Peace Rose Offering for Nicholas

Spring: when buds turn to blossoms.We expect that; It is the order of things. But then life happens and turns predictable patterns on end.

Vibrant colors and beauty still surround us, even on the fraying hem of a week that quickly came unraveled by bombings and unexpected events in our nation--and more private grief and loss this weekend among dear friends that the news feeds would never pick up--and we still move forward. We inch toward a new day, "...inch by inch, row by row" in  "Garden Song":  nice and slow.

Sometimes there's no other way.

We press on because we have to, because there is no going back.

Pullin' weeds and pickin' stones
We are made of dreams and bones
Need a place to call my own
'Cause the time is close at hand

Sometimes in the garden of life--somewhere between the dreaming and the coming true--those dreams collide. We face the hard reality of the dry bones portion of life and too many abrupt endings.

While some friends are grieving tonight, others are rejoicing with loved ones, anticipating weddings and births to come in a matter of days, and giving thanks for joys shared today. How can it be that we learn to live well with the point-counterpoint of birth and death, marriage and divorce, joy and sorrow? It is the nature of the rhythm of life, we are told.

We carry these two seemingly-opposite loads of joy and pain as though in invisible twin water urns lashed to ends of a pole on our backs. Sort of a Libra-meets-Gemini as we remember the constellations without attaching any unintended weight to astrology. The two are held in tension always, and we learn to live with the ever-changing contents of the loads we bear.

We  manage pretty well if we can keep life's tempo and stay in step. But when the music stops and we are left standing, or when we falter under the unbearable weight of loss and become set off balance by the load, we unravel quickly.

When we risk coming apart a bit ourselves and opening our hemmed-in lives to share the load of others, we can help bear--even if ever so slightly--the cares of another.

So we roll up our sleeves.

We get on with the business of being a friend, of loving and serving with abandon, of risking becoming disheveled and tear-stained. Because there is no other way to share a heavy load on a long road with many a winding turn.

I believe two truths to be bedrock: God is good, and Life is hard. They do not cancel each other out. They do not render each other null and void by operation of law. They are both true. At the same time.

And it is in giving thanks for the goodness of God, experiencing the Presence of God, in the midst of the searing white-hot edge of life that cuts us to the quick, that we find the grace and strength to move forward. Inch by inch.

God hears and answers those who call out to Him in distress:
“I relieved his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from carrying the basket. You called out in distress, and I rescued you; I answered you from the thundercloud.” (Psalm 81:6-7a).

 No distress is too big for God to handle.


Brother, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey.
We are brothers on the road.
We are here to help each other
Walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you
In the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you;
Speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping.
When you laugh, I'll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow
Till we've seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven,
We shall find such harmony
Born of all we've known together
Of Christ's love and agony.

Brother, let me be your servant.
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace
To let you be my servant, too.



Written by Richard Gillard, 1977, Servant Song

Dream Again and Deeper

"For broken dreams, the cure is dream again...and deeper."  ~ C.S. Lewis


Some would tell us that dreaming is idle; dreaming is wasting time.

"Stop daydreaming," we hear from a distant classroom memory as the teacher scolded disengaged students. Yet, dreaming has a hallowed place among the mature and serious just the same. Dreaming  generates within us a quickness, a lightness of spirit in spite of age or infirmity. There can be an invisible quality to dreaming that greatly enhances our days.

"We are such stuff as dreams are made on..." Shakespeare wrote on The Tempest.

Never stop dreaming.

Wake up a tired dream. Dust off an old one. Seek a fresh vision for this present season of life and pray for an ability to imagine our lives invigorated by a dream. Let it bubble up. Watch it intersect our lives from unexpected places. Seek it diligently. Prepare to see something new, and give thanks.

Never stop dreaming.


Nunquam subsisto somniare

Jamais arrêter de rêver

Mai smettere di sognare

никогда не прекращайте мечтать

Anyway you say it, the key is to keep a dream alive.

Stay plugged into a source that feeds us with life-giving energy when much of the world around us would drain us and leave us aching for more. More stuff. More time. More money. More influence. More and enough to stockpile, if we could, but we cannot. Time is like manna: we only have enough for this day to use wisely.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1:5


 photo credit: Prentice Stabler

Lifelong Learners

“Education would be so much more effective if its purpose were to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they don’t know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.”

– Sir William Haley

I am thankful for the early school years my children enjoyed in a place that made learning challenging and fun. I still think of learning as colorful, creative, tactile, wonderfully messy... and fun. There was a spirit of adventure and aliveness that undergirded our home's support of reading, puzzles, painting, cooking, travel and experimenting while learning to do our best in places where we could excel as well as when a child faced a challenge and surmounted the obstacle with effort.

I must confess, the photos in Ann Voskamp's blog post make me wish for the chance to be a homeschool mom and do it all over again--in the old school fashion--as her shots bring to mind memories of my own education in many ways. But we do not get to live our lives over again, so we deliberately choose our paths carefully.

Gifted teachers who poured energy and robust enthusiasm for life into their classrooms--for me and for our children--have a place in my heart. Others, undergoing a hard season personally, illustrated a quiet grace and confidence that they may have doubted occasionally as they led their students through the year the way they were learning to press on themselves: one day at a time. I had respect for their faithfulness in standing firm when life presented tough times.

Thank a teacher sounds like a worn bumper sticker, but I have been giving thanks for some memorable ones today.

My own dear fourth grade teacher is a woman of beauty and grace who has turned ninety years old. I thought of her again this week when I met her daughter and reminisced about my delight in her classroom.

And then it hit me: each of us is a teacher to someone. May we try to be among the best of them as God gives us grace to experience the joy of learning something new for a long, long time.

And I think again...

One daughter dressed herself for kindergarten and first grade career days in a smock and carried brushes and palette. Among all the veterinarians, doctors, nurses, firefighters and pro football players, she walked her little quiet self into the classroom and said she wanted to be an artist. Twice.

Years passed.

The little girl grew up.

She got her start in a place that encouraged a love of learning new things. She wrote an international training manual for a French company while in New York. She has researched human behavior and marketing and has worked in communications and product placement with some interesting people. She published a book chapter on autism in children. She appreciates a connection between creativity and the brain and may be continuing to pursue that point in her lifelong learning.

And recently, she began to put brush strokes on canvas. Small steps...one at a time... a bit of paint on the brush applied with, I suspect, the same spark of curiosity she displayed at age five. Isn't that we way we learn to do anything new?

Much to my delight and to her great enjoyment, she has completed some water colors and works of art in oil. She is taking the next step. That is all we have to do: just take the next step on the journey. Start something. Finish something. Learn from it.

May God guide our next step in living into who we are and who we want to be and do. Thank someone who has guided your next step as we continue to learn each day.

For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also his offspring.' Acts 17:28

The Lord said to Moses, “See,...I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with ability and intelligence, with knowledge and all craftsmanship, to devise artistic designs, to work in gold, silver, and bronze, in cutting stones for setting, and in carving wood, to work in every craft." Exodus 31:1-6

Basket of Pears, by Rhymes Stabler taken from Photo by Rachel Kabukula who has other beautiful farmers' market finds on her blog.

Ready for a Fresh Start?

Overheard at the bank this afternoon: "...I'm just gonna have to start boilin' an' bakin'!"

The teller chimed in enthusiastically to agree with her customer who had lost some obvious poundage by taking matters into her own hands and changing her eating habits.

"I got tired of being hot and tired," the customer declared, "and I decided to do something about it." She needed a fresh start.

I thought about her as I left. Boilin' an' bakin echoed in my ears as I walked. She sat on the cusp of giving up fried foods and eating more fresh veggies, as she continued within earshot, and wisely knew something would have to take up the space and fill the vacuum of her old habits.

Something always does.

How many of us wish things were different? Wish we were different?

That we were healthier. Thinner. More secure.

Had a loving family.

A great job - or any job.

Had a home.

Had compliant children. Had any children.

Had a different skill set or coping mechanism for life's ups and downs.

When we contemplate all the things we collectively wish for, we see our longings represented all along a spectrum of life. The dream of one person fills the discard pile of another, who wishes for MORE.

Wishing it doesn't make it so.

On the other hand, to meditate on a thing...to prayerfully commit...to ponder and seek wise counsel, and step by step to act in regard to a possible new position--this gives wings to a new plan. The new plan may take root after its genesis.

Such a new start animates the drive within us which can propel us to action.

We will have many false starts along the way when we fail to follow through with our best intentions. Learn from them. Our mistakes and failures are probably more instructive than our successes. They, too, are part of the rhythm of life. But we are not tethered to the mirey pit feeling defeated and unable to budge.

One day we will cross over to the place where we are tired of being hot and tired about a pertinent issue. We will choose to do something. And it may start with a little help from our friends.

Some things we can change with courage and hard work. Other things, we learn to let go and pray for contentment to fill the void. That, too, is the task of a lifetime. But we must begin somewhere.

We may not need to start boilin' or bakin', but we may need another commitment to a lifestyle change for our good health--spiritually or physically. What is it that holds us back with invisible shackles?

Come to Jehovah Rapha, the God Who Heals, the One who loves us as we are--hot and tired!--and lovingly prepares for us a way when we cannot see clearly a path for ourselves.

Hand of the Artist; Heart of God

God is so good and His mercy endures forever. Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

Mary's handwritten words accompanying this watercolor in rich browns and blues were among the blessings in my day yesterday. The beautiful painting was a gift from my friend since first grade. Reproduced here after scanning and copying, the colors and shading are not accurate, but I wanted to share this image.

Mary, though bound by the crippling effects of rheumatoid arthritis, displays an artistry and fine coordination that defies her hands' limitations. People are surprised she can write, and to see Mary paint is astonishing. Maybe her spirit of gratitude and joy for the presence of the Lord in her life tempers the pain of her disease just a bit, making it bearable 'for the glory of God'. She lives to make Him known and to share the love of Jesus with all. I am learning much through my friends, and Mary is a great example of perseverance and faithfulness.

I have a dream of helping Mary share her paintings and her faith. I am contemplating this idea....

Psalm 57:10 was the inspiration for her the one pictured here:

"For Your Mercy reaches unto the heavens and Your truth unto the clouds. "

For the ancient writers, such a distance was unfathomable. The psalm gave voice to their conviction that as far as one can see, God's mercy and truth are higher still! Thanks be to God.

Have we forgotten how to dream?

"The difference between a dream and a goal is a plan."
Dave Ramsey.



The butterfly did not start out as a butterfly; it emerged only after a beautiful plan of nature.



Birthdays are a good time to reflect and to dream. Annual inventory time is here with the chance to make a mid-course correction. A slight degree change now will result in a different trajectory further along the journey. Are we heading where we want to go? Are we reaching desired goals? Do we have a dream still inside? We cannot control our lives, but there is so much we can change; if not our circumstances, we choose our attitude towards our circumstances.

And so I choose to dream big. Not grandiose wishes about a brush with celebrity or wealth, but to be stretched mentally and emotionally. To see a bigger picture. To learn something new.

Wake up a weathered dream that time has beaten down. Is it inside somewhere, buried deep beneath the hurt and wounds of life? Is there a glimmer of light - an ember that can use a fresh wind to fan it into a desire of your heart? Allow God's fresh wind/fresh fire (as Jim Cymbala writes in the book by the same name) to refresh your spirit and give a dream for this season - for this day. Not someone else's dream for you, but your own.

So maybe you didn't live into another person's wish for you. Let it go.

Maybe you didn't live into your own dream for you. Show grace to yourself. There is today. The dawn of this day is a new beginning.

Then, ask God to give you a plan. "Watch and pray" as the scripture says. Let it linger in your mind or heart. Do not dismiss it casually. You may have a burst of inspiration in an instant, but more likely, you and I will wait. All growing things take time: crops, children and friendships all need time to develop and mature. Allow yourself to mature into that plan.

Now, take a step towards it. One step. We don't have to execute the plan in a day. Just begin somewhere. That's why they call it faith. We cannot see the end at our beginning. But we take one step anyway.

Dream big today.

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:14