)

For truths such as these are the epiphanies of life…when it’s as if we bump into the eternal love of God and our hearts swell through Him, with Him and in Him.

In the epiphanies of life we more deeply discover what it means to be His Beloved.

My Lord, give us eyes that see and hearts that soar!

Blessings on this Feast of the Epiphany …to you and yours…in the here and now.

Holy Haste of the Spirit…

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image via from the heart of j

image via from the heart of j

Holy Haste of the Spirit? …or…Hectic Haste of the Holidays?

Holy Haste through the hill country of charity?…or…Hectic Hate through the mall of much?

Mary demonstrates to us the holy haste through the hill country of Judah to assist her cousin Elizabeth in her time of need.

Are we pursuing the holy haste that leas us to the gift of the nativity?…or the Hectic Haste that leads to the spinning of our wheels breathless in the holiday huff and puff?

It is one of those profound mysteries that in the holy haste of charity, there is a hint of that peace of timelessness that slows down our busy bodies because it connects us the holy hush of Christmas eternal.

May your holy haste this week be blessed.

John Lewis, on online retailer in the UK, recently released their 2015 Christmas Commercial and the video has gone viral. I think because many can relate. It’s about a girl named Lily who after looking through a telescope discovers the man in the moon. She is determined to let him know that someone is thinking of him. John Lewis has produced this commercial to bring awareness to the over a million senior citizens who will go the next holiday month without talking to a single person. See the video below…it will certainly inspire your Hoy Haste!