Your true instruction is to be found in silence of the whole soul before God, in renouncing your own spirit, and in the love of lowliness, obscurity, feebleness and annihilation.  This ignorance is the accomplished teacher of all truth; knowledge cannot attain to it.

Continue the good works that occupy you, since you have an attraction that way, and can readily accomplish them. 

Live in peace, without any thought for the future; perhaps there will be none for you. 

-- Francois Fenelon

Wander as I do, 

I return again to you. 

Purify,

O purify thou me!

Even on the dankest morning, 
the whine of mosquitos

is no match for birdsong.

You

you hate

in your frustration

your anger, your fear

your ineffectual

foot-stomping

finger-pointing

fear

I 

I pray

in my frustration

my anger, my fear

finding peace, trust

contentment
with the loving God I know

and I know
you hate even that

You

you struggle so and 

would not have me pray

even for you

but I 

I do

My eyes alone

see rainbows 

in the frozen grass.

You would have to sit here,

right here, to see them,

and be more than welcome,

but you have gone.

As the redbird comes 

to the feeder,

the sunlight 

melts the frost...

at least outside.

Feeling Like Grandpa

...being careful 

on the steps...

...blowing a kiss 

through the window...

...waving goodbye 

from the car...

...driving away 

in the rain...

I used to be rather fond of taoist thought, the ease of life that flows like water, seeking only the lowest level. But even gentle flowing streams sometimes have riffles and rapids and snag-laced narrows. My greatest peace comes when I am most aware that the Lord of Life doesn't require me to perform for his pleasure; he just wants me to stay close to him and be kind to others who are likewise being guided homeward through the turbulence of time. 

It is our way to lose our way, but it is our way to find our way once we have lost it. -- Doug Hammack

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it...

Prone to leave the God I love!

Here's my heart, Lord, 

take and seal it;

seal it for thy courts above!

when the grey 

and the silver 

and the mist 

and the trees 

and the glow 

and the glisten 

and the fresh 

and the new 

and the promise 

and the morning 

and... and you

so far away 

there 

we can't share... 

can this really be...

this soft 

transient 

incredible here...

be just for me?

from "Daily Help," Charles H Spurgeon

The distinguishing mark of a Christian is his confidence in the love of Christ, and the yielding of his affections to Christ in return. First, faith sets her seal upon the man by enabling the soul to say with the apostle, "Christ loved me and gave himself for me." Then love gives the countersign, and stamps upon the heart gratitude and love to Jesus in return. "We love him because he first loved us." In those grand old ages, which are the heroic period of the Christian religion, this double mark was clearly to be seen in all believers in Jesus; they were men who knew the love of Christ, and rested upon it as a man leaneth upon a staff whose trustiness he has tried.

"We can have a firm faith without rigid opinions. In our hearts we know what we know, but we each know only in part." -- a fellow traveler