Category: Morning

When Is Enough Enough?

Wednesday, August 31, 2022

Looking and Seeing, In the Haze Everything Is Unclear.

Psalms 130:7

O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

2 Corinthians 9:8

God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough of everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

Words of Grace For Today

Everyday we set our eyes on something. If we are fortunate we have the opportunity to set our eyes on a goal or more goals for the day, that may eventually lead to an achievement some future day, or solve a problem or challenge that sits like a heavy cement barrier in our path forward.

When we only see our own challenges, problems, and limitations our horizons shrink day by day until we live in a haze, barely able to see life as God gives it to us.

Into this all too often deep haze, Christ comes to shine the light of life with a great power to redeem on all that we are and all that the world is around us, with all the other people in it. Then the haze begins to lift. As we lift our heads and eyes and hearts to see others’ challenges, problems, and limitations, and respond with empathy, love, care, and mercy, then the light begins to shine on our visions of each day.

We can see that God gives us more than enough. We have plenty to share with others to help them see the light, the steadfast love of God, shining in through the haze of their troubled days with a great power to redeem.

In the blessed moments of wondrous light we can see our hopes for each day expand beyond our own small bubbles to include all the grandeur of God’s creation, and the spectacular gifts God has given us through other people, and the blessed possibilities God offers us through God’s steadfast love and great power to redeem it all and us all.

In the Light, We See What We Missed Before.

Rise Light And Shine … In Us

Monday, August 29, 2022

The Light Will Find Us,

We Need Not Search For It

nor Fear It Is Gone.

Psalms 74:22

Rise up, O God, plead your cause; remember how the impious scoff at you all day long.

Ephesians 1:9-10

God has made known to us the mystery of God’s will, according to God’s good pleasure that God set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.

Words of Grace For Today

For what shall we ask from God for this day, if not that God’s will be done also among us?

The Psalmist sings to God to rise up and state God’s cause, remembering how the impious scoff at God. Is the wish behind this prayer that God will judge and condemn the scoffers, the impious. If so then it is yet another example of humans trying to beat up others using God as a weapon. Or in other words: do what I tell you is proper behaviour and observe proper religious rituals in order that God will save you.

Ephesians has our answer to that kind of ‘easy’ bending of God’s Word and Promises of old. God has revealed the mystery of God’s will to us in Jesus the Christ, and it is in a Word: Grace. Christ came to live, die and be raised from the dead in order that we might know God’s first and last wish for us all is to love us, forgive us, and send us out to be that love to others.

There is great darkness always in life, always ready to steal our hearts from us and toss us to the wolves of self-reliance, self-saving, consuming for security, zero-sum stealing life from others that we might live in comfort.

Christ light shines in every darkness.

We are that light for so many people, if we but shine with God’s Grace and Love, instead of fear-motivated judgements and cries for conforming and compliance to our remake of ‘god’s rules.’

Ah, the freedom.

Ah, the wonder.

Ah, the awfully awe-filled, awesome light that rises this day again for us to live in.

Thunder may be scary but it’s easier to compartmentalize. This Light, it exposes every bit of our being, and God’s as well.

For This … !

Thursday, August 18, 2022

The Day Almost Done,

Long Since Gratitude Flows Freely,

–

And Then There Is Refreshing Sleep,

One Hopes!

Psalm 37:28

For the Lord loves justice; he will not forsake his faithful ones. The righteous shall be kept safe for ever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.

Luke 20:25

He said to them, ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’

Words of Grace For Today

Some end the day with giving thanks. Not that I don’t, it’s just by then I’m ready to pack it in.

Morning on the other hand is a time of wonder and gratitude flowing in so many directions as I notice the little things that are wonders. When people have tried and succeeded somewhat to ruin you, kill you, and exile you, the little things are miracles: starting with that I survived and am still surviving.

So this morning as many mornings I saw these wonders and gave thanks:

the comfort of a camper (instead of living under a tarp, in a tent, or ….)

the wonders of bright morning sunshine in the window, fresh air, relative quiet, birds calling (almost always loons very early on), sometimes the distant white noise of the power generators at the oil installation north of here.

the great time of year: now when the grass does not grow so fast that it needs be cut every week, the gone-ness of wasps, flies, mosquitoes (well some remain until freeze up),

the energy at my disposal (propane, gas, solar, batteries and wood.

the supplies I have (kleenex, paper towels, or toilet paper, I have enough clothes, though I get them dirty too fast it seems, I always have enough cleaning liquids of many kinds since they’re cheap at $tree, and…)

the tools that I can borrow making maintenance and repairs possible,

the machines that I can borrow: a truck that sometimes runs, a mower, …

the building supplies I can afford.

the good food and drink I have available, thanks also to the food bank for so much that are staples and ‘treats’ that are so healthy like yams and strawberries, and then coffee and medications that keep me functioning and living longer, maybe.

technology that keeps me able to write, read, and talk; and take and process and share photos (though it’s getting old and I wonder how long it’ll keep going – isn’t that stupid that such stuff ‘wears out’ so fast! a miracle that the computer and phone have lasted seven and six years!)

and More: the lake and a canoe to traverse it in summer, skis for winter outings, Pallets to walk on to keep my shoes clean around the camp, little things I’ve crafted to make life easier, like paper towel dispensers, shelves of all kinds, a writing desk, a ‘vertical’ mouse pads, freeze-protected water lines….

And always, breakfasts that are a delight: filling cereal, topped by sweet and sour (cold/frozen) berries, drenched in creamy Silk, with bitter hot coffee mellowed by Silk.

And plenty of toothpaste and soap and water to keep me clean – or so, with bum wipes, cloths, and towels.

Everything is covered.

The place only needs the drunk and partying druggies to stay away, the thieves and drug dealers to find elsewhere to ply their trades, and the ornery ones to settle down and notice how good they have it, or not.

And I only need a few dollars to get my own place in which I can retire and from which I can travel and camp around the wonderful places and get a set of camera-lenses-etc for photography and maybe….

So there’s that gratitude and dream to start the day.

How can one start one’s day and not notice the little things and give thanks?

Pray That It May Be Berry Good

Thursday, August 4, 2022

Among the Weeds In Life,

One Finds Blossoms

of Royal Beauty

2 Kings 19:14-16

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: ‘O Lord the God of Israel, who are enthroned above the cherubim, you are God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear; open your eyes, O Lord, and see; hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God.

Philippians 4:6

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Words of Grace For Today

Sennacherib sends Hezekiah, King of Judah, a threat, that Judah will be conquered and her God will be forgotten in time like so many others already are forgotten. Hezekiah turns to Isaiah, and then he turns to God in prayer. We know how that history turns out. Judah falls but not to Assyria. Sennacherib is defeated and returns to Assyria to be killed in his own land. Judah is spared. But other more powerful foreign powers will come and Judah will fall.

The question is not if, but only when.

It is as with death. The question is not if we will die. It is when.

The more significant question is how.

I suppose how one will die is somewhat interesting or distressing. The much more significant question is, since we’ve once again acknowledged that we will all die, how will we live!? And it starts this day. How will we live this day?

Last evening a man advocated on the radio in an interview for terminally ill people to have psychedelic drugs made available to them. His argument was emphatic. Diagnosed with stage four cancer he claimed that the existential stress was debilitating. While other treatments dulled his anxiety they also dulled all his positive emotions, and assisted dying was a bit too final for him. Psychedelic drugs made it possible for him to enjoy his life with his family in the time he had left.

You know, maybe, just maybe, it’s the answer. But the argument is specious. Every human at birth faces inevitable death. What was this man doing the rest of his life to prepare himself for the inevitable coming of death. Why was this existential stress too much for him to bear? Why? Why? Why?

Today, since we know we are going to die, if we have not already, then it’s time to get ready to die. And when we’ve faced that inevitable end, we will be ready to start living, however life develops for us. No matter what comes our way we will be ready to live, to live well, and to live grateful for all we can enjoy. Psychedelic drugs are not needed, are they really, to live hiding from the reality of life. And who says they dull just the negative stressors. They create fake positives as well. They are by definition mind altering. What’s the matter with the facing the reality God provides for us, the actual life with all it’s joys and pains and …. all of it.

Prayer or drugs.

Which do we choose as our way of facing reality? (Drugs really are not ‘facing’ reality, but escaping reality, but they are still many people’s choice. Whowoodathunk?)

Small things make the difference each day, like flowers in bloom, or fresh strawberries from the food bank. Not something I can normally afford or the expected fare at the food bank, and extraordinary wonderful just because life is so.

So drugs …

OR

prayer, blossoms, berries and wonder.

Every day we make choices. Every day God renews life through forgiveness and love. What will we make of it.

Berry Good

Hearts and All.

Deceit and Mischief – Healed, Giving Thanks

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Is That a Barrier in Our Day,

OR

A Gift of Heat

for the Coldest of Days

Soon Coming?

Psalm 36:3-4

The words of their mouths are mischief and deceit; they have ceased to act wisely and do good. They plot mischief while on their beds; they are set on a way that is not good; they do not reject evil.

Luke 17:15-16

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. He prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan.

Words of Grace For Today

Fools are too easy to find. People with mouths filled only with mischief and deceit are around every corner, if that far away. Actions of wisdom and goodness have long since faded from our landscape. The worries of the night when sleep evades them are filled with scheming how to do even more devious and evil deeds to try to achieve their own place in life. Evil is at their finger tips, pouring from the hearts and minds as readily as if they were the Devil himself.

Then … when one was about to drop dead from despair at the preponderance of evil all around with at least the hope that Jesus has prepared a room for us forever there … a stranger, a foreigner, a believer in other things, comes along, cured by Jesus, healed back to the fullness of life abundant and giving God thanks like we all ought to each day.

Which will we live out this day: out of the overwhelming deceit and evil that pours forth so freely from so many,

or

from the thanks and joy of one healed by Jesus’ Word?

We are, when we take care to look in a mirror of truth and wisdom, as much the producers of evil as any other.

We are, when we take care to look in a mirror of truth and wisdom, as much healed and capable of giving God thanks as any stranger.

So which will we embrace to start this day? And again throughout the day? And as we lay ourselves to rest for the coming night?

As The Morning Dawns

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Morning Again

Can We Make It

Through

All The Brambles

Psalm 46:5-6

God is in the midst of the city; it shall not be moved; God will help it when the morning dawns. The nations are in an uproar, the kingdoms totter; he utters his voice, the earth melts.

Revelation 21:3

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them’

Words of Grace For Today

God, almighty, melts the earth with a word, if God chooses.

God, almighty, melts our hard hearts and thick heads, if God chooses.

God dwells with us, and goes well with us, if God chooses.

God watches as kingdoms (and our small worlds) totter and fall, as hearts shrivel up and harden against all that attacks them and everything else as well, and as minds close down to consider only what fits so easily with a preconceived and shrunken concept of reality (though it may indeed be so far from reality.)

God is right there with us, and because God chooses, God does not abandon us to our tottering, hardening, closed down limits to life.

God strengthens our tottering worlds (oh in so many ways the world around us totters and falls into ashes and dust) so that they stand, not on our strength, but on God’s strength.

God melts the hardening of our hearts so that we can love again, so that they provide life for us and for all those we encounter.

God lifts the lids on our minds to let in the fresh air of hope so that we can see again beyond the horizons that were so close, so that we can see our neighbours’ needs and our abundance.

With that abundance, which God gives us and renews constantly, God showers the world around us with security for this day and all our days to come, security in God’s presence; God showers every heart around us with love, life-giving love; God showers our minds with curiosity and hope so that our horizons are beyond even our imaginations capabilities,

Because God so chooses, and choose again as each new morning dawns.

Just Desserts!

Friday, July 8, 2022

The Platinum Halo Awaits … But For Whom?

Jeremiah 21:14

I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, says the Lord; I will kindle a fire in its forest, and it shall devour all that is around it.

Galatians 6:9

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.

Words of Grace For Today

When it comes to our enemies we jump on the band wagon and toot our horn: go God, get ‘em! Give ‘em what they deserve! We are more than ready to see our enemies (who would do us in) get their just desserts.

We re-write Jeremiah to read: “I will punish them according to the fruit of their doings”, says the Lord; “I will kindle a fire in their forest and it shall devour them and all that is theirs!”

But that is not quite Jeremiah, now is it.

We don’t get to see our enemies burn to the ground.

We don’t get to see God devouring them for the evil they have done.

God’s hope, and ours as well (if we’ve matured enough for it to be so) is that God will finally reach our enemies’ hearts, they will confess, amend their lives and live justly and graciously the rest of their days. We’d like some restitution, but if they amended their lives, we could even forgive them almost everything they’ve done so far, almost everything.

Meanwhile, we hear Paul loud and clear: do “not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” Actually we hope we do not reap all that we have sown, for all of us have enough sins in our past to earn eternal damnation (we’ve just not earned it so clearly so many times over as our enemies who seek our death.) We trust that God’s promises to be gracious with us, already since our baptisms, are sure, uncompromisable, and … well life-giving, not only for us, but as a witness to all people how gracious and generous God is with us, so just maybe for many people, even our enemies perhaps?

This day we work again, in spite of being very weary, at doing all that is good and right, so that God’s harvest will be gathered in with great abundance, and all people will have life, living in Christ’ light.

Come and Hear …

Sunday, July 3, 2022

Photo Credit: Fred Olivier. Source: tinyurl.com/nvrk8st

Adult penguins create creches for the chicks.

Psalm 66:16

Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.

Galatians 2:20

and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Words of Grace For Today

Come and Hear ….

Brett sat with his older sister who protected him as best she could. The others were quiet, except for a giggle or a short yelp when someone got an elbow in the side from the person next to them. Four years old and Brett was proud that he got to come along with his 7 year old sister to Story Telling.

Today a big tall man, at least he said he was a man though he dressed like a woman, told them a story about ten penguins on the ice shelf of Antarctica. It was cold, windy, and the moms and dads to be had to travel hundreds of miles to where they gave birth to their babies. Except first … well that was the story. Would be moms and dads travel to the rookery, the breeding location on stable ice in the middle of the cold, cold windy winter. They find a mate and pair up for the season. Mom lays one egg and passes it off to dad. Dad has to hold it on his feet and in his ‘egg’ pouch for around 65 days. That’s about 3 months. Neither mom or dad have eaten since they arrived at the rookery. So mom gets to head off to the ocean to catch fish to eat. She returns in time for the egg to hatch. Dad gets to go to the ocean to eat finally after not eating for four months! When the chick breaks open the egg and comes out both parents take turns catching fish to feed to the baby chick. By December, in the summer down under, the chicks are almost as big as their parents. They grow real fast! They molt, that is they shed their chick down and grow adult feathers. They spend the summer at the edge of the ice shelves learning to swim, catch fish and survive. The next winter the would be moms and dads start the whole breeding process over again.

Can you imagine going 4 months without food?

When the story was done, Brett followed his sister to get a cookie and juice, and then they walked home. When Brett complained that it was a long walk, his sister reminded him that it wasn’t as far as the emperor penguins walked every year to get to and from the rookery.

Brett remembered, and said that word again, rookery. He asked his sister if their home was their rookery. His sister laughed and said, ‘I suppose it might be.’ Just then the neighbourhood bully crossed the street towards them. Brett asked his sister if she would protect him like the parent penguins protected the chicks from predators. She laughed nervously, and said, ‘Yes, I suppose so.’

The bully came up to them and said their mom was looking for them. His dad and their dad worked together, and there was an accident. No one knew how they were. But they should get home.

At home Brett saw his mom crying. Grandma was there, too. The bully’s mom was there with her oldest daughter, a year older than Brett’s sister. When the phone rang everyone jumped. Grandma grabbed the phone. She was quiet, and then said, “Thank you. Thank you so much!” After she hung up the phone she said, “Both men are okay, but they are going in an ambulance to the hospital to have the doctors look them over, just in case.”

Like Brett and his family and even the bully and his family, we all can say (if we dare), “Come and hear, all you who fear God, and I will tell what he has done for me.”

Just Right

Saturday, July 2, 2022

Fresh, Clean, Wet Morning

Psalm 139:9-10

If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.

Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And

Remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Words of Grace For Today

Some mornings the joy of life permeates everything (despite all the possibilities of so much shtako colouring the view)!

Everything is wonderful today. The monster has eaten it’s fill of dry wood and produces in return warm dry heat to dry out the wet towels and clothes that need drying every day. Outside the rain falls on and off heavy, pounding the air clear, washing the camp clean. The rain is cool. The air is fresh, refreshing coming in the windows, countering the intense heat available from the monster (the wood stove that eats so much wood in the cold winter weeks). I pull two spoons full from a newly opened can of coffee and the aroma fills the small living space. The water boils briskly on the monster so I need not spend propane for that this morning, a savings when every savings is life. Great creamy Silk half-n-half with coffee coffee in the mug warms my hands, minimizing the arthritic pains, and soothing my throat all the way down! Creamy tart berries wait on my cereal where every spoonful is both smooth and crunchy, sweat-creamy and biting with Vitamin C in the black berries.

It’s a new month. The start of the second half the year, so it’s a new log file, crisp and clean. The calendar pages get turned up and held with tape for the small calendar, and up and over the board for the large calendar.

Since it’s not cold outside freezing the living daylights out of everything, I need no monster heat to survive. It’s like grits, ‘its extra, only 25 cents.’ And that (the gathering of an armful of small wood sticks) I can afford today. Maybe not in four months, but today I’ll burn this resource, upon which my life depends in the winter.

The heavy rain lets up, the sun shines in the windows, the birds start to sing and the stupid squirrels (and 2-legged animals) are silent so far this day. All seems just right.

I’ll take it. It’s rare.

Today, a holiday weekend, I’ll take a break from ‘going to the nations, baptizing them, and teaching them to obey.’ Or maybe I’ll be able to, we will see what this day brings.

These are small celebrations of life, enjoyed fully, before it is taken, shaken, and made nearly impossible by my ex’s lies (added to by so many, even the judges) in court. (What illness, evil, and cruelty bring people to lie so profusely and then defend the lies as if they had become truth? Some say it is the necessity of relieving conflict by scapegoating innocent people. Some say it is as good as it gets. Some say the lies do become truth. Most people bury their heads in the sand, unwilling to realize that this kind of lying in court is what brings violence to the doors of governments and courts and individuals. When you live by the lie, unfortunately you will die by the lie as well. If you are to uphold justice and you dispense injustice based on lies, allowing that barbarism to play a part in so many people’s lives – those that benefit and those destroyed by your lies – really a barbarism in themselves – then it should be no surprise that those who are violent will rise up and cut out of society those liars and injustice-dispensers. Once barbarism is in play, it will dominate, as easily and surely as Omicron.)

But let’s set that aside for a few more days, and not let the evil of it ruin these days. It will have it’s deadly effect soon enough.

Now and always, I rest in the peace of knowing that Jesus is with me always, to the end of the age

This morning I’ll take the wings of the morning and sing with the Psalmist:

If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.

Getting It Done

Monday, June 13, 2022

Ours is the Grass,

God’s are the Mountains

Psalm 65:6

By your strength you established the mountains; you are girded with might.

John 14:14

If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

Words of Grace For Today

Consider God.

Not just a heavy weight champion for millennia and eons, God is the winner in all contests of strength, power, might, abilities, and smarts … oh, and wisdom.

The mountains and the oceans have always attracted humans to them, to be astounded by them, inspired by them, to be dwarfed by them, to be renewed by them … and to be made afraid by them.

God spoke a word, and the mountains and the oceans … and for that matter all matter and the universe itself, were created.

No contest, God is greater.

At least we are able to gawk and shudder at the immensity of God’s works.

Then we try to do marvellous things, building towers to the skies, flying through those skies, building cities that cover miles and miles of land, sending fragile ships across the oceans and into space, and writing and speaking words as if ours could possibly create a universe.

Our words alone can inspire and save lives, redirect civilization, capture memories to be marvelled at and used as guides by future generations (if they’d only read and understand!), and our buildings and cities are amazing, and our ability to travel around the globe in air, on sea, and in space are all astounding accomplishments

and they barely compare to what God does.

Forget about creation for a this moment,

but consider what God does with our sinful, burdened hearts, when God forgives, redeems, renews us, and sends us back into life to be God’s instruments of grace for other people.

That is more awesomely amazing than all God’s word of creating the universe.

And it cost God Jesus’ life. Not cheap.

Jesus promises then that if we ask for something in his name he will do it!

Carte Blanche, with just one proviso: that it be God’s will.

Ask this day, of the Creator and Redeemer and Inspirer, all that you need and want, and trust that God will do what God wills for you, and for us all.

Then it’s time to set about the day’s tasks, of life and of love and of being God’s blessing to others. It’s not nearly as awesome as God creating with a word, but it’ll have to do as today’s ‘blow my mind away’ thought to bring us alert through the 24 hours God gifts us, again!