Category Archives: Christian Life

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At the Right Time

Book: Country Wisdom for Heart and Soul

MUSICAL IMPRESSION

The man can sing.

His voice is as smooth as a lullaby. He has but one leg, the other lost long ago from a Caterpillar tractor accident. Melodies flow from his lips as he strums his guitar. The silky sound meets me.

They two are one. A few others and myself are in Sunday night church. The crowd is small. His hand softly strums the guitar. The songs are familiar to me; they hearken back to the 60s and 70s.

A Keith Green song, My Eyes are Dry, causes my forearms to tingle. I am back in the day when the artist who wrote it sang at Laxon auditorium in Chico to a college crowd. I recall his words to us.

He challenged us to walk the talk and to go light the city of Chico on fire. There was no messing around or empty words with Keith Green. He was real, and he was dynamite. It was profound.

We sing and sing. I love it. The songs lend themselves to harmonizing. Our vocals blend. My mind says, thanks, my friend, it’s good to sing tonight. Peace is a soft presence in the room.

When this songster sings, it is as natural and fluid as water flowing. He is not a performer aware of his performance; he is a minister sharing life through his singing. I am ministered unto.

Songs speak life.

Keith Green: My Eyes are Dry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyxoqHBkwqY

 

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IT’S NOT MINE

Her embrace is like a clinging.

Tears are streaming from her eyes. “You have no idea what this means,” she says to me. She hugs me again, tightly, and sobs. It’s been a rough few months for her. I feel her pain and overwhelm.

I just gave her a Benjamin Franklin as an impulsive gift. This morning, I had a feeling of God tugging at my heart. He says, she needs it more than you do. I say, okay, Lord, I’ll give it to her.

The woman has been dealing with major life-changing circumstances. We meet and talk and hash over life and the best ways to heal and deal with the emotional stuff. It is hard work but sweet.

Her tears and reaction tell me that it is one of those God-things, one of those just-at-the-right-time sort of moments, when the need is at its greatest. People need each other. She needs encouragement.

I remember times when we as a family were down to our last buck. Those were difficult days, with a family to feed and bills to pay. We were grateful for any help. But it was humbling.

As I write this, three teachers are teaching without pay at a local Christian school with declining enrollment. They don’t want the school to die off so they carry on. It breaks my heart.

The teachers’ willingness to do this amazes me. Teaching is hard work. But without pay? It can only be because of God and His love, and their desire to keep the school from folding.

My heart feels tender towards them. Do they feel appreciated? I doubt it. I plan to encourage them with a money gift tomorrow. It is right to give even when my own resources are tight.

What money I have I consider as a gift from God and not to be hoarded or spent foolishly but to be used to help others and care for my family’s needs. Everything we have is from God, really.

That is how it works. We let loose of the reins on “our” money—we let God move our heart with when and what to give—and then He provides for others through our acts of love and obedience.

Once this is realized, Christians become less selfish and more willing to let go of their plans and purposes for their resources, and they become more sensitive to God’s leading and promptings.

The joy of being at the right place at the right time is a blessing above and beyond the normal. It is a joyous and free way to live life. The blessings roll in because God delights in our spontaneity.

Follow your heart.

BOOK PROJECTS

What’s New: Country Wisdom for Heart and Soul is a collection of daily thoughts written during the year 2014 (originally theme-based tweets). I am refreshing this manuscript and plan to make it available in book form in the near future.

I am looking for Beta Readers to read Country Wisdom. Could you help? Please let me know if you are interested in reading for me. I would really, really appreciate it!!!

Update: Silent Sacred Space with God is with Beta Readers right now and is receiving finishing touches. It goes to the editor next.

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The Way of the Cross in Me

Random Journal Quotes

Journal 11 – 2015

There are missions we are given to do by God that are not neat and tidy. My views are not neat and tidy. Today I was reading a blog by a former fundamentalist. She was writing about misunderstanding race. An African-American joined in. His anger was apparent but not rude. He said those on the other side will never understand the marginalized because they have not lived it. It made me think of my professor and his comment that the playing field will never be even. There is a thread to this conversation that I am starting to understand. Prejudice is taught by example. Equality is lived by example. I feel contemporary Christianity has failed and failed miserably.We are not like Christ (broadly speaking, not everyone). We play it close to the vest, make our own choices, choose our own path, and live for self—a pious, self-righteous, careful path. What if we were to live it differently—really love our neighbor as oneself, really not count the cost, really and truly live for Jesus Christ without restraint? Our homes would become hospitals for wounded people, and we would become changed. Amen.

Journal 11 – 2016

It is good to feel God coming close. I am refreshed in spirit. There is a difference about me. The burden has lifted. Praise is here (at the monastery). I took pictures for a young couple by the grape arbor. She has a nasty scar on her face. She is pretty and looked lovely.  And she is kind, I can tell. Her man seemed discourteous to her, ignoring, and then bossing her. How I dislike that kind of thing.

Thank you for this place of peace. Thank you for answering my prayer and bringing peace—sweet, true, deep peace. That was a God-thing. Father, I have become a ‘big tent’ Christian. I no longer like labels. Thank you, Father God, for every step that you give me, every truth that I discover, every joy and every sorrow. I am so grateful. You take broken people and restore them. You lift our cares. You minister to us. You set us free to live again. You bring healing where there was none. You are my rock, my fortress. I’m so thankful.

We trust in the Lord, our God. In God we trust.

Journal 11 – 2017

God often calls us to leave what is “safe,” to let go of our prejudices, our biases, limited parameters, and well-defined boxes. God calls us to love. We don’t get to choose, He chooses for us. There are lines we must cross out of obedience to His teachings and message. My walk is not your walk. How can I tell you what God would have you to do? I can’t. That is His business. We can be blind—so blind—to the work of God. We cannot choose whom we are going to love. We love those whom God brings to us, whom He puts in our path, whom He directs us to seek out. There is wisdom in this. We are kept from planning our own destiny, by leaving our destiny up to God. How shallow our thinking is at times. But God is never shallow. He is wisdom personified. In Him is abundant wisdom. Trust is well-placed when it rests in Him. We need to leave what is safe, to step into the unscripted way of the cross—the road less traveled. Our friends and family may not understand, but that is not our concern. They don’t have to. Instead we must have the courage to step out into the center of God’s great big will for us, even if it causes consternation and pain to those who do not understand the way of the cross in us. Safe? Forsaking all, we follow Christ. God calls us to unconditional love. We tend to put conditions on whom we are going to love.

Norma L. Brumbaugh