Category: Inspiration

Faith, Family, Inspiration, Love

My Weight in Their Hands

Rev Kathy

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I worshipped at my home church yesterday. What a blessing it was to be with the people that prayed and nursed me through the most serious days of my illness! In many ways, they played a role in my eventual return to health. And it is such a blessing to know that they will also pray me through my eventual kidney transplant.

They are what Christ’s Community is all about. New Millennium Church became a true faith community for me during my darkest days. They prayed. They brought meals. They stayed in close touch. They believed in my healing. They were as Toni Morrison describes in this passage:

“They encouraged you to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely it was, they studied your scars and tribulations…”
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

And so, with my weight in their hands, I began to get myself back, physically, emotionally and spiritually. They were, for me, the reality of miracle. Today, I am healthy enough to be considered a candidate for a kidney transplant. Through that process, I know that New Millennium will pray.

“I give thanks to God upon every remembrance of you.” – Philippians 1:1

Faith, God's Faithfulness, Inspiration, Love

Love Has the Last Word

Rev Kathy

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My last blog post spoke of being unable to escape adversity. And it is true that we will not get through this life without adversity, no matter how hard we try. The path we walk is steep and winding, leading us forward through all sorts of dangers, toils and snares. The road can be frightening. It can be challenging.

We navigate in a world that is sometimes filled with terror and hate. But the best news for us comes from Bishop Steven Charleston.

The final word to our lives will not be terror or hate. Even if they seem overwhelming now, they will not define us or control us. Other forces are at work, deep forces that move silently among us, drawing us closer against the storm. Whenever human beings face disaster together, whatever that peril may be, our ancient instinct for compassion rises up to unite us in common cause. We do not shatter beneath the blows. We only grow stronger. No, fear and hate will never have the last word. Love will.

There is no better news than that!

I love the hymn Amazing Love. How Can it Be. The words of the fourth stanza give me new and fresh hope.

Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.

Amazing love, how can it be that Thou, my God, should die for me?

Love has the last word.

Courage, Faith, God's Faithfulness, Hope, Inspiration, Life storms

On to the Land of Promise

Rev Kathy

 

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Richland Creek Wilderness

Have you ever wandered in a wilderness? I have certainly felt at times as if I was wandering in a wilderness . . . abandoned, confused, disoriented.

The Bible tells the story of the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness for a very long time. We find one reference to that story in Numbers 32:13.

The LORD’s anger burned against Israel and he made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the whole generation of those who had done evil in his sight was gone.

Certainly no wilderness wandering that I have experienced has been that long and grueling. Yet I do know about a personal wilderness journey. I know how lonely it feels, how forsaken. I know that it seems to go on forever with no end in sight. I know that such wilderness journeys can happen when one is ill, isolated, disheartened, grieving or simply feeling empty.

Numbers concludes with the Israelites coming to the end of the long, hard journey. They are now standing on the Plains of Moab, just across the river from the promised land. This is where Moses gives his final commission to the people. And in the next book, Deuteronomy, the end of the wandering in the wilderness becomes a reality.

Look, he has placed the land in front of you! Go up, take possession of it, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, said to do. Do not be afraid or discouraged!”  – Deuteronomy 1:21

And that’s the good word we need to hear. Our wandering is over. God has walked beside us through whatever wilderness we travelled. We are free to move into our own land of promise where life is no longer filled with fear and discouragement. The magic, though, is this: coming out of the wilderness is our choice. God has the land of promise ready for us. We need only to walk into it with courage and fresh hope.

 

Gardening for the Soul, Inspiration

Peace in the Garden

Rev Kathy

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More and more these days, I search for soul work, for activities that feed my soul and sooth my spirit. Gardening is that kind of work for me. I so enjoy watching plants peak bravely through the ground with a new shoot of joy. There is peace in the presence of a garden.

What a glorious day yesterday was! The sun was shining. The breeze blew gently throughout the day. It was a wonderful day to shop for plants, and even more wonderful to plant them.

A small garden now graces the front of my house. I will love watching it grow and thrive. I will love the sense of peace it brings. I love that nature’s beauty is all around me.

Now I have a responsibility to the garden. It won’t grow well without my care . . . watering, weeding, cutting back, feeding. But it’s not work. It’s true pleasure to tend a garden spot.

Alfred Austin speaks of the glory of gardening. He says it like this: “hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”

So I will be spending peace time in the garden this year. It is indeed a therapeutic way to spend my days.

Inspiration, Life storms

Storm Clouds Above

Rev Kathy

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April stormed in with a vengeance. I am not often awakened by thunderstorms, but night before last I was jolted from sleep several times. And early yesterday morning, my cell phone blared out a jarring tornado warning alarm. Storms can be alarming.

Life storms can be even more alarming, suddenly intruding on your peaceful, sunshiny day. I’ve had my share of them and I have learned that when you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. In fact, that’s what a life storm is about, changing your illusion of calm, bursting into your complacency, rearranging your well-ordered life.

That’s also what is so positive about storms. Sometimes, many times, my life really needs rearranging. Sometimes I need to break out of my mundane routine and let myself be blown around a bit by a cleansing wind. Sometimes I need to be shocked out of my complacency, especially when I am taking my calm life for granted.

Strolling through life under blue skies with the sun on our shoulders is quite wonderful. But there’s more in store for us, and it comes when the storm clouds form over us and when the lightening flashes across our sky. That gets our attention. Frederick Douglass aptly described what I call a life jolt.

“It is not light that we need, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.” (Frederick Douglass)

God's Faithfulness, Inspiration

Stones in the Road

Rev Kathy

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When we are experiencing trials, God is faithful. When circumstances in life become unbearable, God is faithful. When sadness takes over our spirits, God is faithful.

Our life journey is filled with obstacles, stones in the road, a pathway strewn with stumbling blocks. No one gets through life on an easy, clear path, at least no one that I have ever known. All of us face challenges that have the power to stop us in our tracks.

But the miracle remains. We get through. We overcome the obstacles. We navigate the rocky path. We climb the most treacherous mountains. We continue the journey and we don’t give up. The reason can be found in the tenth chapter of 1 Corinthians.

God is faithful: He will not let you be tried beyond what you are able to bear, but with the trial will also provide a way out so that you may be able to endure it.

  • 1 Corinthians 10:13-14 New English Translation

So I plan to move forward on the journey, slow and steady steps, avoiding the stones in the road. I can do that because God is faithful to not let me endure more than I can handle.

“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is a beloved hymn that has provided comfort through the ages:

Great is Thy faithfulness, O God, my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not.
As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy faithfulness; Great is Thy faithfulness;
Morning by morning, new mercies I see.
All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

I hope you will take a moment to listen to this comforting hymn at this YouTube link:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1nmKHfjp8WE&autoplay=1