Category: Poetry

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Memories, Poetry, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks

Eye of God

Did you ever go to camp and make a “God’s Eye”? I did not but my kids did, even in public school art class.

Here is an elaborate example from on-line:

Fancy work of art, this one!

This one is from our paper money.

This website explains it https://www.hobbyistgeek.com/what-is-the-eye-called-on-the-dollar-bill-explained/

“The Eye of Providence. The all-seeing eye of God. It’s a symbol that has been used by many religions and cultures over the years.

But what does it mean?

There are many theories about what the eye on the dollar bill means, but no one knows for sure.

What we do know is that the Eye of Providence has been used as a symbol by many different religions and cultures over the years.

It is a reminder that God is always watching us. And that’s probably why it was chosen as the symbol for the US dollar bill.

hobbyistgeek.com

I learned a prayer from the author Macrina Weiderkehr many years ago. It is pasted in the front of my most frequently used Bible. It reads:

All-Seeing One,
above me, around me, within me.
Be my seeing as I read these sacred words.
Look down upon me
Look out from within me
Look all around me
See through my eyes
Hear through my ears
Feel through my heart
Touch me where I need to be touched;
    and when my heart is touched
    give me the grace
    to lay down this Holy Book
    and ask significant questions:
Why has my heart been touched?
How am I to be changed through this touch?
All-Seeing One,
I need to change
I need to look a little more like You
May these sacred words change and
transform me.
Then I can meet You Face to Face
     without dying
     because I've finally died enough
To die is to be healed
     a little more each death
     until that final death
     when I'll be healed forever.
It will be a healing that will last.
Your words are healing
     although they bring about my death.
O Eye of God, look not away.

Father I pray this prayer will be true of my life. Help me keep yielding to Your touch. Show me how to ‘meet You face to face without dying.’ I need to change.

In A Tree Full of Angels Macrina wrote saying “There is a quote from Benedictine Abbot Marmion that has become a guide for me as I spend time in Divine Reading each day. He says,”

Read under the eye of God until your heart is touched, then give yourself up to love.

Don Marmion, Union with God, trans. Mother Mary St. Thomas, (St. Louis: B Herder, 1949)

Read asking the Lord to help you see and understand the words of His text. then stop when your heart is touched. Stop and give yourself up to His love. Stop and let Him instruct you further on the matter. This is yielding. God is watching me with His all-seeing eye. And I am grateful.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Book quotes, Faith, Poetry, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth

Mercy Abounds

Last Sunday (8-7-22) I posted about a fisherman pastor and mercy. The theme came to me again this morning during my prayer time. When Bill Moyers offered a PBS television series on poetry he featured Coleman Barks. Barks is a renowned poet in his own right and a scholar on Rumi translations. Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet and Sufi mystic born in 1207. He died 1273.

I can just hear you commenting, “Leave it to Molly to find these ancient guys!” Well at times these ancient guys express what my heart says in better words than I can find. Back to Coleman Barks’ translation of Rumi.

In a poem entitled “Cry Out In Your Weakness” I was touched. My weakness has been brought very clear to me this past few weeks. If you have never experienced helplessness or weakness in your physical frame you might not be able to relate well to this post.

I began reading Rumi a few years ago when I found others quoted him repeatedly. Besides I like poetry. On Page 156 of my paperback copy of “The Essential Rumi” this poem translated by Coleman Barks is found. Here are a few lines.

Like Mercy itself, they run toward the screaming …

And don’t just ask for one mercy. Let them flood in. Let the sky open under your feet.

Give your weakness to one who helps.

Cry out! Don’t be stolid and silent with your pain. Lament! And let the milk of loving flow into you.

-Rumi, Cry Out In Your Weakness

If you want to hear Rumi’s poem read, look for Rumi – Cry Out in Your Weakness on You Tube.

During my prayer time I sensed again, do not stop at asking for one mercy. Ask for every mercy. Gather them up. Let the One who helps bind them up and help carry them back with you.

Lord, I need all of your mercies … new every morning and each day and night… I need healing mercy and faith mercy and writing mercy and inspiration from You mercy. I need behavior and patience mercy.

Yes, God’s mercies are new every morning. He blesses us with mercy and forgiveness, comfort in our suffering, grace in our humility. As we cry out He does what William Law spoke about. We yield to Him in patient, meek, humble resignation and He is there to bless and assist us in every way. Not perhaps our every wish, but the ways we truly need His help.

One interpretation of the poem: “A dragon was pulling a bear into it’s terrible mouth.” Discouragement was pulling a Christian into it’s terrible mouth. As one author wrote about discouragement, “I have discovered only one solution to this problem, ignoring my emotions. It doesn’t mean that I do not acknowledge my feelings, but rather that I do not allow my emotions to dictate my life. My faith in God, my love for God, is more important than how I feel. This is exactly what it means to die to oneself.” (https://leadersthatfollow.com/how-christians-can-deal-with-discouragement-and-disillusionment/) Hey! William Law and Andrew Murray taught me that same thing!!

“A courageous man went and rescued the bear.” His name is Jesus. He went to the cross and rescued us from all the merciless places in our lives. “Like Mercy itself, (He) ran toward the screaming.” Perhaps you have not been screaming out loud, but the Lord knows even your internal screaming. Call to Him. He is faithful to respond.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    his mercies never come to an end;
 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
    ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

Lamentations 3:22-24 NRSV

I do not find it difficult or even sacrilegious to relate to Rumi’s poetry. I truly believe what Paul declared in Ephesians 4.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,  one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Ephesians 4:4-6 NRSV

I pray you, too, will cry out to God, even screaming, and receive His help and deliverance from the mouth of your particular bear.

As Matt Redman wrote “May I never lose the wonder, oh the wonder of Your mercy. Hallelujah!”

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Music, Poetry, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

Disarm me with Your Love

Have you ever been naughty and you knew it while you were being naughty. Not just in childhood, but have you done things as an adult that you knew were not good for you? But you did them anyway.

Recently we were watching the “Untold story of C. S. Lewis” about how he resisted and ran from being a Christian for much of his early life. How he used reasoning and thinking to try to avoid the Living God. I was delighted that authors like George MacDonald introduced him subtly to the power of the Holy Spirit.

This morning I opened another old devotional book that is a collection of quotes, poems and stories. This one was collected by Mary Wilder Tileston entitled Joy & Strength. First copyright was 1901. She quotes a poem by George MacDonald.

Lord, to Thy call of me I bow,
Obey like Abraham;
Thou lov'st me because Thou art Thou,
And I am what I am.

Doubt whispers, "thou art such a blot
He cannot love poor thee,"
If what I am He loveth not,
He loves what I shall be.

Isn’t that wonderful? Paul wrote in Philippians 3: 12 “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me His own.” God has plans for us. He loves us and what we shall be.

Tileston went on to quote a paragraph by Juliana H. Ewing.

We may hate ourselves when we come to realize failings we have not recognized before, and feel that there are probably others which we do not yet see as clearly as other people see them, but this kind of impatience for our perfection is not felt by those who love us, I am sure. It is one’s greatest comfort to believe that it is not even felt by God. Just as a mother would not love her child the better for its being turned into a model of perfection at once, but does love it the more dearly every time it tries to be good, so I do hope and believe our Great Father does not wait for us to be good and wise to love us, but loves us, and loves to help us in the very thick of our struggles with folly and sin.

Juliana H. Ewing

Juliana was on to something here. God wants us to try and keep on trying to be obedient to what He tells us. He does not love us less when we fail. Someone coined the phrase “God will never love you more than He does right now.” Yes, He loves to help us ‘in the very thick of our struggles.’

I have always believed that God disarms me with His love. If I dig in my heals about something He does not fight with me. He loves me and melts my armor and my arguments against Him. I can resist and pout if I want. He is still moving towards me with love.

Can you see some of the chains you have put upon yourself? For years Lewis determined to have nothing to do with ‘religion.’ He resisted the Father and the Son, but he was no match for the Holy Spirit. God loved what Lewis would become. He disarmed Lewis with His love.

God has plans for your life, too! He loves you now. He will love eternally. Have you yielded to His love for you? Are you willing to bend your ways to His? Lewis was not enamored of church. Let’s face it, Anglican hymns leave SO much to be desired. Yet he went where he thought he should go to find God.

There is great value in being with other Christians. You will not like all of them. If there were a perfect church and I walked into it, it would not longer be the perfect church. Yet we need each other. We need to grow and learn and pray and struggle together.

We each have failings we likely have not recognized up to now. Go to church anyway. Start watching a variety of sermons on line until you find a local place to attend. Then go regularly and find ways to grow there. The Trinity will rejoice and eventually you will, too!

Ewing wrote: “our Great Father does not wait for us to be good and wise to love us, but loves us, and loves to help us in the very thick of our struggles with folly and sin.”

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Faith, Nature, Poetry, Yield

Giants Among Us!

Recently we watched a National Geographic program entitled the “Green Planet” showing plants from all over the world. They emphasized how plants grow to obtain the best sunlight. Theses lily plants are the largest in the world. They begin very small and unfold to cover the most pool surface and the most sunlight. As the pond fills in with lily leaves, the other water plants die off, starved for sunlight. I was so excited during this program I almost sounded like Bob watching FC Cincinnati when they “SCORE!!!” (Imagine man screaming and dog terrified.)

Yes, they are approximately six feet across and can support a grown man! Can you imagine? That is a plant I would love to see in person! No, these lily plants do not grow on stalky stems like the ones that grow at the Nature Center of Cincinnati. As you can see the flowers are on the water surface, too.

If you have followed my blog you have likely read my poem about Lily Pads. In case you missed it:

Perhaps I Could Ask You Just to Stand and Tip? ©1990       Molly Lin Dutina 	
Lily pads at the pond		
Grow on stalky stems
Leaves unfold an opened palm
Cupped at center point
Summer shower starts to drop
Mercurial glistening spheres
Gathering in the center spot
‘til bulbous weight smears silver drops
Into glistening globs
And tips the leaves so full
To pour their contents overboard
And rising from the spill
Stately shielded lily-hands
Begin the cycle once more

Keep my stem flexible, Lord
My hands open and cupped
Eager to receive Your all
Questioning not Your skill
Only trusting the power of Your love
To melt my rigid will

Drench me Lord 
In Your shower of love
Let me gather and drink my fill
Then spill over on those around
And rise to await Your will

Send water of Your Spirit
To tip me over, pour me out
Then wash over me once again
Fresh cleansing by Holy Words

Shine Your light through
This enshrouding mist
Color me with covenant this:
Abiding presence and constant love,
Indwelling grace that conquers sin
Transfigured rigid I
Yielded and bent
In Your service	
Spilling forth rivers of living water	
And giving rest to croaky voiced frogs	  
Who, when Spirit-kissed,
Become priests and kings	
Singing their praises to You.

Perhaps You ask me just to be Your lily leaf
Stand and tip
Now that is a monster lily leaf!

Unlike the giant lily leaves, I do not want to crowd out the other plants from the sun. Instead, I want to direct others to the Light of Christ, the best Sun/Son of all. Seek Him. When you seek Him, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all of your heart.

 You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you, says the Lord

Jeremiah 29: 13-14a
Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Collection of Quotes, Faith, Just do it, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

Bears Repeating: One Solitary Life Plus An Additional Prayer

This post has been republished due to a technical issue preventing some followers from seeing the initial publication…. So I guess the pressure to write this week has been taken off!

Years ago we had a cardboard plaque that had the words of this poem on it. I think when we downsized I might have let it go? I recently printed it out for a study group, and then another group. I had to search for it online. Today when I went to find it again for this blog, I found this interesting note from another blogger!

*A reader alerted me to the fact that this sermon may have originally been written and preached by Phillips Brooks, pastor and author of “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” The words are attributed to him in this 1952 newspaper. I will continue to research this, but if you have any additional information, please contact me.

https://www.celebratingholidays.com/?page_id=4456

I keep a photo on my wall of the statue we found in Boston of Phillips Brooks. Wikipedia says: “A statue of Phillips Brooks is installed outside the Trinity Church in Boston‘s Copley Square, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.”

What is so enthralling to me is the figure of Jesus standing behind Phillips with His hand on Phillips shoulder as he was preaching. A visual wonder of inspiration and being led by the Lord! A few folks over the years have told me when they were speaking it was as if the hand of the Lord was upon them. I always tried to print out a photo of this statue for their encouragement.

Photo online source from Wikipedia

So whether One Solitary Life was written by Pastor James A Francis in a 1925 sermon or by Pastor Phillips Brooks, the impact of the life of Christ is summarized and noted well.

The Text of the Sermon runs:
Here is a man who was born in an obscure village as the child of a peasant woman.

He grew up in another obscure village.

He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty and then for three years was an itinerant preacher.

He never wrote a book.

He never held an office.

He never owned a home.

He never had a family.

He never went to college.

He never put his foot inside a big city.

He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of his divine manhood.

While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him.

His friends ran away.

One of them denied him.

Another betrayed him.

He was turned over to his enemies.

He went through the mockery of a trial.

He was nailed upon the cross between two thieves.

His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was

dying, and that was his coat.

When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the center of the human race and the leader of the column of progress.

I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon the earth as powerfully as has this one solitary life.

Our group “Journey Together In Stitches” met recently and someone brought up the prayer by Phillips Brooks on the back cover of Forward Day By Day. He wrote:

O God; Give me strength to live another day: Let me not turn coward before its difficulties or prove recreant to its duties; Let me not lose faith in other people: Keep me sweet and sound of heart, in spite of ingratitude, treachery, or meanness; Preserve me from minding little stings or giving them; Help me to keep my heart clean, and to live so honestly and fearlessly that no outward failure can dishearten me or take away the joy of conscious integrity; Open wide the eyes of my sou that I may see good in all things; Grant me this day some new vision of thy truth; Inspire me with the spirit of joy and gladness; and make me the cup of strength to suffering souls; in the name of the strong Deliverer, our only Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Phillips Brooks

By the way, I have no credentials. Call me whatever You want, Lord. I am Yours and I will try to always speak Your truth.

But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

John 14:26 NIV

As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.

1 John 2:27

Go forward speaking the truth in love in any place the Lord directs you. Never rely on yourself, but His Spirit within you.

Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Yield

Thanks First ©2014 Molly Lin Dutina

It seems that thanks should run supreme
in our conversations with God.
There is always a need for sorry
but never enough thanks and praise.
Seven times a day* we are challenged
but do we praise even once?

We are a disobedient and contrary people*
told in Scripture not to worry about 
our life, our body*. 
Americans overfed, having long life, abundant clothing,
are undernourished in the things that matter,
eternal things that would give us never-ending joy.

So thank You, thank You, 
Holy God, 
Holy and Mighty,
Holy Immortal One.
You give us life and that more abundantly*.
You offer us Your very kingdom.

Help me be loyal to praise practice,
seeking first Your kingdom and righteousness.
Doing that, I receive all that is needed.
If I seek You, I will find you*
and be more satisfied than having
all the kingdoms of this world and their splendor*.

Psalm 119:164, Romans 10:21, Matthew 6:25-33, John 10:10, Jeremiah 29:14, Matthew 4:8

Well that about sums it up, don’t you think?

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Humor, Memories, Nature, Poetry

Baking in Early Spring

I wrote this in 2015 when we still lived on Siesta Drive.

Goldfinch in early spring
Marshmallow Chicks for Real © Molly Lin Dutina 2015   

It’s the time of year
bakers make cupcakes
with green coconut frosting
a marshmallow chick on top.

Deck banisters are lightly coated with frost
Six goldfinch in spring plumage
not yet brilliant summer yellow
wait for chance at the feeder.
Hill in background covered
with King Edward daffodils.

Bakers have nothing
over reality!
Summer Goldfinch
photo by r m dutina

I once called goldfinch in summer plumage “Flying daffodils.” Look about you. Never know when you, too, will discover a …. and just now the tapping on the window screen … revealed right next to me a young goldfinch in full summer plumage picking insects from the edge of the screen. Oh my! He surprised me!! pink feet and all!! At least I think it was a goldfinch! No camera nearby.

“And He who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also He said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Revelation 21:5

“For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign LORD will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”

Isaiah 61:11

…treasures in plain sight! June, 2022

Posted on in Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Writing Life

Find the Focus

Have you ever been discombobulated? One guy on Christian radio asks if that means most of the time we are combobulated? Free Dictionary by Farlex says there is no such word. Well discombobulated means befuddled, flummoxed, confused. There are times I forget my most important thing, writing about my relationship with the Lord and how you can have a relationship with Him, too.

Find the Focus© 2014 Molly Lin Dutina

Cannot find the clipboard
poems in process of revising.
Cannot find the journal
life in process of being noted.
Where is my concordance
trying to find that verse
Never finished notes in my Bible
negligence has made this worse.

Too often cover important 
with mundane and lowly
Help me find the focus 
to tell forth the eternal and holy.

Fighting back the darkness
bearing forth the Light
partake in eternal struggle
get any pen, any paper
note on computer 

The Calling compels me 
to herald the glad tidings:
God wins.

The poem shows my remorse at losing track of trying to put my spiritual journey into words. At least ten years before I wrote the poem above, my cousin, Peggy, gave me this verse about writing.

The LORD answered me: Write down this vision; clearly inscribe it on tablets so one may easily read it.

Habakkuk 2:2 CSB

Oh Lord, that I might always take up Your challenge about writing as purpose for my heart and soul. May You be blessed by my attempts and may I always be willing to listen to Your edits and changes. As Toby Mac wrote and sang, “Come and steal my show!”

Some of the best lyrics were not listed in the video. Are you willing to yield the things below to God?

My life
My plans
My heart, it’s all Yours, God
My dreams
My fears
My family, my career
Take it away

Posted on in Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Journal, Memories, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Yield

Who Rules on The Plain of Self?

Have you ever taken your life back once you said God could be in charge? In 1981 I did just that. Here in 2022 I have no recall of what the circumstances were. I would love to say that was the one and only time I ever did that, and that would make me as the saying goes, “one big fat liar.”

The Plain of Self © June, 1981 Molly Lin Dutina	
I’m still fighting,
Prodding, kicking,
Scratch and claw.
Why do I fight so hard
And not just let go?

I’m still trying to control and direct.
(Where is the flow of the Spirit?)

Lord, Your patience awes me.
I confess my error of trying to exert my influence.

May I snuggle in Your arms again, please?
It’s cold out here on the Plain of Self.
drawing by Katherine Brown

I was delighted to see this come up when I was searching online for pictures to populate my writing. I own one of these prints! Your are His lamb too and He will hold you!

Jesus Calling for June 7 reads in part: “Who is in charge of your life? If it is you, then you have good reason to worry. But since I am in charge, worry is both unnecessary and counterproductive.” And then Sarah Young goes on to share the advice she heard from the Lord: “When you start to feel anxious about something, relinquish the situation to Me. Back off a bit, redirecting your focus to Me. I will either take care of the problem Myself or show you how to handle it. In this world you will have problems, but you need not lose sight of Me.”

 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33 NIV

So who is going to rule on your plain of self? Have you yielded your all to Jesus Christ?

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Faith, Journal, Nature, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth

Real or Fantasy?

“I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”

― Mark Twain

I love that quote. It reminds me of the vivid imagination I have that can turn to darkness in the blink of an eye if I am not vigilant to control it by the power of the Spirit. This report from the Huff Post (formerly The Huffington Post) upholds Twain’s wisdom.

“Five hundred years ago, Michel de Montaigne said: “My life has been filled with terrible misfortune; most of which never happened.” Now there’s a study that proves it. This study looked into how many of our imagined calamities never materialize. In this study, subjects were asked to write down their worries over an extended period of time and then identify which of their imagined misfortunes did not actually happen. Lo and behold, it turns out that 85 percent of what subjects worried about never happened, and with the 15 percent that did happen, 79 percent of subjects discovered either they could handle the difficulty better than expected, or the difficulty taught them a lesson worth learning. This means that 97 percent of what you worry over is not much more than a fearful mind punishing you with exaggerations and misperceptions.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/85-of-what-we-worry-about_b_8028368

Here is a short poem about the same topic.

Fears Lodge in Our Familiar Places ©2014 Molly Lin Dutina

The black mark on the tree 
is curved, and stark.
It cuts a gash through
solid wood of a twenty-two inch trunk.

Closer inspection reveals it is
but the shadow of a spindly
dead trunk made stark
by bright sun.

The fears we anticipate seem
larger than the reality of life.
How many really come to fruition?

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.“

John 14:27