Let temporal things serve your use, but the eternal be the object of your desire.
—Thomas A. Kempis
Author Archives: MCS
not defined by the competition
IF
I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth);
If I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness,
then I know nothing of Calvary Love.
-Amy Carmichael, If
simple prayer
“One simple way to move from the mind to heart is by slowly saying a prayer with as much attentiveness as possible. This may sound like offering a crutch to someone who asks you to heal his broken leg.
The truth, however, is that a prayer, prayed from the heart, heals.
When you know the Our Father, the Apotsles’ Creed, the “Glory Be to the Father” by heart, you have something to start with. You might like to learn by heart the Twenty-third Psalm: “The Lord is my shepherd…” or Paul’s words about love to the Corinthians or St Francis’ prayer: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…”
As you lie in your bed, drive your car, wait for the bus, or walk your dog, you can slowly let the words of one of these prayers go through your mind simply trying to listen with your whole being to what they are saying. You will be constantly distracted by your worries, but if you keep going back o the words of the prayer, you will gradually discover that your worries become less obsessive and that you really start to enjoy praying. And as the prayer descends from your mind into the centre of your being you will discover it healing power.”
-Henri Nouwen, Here and Now
you are mine
Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.
-Isaiah 43:1-2
wrapped in calm
secret
“The secret to joy — is to keep seeking God where you doubt He is.”
-Ann Voskamp
the possibilities of clay
There’s this bearded man I met
who loves clay. There must be
something of Adam in him, he is
that red, that ready. Between
his strong clay-colored palms
he rolls glistening balls of the stuff,
each its own small, malleable planet.
Then, before firing the beads, he thrusts
a wire through each from its north
to south poles. Kiln-hardened,
they will then be ready to offer themselves
for decoration—brilliant pigments
in wild and quirky designs
according to the artist’s
God-fired imagination. Glazed,
strung on strings, they will become
jewels hurled into the world to show
that humble earth can turn beautiful,
can have worth, can even bring in cash
for those with little else to sell.
-Luci Shaw
he does love us, doesn’t he?
“Standing in the dark, looking out to the light, the hallway light, I don’t know how God answers all the begging prayers.
The begging prayers of mothers who’d like to wring death’s thin neck and make that child well.
I don’t know how God hears the wail of the woman howling raw for that one man to come love her right. The ache of the daughter rejected by the icy parent. The choking breath of the man crushed hard by a weight of debt.
There is this thrumming everywhere – the tears falling, a hard rain into His bottle and He has to hear. Shalom holds me tight, our hearts beating harder against each other in the dark.
She whispers it, “God does loves us, doesn’t He, Mama?”
And I nod and this is always the question and maybe this is all our faith really is — Faith is this unwavering trust in the heart of God in the hurt of here. Unwavering trust all the time though I don’t understand all the time.
God is always good and we are always loved.
Loved enough to be shaped into goodness of Christ Himself.”
autumn rains
Be glad, people of Zion,
rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains
because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers,
both autumn and spring rains, as before.
-Joel 2:23
longing to live life in his company
“Trust this, live in Jesus’ company, and you become a citizen of a new world, the world in which God’s rule has arrived. You will still be living in the everyday world in which many other powers claim to be ruling; but you will have become free of them, free to co-operate or not, depending on how far they allow you to be ruled by God. And what you do and say will become a sign of what is coming. Your life will give a foretaste of God’s rule; and it will be directed to inviting as many as possible to come under the same rule, and to resisting the powers (natural and supernatural) that work against God and seek to keep people in slavery.”
-Rowan Williams, Tokens of Trust
peacocks for pilgrims 