Who Wander

"Not all those who wander are lost."

~J.R.R. Tolkien

Be with you

And may the joy of Jesus be in you

And may the joy of Jesus be with you

And may you know the joy of Jesus

And may the joys of Jesus be in you

May the grace of my God be with you

May the grace of my God be with you

May you know the grace of my God

And may the grace of my God be with you

May the love of my Lord be with you

May the love of my Lord be with you

And may you know the love of my Lord

And may the love of my Lord be with you

And may you dance and laugh and sing

May you know the warmth of His embrace

May you feel the brush of angel wings

Like the wind upon your face

May the joy of Jesus be with you

May you know the joy of Jesus

And may the joy of Jesus be with you

~Rich Mullins

What can flesh do to me?

"When I am afraid, I put my trust in You.
In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?"
~Psalm 56:3-4

That divine spark alive

"Love is the best and noblest thing in the human heart,

especially when it is tested by life as gold is tested by fire.

Happy is he who has loved much, and although he may have wavered and doubted,

he has kept that divine spark alive

and returned to what was in the beginning and ever shall be."

~Vincent van Gogh

Till we know at least something

a silky flower in my Hoya at home

"We can never know who or what we are till we know at least something of what God is."

―A.W. Tozer

Until it finds its rest

"Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless

until it finds its rest in thee."

~Augustine of Hippo

Of what’s going on within

"..Because of that, you’re not without melancholy,

and you feel emptiness where there could be friendship and high and serious affections,

and you feel a terrible discouragement gnawing at your psychic energy itself,

and fate seems able to put a barrier against the instincts for affection,

or a tide of revulsion that overcomes you.

And then you say, How long, O Lord!

Well, then, what can I say; does what goes on inside show on the outside?
Someone has a great fire in his soul and nobody ever comes to warm themselves at it,
and passers-by see nothing but a little smoke at the top of the chimney and then go on their way.

So now what are we to do, keep this fire alive inside, have salt in ourselves, wait patiently,
but with how much impatience, await the hour,
I say, when whoever wants to, will come and sit down there, will stay there, for all I know?
May whoever believes in God await the hour, which will come sooner or later.

In the springtime a bird in a cage knows very well that there’s something he’d be good for;

he feels very clearly that there’s something to be done but he can’t do it;

what it is he can’t clearly remember, and he has vague ideas and says to himself,

‘the others are building their nests and making their little ones and raising the brood’,

and he bangs his head against the bars of his cage.

And then the cage stays there and the bird is mad with suffering.

‘Look, there’s an idler’, says another passing bird — that fellow’s a sort of man of leisure.

And yet the prisoner lives and doesn’t die; nothing of what’s going on within shows outside,

he’s in good health, he’s rather cheerful in the sunshine.

But then comes the season of migration. A bout of melancholy —

but, say the children who look after him,

he’s got everything that he needs in his cage, after all —

but he looks at the sky outside, heavy with storm clouds,

and within himself feels a rebellion against fate.

I’m in a cage, I’m in a cage, and so I lack for nothing, you fools!

Me, I have everything I need!

Ah, for pity’s sake, freedom, to be a bird like other birds!"

~Vincent van Gogh,
excerpts from letter 133, to Theo van Gogh, Cuesmes, juni 1880

Learnt to love

"When I have learnt to love God better than my earthly dearest,

I shall love my earthly dearest better than I do now."

~C.S. Lewis

(Parents 50th Anniversary)

That where I am

"And if I go and prepare a place for you,

I will come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am,

there you may be also."

~John 14:3

With all that is left

I cry the Name of the One who loves me

The Name of the One on whom I call

'Til it roars like thunder

Rolling down these canyon walls

Every breath I've ever breathed

Was sent as a gift from on high

And with all that is left of all that is me

Up to the Heavens I cry

~Rich Mullins

The Author of our faith

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,

who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame,

and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

~Hebrews 12:2

Not even blessing

"My goal is GOD HIMSELF.
Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but HIMSELF... my GOD."

~Leonard Ravenhill

A Love Affair

"Let your religion be less of a theory and more
of a love affair."
~G.K. Chesterton

"My heart is in Ireland, it's there I long to be.
Her hills and her valleys are calling to me.
Though born here in this land, my heart is in Ireland."
~The Wolve Tones

Coumeenoole, Dingle Peninsula, West-Ireland

One of my favorite spots on Earth!

Trust is our gift back to God

☼    Midwinter Sunflowers    ☼

"The splendor of a human heart that trusts it is loved unconditionally,

gives God more pleasure than Westminster Cathedral, the Sistine Chapel,

Beethoven’s "Ninth Symphony", Van Gogh’s "Sunflowers",

the sight of 10,000 butterflies in flight, or the scent of a million orchids in bloom.

Trust is our gift back to God,

and he finds it so enchanting that Jesus died for love of it."

~Brennan Manning

Our greatest love

"Only when our greatest Love is God, a love that we cannot lose even in death,
can we face all things with peace."
~Timothy Keller
Walking with God through Pain and Suffering

For individuals

"God isn't looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow Him."

~Hudson Taylor

When I am weak

"When I am weak then am I strong, Grace is my shield and Christ my song."
~Charles Spurgeon

As water reflects

"As water reflects the face, so one’s life reflects the heart."

~Proverbs 27:19

The constant gracious listener

"God is the constant gracious listener to our every thought,

and prayer begins when we bring what we most naturally think about before God."

~John Ortberg

Delicious autumn!

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it,

and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns."

~Mary Ann Evans (Georg Eliot)