Romans 12:9-19

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.  Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.  Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle.

Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame.  Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant.  Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder.  Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.  

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath.  Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down.  Get along with each other; don't be stuck up.  Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone.  If you've got it in you, get along with everybody.  Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do.  "I'll do the judging," says God.  "I'll take care of it."

When I can't see how it fits or why it matters may I remember to Love from the center.  When she reveals to us her overwhelming level of compassion that baffles me and stirs up my spirit of practicality may I remember to be inventive in hospitality. Because she will teach me, she will teach us the power that comes when we share tears, when it costs us something to be a friend.  And through her wisdom of compassion will come the realization that the thing of worth in this world, the real thing of value, is our ability to discover beauty in everyone. She will teach me, she will teach us, how deep and wide and true is this one promise.  She will teach us how much He means it when He says, "I'll take care of it."

Wordle.net

This was created based on the "Nurture" post I wrote last week.

Dedicated to Chanaw of course!

Look at where we found the kids!

New Playlist on the Page

Check out some of the new songs I put on the playlist. Let me know what you think.

Happy Saturday everyone!

Beyond Time...an excerpt

"The question is not whether the things that happen to you are chance things or God's things because, of course, they are both at once. There is no chance thing through which God cannot speak--even the walk from the house to the garage that you have walked ten thousand times before, even the moments when you cannot believe there is a God who speaks at all anywhere.

He speaks, I believe, and the words He speaks are incarnate in the flesh and blood of ourselves and of our own footsore and sacred journeys.

We cannot live our lives constantly looking back, listening back, lest we be turned to pillars of longing and regret, but to live without listening at all is to live deaf to the fullness of the music.

Sometimes we avoid listening for the fear of what we may hear, sometimes for fear that we may hear nothing at all but the empty rattle of our own feet on the pavement. But be not affeared, says Caliban, nor is he the only one to say it. 'Be not afraid,' says another, 'for lo I am with you always, even unto the ends of the world.'

He says He is with us on our journeys.

He says he has been with us since each of our journeys began.

Listen for him.

Listen to the sweet and bitter airs of your present and your past for the sound of him."

-by Frederich Buechner from The Sacred Journey

Apathy is Not a Fruit

(apathy?)

Everyone is someone's someone;

means the world to someone;

can bring tears or joy to someone.

Everyone has happy and sad;

disappoints that follow;

things of pride that bring moments of joy.

Everyone finds reason to smile;

in something;

in someone.

(choice.)

I can be a part of someone. 

I can be someone; 

who brings smiles.

Or through ignorance.

I can be someone;

who brings indifference

(contagious.)

Nurture is a Daily Fashion

Inspired by my wife.

Nurture:

nurturing; to mother

the gentle watering

the soft spoken words of growth 

As important as the one who plants.  The one who digs.  The one with the vision.  The one with the plan & the goal.

Must be used together, in conjunction with the one who digs the whole, and drops the seed, and does so because he envisions one day a beautiful flower to appear.  

Can I take time to nurture instead of plan?

Can I take time to nurture instead of disciplining?

Instead of fighting to be in control?

Fighting for respect?

Choose to nurture instead of needing the "Why?" answer right now?

Nurture defies competition.  It does not concern itself with measures or scales.  

Nurture defies logic.  In the sense and the no sense nurture resides.  

Does she need a reason to love?  

Nurture@home.  Nurture@work.  Nurture@life.