substitutes

“Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desire, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

C.S. Lewis

What have you settled for? What mud pies are you making while your holiday at the ocean awaits? Anytime you settle for less than what God wants for you….anytime you settle for less than who God means for you to be, you are playing with mud pies. Ask Him to give you a glimpse of the ocean…the desire to ‘go on your holiday’ and the ability to experience infinite joy.

Grace and peace,
Deb

waiting

This is a beautiful poem speaking of the virtue of waiting. Allow yourself to sit with it today and see where God may be speaking to you.

Slowly,
she celebrated the sacrament of letting go
first she surrendered her green
then the orange, yellow and red
finally she let go of her brown
shedding her last leaf
she stood empty and silent, stripped bare.
leaning against the winter sky
she began her vigil of trust.

Shedding her last leaf
she watched its journey to the ground.
she stood in silence
wearing the color of the emptiness,
her branches wondering:
how do you give shade with so much gone?
And then,
the sacrament of waiting began.
The sunrise and sunset watched with tenderness.
clothing her with silhouettes
they kept her hope alive.

They helped her understand that
her vulnerability
her dependence and need
her emptiness
her readiness to receive
were giving her a new kind of beauty.
Every morning and every evening
they stood in silence
and celebrated together
the sacrament of waiting!

Macrina Wiederkehr

Grace and peace,
Deb

sabbath

no post today ~ enjoy your sabbath

awareness

One thing I want to increase is my awareness of God. I seem to forget that He is always near me, always speaking to me, always loving me. It’s like the verse in James that talks about a man (or woman!) looking in a mirror and then walking away and forgetting what he, or she, looks like. It seems like that sometimes, for me. There are things I know about God and about how He wants to be with me. I can think about it, talk about it, experience it and then within ten minutes, forget it. I don’t forget-forget, but it leaves my awareness.

I had written this in my journal;

“Our striving to be close to God is not so much a journey of finding Him but it is more of a journey of consciousness. He is here and He is in me in all the fullness I could ever imagine but I am not aware of the depth of it…right now I can see only glimpses of it…glimpses of heaven.”


My prayer today is that I would be more and more aware of God’s presence and movements in my life. I love praying a prayer that I know is close to God’s heart.

Consider taking a few moments this day to invite God to allow you to have a deeper consciousness of Him and His presence as He gives you glimpses of heaven.

Blessings,
Deb

There will be no post tomorrow as I am on retreat....

sing

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentations;
I hear the real though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I am clinging;
while love is Lord o’er heaven and earth how can I keep from singing?

Tradition Quaker Hymn

Sing your song today.

Grace and peace, Deb

creativity

“And what of the human heart’s capacity to understand God? Here we need the help of passionate visionaries such as Dostoevsky. Sacred scripture is too important to be left exclusively to biblical scholars. Theology is too vital to be consigned solely to the province of theologians. To explore the depths of the God who invites our trust, we need artists and mystics……”

“Send in the artists, mystics and clowns. Their fertile imagination pours the new wine of the gospel into fresh wineskins (Luke 5:38). With fresh language, poetic vision and striking symbols, they express God’s inexpressible Word in artistic forms that are charged with the power of God, engaging our minds and stirring our hearts as they flare and flame.”

Brennan Manning, Ruthless Trust




I have many friends who are artists. Some act, some write, some paint, some draw, some make jewelry, some sing. I am always in awe of them. I draw ‘stick’ people. I paint walls. I make very basic jewelry that may fall apart by the end of the day. I have done some acting, some singing and some writing but I have never really considered myself an artist. Until recently.

God has given one of my friends a vision of providing a place for regular people like you and me, to discover the artist within. She believes that we all have an artistic side. We just need encouragement and a safe place to experiment. She sees each of us as an expression of God’s creativity and we, being made in God’s image, have that same creativity inside. Hmmm….maybe I am an artist. My ‘stick’ people may just have a beauty all their own.

What is inside of you waiting for the chance to express itself? Have you tried and been discouraged by someone else's comment or even your own voice telling you that you are not an artist? I invite you to listen to what God is calling you to…and how He wants you to express it. Remember…you’re expressing what is inside of you for the audience of One.

And...check out deAnn's website ( my artist friend) at http://blog.verticalcreativity.org/

grace and peace,
Deb

desire

Do you really want to live your lives,
every moment of your lives, in His Presence?
Do you long for Him? Crave Him?
Do you love His Presence?
Does every drop of blood in your body love Him?
Does every breathe you draw breathe a prayer, a praise to Him?
Do you sing and dance within yourselves, as you glory in His love?
Have you set yourselves to be His, and only His,
walking every moment in Holy obedience?

Thomas Kelly
A Testament of Devotion



How can one possibly live like this? For me, it isn’t a lack of desire. I so desire an intimate relationship with God. I know that I don’t ‘breathe a prayer’ every time I draw a breath (at least not consciously). I have ‘gloried’ in His love, at times, but I definitely don’t walk in obedience every waking moment. So, reading something like this can be discouraging.

But, I don’t think God wants us to be discouraged by these words. In fact, I think He wants us to be very encouraged as this is what we can aspire to. I used to give up after a day or two of trying to live up to words like these. In the last several years, I began to sense that God was only asking me to have the desire to live this way. He knows that, because I live in this fallen world, I will continue to struggle with brokenness and sin.

What I’ve noticed is that the more I desire intimacy with Him and set my intention on that, the more I realize I am living closer to the way He wants me to. Less effort, more change. It’s the Holy Sprit working in and through me…it is not because of my own efforts. Not that I don’t need to be open and cooperate with this work but it is so much less work when I let God take the lead.

I invite you to think about asking God to stir that deep desire in you for more intimacy with Him. It will be the beginning of a new season in your spiritual life. If you already have the desire for more, enjoy it and move with it as it takes you into a deeper place of being with Him.
Peace,Deb

life

“Life is just a chance to grow a soul.”

A.Powell Davies

Life is filled with all kinds of stuff. Wow…I must be in a eloquent mood today! But it is true. There are the wonders of family…a great husband, children who actually want to be in my life, grandchildren who bring a new and unexpected joy to my days….to the gift of friendships, rich and textured, speaking love and encouragement into my life….the meaning of vocation, being free to use my gifts and abilities to usher others into a deeper relationship with our Creator…. the presence of beauty, art, music, color, fabric, nature. I could go on and on.

And then there is the part of life that is filled with pain. The loss of life, relationships, youth, hopes, dreams, health. The visions of the world’s groaning…poverty in India, genocide in Darfur, AIDS in Africa. The brokenness of the Fall lived out in Technicolor. Sometimes, it all keeps me awake at night.

But this is the stuff of life. The good, the bad and the ugly. And it is all part of what makes us who we are. Not so much what we experience but how we respond to it.

May you embrace all of it. May you be awake to all of it. May you love deeply and may you hurt over the things that break the heart of God. May your soul be shaped life…a life entwined with God.

Grace and peace,
Deb

empty tombs

“Leave yourself alone. Enter solitude. Be silent. Do your good deeds in secret. Make dead space into holy ground.

You will become less, it’s true. But you will also become more: you will discover your true self and meet more often, lose less often, the Lord of the holy wild. For out of empty tombs and dead spaces comes the living Christ. Be still and know that He is God.”

Mark Buchanan

“For out of empty tombs and dead spaces comes the living Christ”. How encouraging is that? I know that many days, I feel like an empty tomb. I feel as if I’m filled with dead space. I feel as if I don’t have one more good thing to give, to say, to do, left within me.

Those are the days that I know I am trying to do it on my own. I’m not consciously tuning God out…I’m just not being intentional about sitting with Him, about getting myself out of the way. When I try to be present with God, I am so much more aware of Him being the One who works in and through me and that what I am able to do is because of Him. It is in Him that I live and move and have my being.

Today…do you feel like an empty tomb? Do feel like you are hollow inside…filled with only dead space? Remind yourself that the Creator of the universe, the One who made the foundations of the earth, who crafted the mountains and carved out the seas….lives within you. And…that makes you the bearer of the Christ. Move and live and have your being this day resting in that knowledge.

Grace and peace,
Deb

sabbath

no post today ~ please enjoy the sabbath

fresh start

“Is there anyone I can level with? Anyone I dare tell that I am benevolent and malevolent, chaste and randy, compassionate and vindictive, selfless and selfish, that beneath my brave words lives a frightened child, that I dabble in religion and pornography, that I have blackened a friend’s character, betrayed a trust, violated a confidence, that I am tolerant and thoughtful, a bigot and a blowhard, that I hate hard rock?”

Brennen Manning
Ruthless Trust


I think this quote hits home for all of us. I know it does for me. I was reminded of the duality that we struggle with as I had lunch with a friend yesterday. (I know…thoughts resulting from another conversation. Soon, no one will talk to me! So often this is the way God speaks to me, so I think you may see this a lot.) We were talking about how, sometimes, we can hardly believe that God doesn’t just smite us (don’t hear that word everyday, now do ya!), that we both have thoughts, attitudes and behaviors that we know aren’t what God would want of us. But, the amazing thing is that He waits…He waits for us to come around, to acknowledge those things within ourselves, turn back to Him and allow His love to enfold us, once again. He knows that we live and move in a fallen, broken world and that no matter how much we try, we will never be fully whole until we see Him face to face. That means we will never be free of the struggle that Brennan Manning describes but it also means that there is hope and forgiveness found in God’s love.

May today be a fresh start for you. Know that we all struggle with the ‘dark’ stuff in our hearts but also know that God is waiting for you, desiring you to move back toward Him. Allow yourself to experience His love today.

Grace and peace,
Deb

prayer

I am nearing the year mark of beginning this blog. It has been an incredible journey. I have taken some time to go back and look at some of the earlier entries. I've decided to 'recycle' some of the ones I've liked best. So...in the vein of 'truth in advertising', I wanted to let you know, that, occasionally, there may be an entry you vaguely remember. My prayer is that it may seem new to you or it may read very differently because of where you may be in your journey with God. Enjoy....and...there will definitely be new stuff coming as well!

One of my favorite authors is Ken Gire. He has a way of helping me learn to pay attention to the movements of God in my life. He has written numerous devotional books. The first book I read by him is an excellent book called, Seeing What is Sacred: Becoming More Sensitive to the Everyday Moments of Life, (old title - The Reflective Life) that is written, specifically, to help you become more aware.

I want to share a quote from him:

"He[God] has much to say, not only from the Scriptures but from the circumstances of our everyday lives. However prosaic the pages of our lives may seem at first reading, within the lines or in between the lines God may be speaking. Every book we read, every movie we see, every person we talk with, every song we listen to, every moment in our lives, in fact, should be subjects for reflection and could be ways through which God is speaking."


Consider asking God to help you today...help you pay attention to where/how He may be speaking to you, perhaps speaking in ways you had not considered before. Feel free to share what you noticed.

May you see Him in a different way today,

Deb

awareness

One of my favorite authors is Ken Gire. He has a way of helping me learn to pay attention to the movements of God in my life. He has written numerous devotional books. The first book I read by him is an excellent book called, Seeing What is Sacred: Becoming More Sensitive to the Everyday Moments of Life, (old title - The Reflective Life) that is written, specifically, to help you become more aware.

I want to share a quote from him:

"He[God] has much to say, not only from the Scriptures but from the circumstances of our everyday lives. However prosaic the pages of our lives may seem at first reading, within the lines or in between the lines God may be speaking. Every book we read, every movie we see, every person we talk with, every song we listen to, every moment in our lives, in fact, should be subjects for reflection and could be ways through which God is speaking."


Consider asking God to help you today...help you pay attention to where/how He may be speaking to you, perhaps speaking in ways you had not considered before. Feel free to share what you noticed.

May you see Him in a different way today,

Deb

listen

“Contemplative prayer is listening prayer. It is attentiveness. Sometimes when our children talk with us, we wish that they would just listen to us.

That’s what contemplative prayer is. It’s being all ears to what the Father has to say to us. It’s very simple. We are becoming attentive to God. God is interested in us and what we have to say. We learn to become interested in what God has to say to us.”

Richard Foster

In any healthy relationship, there is two way conversation. For many years, my relationship with God revolved around me doing all the talking. It never occurred to me to listen! Now, 90% of my intentional time with God is spent listening. I hear much more and feel the need to talk much less.

Try spending at least half of your time with God today, listening. You may be amazed at what you hear.

Grace and peace,
Deb

shhhhhh

"But the LORD is in his holy Temple.
Let all the earth be silent before him.”

Hab 2:20 NLT


Silence. What a rare commodity. I am more and more convinced that living a life of intimacy with Jesus is near impossible without the commitment to spending time in silence.

Without it, we can do his work, we can talk about him, we can study him. But to hear his voice, we must learn to be still…to listen…to be silent. Unfortunately, we settle for work, talk and study. Somehow it seems easier.

If silence is new to you, begin with one minute a day. Just sit…no noise, no outward distractions. Just sit. That’s all.

Shhhhhhh,
Deb

heaven

Heaven is all around us...we only need to look.

Grace and peace,
Deb

sabbath

no post today ~ enjoy your sabbath

sit

“If we begin to worship and come to God, again and again by meditating, by reading, by prayer, and by obedience, little by little God becomes known to us through experience. We enter into familiarity with God, and by tasting how sweet the Lord is we pass into . . loving God, not for our own sake, but for Himself.”

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

When is the last time you “experienced” God? When is the last time you felt His love for you? When is the last time you sensed Him speaking to you?

If you haven’t experienced God this way, consider spending some time in silence, every day. Begin with several minutes and add time as it seems right. Let your only request during that time be “God… I want to meet with you here, in this moment”…and sit.

Even if you ‘feel’ nothing, know that He is answering that simple prayer and that your spirit is being refreshed by Him.

Grace and peace,
Deb

quest

you seem so far away from me today.
just out of reach.
or maybe i’m the one who is out of reach.
out of touch.
what is it that makes you so hard to see?
i need new eyes, spiritual eyeballs that look past
the bills that need paying
and the car that needs fixing
and the emails that keep coming
to see what lies beyond.
eyes that can see in the dark.
and through the dark
to you.

i’ve been looking
in the wrong place all this time –
in myself rather than in you,
within this world rather than
beyond it where the kingdom
of God resides, where you live,
and secretly smile at my shortsightedness –
and wait.
i’m glad you’re so patient.

quest


Steven James

tears

Help me, O God,
give me the courage to cry.
Help me understand that tears bring
freshly washed colors arching across the soul,
colors that wouldn’t be there apart from the rain.
Help me to see in the prism of my tears,
something of the secret of who I am.
Give me the courage
not only to see what those tears are revealing
but to follow where they are leading.
And help me to see,
somewhere over the rainbow,
that where they lead me is home….

Ken Gire

caring

“To care means first of all to be present to each other. From experience you know that those who care for you become present to you. When they listen, they listen to you. When they speak, you know they speak to you. And when they ask questions you know it is for your sake and not for their own. Their presence is a healing presence because they accept you on your terms, and they encourage you to take your own life seriously….”

Henri Nouwen

Who does this for you? Who is this presence in your life? Who do you allow to speak into your life with truth and grace? If you are fortunate enough to have this, offer up a word of thanks to God. If you don’t, offer up a prayer asking Him to send someone to you.

Grace and peace,
Deb

a date

This past weekend, during our retreat, one of the gals brought a movie called The Perfect Stranger, about a girl who is invited to a date with Jesus. I didn’t watch it because I had a date with my bed. :0)

But it made me think. What would it look like to plan a date with Jesus? This idea could revolutionize what has formerly been known as ‘quiet time’. Whenever I hear ‘quiet time’ I think of a formula I must follow. It conjures up visions of a pre-determined set of activities to go through. Read my Bible, say my prayers and be on my way.

But a date with Jesus? That seems mysterious and unpredictable. It also seems inviting and sweet. I envision it as me showing up and letting Him set the agenda. What does He want to do? What does He want to talk about? How does He want me to respond?

I am looking forward to this. I think I set out some wine and cheese, and definitely chocolate, and wait with anticipation for Him to meet me there.
Consider carving out some time to have a date with Jesus. Do your part….set the time aside and set the mood to meet with Him. Then just sit in His presence and listen to Him as he tells you He loves you.

Grace and peace,
Deb

love

“I began to wonder if becoming a Christian did not work more like falling in love than agreeing with a list of true principles.”

Donald Miller

I just returned from a retreat where we focused on God’s love for us…not as a group but individually. Most of the women there have known Jesus for years, but few of them have fallen in love with Him or feel deeply loved by Him. I have had the privilege of witnessing the transformation that has occurred when I began to grasp that I am deeply loved by God. When I began to feel that He loved me, intimately, uniquely, I could begin to trust Him with my entire heart. I could trust Him with my family, my calling, my fears, my hurts, my insecurities……you fill in the blank. As I feel more secure in His love, I won’t scream for recognition, be undone by slights, be jealous over the accomplishments of others. I long for this. I see it happening on some days and fall woefully short on others.
How is it between you and Jesus? Do you know a lot about Him but struggle to feel His love? Ask Him to allow you to abandon yourself to Him, to become so secure in His love that you will stop looking to other things to fulfill you.

Grace and peace,
Deb

sabbath

no post today ~ enjoy your sabbath

love

“God doesn’t want me to try to become more loving. He wants me to absorb his love so that it flows out from me. Only love is capable of genuine transformation. Willpower is inadequate. Thomas Merton reminds us that the root of Christian love is not the will to love but the faith to believe that one is deeply loved by God. Embarking on the journey of Christian spiritual transformation is enrolling in the divine school of love. Our primary assignment in this school is not so much study and practice as it is letting ourselves be deeply loved by our Lord.”

David Benner

How are you doing at letting yourself be deeply loved by God?

Grace and peace,
Deb

questions

“To be a Christian does not mean knowing all the answers; to be a Christian means being willing to live into the part of the self where the question is born.”

Wendy M. Wright

There was a time in my life when I felt as if I needed to have all the answers…in case a friend…or worse yet, someone who was searching out the faith, asked me about something. What would it say if I didn’t have the answer they were looking for? Would it reflect badly on God?

I have come to a place in my life where I am much more comfortable living in the questions. I love the God of mystery and He holds all the answers. What I can do is to be with others as they learn to live the questions.

Grace and peace,
Deb

presence

“God is always present – we’re the ones who show up.”

Rob Bell

Have you ever thought about the way we pray when we get toether? We ask God, “Please be present with us.” We are asking for something that already is. He is always present with us. Would not a truer prayer be…God, please help us to be present!”? We are the ones who live, most times, without awareness of how God is present.

May you, today, have a new awareness of God’s presence in your life.

May you see Him in all that you do, in everyone that you talk to, in everything you read, see or hear.

And, may you rest in the knowledge that He is always closer to you than your breath.

Grace and peace,
Deb

may it be

“Blessed woman, who believed what God said, believed every word would come true.”

Luke 1:45 the message

Words for Mary, words for me.
May it be as You have said.
May it be as You will.
May I be attentive to Your hand
and it’s movement in my life.
And…may I move in rhythm with you.

Grace and peace,
Deb

what grows?

An old Cherokee chief is teaching his grandson about life:

"A fight is going on inside me," he said to the boy. "It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves.

"One is evil - he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, self-doubt, and ego.

"The other is good - he is joy, peace, love, hope,
serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

"This same fight is going on inside you - and inside every other person, too."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?"

The old chief simply replied, "The one you feed."

Which one do you feed???


Grace and peace,
Deb

heart song

“A friend is one who knows my heart’s song and sings it back to me when I have forgotten it.”

Unknown

I count my friends to be gifts from God. It is amazing to me that there people in this world who do not have any obligation to be with me. They actually choose to have me in their life. And, they take the time to remind me why. They speak truth into my life. They encourage, challenge and love me.

I can only hope that I brings as much to their lives as they bring to mine.

Thank you to all those women who speak into my life….who sing my heart song back to me when I have forgotten it.

Love,
Deb

sabbath

no post today ~ enjoy your sabbath