Twice in a Few Hours

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!

Nautilus or Ammonite?

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.”

https://sciencing.com/differences-between-nautilus-ammonite-8687704.html

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.”

Isaiah 30:15 NIV

Finally home to stay for a while!

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.

Winter Musings © Molly Lin Dutina

The snow was not what we had expected
A layer of warm air turned much of it to ice pellets instead
So less snow, but more noise
At one point it sounded like skeletal fingers tapping
On the sliding glass door
Even the dog wondered who was there.

Today is chop, chop, scoop and lift 
As we hurry to clear the driveway as best we can
Sun will help to dry the pavement before
The next set of snow clouds descend
Winter says “Bring it on!”

Cedars holding dollops of snow
Of marshmallow
Of vanilla ice cream
Pure gelato gone huge
Cedars bent by the
Weight of winter deliciousness

And we, right now, are in Maui! We yield to each season, Lord!

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders;
    where morning dawns, where evening fades,
    you call forth songs of joy.

Psalm 65:8 NIV

Walking at CNC

Do you know what the opening photo is? Some even harvest these and sell them!

Bob and I love to hunt wildflowers. If you have ever searched for a particular shell at a beach you can relate. We search for Lady’s Slippers, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Larkspur, etc. We have only found Lady’s Slippers in the Smoky Mountains National Park, but the others we can find locally especially at Cincinnati Nature Center (CNC).

photo by Molly

This fellow was so lovely with the sun shining through it! Sadly the ground around it is covered with Lesser Celandine which has earned the status of invasive. The Nature Center is researching ways to eradicate it. If you look at the top edge of the log above you can see the moss blooming! Beyond those tiny filaments are daffodil leaves starting to grow blossoms for 2024.

Another Jack by Molly

One friend told us when they showed a Jack-in-the-Pulpit to a young person they had to explain what a pulpit was! A pulpit is traditionally where a preacher stands to deliver the sermon. The older pulpits sometimes had a cover over them like a roof, thus the flower resemblance. In case you are still unaware, below is a sampling of pulpits! Our church does not have a pulpit or even a lectern. The Pastor just sits on a stool and talks from there.

pulpit samples on line

When we hiked Whipple Sate Nature Preserve we saw Larkspur in many colors. We also saw them yesterday at Sycamore Park in Batavia.

We agreed that walking Sycamore was so much easier than Whipple! The dog loves the trail and was not allowed at Whipple. We like this park because it is level and even paved! We walked along the East Fork of the Little Miami river, too. The sound of the running water, spring song birds … just made me breathe deeply and thank the Lord for His blessings and refreshment!

The wild dogwoods through the other forest trees were a blessing at CNC!

Are you making time to slow down, listen to the natural world around you or nearby? Do you only lament your feeling of being dried up or make an effort to renew your connection with the Source of Life? I hope you will make an effort to do just that this week!

The Virginia Bluebells at Sycamore park were well past their prime. Bob bought me a Bluebell at the Nature Center plant sale. It looks pitiful in the back garden right now. Praying it will rebound and bless us next year with flowers! Just saw that something is eating holes in the leaves. Uh oh!

Take a walk this week and look for treasures in plain sight!

My dear man walking the trail at CNC

The opening photo was take of worm casings. Evidently very rich for your garden!

Most Recent Poem

I was having a spiritual struggle and one person or the spirit from one person seemed to be the biggest challenge. I could not name the spirit but I knew it was there. Finally it was apparent I needed to get alone with the LORD and have a prayer time to throw this thing off. I was prepared to spend many hours if necessary, but surprisingly it only took a couple hours. This is the resultant poem.

Rooftops ©23-4-20 Molly Lin Dutina

Above the rooftops
Beyond my thoughts and dreams
You move by Your Spirit
Unseen yet beyond powerful
Invited by my yieldedness
You ask no invitation
Welcomed by my obedience
You come cleanse my house
Straightening my crooked paths
Wayward thinking
Thoughts that give negative entrance
You swing the Mighty Sword of Spirit
Sweeping away all hindrance
To Your will and ways.

Above the rooftop of my hair
(Which You have numbered every strand)
Your towering angels like ancient trees
Stand guard to alert me to invasion
I am kept by a love divine
I dwell under the shadow of the Almighty
Your wings enfold and embrace me
If I go astray You shepherd me back
If necessary You will even carry my smelly self
Returning me to the fold
Feeding me with the finest food
Brushing out the tangles in my wool
For You love me
You even pour Your love 
Like a bucket of soapy water
Throughout my heart by Your Spirit
No shame remains
After You work within me

May your week be filled with time for prayer and the rewards of having been in His presence.

Psalm 116 and 1 Peter

Turn again to your rest o my soul, for the Lord has treated you well. Have you instructed your soul in this was to be restored? Have you ever read Psalm 116 in terms of your relationship with the LORD God Almighty?

Gracious is the Lord and righteous;
    our God is merciful.
The Lord protects the simple;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.
Return, O my soul, to your rest,
    for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

Psalm 116:5-7 NRSV

When I take time to review my life and my relationship with God I am brought back to a place of rest. Not do-ing, but be-ing with Him. When I peel off my complaints I realize He HAS treated me well, dealt bountifully with me. This fresh realization brings me to a point of wanting to serve Him more, in any ways that He asks.

Have you ever made vows to the Lord? We often hear of people in painful situations trying to bargain with God along the lines of “If You will just do what I want here and now, I will serve You forever.” We are really not in a bargaining position with God. But if You have made a vow to Him from the depths of your being, have you paid the vow?

I will offer to you a thanksgiving sacrifice
    and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people,

Psalm 116:17-18 NRSVUE

As an Associate of the Convent of the Transfiguration in Glendale Ohio I made a vow to pray for the Sisters daily. I promised to support the Convent and their work as I am able.

When the verse says “I will pay my vows to the Lord in the presence of all His people,” to me it means there will no longer be just me and Jesus. I will live out my commitment to Him publicly, in the presence of all His people.

Are you living out your faith before the Lord only, or also before His people. Have you vowed to be a living sacrifice? That is my word for the year ( you can read back in January when I was impressed to choose that.) There are times this living sacrifice does not want to climb up on the altar, does not want to be a living stone.

Present yourselves as building stones for the construction of a sanctuary vibrant with life, in which you’ll serve as holy priests offering Christ-approved lives up to God.

1 Peter 2:5 The Message
and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 

1 Peter 2:5 RSV

As a building stone I want to be like Jesus, ‘a chip off the old block’, similar in yieldedness and willingness to obey His Father and my Father.

“Lord help me to pay my vows to You in the presence of all Your people. Help me to serve you with joyous willingness. Show me Your chosen paths for me and I will walk there with You. Amen.”

The Shepherd, His Sheep

Seems this did not post correctly the first time, so here it is again!

I recently purchased a note card from the Printery House as Conception Abbey in Missouri. The image is the Good Shepherd carrying a sheep. the back reads:

The image of Christ as Good Shepherd is deeply rooted in the Gospels: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? (Luke 15:4, cf. Matthew 18:13). The symbolism is of this icon hinges on Christ’s saving Passion. This image of a shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders, borrowed from secular art of the Greco-Roman world, is now combined with the imagery of the Paschal Mystery: the resurrected Christ, who bears the marks of the nails, brings back sinners who were lost and now are found. The cross is seen in the background as a sign of Christ’s victory over death. Jesus is not only the shepherd, but as the Passion symbolism indicates, he is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Conception Item CA8056
Here is the link if you want to purchase the card https://www.printeryhouse.org/searchresults.asp?q=ca8056

About the same time as the card arrived I was looking through a devotional called Forward Day by Day. For many years I used this as my morning devotional guide. The Scripture readings for each day are listed and a short meditation written by various different authors each month. This page read as follows.

John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

At historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestertown, Maryland, where I served years back, someone installed an oversized window with an image of Jesus carrying a sheep around his neck. I never liked that window. It did not fit the space stylistically, historically, or size-wise, but also, I had never been a fan of the passive image of Jesus as Good Shepherd.

That was the case until I visited the sheep ranch of close friends. They invited me to watch the annual sheep branding, which you will be relieved to know is by spray paint. The sheep also receive oral inoculations for various diseases. The shepherds funnel the sheep from a holding pen through chutes, but because sheep are antsy, the shepherds sometimes must wrestle a few. The sheep will fight and buck and wriggle and strain.

The passive sheep around Jesus’s shoulders has surrendered, given himself over to a shepherd that he trusts will lead and guide and even carry when necessary.

MOVING FORWARD: Have you surrendered or do you still fight and buck and wiggle?

Rob Geizelman Forward day by Day Wednesday March 29, 2023

If you would like to hear the devotion read, here is a link https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2023-03-29

I really like the MOVING FORWARD question: Have you surrendered or do you still fight and buck and wiggle? What sort of sheep are you? Have you surrendered to Jesus? Do you ever allow Him to carry you?

The Shepherd, His Sheep

I recently purchased a note card from the Printery House as Conception Abbey in Missouri. The image is the Good Shepherd carrying a sheep. the back reads:

The image of Christ as Good Shepherd is deeply rooted in the Gospels: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? (Luke 15:4, cf. Matthew 18:13). The symbolism is of this icon hinges on Christ’s saving Passion. This image of a shepherd carrying a sheep on his shoulders, borrowed from secular art of the Greco-Roman world, is now combined with the imagery of the Paschal Mystery: the resurrected Christ, who bears the marks of the nails, brings back sinners who were lost and now are found. The cross is seen in the background as a sign of Christ’s victory over death. Jesus is not only the shepherd, but as the Passion symbolism indicates, he is also the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Conception Item CA8056
Here is the link if you want to purchase the card https://www.printeryhouse.org/searchresults.asp?q=ca8056

About the same time as the card arrived I was looking through a devotional called Forward Day by Day. For many years I used this as my morning devotional guide. The Scripture readings for each day are listed and a short meditation written by various different authors each month. This page read as follows.

John 10:14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me.

At historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Chestertown, Maryland, where I served years back, someone installed an oversized window with an image of Jesus carrying a sheep around his neck. I never liked that window. It did not fit the space stylistically, historically, or size-wise, but also, I had never been a fan of the passive image of Jesus as Good Shepherd.

That was the case until I visited the sheep ranch of close friends. They invited me to watch the annual sheep branding, which you will be relieved to know is by spray paint. The sheep also receive oral inoculations for various diseases. The shepherds funnel the sheep from a holding pen through chutes, but because sheep are antsy, the shepherds sometimes must wrestle a few. The sheep will fight and buck and wriggle and strain.

The passive sheep around Jesus’s shoulders has surrendered, given himself over to a shepherd that he trusts will lead and guide and even carry when necessary.

MOVING FORWARD: Have you surrendered or do you still fight and buck and wiggle?

Rob Geizelman Forward day by Day Wednesday March 29, 2023

If you would like to hear the devotion read, here is a link https://prayer.forwardmovement.org/fdd/2023-03-29

I really like the MOVING FORWARD question: Have you surrendered or do you still fight and buck and wiggle? What sort of sheep are you? Have you surrendered to Jesus? Do you ever allow Him to carry you?

The Passion of the Christ

Jesus promises the Spirit in John 14 and 16. How did we get stuck on Friday? How do we move beyond it?

The movie was supposed to be true to how things likely happened when Jesus was crucified. It was gory and grotesque and certainly showed man’s inhumanity to the Son of God and Son of Man. And to think this was done frequently throughout the ages. Worse yet, it is still done today.

ISIS militants have been known to crucify those who attempt to resist them.

However, there is also another place where crucifixion is known to occur. Yep, you guessed it, Saudi Arabia. Under the Saudi penal code, crucifixion is a legal form of punishment and execution. In one case that has drawn international attention, the Saudi government sentenced a 17-year-old boy named Ali al-Nimr to crucifixion for his participation in anti-government protests. In Saudi Arabia, crucifixion takes place after death with the dead body being crucified in a public place to serve as a warning to others. Amnesty International has condemned the act as “the ultimate form of cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.”

10 Barbaric Forms Of Punishment Still Practiced Today – Listverse

So why would God the Father allow this to happen to His Son? Hebrews says of Jesus

fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 NIV

What joy? The prophecy in Isaiah 53: 10-12 might help our understanding.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with affliction.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
    he shall see his offspring and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
11     Out of his anguish he shall see;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
    The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
    and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
    and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out himself to death
    and was numbered with the transgressors,
yet he bore the sin of many
    and made intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 53:10-12 NRSVUE

Jesus loves you that much. All He is asking is that you surrender to Him. Let Him live through you by the power of His Holy Spirit. This has nothing to do with chocolate or bunnies, eggs or candy.

Read that quote from Isaiah again. I think if you read it slowly and ponder the meaning you will have a glorious Easter Season!

If you remain at the cross and the blood, ask yourself if that is what Jesus would want? Yes, He is holy and righteous and to be adored. What about the promises He gave us? Did He die so that we could sit at His grave forever? Are you willing to move beyond the blood, brutality and death?

I think the Father had more in mind than that, much more. His ways are truly higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts. Father help us to move into the truth You desire for us.