Have you every tried the writing prompt of noting every word that follows one idea? Example: Ice cream is followed by sundae, hot fudge, nuts, summer, treat, year ’round, UDF, favorite flavor …..
Here one idea lead to another. Where does your mind go from the following quotes?
I was reading Richard Rohr’s book “The Naked Now” and he quoted Augustine as saying,
If you understand it, then it is not God.
St. Augustine
Rohr asks, “Wouldn’t you join me is saying “I would not respect any God that I could figure out”?
In a bit I opened another reference work called “Connecting the Testaments” and the author for the day quotes the oh so familiar quote,
You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds rest in you.
Augustine’s Prayer
When I think of a restless heart I remember ,
“There is a God-shaped vacuum in the heart of each man which cannot be satisfied by any created thing but only by God the Creator, made known through Jesus Christ.”
– Blaise Pascal
When you imagine your heart and God what phrases or description arises in your mind? If you present those words to the Father prayerfully, He can help you find the paths to strengthen, restore, renew and recreate your heart. Don’t ask me how it happens. I do not understand the ways of my Lord.
I do, however, seek to follow Him in all the paths of righteousness He shows me. There are times in our spiritual journey when God asks us to come and play. Put down the seriousness, the stiff, starched attitudes of religion and just be His companion. So wherever the Spirit leads you, try to joyfully follow. Place your heart in the hands of the Almighty and you will be amazed at what is unfolded!
I have learned more about my journey to the center-down silence since 1988. I have been pondering re-writing this poem but have not attempted yet. Maybe the words will come and I will pursue it.
Until then I pray you will venture into your own journey with the Living Christ. Find your way to quiet your self and rest with the Holy One.
I abandon all that I think I am, all that I hope to be, all that I believe I possess. I let go of the past, I withdraw my grasping hand from the future, and in the great silence of this moment, I alertly rest my soul.
~ from DEEP IS THE HUNGER by Howard Thurman
God clearly gives us a path to His quiet. We must desire this. We must make a move towards Him. He writes clearly through the book of James 4:8. We are to “draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts you double-minded.“
My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. 2 But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.
3 Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and forevermore
Psalm 131 NIV
Go there, to that place of quiet. Wait for His touch and His wisdom. With practice you will not be disappointed!
This came up in my email today. The same sentiment arose another time and I can’t recall where!
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
Howard Thurman
“Trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.” With the smoke from the Nova Scotia fires moving into the Cincinnati area and the air quality index indicating the air is dangerous for those with compromised health issues it has been a rough time at our house.
My husband has COPD and, like me with my health issues, sometimes lives in a high state of denial. (COPD stands for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.) The week of June 11-17 was exceptionally bad. Bob has had difficulty getting accustomed to the fact that the air quality index warnings have to do with him. It seemed that each day his symptoms got worse. Finally on Friday evening, June 16th, he crashed into his chair and knew he was ill. We were outdoors for a part of the day on the 17th for a celebration of life memorial for a friend of his. We went home and I locked him in the house. He likely should have seen a doctor on the 15th, but did not. By Sunday evening he knew he had to contact the doctor on Monday morning for at minimum steroids and antibiotics. I was convinced the doctor was likely to admit him to the hospital, though he did not.
The doctor got him in. Put him on steroids and told him if there was no improvement, antibiotics were next. Sent us home.
During that time I did lots of praying and lifting. The Lord told me I needed to yield to Him, too. I was shocked when I returned from retreat how very, very anxious I became about Bob’s health situation. Listening to the voice of the Spirit I realized why.
I had gone from trusting the Lord implicitly during the retreat to anxious and worried. How did that happen so quickly? I was reminded that my Dad had been chronically ill for years with heart disease. (There are many tales about that I could write, but not today.) I grew up living on edge about his condition. At ten and younger I did not quite understand that his condition would be fatal. My husband almost succumbed to flu in 2018. That is when his COPD went from mild to more severe.
Mayo Clinic online says, “COPD symptoms include breathing difficulty, cough, mucus (sputum) production and wheezing.” There were times I could hear Bob’s lungs rattle with wheezing from across the room. His cough became so severe and prolonged that I wondered if he would bring up part of a lung instead of just mucus. Sunday evening his breathing was fast and very shallow. One night he must have coughed in his sleep. I, too, was asleep; however, I came straight up out of the bed thinking he had fallen. He was asleep in the bed. The LORD spoke to me that my anxiety was linked to that childhood experience of my father’s heart disease and subsequent early death. (At the time he was 46 yrs. old, I was 11 yrs. old.) I am no longer that child. The Spirit helped me recognize this and release that childhood scarring to my heavenly Father.
So as Monday morning came I was listening to the LORD, praying, releasing my fears, declaring to God that whatever happened at the medical office my heart was in His hand. I am sorry to report that my praise over the doctor not hospitalizing Bob was not as robust as my praise before the appointment thanking God for giving us good medical care. I think I had braced myself and was not quite certain what to do in the aftermath. Isn’t that sad?
We went out to lunch at his favorite place. Visited the pharmacy for the new medication. Came home, tended to housekeeping duties and took our rest. He was still very sick. That afternoon when my watch rang for the afternoon alert to bring my attention back to Christ, I gave thanks that we were working together on vacation photos and other office matters. I confessed my shame at not being more grateful immediately after the appointment.
This morning he decided to text the doctor as his sputum was no longer clear. Doctor had said that would indicate need for antibiotics. Bob did all of that before I was out of bed! This round of denial is certainly over.
“Trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.” Beauty – we went out to lunch. Were able to celebrate our recent vacation to Hawaii and not get swamped by fears about the illness. Unremembered peace – relief as I texted two people who were praying as we went to the doctor. We each think sending him home was good news.
Having ridden this roller coaster so recently I am trying to maintain an even attitude towards this illness. When he was intubated in 2018 the doctor told me that COPD can ‘turn on a dime’ meaning someone with this illness can go from sick to extremely ill in no time at all. That makes it hard to suspend my fears and hesitation. I am determined though, ‘with God’s help.”
Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you.
Isaiah 46:4 NIV
Today (June 28) the air quality is again dangerous. We have closed up the house and are praying this does not exacerbate his symptoms. Stay well!
I mentioned I would get back to the shell on my soul collage.
“The nautilus and the ammonite are similar organisms. Both are aquatic molluscs with spiral shells. Ammonites, however, have been extinct since the K-T event that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago while the nautilus still roams the seas. There are numerous other differences between the two creatures, most of which are minor.”
Since childhood I have been fascinated by shells. Grandma Rush used to bring them to me from her bus trips to Florida. I likely found some on an eastern seaboard beach with my Dad before age 10. Even the land snails I found along the banks of the stream in Kuhner’s field fascinated me with their shells.
The nautilus creature makes a larger shell as it grows. Then it closes off the old chamber where it lived. Once when we were traveling the east coast we found a nautilus shell that had been cut open in a shop. Bob let me get it. For years it was hanging in my office. It was very fragile and got broken on the edges when not packed soundly for moving. From another vacation I now have a small cut open nautilus in a stained glass piece. In Hot Springs, Arkansas we found an ammonite in a rock shop that had been cut open. Again, Bob said, “Get it!”
Ancient to Arkansas to Ohio
Inner ancient chambers
Why are these special to me? When I was learning about the Center down silence, the nautilus showed me a way to do that. Instead of growing outward, to enter meditation and silence I need to travel from the largest chamber to the smallest, dropping things that hinder my listening to God along the way. Also note, the smaller the chamber, the fewer things it will hold.
During the retreat when I finally was able to come to stillness, a stop, I sensed the Lord saying that I had not been going to that quiet place enough with the Spirit for about 6 weeks or so. That is why I was so tired and drained. It was a gentle enlightenment and I immediately knew the wisdom of the statement. I forgot to drink from the Living Water, daily. I failed to enter the center down silence. Before retreat I was so hungry for silence. No wonder! I had not been there consistently for a long time. Yes I checked off boxes, did devotional readings, even read Scripture and Christian books. But no concentrated peeling away of distracting layers and just listening.
God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
Psalm 46:1,4,6 NIV
How could I skip going to the Living Water God offers me? The Word says the heart is deceitful above all else! I am so easily deluded. Help me, Jesus my Redeemer, to rest in Your holy place daily.
Much more important than showing you the photos is to ask you to try entering that center down silence for yourselves. Even Monica Brown understands! Look at the CD cover of hers I found in my favorite colors!
Will you try this for 21 days? Just listening for that still, small voice. It makes all the difference in the world! Give yourself to listening. Quiet your thoughts and heart. Sit still. Be quiet.
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.”
When our children were young I purchased a poster from American Bible Society that had portions of Psalm 95 around the edges. Every night before they went to sleep I would read it to them after stories and before prayers.
I came across Psalm 95 when reading and praying Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer was my practice. In my personal copy of Common Prayer I wrote the definitions of Meribah – STRIFE or CONTENTION and Massah – TEMPTATION. A few verses of the Psalm are repeated in Hebrews 4. I had studied Hebrews 4 in depth tying to understand the concept of entering God’s rest.
O that today you would listen to his voice! 8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.’ 11 Therefore in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’
Psalm 95:7b-11 NRSV
Strife and temptation. Yes, I am so prone to those two! Likely, you are also?
What lead me to this Psalm again was an attempt to express the wonders of the LORD I have found over the past six weeks. I will just let you read it.
Subtitle: A Call to Worship and Obedience
1 O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! 3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
O that today you would listen to his voice! 8 Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your ancestors tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, ‘They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they do not regard my ways.’ 11 Therefore in my anger I swore, ‘They shall not enter my rest.’
Psalm 95 NRSV
I pray you rejoice over the LORD. Make a joyful noise to Him. Give Him thanks. Understand that He is the Great King! The depths of the earth, heights of the mountains, the sea and dry land – all are His for He made them! We are the sheep of His hand. LISTEN to His voice and be renewed in life and strength and grace.
In Hawaii we would begin the day at sea level them go for a drive. Before too long we were at 3,000 feet. My ears began to pop! Then suddenly we could see the snow atop Mauna Loa where the observatory sits. No, my photos did not come out. Just imagine palm trees and flowering shrubs, geckos running around and then seeing snow. Made me go yikes. At first Bob did not believe me. Then he saw with his own eyes and he too was amazed.
USGS reports on Mauna Loa: “Its long submarine flanks descend to the seafloor an additional 5 km (16,400 ft), and the seafloor in turn is depressed by Mauna Loa’s great mass another 8 km (26,200 ft). This makes the volcano’s summit about 17 km (55,700 ft) above its base! The enormous volcano covers half of the Island of Hawai‘i and by itself amounts to about 85 percent of the area of all the other Hawaiian Islands combined.” https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/mauna-loa
online Flicker photo- those look like sheep beneath the trees!
During retreat at sunset I went to my car to get a printed notebook of Treasures in Plain Sight to share with Sister Maureen. You sort of have to read some of my postings if you want to get to know me. Walking back to my room 7:12 PM on 23-6-5 I heard the Lord say,
"I want you to sit
Enjoy the breeze
LISTEN to your own writing."
There is a huge patio with picnic tables near the parking lot. It is covered with a roof held by ropes and poles. I had earlier seen a sister who seems to be confined to a motorized wheelchair. She is younger than me. I saw her sitting on the patio enjoying the evening breeze. The patio overlooked a part of the grounds where the trees open and a small meadow is seen.
I told her, “Look at you! You take your chair wherever you go! I had to walk out here and there is not even a back on these picnic benches!” She rewarded me with a huge, lovely smile.
Sister went back in the building when an alarm rang on her wrist. I wondered if she had been waiting to see deer? There was a lovely meadow in the distance with an opening in the trees. Sure enough, at 7:27 two large deer came out from between the trees and began to graze in the meadow. I made note of the time to give to her. (I saw her in the cafeteria at lunch the next day and slipped her the note. She cheerfully thanked me with a BIG smile.)
I sat in the evening breeze and began paging through the notebook with writings I had posted a year ago. It was fun to visit memories and see His hand at work in my life. When I had finished I heard,
“Blog or not
writing IS part of your calling."
You see, during this retreat I was asking what the Lord would have me do in the future. I was exhausted in so many ways. If I was told to stop X-Y-and-Z, believe me, I was willing to obey. I had made a retreat here last autumn. The program was Soul Collage. Participants choose magazine pictures to illustrate their theme or train of thought. I brought my most meaningful collage with me to ponder during the retreat. I prayed repeatedly asking the Lord to direct my ways. The focus of this collage is writing.
When I write I bow my heart to the Lord similar to the nun in the white habit, praying that I can find the words to explain my experiences and bring God glory. One thing that has always fascinated me is the sound the waves make as they recede from the beach back onto the ocean floor. “Susurrus”is the word that describes a murmuring stream. Wonder what describes that sizzling water going through sand sound? Those are the things that keep me writing! The bookshelf tells the story of me researching my writing. The keyboard, my obvious method. The clock reminds me that I am to walk Lucky at about eleven every morning. I have a time limit to my writing session! And the fossilized nautilus. That became a centerpiece for my retreat. More later on that.
Returning to the building I found a book I had never seen before. The author is Edward Hays. It is entitled “The Ladder.” What an eye opener! and soul unfolder! I spent much of the evening reading the first 20 or so pages.
The following song describes what was going on for me. Lyrics show on the video.
You might have noticed I was not finished writing about our trip to Hawaii when I left on the 6 day retreat. Now I find myself seeing a Hawaii photo and wanting to tell you about it. Then coming across a retreat experience and wanting to expound on that. So, in short, for the next week or so I will be mixing up my themes.
My husband would tell you I have always been slightly mixed up. I tease him he is not hysterical, he is historical!
When images like this come up, what else am I to do?
His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him …. such a sacred heartGod used splatter paint method on orchids in the foreground!
And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory.“
My husband Bob was a bit uneasy about going on vacation on an island, totally surrounded by water, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Besides learning that practically everything sold on the Islands must be imported, we learned this valuable history lesson.
The History channel reports that on April 1, 1946 ,”In the middle of the night, 13,000 feet beneath the ocean surface, a 7.4-magnitude tremor was recorded in the North Pacific. (The nearest land was Unimak Island, part of the Aleutian chain.) The quake triggered devastating tidal waves throughout the Pacific, particularly in Hawaii.
4-1/2 hours later the Hawaiian destruction was amazing. “The wave was heading toward the southern Pacific at 500 miles per hour.” The Laupahoehoe schoolhouse was crushed by the tsunami, killing the teacher and 25 students who were inside. Some reports say more than one teacher died.
“In Hawaii, 2,400 miles south of the quake’s epicenter, Captain Wickland of the United States Navy was the first to spot the coming wave at about 7 a.m., four-and-a-half hours after the quake. His position on the bridge of a ship, 46 feet above sea level, put him at eye level with a “monster wave” that he described as two miles long.” {I was unable to find the name of his ship.}
There is now a park there to memorialize the tragedy. We visited the beach briefly. The school is totally gone due to the tsunami destruction. It was rebuilt in 1947 on higher ground. It is a gorgeous location and we could understand why people would want to live there.
The History channel continues with: “This tsunami prompted the U.S. to establish the Seismic SeaWave Warning System two years later. The system, now known as the Pacific Tsunami Warning System, uses undersea buoys throughout the ocean, in combination with seismic-activity detectors, to find possible killer waves. The warning system was used for the first time on November 4, 1952. That day, an evacuation was successfully carried out, but the expected wave never materialized.” I believe the deaths of those students and teachers should be remembered when the Pacific Tsunami Warning system is discussed in schools. There is a YouTube video where the local people gave honor to their friends and family who died there 75+ years ago.
Below is part of the park grounds.
Caution Beware of falling coconuts and fronds.
The location certainly commands respect and honor.
I have sensed from my youth that trying to put spiritual things into temporal words always diminishes them. Our language does not describe the eternal very well. I will continue to try to describe my retreat time in hopes that it might bless your journey and deepen your relationship with the Holy.
On Monday I was trying to stay in the center down silence. This song kept surfacing in my heart and mind. This music was originally written as lullabies. There was such a response from parents when they found themselves humming a tune then remembering the Scripture that went along with it! The Word goes forth!!
Based on Psalm 139:14
The song repeated in my head. I told the Lord I was having trouble getting my mind to enter and stay in the silence. I heard:
“You often merit from a song –
in your heart, from your heart,
Flutter open and rest in that.”
23-6-5 9:25 AM
Talk about no guilt! I was amazed over this and every other answer I heard during my time with the Lord. That lead me to wonder when I learned to sing? Do you know when you learned?
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Psalm 139: 14 NIV
I also sensed the following verse.
Jesus said to them, `Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while.’
Mark 6:31a NIV
Different translations call it a lonely, desolate, desert place. I responded, “Lord, this is not a desolate place and I truly must be careful not to eat too much, but You bless me by allowing me to come here for 6 days to rest a while.” As far as eating, there was a wonderful cafeteria where I had many choices as to what I might eat at every meal. I truly did need to pay attention to my carbs and calories. So delighted to enjoy egg salad and did not have to make it myself! Once I found there was a soft serve ice cream machine I was about over the moon.
There were CDs available for us to listen to at any time. I played this one as I was practicing pastels and then trying to finish an embroidery project that had been set aside way too many times over the last 5 months. One CD was “Sounds of the Eternal” by J. Philip Newell, (his photo is above). The words to this prayer stopped me immediately. I needed to listen again and copy out the words. I sat with this and still sit with it even now. The words from this prayer are below. The underlined portion is what grabbed me.
“That truth has been enshrined into my heart and
into the heart of every human being
there to be read and reverenced
Thanks be to You, O God.
“That there are ways of
Seeing and sensitivities of knowing
Hidden deep in the palace of the soul
Waiting to be discovered
Ready to be set free
Thanks be to You.
"Open my senses to Wisdom’s inner promptings
that I may give voice to what I hear in my soul
And be changed for the healing of the world.
That I may listen for truth in every living soul
And be changed for the well being of the world."
Where he wrote 'hidden deep in the palace of the soul' by brain wants to pray, 'hidden deep in the palace of the heart.'
I took these words to my new spiritual director, Sister Maureen. She said, "That sounds just like what you experience." I was flabbergasted."Ways of seeing and sensitivities of knowing."
I tried to sketch that with pastels with a drawing of a brain for knowing and eye for seeing. When I was almost finished I noticed I had misspelled sensitivities! What a goof. Found the illustration below online. I was trying to draw a brain with blue arcs like your wireless phone gives to show how much signal you have.
One description of John Philip Newell says,'... a Church of Scotland minister whose Ph.D. is from the University of Edinburgh, is internationally acclaimed for his work in the field of Celtic spirituality and his commitment to interfaith relationships and peacemaking." Celtic spirituality has always had a deep root within me.
So as you walk with God today I pray you will ask for the ways of seeing and sensitivities of knowing that will bless you and the world around you.
What a glorious retreat I had at the Sisters of Charity convent in Delhi. Oh my! The Lord enabled me to peel back the layers of surface-ness and enter the silent place with the Holy One. There is so much we do not understand or realize about that quiet place.
That quiet place is so restorative and life-giving. I did my usual retreat practices. Listen for the Voice from the quiet place. Try to obey what I was told. Read books as they came across my path. I took notes and tried to digest and experience what the words said, what the Voice said. I will attempt over a week or two to show you the holy places I was led to, the things I learned.
First I heard,
"Peel back
Let layers flutter open
Rest, be revealed."
23-6-4 opening prayer time
And when I went to the art pastels I am trying to learn how to use this is what came forth.
Please ignore black prongs from holder
I used too much fixative when I was finished and the paper wrinkled, oh well. The river of living water lies in that lower, interior level. I determined to peel back my upper, outer layers and rest while being revealed. I had to return to these instructions more than once.
The retreat leader introduced us to the musician Monica Brown. I was totally unfamiliar with her work. The theme for the opening and continuation of the retreat was the songs entitled “Quiet my Soul” and “In the Silence.”
Once I found the music on my iPad I listened to these lovely calls to the Presence of the Holy One repeatedly, especially at bed time or at times my heart and mind got distracted from centering.
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:20 NLT
I am praying that this sharing will help you to enter into that place of quiet and restoration with the Holy Trinity.
For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength. But you refused
Isaiah 30:15
That last phrase has always made me pause. I DO NOT want to be one who refuses! Other translations say, “But you would not.” This retreat I knew I was running on empty and of absolute necessity in need of returning and rest, quietness and trust. May you, too, set aside time each day to drop down into that ‘center down silence’ of restoration, rest, quietness and trust. Linger and be restored.
Treasures in Plain Sight, A Christian Blog 