Heart Print

We talk about carbon footprint.  And, it's not considered a positive term.  We talk about voice print which is a way to ID a person by analyzing their speech using a spectrogram.  We talk about footprints both literal and figurative.  We ID animals by their footprint spoor. We talk about fingerprints to reference the unique difference between all human individuals for the purpose of ID.

We leave our footprints in the sands of time when we are long gone from this world. It is important where our footprints track the path of our lives.  BUT even more important than a footprint is a heart print. 

Where will my footprints take me today? 
Where will I leave my heart print and what kind of heart print will I leave?  What about you?  Think about that while you're walking through your day!

Sweet Sorrow

Sweet Sorrow.........I like that!  I saw it in a novel I was reading, and it's so true of life. 

• My mother has advancing Alzheimers.  When I go to see her, it's a sweet sorrow.  She still knows me when I'm in front of her but may easily forget I ever came when I am gone.  Sweet sorrow!
• My brother's grandson (6yo) was recently diagnosed with a large brain tumor.  Being there during his surgery and spending lots of family time was just that - sweet sorrow!
• 2 good friends are moving into assisted living.  This is radical life change but to a safer place - sweet sorrow!
• One who seemed a friend betrays and lies and walks away with no remorse - and we have to trust it is sweet sorrow!
• A baby dies before he is ever born - Can that be sweet sorrow?  How? Why?
• A child is born with multiple disabilities - sweet sorrow? How can that be?
• The list is long and could go on and on.  It's makes no sense unless and until.......

What makes it sweet sorrow? 

Don’t be afraid, I’ve redeemed you.
    I’ve called your name. You’re mine.
When you’re in over your head, I’ll be there with you.
    When you’re in rough waters, you will not go down.
When you’re between a rock and a hard place,
    it won’t be a dead end—
Because I am God, your personal God,    The Holy of Israel, your Savior.   --Isaiah 43:2, The Message

Isaiah 43:2 covers the rest of the list - sweet sorrow - because we never walk along when we walk with God!

You Will Never Walk Alone

Along life's road
There will be sunshine and rain
Roses and thorns, laughter and pain
And 'cross the miles
You will face mountains so steep
Deserts so long and valleys so deep
Sometimes the Journey's gentle
Sometimes the cold winds blow
But I want you to remember
I want you to know

[Chorus]
You will never walk alone
As long as you have faith
Jesus will be right beside you all the way
You may feel you're far from home
But home is where He is
And He'll be there down every road
You will never walk alone

The path will wind
And you will find wonders and fears
Labors of love and a few falling tears
Across the years
There will be some twists and turns
Mistakes to make and lessons to learn
Sometimes the journey's gentle
Sometimes the cold winds blow
But I want you to remember where ever you may go

Jesus knows your joy, Jesus knows your need
He will go the distance with you faithfully!    --Point of Grace

 

 

Light from Above

God bless America, land that I love!  Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above!  From our hearts to God's ear, may it be so!

Vertical Option

Trending:  What happens when your front landing gear fails on AV-8B Harrier jet as recently happened to a pilot flying off the USS Bataan?

Pretty amazing!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9tvdjDAr1U

Thought for today:   There are many days in life when the super-scary event that my (or your) landing gear may not drop down happens or threatens to happen.  As believers in Jesus, we also have the vertical option. 

This pilot, U.S. Marine Corps Capt. William Mahoney, was able to execute a perfect albeit bumpy landing.  He testifies that he never even saw "the stool" when he landed.  He trusted his guide and landed his jet safely!  

There are days like this.  We too have to trust in the One who assures that we land on the cushion of his love no matter how soft or rough the landing may be!  Pretty awesome!!!

¹ Whoever dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
² I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

³ Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence.
⁴ He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge;
    his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
⁵ You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
⁶ nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
⁷ A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, 

  but it will not come near you.
⁸ You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

⁹ If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,” and you make the Most High your dwelling,
¹⁰ no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.
¹¹ For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
¹² they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
¹³ You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

¹⁴ “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him;
    I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
¹⁵ He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble,
    I will deliver him and honor him.
¹⁶ With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”   -- Psalm 91

A Cup of Cold Water

I went to church yesterday at A Restoration Church, Pittsburgh.  No surprise there!  That's where you can find me on any given Sunday morning!  Yesterday was different: we had music, singing, a good sermon on Joshua 22, great time with our church family, and Holy Communion.  And, that's where things took on a whole new flavor........

At A Restoration Church, Pittsburgh, we work very hard to include, to welcome, and to make feel special every person who comes.  As my husband passed the communion elements, the passing of the bread went as usual.  Then he began to pass the wine/grape juice.  I wasn't looking behind me, but apparently a lady shook her head at him and must have quietly told him she couldn't have it.  He knows this particular lady has a number of really significant health challenges.  She hasn't been attending very long. He quietly said, I'll be right back.  The accompanist kept playing.  We meet in banquet rooms in a corporate facility.  He went over to the sink and filled one of the communion cups with water and took it over to her. When everyone was served, and he was back in front, he raised his cup to indicate we would all drink together (as is our custom).  As he did, I saw the quick start of tears in his eyes.  For all of us, and obviously for him, it gave totally new significance to a cup of cold water given in My name!  

R U Waiting 4 Godot?

I have a student who has a part in Waiting for Godot, Samuel Beckett's absurdist play about two men who wait and wait for someone named Godot to show up.  Godot never shows so it is all for nothing!

Over the years since the first production in 1953 many have speculated widely and wildly on what Beckett was trying to say.  It could be argued that not even Beckett knew.  He was known to say that it did not mean this or that but never - as far as I know - to explain what it did mean.

Another playwright, William Shakespeare, wrote:

Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow ...

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing.— Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

Ah! The despair of life that concludes that all is darkness, hopelessness: waiting and waiting and waiting endlessly, strutting and fretting and then is heard no more ... signifying nothing!  With such a view, life in NOT worth the living! There is no light. There is no hope.

Tomorrow a precious little 6-year-old boy named Matthew will go into surgery.  He has a large brain tumor in a very difficult place - right in the center of his brain.  If I had the view of Beckett in Godot and Shakespeare in Macbeth, I would be in total despair. So would Matthew's parents, brother, sister, grandparents, and others!  I don't know what the future holds for Matthew.  I don't know what the surgeon will find.  I don't know WHY.


And, it is not the least bit glib to say what I DO KNOW: 

There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry, Mine!  --Abraham Kuyper

Tomorrow morning in a hospital room in Atlanta and in an operating suite in the same hospital, God Himself will show up!  And, He will shout, Matthew is MINE, and I love him with an everlasting love!

Comfort for Dis-abled Heart!

A number of years ago I drove from Richmond up to Northern Virginia to watch two of my nephews in a wrestling match.  I had never been to a wrestling match before so had no idea what I was getting into.  It was a regional competition so there were many competitors there.  As I sat in the stands looking out over a pretty large gymnasium, it occurred to me that the wrestlers resembled worms wiggling after a spring rain ALL OVER the gym floor!  Except that my nephews were somewhere in the mix, I could hardly imagine being there.

As I understand it, the object of the match is to maneuver your opponent in such a way that he cannot twist out of your hold and actually is pinned to the mat for a certain count.  In professional wrestling there are throws that apply techniques involving lifting the opponent and throwing or slamming him down.  I am certainly no expert, but none of it looked like something I personally wanted to do.  It wasn't even something I was all that eager to watch on any regular basis!

This morning I ran across a verse in John 14 (The Message). I'm thinking that my limited experience with wrestling may provide some clues to the meaning:  Don't let this throw you. You trust God, don't you? Trust Me.  These are the words of Jesus (vs. 1).  He spoke them to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion.  Quite possibly He spoke them as they walked along following the Passover meal they had eaten together on that Thursday evening.  They were on their way to a garden of olive trees tucked away on the western slope of the Mt. of Olives. 

I don't know if the words follow chapter 13 in exact sequence. Perhaps so; perhaps not.  (Note:  Chapter and verse divisions were not part of the original text.)  Chapter 13 ends with Peter's declaration that he wants to follow Jesus wherever He is going. Jesus tells Peter that he actually can't follow Him where He is going.  Peter is most insistent that he does want to follow the Master and that he is actually willing to die for his Master.  Jesus' response, Really? You'll lay down your life for me? The truth is that before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times.

Chapter 14 begins, Don't let this throw you!  It struck me today that perhaps Jesus is referring to Peter's vulnerability and dis-ability to even stick up for Jesus in the few short hours of that night.  Perhaps Jesus is already encouraging Peter - not that it's okay not to stick up for Jesus, but that there will be life beyond that failure!  And the next words explain WHY:  You trust God, don't you?  Trust me.

For my dis-abled heart today I took comfort.  Life beyond failure is beyond me, but it is never beyond the ability of the One who is worthy of all trust and His Son Jesus!  When I trust Him with it ALL - all the failure, all the pain, all the seeming success, all the confidence, all the dis-ability THEN the implied promise is that it is never the end but rather the opportunity to begin again - not because of me, but because of the One who loves me and died to set me free!  Don't let this throw you! You trust God, don't you? Trust Me!