God speaks.

"silence is the language God speaks. everything else is bad translation."

-mother teresa.

feast.

sin comes from the mistaken belief that God withholds goodness from us, that he hordes away blessing. but our God does not withhold. He opens up His arms with super-abundance. He wastes nothing.

this is made especially evident in the ceremony of the Eucharist, for in order to best articulate his message and work, Jesus did not leave behind a textbook, he left a meal.

in this world we may not be given all that we desire, but we most certainly have been graced with all that we will ever need. we are called to the communion table to eat and be satisfied, to FEAST on the goodness of God.

'this is my body, given for you...'

within the Eucharist we acknowledge and celebrate the fact that we are forgiven and that we are invited and that we are lifted up to the table of God.

our God does not withhold.

our God gives unto death,
and He loves, and loves, and loves.

'I am the bread of life. this bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world...'

He beckons us to eat and be refreshed, to come to this mighty table full of joy, restoration, nourishment, light, and partake.

come.
taste.
see.

taste and see that the God of this world is so very GOOD.

(thoughts from the teachings of ian morgan cron).

concern.

"the L-rd said, 'I have indeed seen the misery of my people in egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.
So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the egyptians and to bring them up
out of the land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
I have watched over you and have seen what has been done to you in egypt. And I have promised to bring you up out of your misery..."

God speaks, exodus 3.

instead.

"like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be recovered, so we must die. but God does not take away life; instead, he devises ways so that a banished person may not remain estranged from him."

2 samuel 14.

the uses of sorrow.

"someone i loved once gave me
a box full of darkness.

it took me years to understand
that this too, was a gift."

-mary oliver.

rise.

"shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned,
free yourself from the chains on your neck,
o captive daughter of zion.

for this is what the Lord says:
you were sold for nothing, and
without money, you will be redeemed."

isaiah 52.

bound.

I have loved you with an everlasting love. -jeremiah.

I have led you into the wilderness, where I spoke tenderly to you. -hosea.

My loyalty will never move from you. -isaiah.

I have betrothed you in faithfulness and grace. -hosea.

I have summoned you by name,
you are mine. -isaiah.

let me.

Maker of all things,
including appetite,
including stealth,
including the fear that makes
all of us, sometime or other,
flee for the sake
of our small and precious lives,
let me abide in your shadow -
let me hold on
to the edge of your robe
as you determine
what you must let be lost
and what will be saved.

-mary oliver.

everything.

the incarnate Word is with us,
is still speaking, is present
always, yet leaves no sign
but everything that is.

-wendell berry.

so many fires.

words are too wonderful for words. the vibrant
translation of things to ideas.

Lord, there are so many fires, so many words, in
my heart. it's going to take something i can't
even imagine, to put them all out.

-mary oliver.

so be it.

"Of all the arguments against love none makes so strong an appeal to my nature as 'Careful! This might lead you to suffering.'

To my nature, my temperament, yes. Not to my conscience. When I respond to that appeal I seem to myself to be a thousand miles away from Jesus. If I am sure of anything I am sure that His teaching was never meant to confirm my congenital preference for safe investments and limited liabilities. I doubt whether there is anything that pleases Him less.

We follow One who wept over Jerusalem and at the grave of Lazarus. Even if it were granted that insurances against heartbreak were our highest wisdom, does God Himself offer them? Apparently not. Jesus comes at last to say, 'why have You forsaken me?'

To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.

We shall draw nearer to God, not by trying to avoid the sufferings inherent in all loves, but by accepting them and offering them to Him; throwing away all defensive armor. If our hearts need be broken, and if He chooses this as the way in which they should break, so be it."

-excerpts, cs lewis.

sacrifices.

the sacrifices of God are
a wounded spirit;

a crushed and broken heart,
O God, you will not despise.

-psalm 51.

"do not stand idly by.

I AM the Lord."

-leviticus 19.

2012.

the Lord is gracious and righteous;
full of compassion.

when i was in great need, He saved me.

in my anguish, i cried out to the Lord,
and He answered by setting me free.

be at rest once more, o my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.

excerpts, psalms 116, 118.