Worth

“And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:8).

God called you by name and created you to be a reflection of His glory. Be blessed as Jesus is reflected in your life. You are being transformed into His image with ever-increasing glory.

God created you for a purpose. You are an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of His splendor (Isa. 61:3). You were created in Christ Jesus to do good works (Eph. 2:10). Listen to your Father’s voice as He speaks your purpose as He sees it. Trust that He will provide all that is needed for you to fulfill His purposes. He has more resources than you can begin to imagine. He has connections to people you haven’t met yet.

Be true to the masterpiece that you are. The Lord your Maker crowns you with glory and honor (Isa. 54:5; Ps. 8:5). Never apologize for being who God created you to be. Shine forth your unique display of His image in you.

You have something to give your world that no other person has. Your family and your community need the deposit of Himself that God has placed in your life…”Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col. 1:27b).

You are of great worth. You are a champion, a treasure. Be blessed as you live from a heart fully alive, being who He made you to be and doing what you were born to do from the inside out.   – Sylvia Gunter

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken.

I want to free what waits within me

so that what no one has dared to wish for

may for once spring clear

without my contriving.

If this is arrogant, God, forgive me,

but this is what I need to say.

May what I do flow from me like a river,

no forcing and no holding back,

the way it is with children.

Then in these swelling and ebbing currents,

these deepening tides moving out, returning,

I will sing you as no one ever has,

streaming through widening channels

into the open sea.

by Rainer Maria Rilke

English version by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy

Principle and Foundation (adaptation)

We were created to enjoy God and respond to his love.

All creation is a gift so that we can know him more easily and love him more readily.

We prioritize our relationships with God and loving others, and so we freely enjoy and steward the gifts of creation.

We place ourselves in God’s hands surrounded by his created gifts. We are trusting that every circumstance, whether health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, long or short life has the potential of calling us to a more loving response to God.

As much as we are free to choose, we surrender to whatever leads to a deeper life of knowing, loving and enjoying God. (SE 23) #IgnatianAdventure#spiritualexercises#phil4:11-13

Pay Attention!

Re-Wiring

What good news! Our brain’s neural pathways can be changed and re-wired for joy! After all, Romans 12:2 promises transformation by the renewing of our minds. I want to share an Immanuel story of how God is with me and re-wiring my thinking and understanding of a past experience.

I have a clear memory of my dad laughing when an older brother would tease me, I felt my brother was tormenting me. I couldn’t understand why Dad laughed about it! I felt hurt and abandoned. But hanging out with the Lord this morning, I remembered this picture of Jesus laughing (see below) and then my memory shifted to seeing my dad laughing. But this time I felt Dad wasn’t laughing at me. I heard the Lord say, Dad was laughing over both of you. He felt a father’s joy over his children and laughing at the antics of a teasing big brother. Dad loved you and felt joy because of you. And then the Lord’s invitation: Receive your father’s love and joy.

Jesus’s words rearranged my thinking and perception of the memory. Joy and appreciation of my dad now fills my heart and memory. I’m thankful for my father’s love and joy. I’m thankful for the Lord re-wiring my brain’s memory tract!

Is there anyone around to save Israel?

Yes. God is around; God turns life around.

Turned-around Jacob skips rope,

turned-around Israel sings laughter.

Psalm 14:7 MSG

Our Dog

After 10 years with our beloved Bichon, he was suddenly diagnosed with cancer yesterday. Our daughter, Sarah, came home from North Park last night to be with Kody, who is technically “her dog”. We prayed for healing, sat with him and cried. We listened to Kody’s wheezing and labored breathing as fluid from a tumor surrounded and compressed his lungs. On Sarah’s bedroom wall was a drawing of Big Hero 6 with his words, “It’s OK to cry. Crying is the natural response to pain.” Today we sat in the living room together and remembered stories about Kody before we took him to the Vet to put him down.

 

More than once Kody rolled in poop just after coming home freshly groomed. Kody would bark viciously at workmen that had to come into our house. He actually nipped at the leg of a friend who came over to do some electrical work and our plumber. Kody would suspiciously sniff at any stranger while we quickly warn them to please don’t try to pet him! But after checking out all the smells on someone, he was happy to meet someone new and receive their affection.

 

Kody was always at the door to greet me or the kids when we came home, tail wagging and whining until I would lean down to pet him. Then he would run to find his toy, toss it up in the air to play, pounce on it, and finally sit down to chew for a few minutes. If none of the kids were home, Kody followed me all over the house, through every room, so happy to just sit in the same room with me. I couldn’t put on my sneakers without him jumping all around, ready to go for a walk. My heart is breaking and tears are running down my cheeks as I think about his constant loyal companionship. His joy and happiness to be with me has ministered to my soul. His constant love and contentment to just share the space with me, without words, without judgment, always happy to be with me. I feel so blessed to have had such a special companion in our lives.

Family Identity

I think a lot about family. I grew up with a very busy preacher father and a mom desperate for God. She gave up on the “pastor’s wife” role and drove all over Chicago looking for the Presence of God during the Catholic Charismatic movement. Her boycott proved to be worthwhile. She took us kids with her many times to receive prophetic words and the baptism of Holy Spirit. We each experienced God’s love and became permanently rooted in Him.

Of course, experiences and memories of family are varied. As believers, we are family, the body of Christ — the church.

Paul wrote in Eph. 3:14-19 (AMP): “I bow my knees before the Father…from Whom every family in heaven and on earth is named [that Father from Whom all fatherhood takes its title and derives its name]. May He grant you…to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the Holy Spirit, Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality…May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love. That you may have the power and be strong to apprehend and grasp with all the saints [the experience of that love] what is the breadth and length and height and depth [of it]; [that you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!

Father God is the ultimate Father as the giver of titles, names — IDENTITY. He speaks identity into each of our lives. We choose to speak His names and identity for each other. Identity that no one can steal.

God wants us to be strong in our own identity in the inner man. Holy Spirit reinforces our identity in our deepest being — my personality, my character and who I am. God demonstrates His amazing love by giving us names of identity to grow us up to be strong! Strong in WHO we are, strong in who He says we are — confident in the truth spoken to us by Him individually and through each other.

And just before my identity becomes too strong or overbearing, He tempers it in the experience of His love. Do you hear the Father’s heart longing for us to experience all that we know about His deep, deep love for us? Love that’s as deep and wide as the ocean and never runs dry. Love that knows all and has forgiven all. Experience involves my senses: taste, see, hear, feel that God is so good! Be unmovable and pursue experiencing His love. Deep individual roots established in experiencing His love, then grow and become knit together into a family just like a tree’s roots. Develop into a group of secure family members in the family tree who know who they are and whose they are: sons and daughters of the most high God. Then we will see the ultimate: to be filled with all the fullness of God — to have the richest measure of the divine Presence. Wow! The power of a family knowing God’s identity and love is overwhelming. It’s all in the family, not home alone.

Midwifery

While reading about the Spiritual Director acting as a Midwife, my heart leapt with excitement and it jogged my memory of working as a Labor and Delivery nurse. In helping others give birth, I was continually amazed at the hard work of birthing mothers and their ecstatic joy while holding new life in her arms. I dreamt of being a midwife someday.

A midwife assisted me in birthing my third child. She examined and counseled me every month. During my labor, she watched expectantly, gently massaged the painful areas, encouraged me, and patiently waited to safely “catch” the new life that proceeded from within me.

I’ve given birth 6 times:  3 times biologically and then by adoption 3 times. During adoption, the social worker acted as the “midwife”. She examined us to determine our health and make the diagnosis of a “good home” and wait with us. Each adoption was unique.

Now, as a mother of 6, but 3 teenagers still at home, I feel like a midwife for them. Seeds of hope, new life, and identity have been planted in each of them. I wait and sit with them, so to speak, amid their questions and struggles in the work of being adopted. I am an amateur in this role, hoping and watching for the Spirit’s birthing of life within each of them. I’m encouraged as my 18 year old shares his dreams of college and graphic design.

In a similar way, new seeds of an adventurous move were planted in my husband and me four years ago. We felt God was asking us if we were willing to come back to Chicago. The Lord seemed to be our midwife in that new birth. Our lives were very full and pregnant after living in Maine for 30 years. In January 2013, we sold our house and moved to Chicago with no jobs and 4 kids still at home. We rented a beautiful house for a year and found God to be faithful and always with us. In less than a year we had jobs and bought a house in Elgin. The birthing continues here and now.

Intimacy before Destiny

A secret place is waiting for us each to discover and explore. The door stands open and intimacy is waiting on the other side. There’s no work required on my part to enter into the secret place other than to believe that God is good and desires intimacy with me.  I then close my eyes and receive the picture that flashes across the screen of my imagination…. Do you see it? Try it right now!