Rather be in the Mountains

Loves you as you are

"God loves you as you are, and not as you shòuld be,

for we will never be, as we should be."

~Brennan Manning

Produces Hope

"More than that,

we rejoice in our sufferings,

knowing that suffering produces endurance,

and endurance produces character, and character produces hope."

~Romans 3:3-5

One thing I ask from the Lord

Psalm of David:

4 One thing I ask from the Lord,

this only do I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life,

to gaze on the beauty of the Lord

and to seek him in his temple.

5 For in the day of trouble

he will keep me safe in his dwelling;

he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent

and set me high upon a rock.

6 Then my head will be exalted

above the enemies who surround me;

at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy;

I will sing and make music to the Lord.

7 Hear my voice when I call, Lord;

be merciful to me and answer me.

8 My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”

Your face, Lord, I will seek.

9 Do not hide your face from me,

do not turn your servant away in anger;

you have been my helper.

Do not reject me or forsake me,

God my Savior.

10 Though my father and mother forsake me,

the Lord will receive me.

11 Teach me your way, Lord;

lead me in a straight path

because of my oppressors.

12 Do not turn me over to the desire of my foes,

for false witnesses rise up against me,

spouting malicious accusations.

13 I remain confident of this:

I will see the goodness of the Lord

in the land of the living.

14 Wait for the Lord;

be strong and take heart

and wait for the Lord."

~Psalm 27

Freedom of dawn

Now is the time of dark invitation
beyond a frontier that you did not expect.
Abruptly your old life seems distant.
You barely noticed how each day opened
a path through fields never questioned
yet expected deep down to hold treasure.

Now your time on earth becomes full of threat.
Before your eyes your future shrinks.
You lived absorbed in the day to day so continuous
with everything around you that you could forget you were separate.

Now this dark companion has come between you.
Distances have opened in your eyes.
You feel that against your will
A stranger has married your heart. 
Nothing before has made you feel so isolated and lost.

When the reverberations of shock subside in you,
may grace come to restore you to balance.
May it shape a new space in your heart
to embrace this illness as a teacher
who has come to open your life to new worlds.
May you find in yourself a courageous hospitality
towards what is difficult, painful and unknown.

May you use this illness as a lantern
to illuminate the new qualities that will emerge in you.
May your fragile harvesting of this slow light help you
release whatever has become false in you.
May you trust this light to clear a path
through all the fog of old unease and anxiety
until you feel a rising within you,
a tranquility profound enough to call the storm to stillness.

May you find the wisdom to listen to your illness, 
ask it why it came,
why it chose your friendship,
where it wants to take you,
what it wants you to know,
what quality of space it wants to create in you,
what you need to learn to become more fully yourself,
that your presence may shine in the world.

May you keep faith with your body,
learning to see it as a holy sanctuary
which can bring this night wound
gradually towards the healing and freedom of dawn.

~John O'Donohue
For a Friend on the Arrival of Illness

“It is finished”

 "So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!”

And bowing His head, He gave up His spirit."

~John 19:30

The Lord's mercy

"The Lord's mercy often rides to the door of our heart upon the black horse of affliction"
~Charles Spurgeon

No one has ever become poor by giving

"No one has ever become poor by giving."

~Anne Frank

So, thank you ....

God te kennen

"Maar onwillekeurig ben ik altijd geneigd te geloven dat de beste manier om God te kennen is:

Hem heel lief te hebben ... dat voert tot God, dat voert tot het onwankelbaar geloof."

~Vincent van Gogh, Borinage België, 1880

Still play games

"I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal;

I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer."

~Brennan Manning

See it

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it,

but because by it, I see everything else."

~C.S. Lewis

Lost and found

"Jesus, in red, continued: 'There was a man who had two sons ..

.. because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.'"

~Luke 15:11-32

Strengths