Whatever He Says

I followed my friends out to the sunporch to say goodnight, but before they stepped out into the summer evening, I remembered a funny story. One of them had called me the week before, disturbed by the message on a church sign. But when she told me what it said, I didn't interpret it in the way she did. When I told my husband, Paul, he saw it differently to either of us. Later on, I told my friend Susan about it, and she had yet another take on it the sign. As did her husband, Ron. That 's five different perspectives on an eleven-word sign, which said: If you want holy water, boil the hell out of it The many interpretations of the meaning of the sign illustrate why communication is fraught with potential pitfalls. Our personal filters and many other factors influence what we "hear." Then, the sun-porch became a confessional,  I said that I felt terrible about judging people's words and ideas when they're talking to me. Maybe "evaluating" is a kin...

It is quiet here tonight and I am alone with my God. I wish I could say that it is a comfortable thing, but it is not. Silence and solitude press down upon me; twin weights. The ticking of the clocks, which I usually find a comforting sound,tonight seems to carry a polite reproach. There is much to put right before him; a heart examined, and found sadly wanting. So little love and devotion to him, so little compassion and love for others. I believe in the maxim that we cannot lead people farther than we have gone ourselves. Those words sober me. I am a poor follower of him of late. How then can I lead? Well, perhaps I can lead on my knees. Dear Lord, please take my prayerlessness and make my life a prayer to you. Please take my old and tired heart in your hands and make it over, into a thing of beauty as only you can do. Romans 12:2 (New International Version) 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able...

Jeremiah 4:3-4a (New International Version) 3 This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Break up your unploughed ground and do not sow among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, ... I long to have my heart ploughed deep, A field devoted to the Lord, The hardened clods of clay that sleep Awoken, broken in his keep, For him alone. I wrote those words in February, verse two of a poem in meditation on Leviticus 27:21a 21 When the field is released in the Jubilee, it will become holy, like a field devoted to the LORD; I thought of them again this morning when I read a verse in today's Daily Light, from Jeremiah 3:23 (New International Version) 23 Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills and mountains is a deception; surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel. As I thought of "the hills of my heart" I wondered; are they a peaceful field being ploughed a...

1 Chronicles 28:9 (New International Version) 9 "...for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts..." Small meannesses ; they weigh heavily on a soul. And so I carried them with me like twin lead pellets in my heart over the last couple of days. The natural world around me distracted me and drew my gaze. I marveled at the brown collars of earth appearing in the snow at the base of tree trunks. I wondered at the sound of the mighty wind of yesterday, sister to the rain that fell on heads and homes and ground. They blew and washed away the snow from the fields and ditches with icy breath and fingers. The fields shimmered with puddles that mirrored the sky. There is no time like this, when the land is emerging from the cold white of winter and the earth is greening. There is so much to see, and revel in and wonder at and admire. But all the time I was waiting. I needed, I longed for, Confession; and in the busyness of Tuesday and Wednesday, I...