miracles

do you have to be seeking to find a miracle?

searching to find hope?

do you have to be asking to have a miracle?

are they purposeful?

are miracles seemingly random?

a blend of whimsy, a dash of fate, a sprinkle of a wish?

are miracles real?

do they happen today? now? in real time?

are miracles around us, beyond us, within us?

do we see them when they happen?

what are we missing?

do we want to know?

can we be satisfied to never know?

And if we can't know, does that mean we stop asking?

a love story

tell me a love story

a thousand times still

and i will never tire

but carry hope close to my heart

tell me he loves her

will fight and protect her

carry her and strengthen her

tell me she trusts him, believes him

will honor and care

with respect and joy, proudly carrying

his name, his identity, his legacy

tell me they will be bond, by choice

in faith, never-leaving, always-true

tell me a love story

a thousand times still

and i will never tire,

but be filled.

we need to imagine

Imagination. It conjures up four year old memories of castles, dragons, and kings. It brings to mind the royal quest to save the lost princess from destruction. To imagine means to go beyond what I see and what I can document to what I can feel and to what I can believe. Imagination poses new solutions, brings out magical endings, rides waves of fancy, and catapults us into the milky way. By imagination we can walk on water, live through fire, keep the sun from setting, time from continuing. Imagination is unending, infinite. Imagination can answer unanswerable questions, it can cast unknown explanations, it is bigger and better and ever changing.

We need to imagine, to get outside of ourselves, beyond out self-interests, and consider things greater than us. Imagination drives explorers to hunt, drives dreamers to find solutions, imagination causes us to grow. Wake up and imagine!

I used to hate November.....

Being a results-oriented-impatient-type-girl, I used to hate November. It was an unnecessary step to December. Typically, a cold and gray month in Minnesota; it ranks up there in Winter bleakness with February. Another not so favorite month. November is a long month, a delay, a holding period for the vivid warmth and color and light of December. November is the irritating math drill for learning the multiplication tables, its sweeping even corner of the kitchen after removing the chairs and garbage can before mopping. It's the set up, the details, the preparation for things better to come. November is the slow rise to the mountain top, the growing and decision making angst that tears and absorbs and inquires and questions. I used to hate November, but now, I am not in so much of a hurry. The world is hurrying around me already.

If it weren't for November, December would not come. If it weren't for November, I would not be ready for December. The leaves need to fall in November, the wood stacked, the Christmas lights hung outside, the conferences scheduled, the Christmas choir organized, the plans prepared so that December can come. AND in the midst of all of that, we take a day to be thankful. How can I not find November enduring? It's the set up for good things to come.

prayer

Prayer is instant, convenient, in real time, at any moment, accessible. No payment plan is needed, not credentials required. There is no dress code to prayer. It doesn't beckon with a learned language, but rather flows from the heart. Prayer isn't only for the privileged, the educated, the rich. Prayer is available to all. No secret codes, no expiration date, no shelf life. Prayer endures. It is eternal. It is ageless.

It is an ongoing conversation woven into the tapestry of our lives, it comes from a place within us and travels to a place completely beyond us. Prayer is magical, mystical, mysterious; prayer is unexplained. It's a pipeline, a river, a path; it's a journey, an adventure, a way of life.

Prayer is unstoppable, it is unshaken, it is our only hope.

Value

We understand value in direct contrast to something else. It's meaning is derived from a spectrum of what is desired and what is hated. The value of gold is valued in contrast to other metals, the value of love best understood in comparison to hate. The value of friendship viewed through the lens of not having friends, desiring meaning and relationship in sharp contrast to emptiness without community. The better we understand the value of something, the more focused we are in pursuit of it.

What do you value? Is it evident in your actions? Is the comparison between what you value and what you do obvious? If I value love, is it easily seen? Is it poured out daily in my actions, my words, my work, my relationships? If I value integrity, do my words match my meaning match my actions? If I value kindness, do others see it? If I value justice, do I mete it out? The spoken is not nearly as loud as the unspoken.

Value is as dark is to light, truth is to lie, hope is to despair, life is to death. It's a contrast, a tension, a meeting place of two adversaries, an appointment between friends, it's vital and it's important. What value marks your life?

Courage

Courage is being convinced that what you are about to do is greater than the fear standing in the way to do it. It is the strength of the mission greater than the cost. It is the understanding that the part you play is more important than the personal discomfort of the moment. Courage is eternal, fear is temporal. Courage is raw and untested, it is risky, it is brave. Courage means self-discipline, practiced control when doing someone completely beyond your control.

Courage freed slaves, it brought answers, it furthered history, courage solved mysteries, ran due diligence, evoked faith in dark times, withstands injustice. It stood in the gap, weathered the attacks of evil empires, dictatorships, military regimes. Courage takes you out of your bed, away from the warmth of your dream-surrounded blankets, jars your lazy mind, and calls you to stand.

Courage joins faith and love and propels you on the adventure of your lifetime. Do we see that our coffers of courage have gone low? Are we alarmed that self-comfort has arisen in our nation? How do we recover? How do we find a courageous heart once again?