Category: Perspective

Gimme, Gimme!

Gimme Bread?

Give You More Bread,

Haven’t you had enough?!

Thursday, August 31, 2023

It was and will be cold again. And God will continue to bless us. Simple!

Psalm 105:40-42

They asked, and he brought quails, and gave them food from heaven in abundance. He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed through the desert like a river. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham, his servant.

Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread.

…

Words of Grace For Today

One knows, even after one has one’s fill, even at a feast, that one will get hungry again.

That’s how it is.

But,

how come we cannot be satisfied, knowing that there will always be enough?!

Well …

Because, there often has been, in history and in our own lifetimes, not enough!

The thing is when we work so there is enough, and take only what we need, not more, then we end up able to share more with others,

and others are more likely to share with us, when the day comes when we do not have enough

and through it all we have not wasted time and energy and opportunities to try to secure enough for ourselves.

Wasted that time is because there is no such security.

Might as well trust God and get on with as good a life as one can live,

which is (as God created us to live) a life of sharing with others, even to the point of suffering ourselves.

So Jesus messes with our lives (messed from how we want always to hoard for ourselves) and that saves us from messing up our lives so bad life is lost.

Today: trust God’s bountiful blessings.

Why not?

Morning Dew

Monday, August 28, 2023

The Morning Drips Fresh From Imperfections, Too.

Second Samuel 23:3-4

The God of Israel has spoken, the Rock of Israel has said to me: One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of God, is like the light of morning, like the sun rising on a cloudless morning, gleaming from the rain on the grassy land.

Matthew 11:29

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Rulers dominate to make their wishes realities, with people falling into line to make it happen.

Leaders inspire and listen to the people they lead, bringing the best tomorrows into today, for all peoples.

God rules.

But not by dominating.

Rather with gentleness and humility (if we can imagine the all powerful God being humble!), guiding us to life unequalled in blessings.

So each new morning, with sunshine on the grass moist from the night rains or clouds dark over parched lands or cold gripping even one’s breath in a stranglehold [and all things of mornings], we

can smile

breathe

and

hope again

that this day will

bring love and wonders

to play and dance through our hours

until the night falls fully over the grass, trees and dirt

that is our home.

Eh you say again?

And God answers with a fresh smiling breeze of sunshine warm on our hearts.

… help …

I’m Sinking

Don’t Ask Me To Save YOU!

(REALLY??)

Saturday, August 26, 2023

No Way!

Surviving Off-Grid

Ain’t Glorious!

Isaiah 58: 6-7

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

Hebrews 13:16

Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

…

Words of Grace For Today

When we struggle to achieve a bit of the dreams (from years past) that are still possible in the old life we live,

Sometimes one’s muscles, joints, bones, and brain just hurt too much to do more than the bare minimal for survival.

Then, after a life of not being compensated as agreed one would, and struggling to provide for children as well, when one already goes to the food bank for food, suffers astounding injustice, has no house (just an off-grid camper and wood stove), and few kin want to see one, yet alone help one (even hide, though that is so far from possible nor desired) what can one do to offer God the pleasing sacrifice:

to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke, to share our bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into our house; when we see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide ourselves from your own kin?

Ah … is that not the rub. We always have explanations for why and how it is not for us to provide to others less fortunate than ourselves.

Even this day, we pray, help us see all God gives us, which is all we have to share with those in need greater than ourselves.

Even this day.

Even you-all.

Even me.

…

(Really?)

It Will Get Better

Eventually …

Friday, August 25, 2023

Fires Spot the Ground,

Eating Everything in Their Paths.

Smoke

Takes Our Breath Away

Isaiah 49:4

But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God.’

James 5:7

Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.

…

Words of Grace For Today

With wildfires in the Northwest Territories, thousands of people have evacuated, mostly south, way south even to Calgary. Smoke swirls and flows across much of Alberta and Saskatchewan as the NWT fires’ smoke combines with those in BC to wreak havoc on breathing, which last I checked is still a basic function required for staying alive.

It’s not unlike all the other evils that come back to haunt us from our pasts, evils that we blithely contributed to, thinking the day of reckoning would not come, not really. It’s a shame. Almost all of the severe weather events we suffer now could have been avoided if we would have listened, believed and made changes back when changes would have made a difference. Oh, they still will make a difference, but we are in for a lot of suffering for the next few centuries. A lot of suffering.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/it-was-like-a-beast-evacuees-describe-fleeing-kelowna-wildfire-losing-their-homes-54

It’s Gotten Hot,

Not Just In Hell.

Then from CBC news (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/nwt-wildfire-update-august-23-2023-1.6945337) we get this:

Though forecasts of rising temperatures, no rain and shifting winds continue to be a worry, fire experts are taking several days to do infrared scans of several of the largest blazes, including the one outside the capital city, said Jessica Davey-Quantick, wildfire information officer for the Department of Environment and Climate Change.

The scans will provide information that will allow wildfire teams to plan next steps in the fight, she said.

If only we could have scanned into the future five decades, back in the 1980’s, eh?!

But we do now what we can:

“In coming days, we’ll have more information as these fires are assessed and our next steps are established. Right now it is not safe to return to these communities that have been evacuated,” she said.

Most of all we have to remain hopeful, and remember how we’ve survived in the past, and how we can help each other now:

“For now the best we can all do is just wait and see what’s coming. We’re going to get through this. It’s going to get better. Eventually,” she added with a smile, “it will snow.”

Thank God, literally, for knowing things like ‘it will snow’ which give us hope, hope for all the challenges we face in the midst of all the evil we have contributed to form our days,

even this day.

Thank God for ‘snow’.

The Message:

The Lord Knows Us

Every Nook and Cranny

Thursday, August 24, 2023

Think We Can Hide Out There?

Think Again.

God Knows All About Us!

Isaiah 49:3

And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’

Acts of the Apostles 10:36

You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Bonhoeffer wrote Who am I? Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. … and he ended with:

Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!

That is for all of us the most determinative thing to know about ourselves, that God knows us!

God knows us, every nook and cranny, all our good past-present-future, and all our terrible, hidden, denied, covered up, destructive acts and wishes and thoughts. It can be more than scary to think God knows all that! It can be downright debilitating, making us want to give up entirely,

EXCEPT

God demonstrates again and again, not only that God knows us inside and out. God shows us over and over again that God also loves us, as we are!

Knowing that God loves us, makes us able to love ourselves, and to love others (even though we never are very good at knowing ourselves or knowing others completely).

Knowing that we can love ourselves and others is liberating.

Knowing others do love us is marvellous, if entirely suspect, at times.

Knowing that God loves us is everything!

And of us miserable sinners (actually we are rather good at sinning) God brings us to be those who bring God to be glorified, by us and others, awestruck by God’s works for us all.

Tasting

What Does Life Taste Like, Anyway?

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Can We Ever Taste The Trees Up Close,

The Cold Fog,

The Distant Shore,

The Clear Moon?

As God’s Works For Us!

Isaiah 63:7

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favour to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

1 Peter 2:3

if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

…

Words of Grace For Today

We can observe 93 billion light years of universe, though we estimate the universe is more than 7 trillion light years huge.

Why did God create all this?

Before creation it was only void, emptiness, and we can anthropomorphize that God easily could have been lonely. But lonely for such small creatures so capable of evil as us? Really!

The earth’s diameter is only about 13 km, and it’s circumference is 40,000 km. In other words from here to the opposite side of the earth is only 13 km, straight down through the core and back up. Or we can travel from here to the opposite side and back in about 40,000 km. That’s only 42 billionths of one light year. In other words we live our whole lives within 42 nano seconds of a light-year.

Why would God create the entire universe, just for us to exist? Or did God? Maybe we were an afterthought, or a mistake, or a side-effect. (The juries would then be out on whether we are a good side-effect or a bad side-effect or even a deadly side-effect.)

Like a medication that tastes bad but is supposed to do us good, except it turns our stomach so that we cannot hold it down: Maybe that is the kind of side-effect we are in God’s plans for the universe?

Except

when we have tasted how marvellously good God is to us, forgiving us, loving us, renewing us, and sending us out with a purpose grand enough to take more than all the life we have to give, then

we, small as we are, can do none other than go out

recounting the gracious acts of God for us,

for us all.

So it is we go out also into this day, whatever it may bring.

Yellow

Bright Shiny Yellow, Or?

Sunday, August 20, 2023

Can We See The Light?

Can We Be The Light?

Genesis 1:3

Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.

Ephesians 5:9

for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Yellow,

Coward,

Denying Reality,

Shaded from Courage

and Love Gone Forever.

…

Yellow

Light and Warmth

Of Hope-filled Reality

that looks courageously forward

into the future of love, hope and faith.

…

which

will we be a part of today?

RED

Red Fried

Blood Red?

Saturday, August 19, 2023

See The Fire

That Will

Destroy Us All?

Jeremiah 12:3

But you, O Lord, know me; You see me and test me—my heart is with you. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

Ephesians 4:15

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,

…

Words of Grace For Today

The day of slaughter,

violently terrible

and deadly

bloody

red.

…

Red Roses,

Red Enough.

red

of passion

that transforms

life from meaninglessness

chaos, void, and … confusion

to purposefulness, order

fullness, and …

wisdom.

…

Seeing red?

Which red do we see today?

Blue

Blues.

Blew It Blues

Friday, August 18, 2023

Blue Sky, Missing the Point.

Two Birds Fly

With Grace.

Psalm 119:2

Happy are those who keep his decrees, who seek him with their whole heart,

Matthew 5:19

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Blue

Blue Blues

Blue Dark Blues

Blue Dark Blues because we’ve blown it.

Blue Dark Blues because we’ve blown it, and it is the most important thing in all of life, the most important thing in all of everything that ever was or ever will be.

Deep, Dark, We-Blew-It-Biggest-Time Blues!

If ever there were a more hopeless situation it could not be known: Happy are those who keep God’s decrees and seek him with their whole heart, for God is the source of happiness and all that is good in life – BUT not one single person can ever keep God’s decrees and seek him with their whole heart. No one has. No one does. No one ever will be able to. Except Jesus.

For the rest of us, we are doomed, and there is no better reason

to not only sing the blues (for we’ve lost out on happiness and life and goodness, totally)

but

to be the blues,

stuck in the blues,

lost,

alienate from God,

in the blues forever.

…

Except

that

God’s work in Jesus Christ to demonstrate that God extends Grace to us all,

forgiving us for not seeking God with our whole hearts and

breaking God’s decrees though we would do otherwise

which Grace turns our forever-blues into hope

that never ends and does not disappoint.

So it is that Blue is the colour of hope.

So that singing the blues is an act

of hope, even though we

blew it big time today

like yesterday and

tomorrow, So

God’s Blues

Carry us

onward

blessed

Black

No Hope?

Do Not Lose Heart?

Wednesday, August 16, 2023

As In Every Photo,

In All Views Of The World,

Black Plays Freely.

First Chronicles 29:15

For we are aliens and transients before you, as were all our ancestors; our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope.

2 Corinthians 4:16

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.

…

Words of Grace For Today

Black.

Black absorbs all light.

Black blocks out all light so none passes through.

Black is the colour of

void

stillness

hopelessness

sightlessness

shadows

grief

death.

There is life like a shadow that is so fleeting one cannot but watch it pass, or like a shadow that grows and grows, coming toward one until all everything is no more as if consumed by a black hole.

And there goes hope, out the door to the far end of the universe beyond imagination.

Or

Black.

Black holds all light.

Black shades the burning heat of all light so none passes through.

Black is the colour of

fullness

calm

hope amid the burning storm

relief to the eyes

shades

waiting for rebirth

promise of life.

…

While we live our bodies deteriorate. Some say after the age of 24 our bodies start to die. Some say the warranty is up at age 30. Some say …

… well all the someones say everything that is said.

And if our minds

do not succumb to the wear and tear of life, dropping our awareness to minimum levels and below, so that we do not even know our own families, which is a horrible thing to anticipate,

then we may experience the full impact of our lives continuing on despite the deterioration of our bodies and physical abilities,

and find delight.

…

Black.

Black is the colour of all that was before creation, of God in the universe alone, together three in one, lonely … it would appear … for company even with us imperfect, sinful humans.

Black is a colour given by God, to us, and in all times, black or not, God revitalizes our spirits, calling us to live out God’s grace (exercised for us) for others.

So even when it appears there is no hope, God

…

God recreates hope for us.