Pursuing a Grace-FULL Life

Precious drops of pink petals hanging gracefully from the thinest of tendrils. 

I hovered over them angling for a frame that best revealed their stunning form and intricate design. 

Does my Lord hover so tenderly, so intently over me searching my life for the most becoming elements, those becoming most Christ like? Does He capture a glimpse of something pleasing in the frame that reveals my pursuit of a Grace-FULL life?

Joyfully joining the Five Minute writing community using the prompt GRACEFUL. 

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Go to the House of the Lord

I rejoice with those who said to me,

“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

                                                                              Psalm 122:1

Chapel doors stand transparent with handles smoothed for the grasping, eager to swing wide in invitation and hospitality. The Lord's church, living and breathing, welcomes the hungry heart to be nourished by praise, prayer, and  worship. I love the body of  Christ's church for all that it encourages me to be.

There are more lovely photo praises to be enjoyed here:

SUNDAY , & here...

I Will Tell of All Your Wonders

I will praise you,  
 O Lord, 

with all my heart;

I will tell of all your wonders.

Psalm 9:1

There are more lovely photo praises to be enjoyed here:

SUNDAY , & here...

Stop and be refreshed!

Time Filled With Quiet

Busy hands,

working over simple tasks,

leads to time filled with quiet meditation

and musing over God's ways.

It's a still day.
I've spent several hours creating notes of encouragement for the women who will attend Christian retreats this summer. These are three day weekends that will serve 40 or so women; those who are pilgrims and those who will serve as facilitators of the retreat. It is part of retreat tradition to shower the participants with scriptural reminders of God's love. Many volunteers muster their talents to create and donate dozens and dozens of these mementos of love. 

As I work through the process of selecting a verse from scripture, envisioning the design of the item, and assembling forty of each one; their is an internal conversation with the Lord about what the recipients might need. As the printing is designed I muse, "Where should the font be highlighted for HIS best meaning?" 

As the pieces are assembled I ponder how the selected scripture will nurture the many different circumstances that the recipients process in the course of their retreat. The burdens that will be laid down, the wounds that will begin healing, the call to service that will be clarified, and so on.  

I wonder if the memento will perhaps, be shared, passed on to someone else because women encourage each other that way. "Here, I thought of you. You need this hanging on your fridge to remind of God's care." or "This touched my heart and I knew it would have sacred meaning for you too." The hours melt away. 

By the time I turn the finished work over to those who will carry it into the hands of women seeking a deeper understanding of God, I sense deeply that God has already been invited to guide the message that each woman will receive.  




Take a bit of time to visit the communities over at Holy Experience and STILL SATURDAY.

Wizened Attitudes Learn Anew

He is a very young pastor, an animated storyteller, and a longtime fan of Super Heroes. With this in mind, I approached the sermon series that he led on this topic with an indulgent attitude. An attitude of “I’m old enough to be your mother” and “I’m many decades past this interest” kind of indulgence. 

Over the three weeks of sermons I’ve laughed deep chest laughter during his telling of Super Hero lore. I have. More to the point, my generational ‘wait and see’ attitude has been impressed.  The teaching points have been solid and they’ve touched deep cords of my soul’s need. 

This young pastor suggests that humanity’s fascination with the legend of a Super Hero is likened to what we think we want God to be; accessible on demand, super powered, and avenging. Yes, we would like that. However, that would likely also be a hero inclined to grandeur, narcissism, and anger.

Our Lord Jesus embodied very different attributes. Our Lord teaches the value of very different characteristics.  Our God wants us to be loving, self sacrificing, humble and to wait on His timing. He wants to be in touch with us moment by moment in praise and prayer; not just in our hour of need. Our Lord pursues forgiveness and restoration before vengence. 

You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord. 

Lev. 19:18 NIV

Yes, the young pastor caught the attention of my wizened attitudes. So I sat up straighter and let the Lord wash these reminders across my heart.

Divine Nature

For since the creation of the world 

God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and 

divine nature 

- have been clearly seen.

Romans 1:20

These words spoke deeply of the experience I encountered  several years ago as I began to nurtured an interest in photography. Images framed by my lens continuously placed me in companionship with God. The reflection of the world in the medium of digital photography illuminated the magnitude of God’s presence on earth and in the creation of ALL things therein.

Art and Faith

Church bells ring at noon next door to the Nasher Sculpture Garden patio. 


I sip ice tea listening, hearing the patio’s water wall streaming in unison with bells. 

The occasion is an ‘artist’s date’ in Julia Cameron style; “a nurturing replenishment of creative consciousness”. Thus a solitary trek into the caverns of the city to find this walled seclusion of bubbling water and tree-scaped shade that creates a canvas for the sculptures lolling about on the lawn. Heart and soul love it here. Textures, form, pattern, and mediums portraying metaphors of each artist’s vision awakens the lobes of emotion and meaning . 

That hemisphere of the brain that responds to the abstract, the symbolic, and the tangential; that hemisphere hums in a place like this. Hums in the company of molded metals, polished stone, burnished bronze, botanical art and streaming water walls. Literally, I experience a mental shift as my thoughts react to the dense sensory input. The mind rises out of mundane tangles to climb scaffolding, step by stairs, to musings that stretch beyond present realties. 

“Art is not an end in itself. It introduces the soul into a higher spiritual order...” Thomas Merton

I welcome the sense of spiritual FILLING and subsequent BALANCE that results from the exercise of this lesser used grey matter. Exercise via the viewing of the creative. Viewing the creative enlarges the realm of possibilities and inspires alternatives, confirming that there is yet another way to ‘see’ and more room to grow. Viewing the creative demands attention, invites appreciation and expects ‘seeing’ in a different way. Seeing beyond a cursory glance, ‘seeing’ that is magnified and then juxtaposed against ‘seeing’ that is global, ‘seeing’ that carries thoughts beyond the sculpture garden to mental trajectories of the immense, the omnipotent, of the God shaped.




My experience with the creations of artists never fails to blend with thoughts of the original Creator. I find truth in writer Ann Voskamp’s thinking: “Creativity is good theology;”and in Thomas Merton’s statement, “Music, and art, and poetry attune the soul to God.” Experiencing art travels parallel to and then is woven into the experience of faith. The human potential for and pursuit of creation reflects the Holy Spirit within us.