California Dreaming and Trekking

Pictures from precious time with family.
Sister came down with a fever, but we still managed to have fun.
So thankful for time well spent.
What did we do?
We poked a few seeds in the earth.
We poked through "junk" shops and came home with treasures.
We hit up Powell's Sweet Shop and Costeaux, the French Bakery.
An aunt and child took a knitting class.
We investigated The Shed.
We met the cat at Copperfield's Book Store and chatted it up.

 We cooled off in the Russian River.

We enjoyed the Russian River Rodeo, (until we got sick :-)
But, she still put a smile on her face.

 Shoot, there's a lot of bull in that pen.

 We painted trees.

 We took a nice walk and enjoyed the jack rabbits,
who are faster than my camera.

We soaked it all up,

and took it all in.

Mt Angel Abbey, Deeper Still

We toured the Abbey yesterday with Brother Basil. 

Wonderful. Deep. Restful. 

A beautiful humid cloud filled day.

 Come away for awhile.

 A treasure for children to behold.

 Rare book room

 We were invited to feel, hold, and experience.

 Learn.

 Look.

 Listen.

 Walk.

 Pray.

 

Presence.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

God calls men,

from among the nations.
They come,

 and take their place.
All for worship.

Living a story.

They write with foot steps.

Quietly, they come for noonday prayer.

Living. Loving. Learning.

Intentionally.
For he who responds to the bells,
hears the voice of God.

Let him who has ears to hear, hear.
Let him who has a voice, lift it up.

He heard the bell.

He came to your temple.

The cross lifted high among men.
The cross descended among men.

Ten Personal Decisions for the Common Good by Jim Wallis

 Because what we build in this life, may just remain. 

  Ten Personal Decisions for the Common Good by Jim Wallis  

1. If you are a father or a mother, make your children the most important priority in your life and build your other commitments around them. If you are not a parent, look for children who could benefit from your investment in their lives.

2. If you are married, be faithful to your spouse. Demonstrate your commitment with both your fidelity and your love. If you are single, measure your relationships by their integrity, not their usefulness.

3. If you are a person of faith, focus not just on what you believe but on how you act on those beliefs. If you love God, ask God how to love your neighbor.

4. Take the place you live seriously. Make the context of your life and work the parish that you take responsibility for.

5. Seek to develop a vocation and not just a career. Discern your gifts as a child of God, not just your talents, and listen for your calling rather than just looking for opportunities. Remember that your personal good always relates to the common good.

6. Make choices by distinguishing between wants and needs. Choose what is enough, rather than what is possible to get. Replace appetites with values, teach your children the same, and model those values for all who are in your life.

7. Look at the business, company, or organization where you work from an ethical perspective. Ask what its vocation is, too. Challenge whatever is dishonest or exploitative and help your place of work do well by doing good.

8. Ask yourself what in the world today most breaks your heart and offends your sense of justice. Decide to help change that and join with others who are committed to transforming that injustice.

9. Get to know who your political representatives are at both the local and national level. Study their policy decisions and examine their moral compass and public leadership. Make your public convictions and commitments known to them and choose to hold them accountable.

10. Since the difference between events and movements is sacrifice, which is also the true meaning of religion and what makes for social change, ask yourself what is important enough to give your life to and for.

 Because your path may not be my path, 

but we are all on the path, 

and one day our paths may cross.

And one day, the foot prints we leave will be swept away, 

but what we build with stone will remain...

and our children will have to navigate the path we created for them.

Therefore, let men of fortitude, carve a path of peace.

A Time for Everything

There is a time for everything,
    and a season for every activity under the heavens:

Wedding Showers

   a time to be born and a time to die,

    a time to plant and a time to uproot,

  a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,

  a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,

   a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

    a time to search and a time to give up,
   a time to keep and a time to throw away,

 a time to tear and a time to mend,
 a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,
 a time for war and a time for peace.

What do workers gain from their toil?  I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.  He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear him.

Finding Time to Write

It can be challenging to find time to write; there are so many distractions in spring. I want to share more about On God's Side by Jim Wallis, and I want to share about our Adventures in Writing program at WOU. Yet, time is short and the days are filled with much right now. Other stories beckon to me; calling me to mold and tell them in their own  time. Trying to live in each new day - one at a time. But we are...

 

trying to take time to appreciate spring beauty.

 

Sowing seeds and flowers for summer wedding blooms.

Thankful for the spring rains.

Finally settling in and less shy.

 

 We moved them off the hillside into the garden.
That was a comedic adventure!
Other adventures...

 as we try to find time for roads less travelled and...

dissection discoveries,

 fourth grade field trips, fun,

 and birthdays at the beach.

"I hate this leash. Help me. PLEASE."

We are learning to find our voice through crafting story.

 Adventures in Writing at Western Oregon University.

May you find a place to abide today. 

 

May you soak in His presence. 

God is present all around us; 

whether we recognize Him or not.

Soak in the Son today.

Bookends: On God's Side, a Gospel for the Common Good by Jim Wallis

Art by P.J. Crook image from Bridgeman Art Library 

 

“My concern is not whether God is on our side; 

my greatest concern is to be on God's side.”

~ Abraham Lincoln

Excerpts from On God's Side, A Gospel for the Common Good by Jim Wallis

The church is supposed to be saying, and the church is supposed to be showing, that our life together can be better. In our shallow, superficial, and selfish age, Jesus is indeed calling us to a completely different way of life that people are supposed to be able to see. He called it the kingdom of God, and it a very clear alternative to the selfish kingdoms of this world. ….The better way of living was meant to benefit not just the Christians but everybody else too. That's what makes it transformational.

That is because Christians are not committed to the kingdom of any culture, class, or racial group, or to the kingdom of America or any other nation-state, or even to the kingdom of any church, but rather to the kingdom of God. That kingdom turns all the other kingdoms on their head, brings forth the unexpected, and breaks open the unpredictable. We are called to show people how to love God and their neighbors and thereby bring new hope to lives, neighborhoods, nations, and the world. The world around us is longing for that wholly unpredictable ministry of hope. And that's the side I want to be on.

I love that Oswald Chambers echoes the same sentiments this week. Excerpt from My Utmost for His Highest May 6th.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free . . . —Galatians 5:1

A spiritually-minded person will never come to you with the demand—”Believe this and that”; a spiritually-minded person will demand that you align your life with the standards of Jesus. We are not asked to believe the Bible, but to believe the One whom the Bible reveals (see John 5:39-40). We are called to present liberty for the conscience of others, not to bring them liberty for their thoughts and opinions. And if we ourselves are free with the liberty of Christ, others will be brought into that same liberty— the liberty that comes from realizing the absolute control and authority of Jesus Christ.

Always measure your life solely by the standards of Jesus. Submit yourself to His yoke, and His alone; and always be careful never to place a yoke on others that is not of Jesus Christ. It takes God a long time to get us to stop thinking that unless everyone sees things exactly as we do, they must be wrong. That is never God’s view. There is only one true liberty— the liberty of Jesus at work in our conscience enabling us to do what is right.

Don’t get impatient with others. Remember how God dealt with you— with patience and with gentleness. But never water down the truth of God. Let it have its way and never apologize for it. Jesus said, “Go . . . and make disciples. . .” (Matthew 28:19), not, “Make converts to your own thoughts and opinions.”

“Don't go right, don't go left; go deeper.”

~ Jim Wallis

I praise God that His yolk is light. Only men, place burdens on the back of the already weary. Let us live like we were born free. For indeed, we were born into freedom through the gift of the Cross. Christ.