Category: Preparation

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Come Apart

So, Lord, this is really strange, but I feel as if I need to talk to You about it. And maybe to everyone reading, too. Last night, at some point close to bedtime, I thought I heard You say, Take a break. And honestly, although it sounded like Your Voice inside, I dismissed it as just me, and I rejected the idea practically out of hand. I didn’t, I don’t want to take a break. I don’t want to let anyone down. And I certainly don’t intend to take a break from talking to You!! So it didn’t make any sense. Then this morning, without consciously thinking about it, I thought I heard those same words again, this time followed by, Regroup. So I have to ask: is this You? Why take a break? And regroup for what?

Yes, that was Me. You have been putting pressure on yourself I never intended. This wasn’t meant to be any sort of burden; this was meant to share the joy you and I have in our sharing together. And what have I counseled you to do, recently?

Well, you said to work on writing a creed. Write a creed with You. And You’ve talked before about writing out a Vision Quest, and I felt as if You were saying that again. Because, honestly, I never actually did that. Not really. Pieces and parts, maybe, but not in a total sense.

Even Jesus drew apart with His disciples, and drew apart for times of private prayer. I Am asking you to draw apart, a little while. Let Me re-engage your writer.

But aren’t I engaged already?

You are very sensitive to our dialog, yes. But that is only part of what I have to give you, and what you have to give the world. I never meant for you to neglect that part of you that writes beyond dialog.

Beyond dialog?

Yes. You photograph inspired by Me, but not directed by Me, as if you were a student completing an assignment. You write music inspired by Me but not composed or dictated by Me. You speak from your heart, inspired by Me, but not lip-syncing, not speaking from some Divine Teleprompter, or reciting a memorized speech written by someone else, even if that Someone Else is Me. Your photographs, your music, and your spoken words are all inspired, yes–but they are fully yours. One outcome of this work, this blog, that I never intended, is that you have once again laid down your writing self, thinking I mean only to dictate to you. No, dearest little one. I mean for you to even more fully develop your writing gifts, and to be willing to share, not only these dialogs, these moments of connection with Me, but also your own fully formed heart, through written words, with the world. And in order for that to happen, for you to feel fully comfortable in that role, you need to come apart for just a little while.

What is a little while, Lord? And to be very clear, I mean, I need to be sure I understand, You are saying for me to take a break from posting for this come apart time?

Yes, that is what I Am calling you to do. There is a time to speak, and a time to refrain from speaking. I Am asking you to trust Me, and to refrain from speaking for a brief time so that when you resume, you will resume from a deeper and stronger and more assured place. You will be able to bring more of yourself to everything you write, not merely this.

How long, Lord? How long is a little time?

How long after the Ascension did the disciples wait, before Pentecost in the Upper Room?

Ten days.

Can you wait with Me ten days? Can you go about living your daily life and let Me empower you and your writing in fresh ways? Can you resume after a ten day break?

Yes, Lord, I reckon. If it is You asking me, then yes. I can wait. So June 1st, then. I resume June 1.

Yes, that is what I Am asking you to do. But as with anything I ask, the choice is yours. I will love you no less if you say no. I will continue to speak to you day by day if you say no. But if you can say yes, and come apart from THIS work for an even greater work, then your reach will increase. It is no coincidence that we talked yesterday about the missing piece. There are still parts of yourself that are missing, missing in action as it were. The reasons for that are complex and stretch way back in years. But if you can give Me these ten days, I promise you, much will be resolved and solved within you.  You will emerge from this time even clearer in your purpose and more assured in your place. So come apart with Me.

What else can I say? Yes, Lord. Yes. So I guess I will be back here June 1st.

Indeed you will, and refreshed in heart and spirit and word. You shall see.

Ok, Lord. I trust You. 

 

 

 

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Live Wire

This is my prayer today, Lord–a blanket of blessing. Our atmosphere reaches, surrounds, rounds the world. Sunlight, too. Let Your Presence be as Light, as Air, everywhere. Now the branches of the trees are moving, like Spirit moving, the message of Wind. Lord, there are years I was out on a limb, getting in trouble and needing rescue, by helping, by care-taking, by enabling. Today I am just blessing. Lord, help me hold tight to Your hand. Help me to shine steady. So, here I am. This is one of those times I just want–need–to listen.

Right now what you are listening to is memory, is your remembrance of Who I Am. I AM indeed Powerful–and patient. Playful–and serious, profound. Gentle–and Ginormous. Nothing too tiny, nothing and no one too huge for My touch of transformation. All My resources are yours, are available to You.I want you to move into a new way of thinking. You have thought of Me like electricity, and thought of yourself like an instrument–a radio or a blender or an iron, and thought of others as distinct and separate instruments, each one with a designated pre-determined function.

Yes, like the verse says, I have given some as prophets, some as teachers…

I want you to think of yourself more like the wire that carries the electricity, but that can be attached by the Master Electrician to any appliance, any outlet, as needed. You are not stuck in any one ministry, any more than you are stuck in any creative expression. Prose AND poetry AND song AND photography. Prophecy AND healing AND discernment AND gifts of giving. Go with God takes on this meaning: Go in God. You are wire, wired. You are Live. You are connected to the source. You are also grounded–the grounding is grace, is mercy, is your growing understand of Who I Am, that I do not intend for you to be attached to a bomb, but to anything that blesses, that builds–whether that is building esteem with a word or building community.

No one–except the Electrician–really thinks about the wiring, unless it is shorted out, or frayed, or cut. Everyone focuses on the device. Devices are useless without electricity and they need wires. Be the Wire. Be available to “plug in” whenever I lead you. It is My job to take care of the wire–to refresh you, to make sure you are carrying full voltage. I Am doing that now. You’ve had a voltage drop, like a brown-out in a storm. I am re-igniting the Grid for you. That might mean bypassing certain sections. Not every need is yours to address. Wires are color coded for a purpose. You are yellow for joy. You are green, for gentle growing. Let Me energize you and let Me be the Master Electrician. You don’t have to figure it out. Just receive, and flow, and let the Spirit move very naturally in you.

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Foundations

Lord, You know we are in the middle of a nor’easter–an odd nor’easter in that we have no rain, but high surf from offshore winds. States to the north are getting pounded with flooding, and watching at the pier today made me think of what You said about building on sand. Our whole island is built on sand!

Do you know what the difference is between building on sand and building on rock?

Yes, the houses built on sand fall in and the ones on rock stand. That is what the parable says. And the building on rock is shorthand for building on You, on Your Word. On what You say.

Step back a minute. A tsunami wave broadside would shatter even a house built on rock. The key is in the foundation. A nor’easter can pull a sand foundation out from under a house, no matter how well built the house itself is. Its sandy foundation is subject to erosion, whereas a rock foundation is more secure. That is the literal meaning of the parable. People assume the parable means that building your life on principles of faith mean that no tragedy, no hardship, will hit the house. But what it really means is that, no matter what waves come, the foundation–the relationship of a life lived in union with Me, based on My Love–is secure. So let Me ask you a hard question. When Pete was first diagnosed back in 2011, did you blame Me?

No, of course not! I mean, I didn’t believe then, and I don’t believe now, that You caused that.

And you are right. I did not. But was I present to you, to both of you, in and through that?

Yes, you were. That was hard. Losing Patrick, that was in some ways harder, certainly harder on Pete. But You, You were always there. And we had each other.

So the highest waves you two have faced together did not topple your love for one another or your certainty of My Love for you and My Presence with you. You are built on solid rock. You built your lives together on Love, My Love, and your love for each other. Your grief and fear were very real, and you will feel elements of both of those as long as you live together. So it can be said that your house shook, your emotions shook, when those waves came, but your foundation never eroded.

No, and in some odd ways, all of that just made our foundation stronger. I guess because we faced that together. Separately, in that those situations had different effects on each of us, but we still faced it all together. We walked through it separately, together. If that makes sense.

So here is what I want you to remember. There is no wave, no storm, no situation that will pull your foundation out from under you. Not from you, as an individual. Not from you two as a couple. Take that to heart. Really take that in. That will give you peace.

 

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Advent Preparations

I found an old entry, years old, which said something that relates directly to what is going on right now. You brought that back around, God. Thank You.

You see, nothing is ever wasted. No true opportunity from Me is ever really lost. Sometimes I show you glimpses early to help prepare you for the fullness meant for later. Sometimes you turn away, or turn back, out of a feeling of unreadiness. Sometimes I need to reveal your unreadiness, not to discourage you but to help you grow into your opportunities. Part of living “right place, right time, right person” is trusting Me when you see doors closing when you are—as now—in a state of pause, of waiting.

Advent is a state of pause. It seems the opposite, with all the rushing to be ready, all the preparations, all the extra tasks, but Advent was intended as a more quiet expectation, quiet only so you could feel the anticipation and experience even more joy at its fulfillment. Now on the day after Christmas, the most dominant feelings for adults are relief and exhaustion.

Advent was not meant for lethargy but for a more gentle, deliberate and mindful pace of preparation. Decorating and cooking and gift selection and giving, the gathering of loved ones—all of these were meant to have counterparts in your soul. People often take time to clean out closets, releasing what they no longer need to make room for new. You can see the correlation to your spirit’s housekeeping. It’s good to take some deliberate time to examine the corners of your attitudes and your core values and make sure what you wear everyday—your words and actions—are a true fit.

You decorate your houses and make festive preparations; how do you decorate your soul: With what do you embellish your spirit: With joy. With praise. With gratitude. With a new song. There are songs you hear only at this time of year. It is a time to reflect back and look ahead, too. Some of the embellishments you can add in Advent are your prayerful dreams and goals and visions for the year ahead.

As Advent concludes and Christmas comes, you both give and receive. Give yourself once again to Me; receive once again in your lived-experience expressions of My particular love for you. Children anticipate Santa will bring them good gifts, wished-for gifts. Are My Gifts less wonderful than the gifts they ask for?

What about gifts we don’t get, you ask. My dear child, just as no opportunity is wasted, no true gift is ever withheld. Human lives intersect and overlap and the is not yet the perfect world I created it to be. Remember, your eartly sorrow at losing someone you love is the underside of the tapestry—from the topside, from their perspective, all is glory, all is joy, all is magnificence. And the pattern revealed there is a beautiful weaving.

That is humanity’s true Advent, lived every day, every hour, of human lifetimes—the leading up to the greatest Gift of all.

You mean heaven.

Yes, full union with Myself and with all creation. For “it is not my will that anyone perish, but that all come to repentance.” And My Will shall be done, My Kingdom shall come. What a day that will be—for Me as well as for humanity. Cicero had it correct: the last day does not bring extinction, but change of place.