Recreation of the Heart

I am seeing more and more each day how the small sacrifices and sufferings that we endure, that we give to God, are preparing our hearts, souls, and minds for the work of God.

Often when I have faced the challenge to sacrifice, I have faced it without hope. I wonder: how could there be good in this? It is also true, that I am often caught in that moment–as if it’s the only moment that has happened or will happen because it feels like that.

In my despair, I may turn inward and try to control or solve something that I can’t control or solve. The sacrifice that I am being called may be just that: to accept the circumstances as they are.

For the day
The sunlight so brilliant
And the air so…
present
The both beckon us
out of bed
to our work at hand
your Kingdom
we are invited by
your Creation
to enter Your Kingdom
Blessed is our God
Christ is Risen.

by Charlotte Keniston

Today the trees are heavy

With flowers and fog
With mist and rain
People are quitting their houses
Just to make it another day

If we were all farmers
We would not be quitting our houses
So soon
Maybe not at all today

I do not know where
My apples and oats come from
Except to say
That they come from the earth
The good earth
Created by the good Lord
It is good to rest this morning
With apples and oats
Piping hot
Like my coffee, too

I am already done sleeping
Having let the day gently roll back the covers
Having laid their for longer than schedule
I found my thoughts wondering
And then settled on this thought for today:

Grace…be with grace today
As much grace as possible

Waves on Rocks by Charlotte Keniston

Today I left my cocoon finally
When I woke up this morning
the fog of my mind lifted
when I went outside
And the song of the streets,
birds, and laughter, and a breeze
lifted my spirit

I’m letting go of thoughts of
who I should be I’m going naked
I’m going to be
I’m just going to be
Barefoot and blessed

Breathe in, breathe out. And you will notice…..

God.

by Char Keniston, http://charlotteinguatemala.blogspot.com

Thanks be to God who brings new life to us daily through Jesus Christ.

I am amazed to see the small ways God is extending grace to us each day.

Even as I write these words, I know that people I know are suffering, are desperate for some hope. Friends are sick, unemployed, facing illegal status or foreclosure.

Let us be for one another instruments of peace…Let us not cease our praying in petitions, advocacy, in silent contemplation, in groaning or weeping

Let us participate in the smallest forms of resistance…with gentleness instead of violence may we approach our neighbor

Bearing witness to the divinity and humanity of God in Christ, let us honor the lives of every one we meet.

Slowly, surely God is making Godself known.

I am sitting in my own chair
in my own house.
It it is good to sit
To read
and take it slow.

So, I sit.
I linger over the words,
meander through the pages
and sip something.

And when I’m still on the inside,
when I’ve found myself again,
I begin to think:
what will this day bring?

It is good to rise and feel the ground
and the wind, cool as it is
Together my two feet and I,
we’ll sink in the soil,
with all its earthy smells

It is good to go out
leave the warmth of the hearth
to carry with you
the warmth of your heart.

Over the weekend, I just couldn’t be winter anymore. So, I left my spot at the coffee shop and found spring. I am done with looking out at the world from in, I decided, and sauntered through the streets in the bright sunlight of the day.

The mysterious healing power of a walk is beyond my comprehension. My busy mind stills as I move and I am blessed by the people I encounter.

Yes, I am blessed by the people I encounter.

Katherine M Schneider.

I turned the corner
And awaiting me was
the uncontrollable, unfathomable
love of God.

All the hardships
Everything that seemed so heavy was
Light as air

I have always wanted to grow up like a tree
with roots deep for weathering storms
and branches that dangle free in breezes

What seemed so hard
Is now
Light as air

In all the snow, I’ve had a great opportunity to pick up some books that I love but never finished. Particularly, a collection called Pilgrim Souls with memoir essays from Christian thinkers and writers all over the world.

The essay that most hit home was “Surprised by Joy” where C.S. Lewis gives us a lens into his childhood and how he experienced what he describes something deeper than pleasure–joy.

He gives us three moments in his life where he experiences the grace of joy–Lewis describes one of these experiences as being child  standing under a currant bush and remembering earlier that morning when his brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery where they played. For no explicit reason, Lewis says he felt a “sensation” or an “Milton’s enormous bliss of Eden”…It was as though some longing that was fullfilled and “everything else that had ever happened to [him] was insignificant.”

I wonder as we reflect on our childhoods if we would be able to remember experiences of joy, an overwhelming feeling of…what the world will be some day. When have we felt Eden?