Just Because...

Just because some pictures are worth keeping.
Just because so much beauty must be recorded.
All because we spent a day at Lake Ontario in July.

Thoughts to Shift our Perspective

I enjoy quotes.  Words matter.  They inspire or tear down.  

- Be a thermostat and not a thermometer.
(a thermostat controls the temp - a thermometer reflects the temp around it)

- Blowing out someone else's candle doesn't make you shine any brighter.

- Courage does not mean that you are indifferent to or immune from the fear of doing so' it just means that you do it - scared!

- F alse
  E vidence
  A ppearing
  R eal

- How lucky I am to have something that makes saying good-bye so hard.  - Winnie-the-Pooh

- In adversity we must be alert, for God will find a way, somehow, to touch us.

- In God's eyes, no amount of "Christian service" can ever replace the simple and pure love we can offer Him as His children.  - Beverly LaHaye

- It's not important WHO you are, but WHOSE you are!

- It's not the years in your life that count, it's the life in your years.  - Abe Lincoln

- Seeds are miracles waiting to happen...

- "Sometimes you don't realize how much you have to share until you begin sharing." -Todd and Beth Whitaker (Teaching Matters)

- These hard places give us the gift of intimately knowing God in ways that would never be possible in our comfort zones.

- We're in the God zone when we're out of our comfort zone.

- You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.

PAIN

- Pain closes the door of our heart.

  Fear clicks the deadbolt but;

  God's GRACE opens the door.

  ( Matthew 10:8 - ... Freely you have received, freely give.)

WEARY IN WELL-DOING

- Must I be giving and giving again?

  The weary wondering question came.

  "No," said the angel, piercing me through,

  "Just stop when the Lord stops giving to you."  -Anonymous

(Matt. 10:8... Freely you have received, freely give.)

Why Do You Love Someone??

Because I've been struggling through the reality of a prayer that doesn't seem to make a difference and it's been the cry of my heart for the past 2 years...
disillusionment and sarcasm and bitterness creeps it's way into my heart.

First, I struggled with Lord, You don't love me...

Then, it was, You don't care about me...

Next, I am like, Lord, why pray, does it matter?  does it make a difference?

I'm not important.... and the thoughts circle on.

Recently, I heard a talk on God and loving Him and how that  we can be with Him and not know Him.  A comment was made in that talk, that did the people follow Jesus for the loaves and fish?  Did they follow Him to be healed?  Did they follow Him for the miracle?

Or did they follow Him for Who He is?

That thought stayed with me...

Am I following and loving Jesus for what He can do and does do for me?  Or do I follow Him because I love Him and for who He is??

I want to be loved for more than what I can do.
I want to be loved for who I am.

Jesus is the same.

He commented on the people who sat at His feet.
The woman who washed His feet.
The people who caught a glimpse of Him and worshiped.

Why do I love someone??
Why do you love someone??

An honest look at that question revealed that I tend to love wholly and freely if there is something in it for me.  If I 'feel' loved or cared for in return.  If not, I want to walk away or at least distance myself...

But can I say with Habakkuk - though the fig trees have no blossoms, and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren
even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty,
(that's pretty much a fail of any life security)

v.18 YET, I will rejoice IN THE LORD!
I will be joyful IN THE GOD OF MY SALVATION!
v.19 The Sovereign LORD is my strength!  He makes me as surefooted as a deer, able to tread upon the heights.

Even though....

Yet,
I will worship God.

Yet,
I will love God.

Yet,
I will choose to believe His Greater Truth and greater plans.

Maybe, the reason for my prayer going the way it has, is to reveal a greater need of my heart.. to learn to love wholly, no strings attached...
to love, simply for WHO God is and not WHAT He does.

Maybe, I'll never know...

Why do I love someone?
Why do you love someone?

Eternal Perspective

This morning I am, once again, brought face to face with eternity.

My Uncle Paul is free from his broken body and in the presence of Jesus.   I found myself asking God and wondering... "What is like to, in a moment be in Your Presence?"  pondering, "What is it like to be eternal?"

My finite mind is so limited... I cannot truly grasp eternity, even though I know it is what is truly real...

II Corinthians 4:16-18 tells us...
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,
while we look not at the tings which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

My Uncle Paul now sees clearly.  His body no longer decaying.  We are left with looking through a glass dimly...
I wonder if he and my dad are talking...

Eternal Perspective

Oh, how this earthly mind of mine

Is so limited with its understanding.

The here and now loom large in my vision

and seem so real...

The tangible is what is so easy to see.

But as the words in II Corinthians say -

real, is not what we see.

Eternal perspective.

I can only see it a bit...

As if I'm looking through a glass dimly lit.

Dad.  Uncle Paul.  

You have now joined the eternal.

The ones who live on forever.

We are grateful you no longer

need to suffer

But our hearts are left with an ache

because of your absence.

We grapple with eternity in our finite, limited minds,

As we release you to the eternal world.

We choose to trust the 

omniscience of our Heavenly Father

who know all things.

He knows and sees all things clearly -

Past, present, future...

You have now joined that eternal perspective,

And, too, can see all things clearly.

Lord,

Give us another glimpse of the

perspective of eternity,

As we release another love one into Your Presence.

It's hard.  We struggle.  We rejoice.

It's so easy to 'see' the here and now.

Give us Elisha eyes that see beyond,

Catching a few more glimpse of what is really real ---

Eternity.

This world is not my home.

I'm just a-passing through...

Love and prayers to you as you walk this journey, 

Miriam

Drew & Yvonne

Ethan & Melissa

II Chronicles 14:11

"Lord, there is no one besides Thee to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in Thee, and in Thy name have come against this..., O LORD,..."

Freed to be YOU

Is there a secret to being YOU???

We've all said and heard another say it too, "I like being with you, because I can be myself."

That was something I either said or thought of as I interacted with people.  It was something that either set me free or paralyzed me to be me.

A few questions/thoughts that I roll around are:
Being yourself, Is that always a good thing?? (Sometimes myself needs to be refined... it's not always a good thing to let loose :))
Can I be myself, even if I am misunderstood or not gotten?
Do I reject someone just because I can't be myself with them?

When we hinge 'being ourselves' with someone, then the people around us, control us...
But when we hinge our self on Someone, then we are controlled by a Force and Love greater than ourselves, and we can be our true self wherever we are.

Yes, there are people who we can relax with more than another.
Yes, there are people who we are more comfortable with and enjoy us.
Yes, there are people who 'get us' where another may miss us.

And THAT, is a gift!  I love being with people like that.

But that is not the case with all people and I don't think it's meant to be...

So, how can you can be you wherever you are?
What's the key??  Is there are key?
And why do I say, "secret"?

Because I believe it's in the quiet of our connection with Jesus that our selves are truly found and secured.  It's alone with God, that we find out who we truly are.

The secret to being YOU is secured in the secret places with God.

We are loved.
We are beautiful, created perfectly by God.

Sin has marred that perfect creation.  And we may feel like the daisy pictured below, missing petals, scarred among others who we think have it all together.
So, it is that when we are with Jesus, we re-member who we are.  We are put back-together.  We are put back together by the One who put us together.

Let's look at the life and story of Jesus...

The Son of God.  The Man who lived in perfection, created perfection.

He left perfection for brokenness and pain.

Why??  Why would anyone want to enter a world of pain and brokenness??

For YOU.  For ME.
To set us free from the bondage that grips our hearts.

His earthly story begins when He entered the womb of a virgin.  Mary.
His earthly story begins with the shame of a virgin bearing a child and is riddled with rejection, death, denial, and being misunderstood among the people who got Him, among the people who loved Him.  (It's easy to focus on the negative instead of the positive)

Yet, He didn't withhold Himself or love to anyone.  He gave in the midst of pain.  He loved in spite of the rejection.

We find Jesus, many times, being intentional in His time alone with His Heavenly Father.  I believe it was in those times alone that gave and kept His perspective and mission clear and He was reminded of Who He was. (if Jesus needed reminding... I believe the man of God needed it...)

It's not the absence of pain where we can be free to be, but it's in the middle of it and knowing Whose we are.
He did it for YOU.  for ME.
He knows and understands our pain and when we turn to Him He sets us free from the bondage and fear that grips our hearts, to set us FREE TO BE in spite of and in the midst of heartache and misunderstanding.

Jesus, is the component needed to be truly YOU!  Not the validation or lack thereof of people tangible.  It's so easy to wrap our identity in what people around us are saying or not saying because that's what we see and hear.

But it's by faith that we please God.  It's believing His Truth and going back to His Word when we need reassurance that we are love.
It's in Him that we remember who we are.  It's in Him that we are re-membered.
It's in Him that we remember our mission and gain eternal perspective.

Being rooted and grounded in His love, you can soar and grow to heights you aren't aware of.
Being rooted and grounded in His love, you are FREE TO BE YOU!
Ephesians 3:17-21

A Day at Niagara - The Sound of Big Thunder

What a phenomena of a natural wonder!!!  NIAGARA FALLS.
The power of water - the force of its fall - the mist... is all a part of its splendour.

Our youngest could hardly wrap his mind around it, asking questions of how it was formed... did they get shovels and dig it??  did they take buckets and fill it up???

We smile at those words, but isn't that how our finite minds work, trying to grapple and find answers to the majesty of our God.  our Creator.  our Lover.

We wonder.  We gaze.  And our hearts try to wrap itself around the majestic glory and wonder of our Saviour.

I believe He wants us to gaze.  To enjoy the view.  To be awed and not understand His awesome-ness.  To be swallowed up in all of it.

Scary? yes.
Hard? you bet.
Worth it?  YES!

But to be able to do that... we must believe He is good and His heart is truly filled with love toward us.  We must be convinced, even in the middle of our questions, and give ourselves to the power of His love and trust His heart.

Niagara, the Thundering Falls.
Jesus, the Powerful Lover.