My hope is in the Lord

I don't have the power
I don't even have a clue
I don't know all the answers
I don't even know a few

And if I were really honest
And the truth were known of me
It may sound a little funny
But this is what My prayer would be

I don't know what to do
But my eyes are on you
I don't know what to do
But my eyes are on you, My Lord

I lift my eyes toward the heavens
I tune my ear to your command
Help me boast in my condition
You're the God and I'm the man

--from the song, "Gideon", by Jason Upton

I wish, I wish, I wish...

http://survivingtheworld.net/

More words I made...

http://wordsimade.blogspot.com/

Burning...

What is to give light must endure burning. --Viktor Frankl

"I need you to be sweet"

Dr F. B. Meyer once told me that when he was young he was very irritable, and an old man told him that he had found relief from this very thing by looking up the moment he felt it coming, and saying, "Thy sweetness, Lord." ....Take the opposite of your temptation and look up inwardly, naming that opposite; Untruth--Thy truth, Lord; Unkindness--Thy kindness, Lord; Impatience--Thy patience, Lord; Selfishness--Thy unselfishness, Lord; Roughness--Thy gentleness, Lord; Discourtesy--Thy courtesy, Lord; Resentment, inward heat, fuss--Thy sweetness, Lord, Thy calmness, Thy peacefulness.--Edges of His Ways, Amy Carmichael

Love is the thing

"One can give without loving, but one cannot love without giving." -Amy Carmichael

Loving God is easy; loving people...

Be the first to love
Be the first to bless
Be the first to give

-Graham Cooke

Who's the boss?

"The older I get, the surer I am that I'm not running the show." --Leonard Cohen, 74, singer and songwriter

If Walt Whitman had AIM...

THES SI WUT U SHAL DO LUV DA EARTH AND SUN AND TEH ANIMALS DESPIES RICHAS GIEV ALMS 2 AVARYON3 TAHT ASKS STAND UP FOR TEH STUPID AND CRAZY DEVOTE UR INCOM3 AND LABOR 2 OTHERS HAET TYRANTS ARGUE NOT CONC3RNNG GOD HAEV PATEINC3 AND INDULG3NCA 2WARD DA PAOPL3 TAEK OF UR HAT 2 NOTHNG KNOWN OR UNKNOWN OR 2 ANY MAN OR NUMBR OF MEN–GO FRELEY WIT POWERFUL UNEDUCAETD P3RSONS AND WIT DA U AND WIT TEH MOTHARS OF FMILEIS–R3-EXMIEN AL U HAEV B3N 2LD IN SKOOL OR CHURCH OR IN ANY BOK AND DISMIS WUT INSULTS UR OWN SU AND UR VERY FLESH SHAL B A GR3AT PO3M AND HAEV DA RICHEST FLU3NCY NOT ONLEY IN ITS WORDS BUT IN DA SIELNT LIENS OF ITS LIPS AND FAEC AND BTWEN TEH LASHAS OF UR EYES AND IN EVARY MOTION AND JOINT OF UR BODY!11!!1!! OMG WTF LOL -WALT WHITMAN

http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/files/aolertranslator.html

Stand up for the stupid and crazy

This is what you shall do: Love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to everyone that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men–go freely with powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and with the mothers of families–re-examine all you have been told in school or church or in any book, and dismiss whatever insults your own soul; and your very flesh shall be a great poem, and have the richest fluency, not only in its words, but in the silent lines of its lips and face, and between the lashes of your eyes, and in every motion and joint of your body. --Walt Whitman

You, O Lord, are enough

Am I not enough, Mine own? enough,
Mine own, for thee?

All shalt thou find at last,
Only in Me.
Am I not enough, Mine own? I, for ever
and alone, I, needing thee?
--Ter Steegen

That Well-beloved One, "died for desire of us."--Amy Carmichael

So Let Go, Just Get In, Oh, It's So Amazing Here

The practice of silence gives us the opportunity to face our deepest fears and questions, with the express purpose of opening these up to God so he can meet us and lead us into healing. As [Larry Crabb, in Understanding People,] observes,

"Solitude eventually offers a quiet gift of grace, a gift that comes whenever we are able to face ourselves honestly: the gift of compassion for who we are, as we are. As we allow ourselves to be known in solitude, we discover that we are known by love. Beyond the pain of self-discovery there is a love that does not condemn but calls us to itself. This love receives us as we are."

Silence also gives us the chance to habitually release our own agendas and our need to control everything--including God, if we're honest. When we let go, we can open up to what he wants to give. One of the greatest gifts that comes to us in the silence is that we come to understand that we are loved beyond anything we could ever do for God or for anyone else. As we begin to grasp the reality of God's loving presence in moments of silence, we begin to live and to choose from a centered place, a bedrock of settledness that is worth any price we have to pay to find it. --from The Truths That Free Us, by Ruth Haley Barton

I LOVED YOU ONCE

Я вас любил: любовь еще, быть может
В душе моей угасла не совсем;
Но пусть она вас больше не тревожит;
Я не хочу печалить вас ничем.
Я вас любил безмолвно, безнадежно,
То робостью, то ревностью томим;
Я вас любил так искренно, так нежно,
Как дай вам бог любимой быть другим.

i loved you once; love still perhaps
has not died out completely within my soul
but it is better that you do not worry
i do not want you to be sad about anything.
i loved you silently, hopelessly,
sometimes shyly, sometimes languishing zealously.
i loved you so tenderly, so sincerely,
that i pray God grant you another love.
--A Pushkin

Oh, thank God...

The kind of work God usually calls you to is the kind of work...that the world most needs to have done.

The Place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet. --Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking

Another song God can sing to me

How I wish you could see the potential
The potential of you and me
It's like a book elegantly bound
But in a language that you can't read - just yet
You gotta spend some time, love
You gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find, love
I will possess your heart

There are days when outside your window
I see my reflection as I slowly pass
And I long for this mirrored perspective
When we'll be lovers, lovers at last
You gotta spend some time, love
You gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find, love
I will possess your heart

You reject my advances and desperate pleas
I won't let you let me down so easily
You gotta spend some time, love
You gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you'll find, love
I will possess your heart

-Death Cab For Cutie

Raising my glass, tending my lamp

"In the first century, generally a young woman would be married in her early teens, often at thirteen or fourteen. It would become known that she was now 'of age,' and her father would entertain offers from the fathers of young men who were interested in marrying her. If the fathers agreed on the terms of the marriage, there would be a celebration to honor the couple and announce their engagement. At this celebration, the groom would offer the young girl a cup of wine to drink.

But she doesn't have to drink it.

She can reject the cup. She can say no to his offer of marriage. Even though everything has been arranged, she can still say no. It's up to her.

Can you imagine the pressure on the young fella?

Here is everybody you love the most, friends and parents and relatives, gathered in a room, watching to see if she will accept the cup.

If she says yes, the groom gives a sort of prepared speech about their future together.

Because if she takes the cup and drinks from it, that only means that they are engaged. They aren't married yet. Something still has to happen.

Or to be more precise, something has to be built.

If she says yes, then the groom goes home and begins building and addition onto his family's home. This is where he and his bride will start their new family together. And so he works and works and works, building a place that they can call home. And here's the interesting part: he doesn't know when he's going to finish. Because he doesn't have the final say on whether it's ready. That's his father's decision. And so his father periodically inspects his work, looking to see if the quality of what the son is building properly honors his future bride. The father has considerations as well. If he has many sons, and they've all built additions, then his house is getting quite large. There are many rooms in it. This was called an insula, a large multifamily dwelling. If the father had built his addition onto his father's house, then by now, several generations later, this is a large dwelling with rooms for a lot of people.

Back to the story.

The future bride is at home, learning how to run a household. She also doesn't know when the work will be done, so she's preparing herself for a date that's coming, she just doesn't know when.

And then the day comes. The father inspects and tells the son that it's time. So the son gets his friends, and they set out for her house to get her. But how will he know what room is hers?

He'll know because she has filled her lamp with oil each night and set it in the window, so that when he comes, he'll know which rooms is hers.

And so he goes to get her, and they gather their friends and family, and there's a giant procession back to his house, where the party starts.

And so when she takes the glass of wine at their engagement party and drinks from it, the groom says to her: "My father's house has plenty of room; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."

Does his speech sound familiar? This is what Jesus says to his disciples in John 14:2-4.

When Jesus wants to assure his followers that they're going to be okay, that their future is secure, that they shouldn't let their hearts be troubled, he uses the wedding metaphor.

They would have known exactly what he was talking about. They would have heard the groom's speech growing up, the ones who were married would have given it to their brides, and they all would have taken part in numerous wedding celebrations.

To describe heaven, Jesus uses an event they all had experienced and basically says, 'It's like that.' "
--from Sex God, by Rob Bell

Libera me

Oh Beloved,
take me.
Liberate my soul.
Fill me with your love and
release me from the two worlds.
If I set my heart on anything but you
let fire burn me from inside.

Oh Beloved,
take away what I want.
Take away what I do.
Take away what I need.
Take away everything
that takes me from you.

--Rumi

Burn, burn, burn

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes "Awww!" --Jack Kerouac

Hope for the Marianne Dashwood in me

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. You are looking at things as they are outwardly. 2 Corinthians 10:3-7

In the midst of the heady perfumes of summer

LOVE

Because of you, in gardens of blossoming flowers I ache from the
perfumes of spring.
I have forgotten your face, I no longer remember your hands;
how did your lips feel on mine?
Because of you, I love the white statues drowsing in the parks,
the white statues that have neither voice nor sight.
I have forgotten your voice, your happy voice; I have forgotten
your eyes.
Like a flower to its perfume, I am bound to my vague memory of
you. I live with pain that is like a wound; if you touch me, you will
do me irreparable harm.
Your caresses enfold me, like climbing vines on melancholy walls.
I have forgotten your love, yet I seem to glimpse you in every
window.
Because of you, the heady perfumes of summer pain me; because
of you, I again seek out the signs that precipitate desires: shooting
stars, falling objects.

-from Passions and Impressions, by Pablo Neruda