...on wings of eagles

(This showed up in my drafts and I don’t believe I ever posted it ... circa 2015)

Reflecting on yesterday ... the church bulletin published a half page summary of a 'legend' about how birds got their wings. I do not know the source, but it was really quite cheesy. The gist of the legend was that birds were created without wings and GOD told them to carry their wings. Their burdens became their means of flight. Perhaps someone was encouraged by the parable that by some stretch of the imagination had spiritual implications for their life, but it wasn't me. This is not a cynical attack. The story did start me thinking about flight and I was reminded of a group of finches that were brought to our 'rainforest' room at school. We thought it would be cool to have birds fly about this large room that was full of aquariums, tropical plants, and a waterfall. But when the finches arrived ... all they did was walk around ... hop a bit ... and occasionally fly about six inches up in the air. It seems that they had been raised in a small cage since birth and really had no idea of their own capabilities of flight. They also did not sing as I had expected the finches to do. It took them a couple of days to adapt to their new environment and begin to fly about the room. With their freedom came their song. You draw your own inferences.

"those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings of eagles;
they will run and now grow weary; they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40

chariots and horses

I think if you zoom in on this panorama you can almost see the Mediterranean at the line of the horizon on the left side... this is the view Abraham would have seen as he held a knife in one hand and his son's neck in the other while he desperately looked for an alternative ... it is what Elijah saw as he had allowed himself to be used to defeat 800 prophets of Baal and then called out to YHWH to relieve the drought he had prayed for over the past three and a half years.  This is from the top of Mt Carmel in central Israel.  I was reminded as I awoke this morning [having slept through the night for the first time in a long time] that when the people of GOD "cry out" ... he always hears, because he always listens ... and he always responds ... in powerful ways ... though in HIS own time.

Ze' ekah is the Hebrew for 'cry out' ... it implies a deep scream of despair and simultaneous hope - as a mother in childbirth or a mother who has lost her child or when one has come to the end of the rope and realizing they are not 'tied in' .  Ze' ekah, though, is a corporate scream ... when the people of GOD join in a desperate cry for rescue ... when their realization that their own helplessness and brokenness cannot fix things and ONLY the intervention of YHWH can redeem them.

Join voices in the people of GOD for the first time in all of earth's history, as we lift our  united Ze'ekah in hope and in confidence that Adonai is indeed in control and is about to do something unprecedented to glorify his name.

If you look at the numerous references to chariots and horses in scripture, you'll find that again and again GOD's people are reminded
     Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
                                                                                                                              Psalm 20:7

blessings and peace

dan

What do you want?

WHAT do you want?

What DO you want?
What do YOU want?
What do you WANT?

Perhaps this is the question all mankind has asked throughout history ... a summative query of all conflict and of all purpose.  Relationships begin and end in this question ... even asked on a corporate or national level, the history of mankind has rested on this question and on the word that was emphasized.  From the time an infant cries out without words, this question is being asked.  By the age of kindergarten, we have already mastered the manipulation of others to respond.

... and we spend the rest of our lives essentially asking and responding to this question.  All that we do is the result of our personal answer and response.  It it the driving force behind our actions and our purpose in life.  We will sacrifice personal comfort and purpose in our response.

For this man we met in a pub at 11:15 on a chilly fall morning in Charlestown, Ireland ... it was
"a corner table near the peat fire ... and another pint ... with a straw please, for the escape of my Parkinson's and the forty years I spent in the English Navy trying to escape my upbringing in this little town ... only to return to my roots and spend my days drinking in conversation with strangers about memories of Lynard Skynard and early rock and roll."  

Probably not the best answer.

Peace be with you and may GOD bless you.

Inspiration from Inch Beach

Oh ADONAI !  
   ... as you breathed life into this world and created nature and natural order from chaos ... From nothing ... You set in motion the reminders of your touch ... of your love ... of your constant and continual care for all of your creation.   Your tears of disappointment in man's abandonment of your compassion and avoidance of trust in your natural order have created the brooks that fill the great rivers and empty into the oceans.    and yet you continue still to breathe your Holy Spirit into the hearts of men ... As the winds and oceanic currents incessantly move water and sand to erode the rock bastions we have created and replace them in new deposits that form the spits that reach into the raging waves of humanity and form the breakwaters that give safe harbor to those who are in such great need of your mercy.  Help me today to yield the hard parts of my heart to be reshaped by the ruach of the master potter and to be cleansed in the flow of your compassion to become who you desire me to be ... That the world may know - ADONAI

Looking back at this little cabin, built on the Navajo reservation in northwestern New Mexico, I'm reminded "blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven".  In my life I have been rich, though I usually have failed to acknowledge that fact.  Standing on my front sidewalk this morning and enjoying the feel of warm raindrops falling on my face ... I realize the richness of my life.  This photograph was taken from the from porch of the home of a woman named Martha, who had lived in a one room cabin with no running water and no electricity with her children ... for over forty years.  This is a barren land ... there is no garden ... the relief of rain is only a memory.  I am glad I was given opportunity to be a part of the rain that blessed Martha with a new house that has electricity and water.  I am rich ... so it is often difficult to see the desert that surrounds me.  And so I stand in the rain ... thanking GOD not only for the rain, but for eyes to see the desert and the cleansing reign of His Spirit that refreshes my soul.

Annual events

today I visited the dermatologist ... something I have done for the last several Septembers.  It is not necessarily something I look forward to, but it is necessarily something I need to do.  There are other things that we do only once a year - some of them under duress and others reluctantly, rather having the opportunity to do them more frequently.  Paying taxes or home insurance once a year is enough, but I could do Christmas or Thanksgiving more often.  On the other hand, Easter is only once a year, but it seems that when it has past I spend the remainder of the year planning toward, living toward, and looking forward to the next one.  But then in many ways ... Easter comes every day.  We simply don't always acknowledge it.  Looking back it has been almost a year to the day since I made a contribution to this spot.  So, I'm back again - anticipating that it will not be a  year before I return.  My writings stimulate my own thinking call me to be introspective and if someone else gains some insight or hope into this life in the process, then perhaps that is good.

My thoughts lately have been drawn back to Isaiah 35 again and again ... perhaps I'll go there again someday.

Perhaps tomorrow.

I can't wait 'til next year...

Walking in the rain ...

Several years ago I determined that Psalm 23 is approximately nine rods long.  A rod being the length of a standard canoe, portages are measured in rods.  As I walked between two lakes on what are usually sloppy wet and steep trails, carrying a canoe and/or a pack I discovered that as I quoted Psalm 23 outloud that it gave me a mantra ... a rhythm ... that broke through the silence and the monotony.  I began to measure the length of portages in the numbers of times I could quote the Psalm while walking the portage.  The waterfall in the photo above is one of the most beautiful portages I've been on and measures only five "Psalm 23's".  Perhaps it might be useful to measure the transitions of our lives in terms of the psalms.  I've been impressed with Lynn Anderson, who in the midst of his successful chemotherapy, memorized the Psalms ... all of them.  I think he has achieved this goal.

Tonight I went for a walk in the rain.  It reminded me of the many times I've canoed or hiked in the rain ... this just enough to cool the evening and not actually get wet.  But I think that the great advantage of walking in the rain is the fact that it hides the tears of compassion for a broken world.

"He makes me lie down in green pastures,
He leads me beside still waters,
He restores my soul,
He leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake ..."

Sometimes the paths of righteousness are pretty rough ...