Category: Trust

Posted on in Aging, Art, Challenge, Faith, Obedience, Rest, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Trust, Yield

None of Us Knows

Once I heard a sermon by a priest who said, “Control is an illusion.” I argued with him all the way home! Guess what? He was right. None of us knows what a day or even an hour may hold.

I made an appointment with a hand surgeon to look at my right hand. I have pain that is fairly constant. I have tried wearing a brace, using Diclofenac cream, menthol rubs, Tylenol, etc. I have been one who has enjoyed crocheting for over 55 years. I also like to cross stitch and am learning to knit (albeit not very well, yet!) I type this blog and also now type my journal since “Uncle Arthur” (nasty osteoarthritis) has taken up residence in my hands among other places.

I was relieved the doctor could get me in this Monday but then it hit me I might not be able to write the blog entries! So here I am on a Sunday afternoon, rearranging my Sabbath practice to write the blog.

If I get a cortisone injection in the base of my thumb it is unlikely I will be able to type tomorrow as is my habit. Besides, the appointment time will take up most of my morning. This is the man who found the distress in my daughter’s hand was a mysterious bone chip that was not missing from any other bone in her wrist. He surgically removed it and she has full function without all the pain. So I have decided to trust him since he did so well with my first baby.

The larger question is will I trust the Lord regardless of what happens at this appointment or into the future? I love to crochet. I get great satisfaction creating things from yarn and string. I give most of those items away. I have been helping my grandson learn to create this way, too! One grandgirl taught herself to crochet watching YouTube videos. Go figure! I gave lessons for many years and continue to share the craft in a weekly meeting at the Senior Center and monthly with Convent Associates.

Am I willing to give even crochet to the Lord? If I am asked to not do crochet I will obey. It might be a gradual ceasing from the activity, but I will if I must. Only if I must.

Psalm 32: 8-9 The donkey I met in Ireland

I will instruct you and teach you the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
9 Do not be like a horse or a mule, without understanding,
    whose temper must be curbed with bit and bridle,
    else it will not stay near you. Psalm 32: 8-9 NRSVUE

Hmm trust, t (see a cross) r us t (see a cross). R us trusting, even if it means the cross punctuating our life before and behind us? Another sermon emphasized that Jesus did everything right and he earned a cross. (Of course, for the joy set before him he endured the cross, despising the shame, and bought us by his blood). Hebrews 12

As things change for you, will you dig in your heels like a mule or follow instructions and accept holy counsel?

Here are a few recent creations …

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Focus, Listen, Obedience, Rest, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Trust, Yield

Strength

I was given a prayer request for strength. This person was in the midst of two part time jobs, raising teenagers, deeply concerned about the unrest in Minnesota and other cities, and having hot flashes. She was right up on the edge of burnout.

I was later reading Amy Carmichael’s Edges of His Grace and Amy quoted this:

Thy God hath commanded thy strength: strengthen, O God, that which thou hast wrought for us. Psalm 68:28 Darby

I sent the quote along to her. So many of us are on the edge of burnout. We need the strength of God and renewal in the strength that only God can offer.

Looking into this further, one footnote said: Septuagint and Syriac and most Hebrew manuscripts say Your God has summoned power for you.

Yes, Lord, she and I both need more of that precious power You have summoned for us!

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 NRSVUE

Lord, you know we are hurried and worried and preoccupied with too many things.We need to be still. Return to you. Rest and trust in you. Help us to not refuse to do these things.

We more inflow and deliberately return to the Giver of Living Water

Send forth your strength O GOD; establish, O GOD, what you have wrought for us. Psalm 68:28 BCP

Above, the Book of Common Prayer quotes this Psalm slightly differently. And below the Names of God Bible says:

Your Elohim has decided you will be strong. Display your strength, O Elohim, as you have for us before. Names of God Bible Psalm 68:28

Your Elohim – Your Elohim, the Supreme One, the Mighty One – and this Mighty one if yours. Ponder that for a moment. Yours. Your God has summoned power for you.Your God send forth strength to you. God has worked things into shape for us. Will establish what God has wrought for us. God has summoned power for us.

I was uncertain how I would get through this past week. I had many pressing matters and needed strength for each of them. This verse helped me turn to the Lord and ask for the strength I needed for each situation. I remembered with longing that Sunday was coming and that I could rest on that afternoon. I was carried in heavenly strength through the week. Left to myself I would have crashed and burned early in the week.

It is an amazing verse and even more amazing gift that is given to us. Sit with this verse. Ponder the meaning in the particulars of your life. How can you apply this verse, this truth to your life? See how Elohim loves you!

Posted on in Aging, Book quotes, Faith, Surrender, Thanks, Trust

Nouwen

The discipline of gratitude is

the explicit effort to acknowledge that

all I am and have

is given to me

as a gift of love,

a gift to be celebrated with joy.

HENRI NOUWEN

Another quote posted by Gratitude.com. When Bob pointed out this morning that there was not a post today from my blog I was dismayed. How does that happen? I was certain I had written and posted 5 blogs for the week.

At times I list the wrong time of day for the post to appear. Other times I have simply not written 5 posts. There was no post for today. God only knows where my confusion and mistake occurred.

Nouwen says I must make an “explicit effort to acknowledge” being able to write is given to me as a gift of love, to be celebrated with joy. All that I am and have is given to me as a gift of love.

Here is the Nouwen icon written by Kelly Latimore.

Many years ago I read a few of Henri Nouwen’s books .I really liked them. I think that might be a good reading adventure for me in 2026.

When we pray our evening prayer over our dinner meal I am constantly reminded that we have been given so much. Our lives overflow with gifts. Repeatedly I am reminded to hold all things loosely. Are we aware of how quickly our lives may change and what we assumed was forever can be over in the blink of an eye. Do we continuously make that “explicit effort to acknowledge that all we are and have is a gift?”

My neighbor John just went past the window riding in the car as his wife drives. His vision has changed and he can no longer drive. The independence he knew previously is gone now. His red truck now belongs to his son.

My friend Myrtle took a fall in her bathroom. At 92 years old, having broken vertebrae and ribs is no laughing matter. Yet, when I visited her in person at the rehabilitation center she was still able to laugh. She is not allowed to twist her rib cage or bend forward. She loves the tiny house she lives in. She was driving herself every place. I cannot see how she will be able to return to her house or independence. She trusts that God is in control. She is certain that things will unfold as they should. Her future? God only knows. Since she can smile and trust certainly I must be able to also.

Gratitude is used in many places today. Are we applying it in the way that Nouwen suggested? Can we see even the uncomfortable areas in our lives as gift?

Another neighbor has some illness that has caused her to lose weight consistently without trying since Christmas. She suddenly turned yellow the other day. They are running tests and did a scan stat. Is it a blockage in a duct that needs removing or something more sinister?

How might your life change suddenly? Are you prepared to trust that God holds you in the palm of his hand and loves you? Are you conscious that every blessing in your life is a gift? Might you be willing to trust and wait patiently as what seems like unwelcome circumstances unfold?

Someone said, “It is all a gift.” Lean into that sentiment and be grateful.

Posted on in Beagle, Book quotes, Faith, Nature, Prayer, Trust, Yield

Rufus

I recently read a book entitled “The Dog That Talked to God.”It features a miniature Schnauzer. I knew one once. My friend Jeanne owned it and it was sweet, though yappy.

The book is Christian fiction. Not only does the dog talk to God, the dog talks occasionally to its master. That might be fun!!

More than halfway through the book the owner decided to sell her house and relocate. This was difficult for both her and the dog. Here is one conversation the two of them had.

Rufus stared at his front paws.

“I guess. Maybe. But I don’t like this change. I liked the way things were. Except for the cold. And the snow. And getting run over by cars. Other than that, I liked it. And there were no horses there at all. None at all.”

This time I bent to him, not to hear him, but to hug him tight to me.

We were both lost and alone and dislocated and we wanted what we had before and would never, ever get back.

“God did say to trust him,” Rufus added, his voice soft, almost a whisper. “I don’t know what that means exactly. But I think he will show us what he wants us to do. Right? He does that sort of thing, right?”

Does that sound familiar to your life experience? This was not just a cutesy book with a warm fuzzy message. This book, written from the perspective of a woman and her dog, written by a man which had me puzzled for a bit, is more like a meatloaf sandwich when you apply it to yourself. The woman is angry with God and has decided not to talk with God anymore. It is an age old human situation and this one is told in an interesting way. I went through that after my mother died suddenly. (We worked it out.)

My book has a copyright of 2012 so you can likely purchase it used through Abe Books or Thrift.

Kudos to Jim Kraus for a good read!!

Posted on in Aging, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Journal, Just do it, Listen, Praise, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Surrender, Thanks, Trust, Worship, Yield

Recriminations and Breathing Room

For a week or perhaps 10 days, I got all complicated about my disciplines. We were having new flooring installed in the sitting/sewing room and in order to do that we basically dismantled the room. There was yarn and all manner of sewing things moved into the office. Writing in that space became more difficult as I could barely move my chair. Somehow that overflowed into my morning disciplines. Suffice it to say I lost my focus. It was easy to heap recriminations upon myself. But not productive!

The flooring is now installed. The contents of the room have been replaced and in their original order, sort of. I will have straightening to do for many hours in the future. When we moved the yarn holders (think cloth shoe pouches that hang from the closet pole) yarn and crochet thread went all over the place.

This morning, when I sat down in my prayer chair, I realized I’d left my tablet some place. Remembered I had used my iPad in the living room. I went to retrieve it and there was no charge left. Even the attached keyboard failed to have any power. So my approach to prayer centering was greatly disrupted. That was not all bad.

Looking for a way to firmly connect with the Spirit of God, I remembered all the times I did that without any electronic devices. Just me, the Book of Common Prayer, my Bible, perhaps a dictionary and a desire to know, and be known by my God. This was a masterful reset. I know I stepped away from my disciplines, not deliberately but a little shift here, a little shift there, a little anxiety here about Bob and the dog walking in icy weather, distraction by A B and C, and next thing I knew I was walking an unproductive path.

The meditation I listened to via my smart phone spoke about finding some breathing room. And that is what I have done this morning. I have some breathing room and a path forward to better union with the Trinity.

So hopefully, now I have regained some perspective. I once again have a renewed awareness of how easy it is to abandon the way of life that is so very good for me. I found myself stumbling about with the way of self in the world. It was not fulfilling. Just frustrating and like sawdust to my soul and spirit.

Father, thank you for showing me myself clearly. Help me above all else to hunger for and maintain my connection to you. You are the source of life. You are living water to me. Keep me and direct my ways to the glory of your name. Amen.

The Rule of Saint Benedict says, “Always, we begin again.”

Posted on in Art, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Prayer, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Trust, Yield

Prayer

I was blessed and delighted to read this prayer from Lectio 365. No note is made of the author, but I think we can all pray it!

I dedicate the coming week to Jesus:  

Thank you, Jesus, for your faithful and sacrificial friendship. Help me this week to be a faithful and sacrificial friend like you.  

Thank you, Father, for loving me with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. Inspire me this week to love you more with all of mine.   

Thank you, Holy Spirit, for listening to my many thoughts and words and dreams. Still my soul this week to listen much more carefully to yours.

I say, yes, Lord. And Amen.

We are said to be made in the image of God. I had never thought about God loving me with heart, soul, and mind. That stuns me to awe and silence.

The Trinity our faithful and sacrificial friends.

Still me Holy Spirit to listen more carefully to every thing You tell me.

How will you interact with the Trinity this week?

Posted on in Art, Book quotes, Challenge, Faith, Focus, Obedience, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Trust, Yield

Amy Carmichael

I am still delighting in her devotional The Edges of His ways.

Luke 4:30: Jesus passing through the midst of them went His way

Our new month will bring us joys, for the Lord of joy is with us; it will also bring us sorrows, for sorrows are part of life. It may bring things which would “throw us down” if they could. But they need not ever do that, for it is possible for us to do just what our Master did when, passing through the midst of them, He went His way.
As, by His grace, we go on in quietness, we shall find those words we know so well come true: “My Presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” Exodus 33:14

His Presence is always with us. He gives us rest. We need to stay in quietness and that is a serious challenge in this increasingly raucous world! Stay in quietness, trust, participate in His Presence, go on your way.

A new challenge for February. We will, with God’s help.

Posted on in Aging, Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Joy, Memories, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Trust

Where is Your Trailing Beauty?

Bob let me purchase a two drawer filing cabinet recently. When we moved to this smaller house I disposed of a large 4 drawer cabinet and went to a filing box instead. That box was getting jam-packed and there was no more room in it. The filing drawer in my desk had the same issue. So, I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to move and organize files and then actually be able to FIND some of those items. It is a wonder that we collect so much stuff.

I am notorious for misplacing things. I recently filled out papers on what I wanted done about my burial service. Then I could not find the papers. Eventually decided I had thrown out the newest papers along with the old ones and had to begin again!

This brings me to ask, what did you do with the joy you collected during the holidays? Where is the peace you gathered from the Christmas services?

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

Can you find that trailing beauty of forgotten joy? This is one reason I journal! Or your unremembered peace? Can you locate that easily?

Do you remember me writing about glimmers? I think Thurman was referring to some stronger joys and peace, but you could begin with those glimmers. Have you been keeping a glimmer journal? This thing that brings you delight? Something that makes you stop and smile.

This morning the bluebirds gathered in the barren oak tree out front and reminded me that the Starlings had emptied out the meal worm feeder yesterday. The snow was less deep than yesterday so I immediately grabbed a hat, got the meal worm bucket, and went to fill the feeder. The wind has been increasing all morning. The chimes have not stopped ringing for more than a moment. I stood in the shelter of our tiny porch and filled the feeder. hung it up for them to find. It did not take them long at all! They are filling their little bellies and I am delighting in their company. I can hold this trailing beauty. The next time I have difficulty sleeping I can recall it.

I think this a practice we can all get behind. You might want to copy the quote above and stick it on your bathroom mirror or place it in your wallet. We can each use reminders.

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Just do it, Nature, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Thanks, Trust

Darkness and Light

The opening photo was taken in Colorado, 2020 by our friend Dan Cooksey.

Our church offered the congregation the book, A Light Upon My Path, Daily Devotions for Advent & Christmas this year.

We enjoyed sharing selections at various mealtimes. I was reading the entry for January 6, Epiphany. The author for this entry, Laurie Brock, was contrasting navigational methods and mentioned, “I can think of nothing as inefficient as a star.” She went on to write about celestial navigation over the centuries. She pointed out that “One necessary part for celestial navigation by stars is darkness.”

She quoted that the Milky Way in “now NOT visible by 99 percent of people living in the United States and a third of the people living in the world because of all of our artificial light.” That is incredibly sad. We have been so eager to get rid of the darkness that we can no longer view the heavenly light easily.

Laurie made a good point that we need the darkness to see all of our God. Have you been comfortable with darkness? Can you try to enjoy this short season of diminished light now that we are moving towards the summer solstice when we have the longest day once again and the hours of light are increasing as we move towards it??

Some of our neighbors leave their outdoor lights on year round. When the birds are migrating I want everyone to turn them off as suggested by most of the naturalists. We have gone so far in demanding artificial light at night that our incessant lighting can mess up the migration routes.

A driving force behind the up to one billion birds killed globally each year by human-built structures is artificial light at night (ALAN), or light pollution. The new technology telling us so much about migration has also helped illuminate the magnitude of ALAN’s impact: For the September night that BirdCast predicted 594 million birds would be in the air, an overlaid map of light pollution showed the gauntlet those birds would have to pass through. “Suddenly the whole system of evolving to move at night is under potentially extreme pressure,” says Farnsworth, “pressure that birds would not experience otherwise, and it is creating chaos.” https://www.audubon.org/magazine/new-golden-age-observation-revealing-wonders-night-migration

Audubon goes on to point out that the migration numbers are huge and we are mostly unaware of the movement of these birds!

Light pollution, darkness, fear, finding our way we can learn about all of these things. Are we willing to change even one thing that we might know our God better? You are unlikely to be able to see the Milky Way from your neighborhood, but you can become aware of migration times, watch for the movement of God during the darkness of winter, and draw close to the Light of Life as you are called to bear that light.

We have responsibilities and we can honor God by honoring those responsibilities. I just ordered the stickers that go on the outside of the windows that show birds they should not fly there. Many birds crash into windows on houses because they think it is a clear path. Some of our stickers are getting old and losing their grip on the glass. This is one small thing we can do for the birds in the daytime.

Light, darkness, ours to behold. We need not fear the dark because we have the Light of Life with us.

 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5 NIV

Posted on in Amazing Creations, Challenge, Faith, Poetry, Spiritual discipline, Spiritual growth, Surrender, Trust, Yield

Poem

My poetry muse seems to flow in fits and starts. Here is a recent prayer/observation.

Absolute©MollyLin Dutina 2026

Mid-January and the trees are reduced to absolute sticks
Cypress needles have fallen
Other trees have shed leaves that are lodged in its branches
Yet Cypress is bare

Clump River Burch is stem with black scars
Nothing to show for its summer growth
Just another inch or so taller
Stems rise from common base area

A few oaks have held their dead leaves
In the winter wind they sound chilly
And out of place
Shrubs are all naked

And yet You promise to revive them come spring
Hold my barren soul Lord
I yield to You my bare scaffold of bony intentions
I wait in the arctic arena of winter

You are my source of life
The sap that fills my veins
Grow me into a plant that delights You
Hold me in this barren time

And when the season is right
Fill me with Your life and fruit
Shine Your light of life through me
Make me a bush on fire with Your love

For now, I rest in Your arms
Those everlasting arms of love
Attached to the unseen vine of life
Where my soul finds absolute meaning

We yield to the timing of the Almighty, we wait and hold fast to the promises.