Justice For the Fatherless and Oppressed

I have decided to go through the Psalms while I Bible journal. And today...TODAY...my heart's cry

leapt out on the page. I have been thinking on the refugee situation in Syria. It is close to my heart, more than anyone might know. And God met me in His Word. If only to kindle Hope and assurance that my heart is focused where it should be.
I must act...in prayer, but also in practicality. I just need to find out how. Ann Voskamp gives us a call to action HERE

Yes, Lord, YOU shall provide the ultimate justice for the the oppressed. Let it be so. And let Your People arise against the man of the earth.

Bible Journaling: Faith-Filled Friday

I am learning about God's gifts every day. Realizing the difference between 'gift' and 'calling'. I understand that every child of God has one calling...to live a life as Christ did, to help the poor and bring Life and Love here. I learned that a few years ago (click here to read a post about it) as I strived in what I thought was my calling--writing--and realized it's just a tool God has given me for the true calling.

When I used to get calling and gifts confused, I would wonder why my love for drawing and rendering (the official landscape architecture term for, coloring), faded and kinda sits in my past like a used, un-needed gift.
Often, I consider that path a mistake...even though I have drawings upon drawings from my childhood, my teenage years, and my college years, sitting in the basement--maybe not the most talented drawings, but reflections of a passionate heart pouring on the page.

But now, I think about gifts, and their purpose, and how it's not always because we have this higher, mountain-moving purpose to use them...or even have this extraordinary ability in our gift. A gift is just that...a present from God that brings us purpose--Whether to move outward into the world for the sake of the calling, or to move upward in our relationship with God. Either way, it's about Love. Him loving His creation. And the created finding a gift that brings us to love even more.

I love to color...I love to draw...and now, even though it's really for my own meditation on God's Word, not some grand scheme of changing the world, I have started using it in my quiet time. It's only been a couple of days, but I am amazed at the preciousness of the gift to create art. My heart is flooded with wonder at the communion this Word picture meditation provides.

I may not be creating works of art by the world's standards, but I am creating, none-the-less. And it is a gift to find God amidst a color and a picture and a quiet time to reflect.

Have a Faith-Filled Friday.

TBT: Eye to Eye

Found this photo of my thirteen year old and me at an aquarium...ten years ago. He's caught up to me almost. Those little legs aren't so little anymore. If only he'd stand still long enough to let me get a good look at him!

One Sheet for Middle Grade Fiction

I am so excited about this one sheet...and this story! I hope my boys will read it in print one day!  Like the golden ball? Completely fabricated via me! HA! Love using photo-editing tools wisely.:) This is the design without the bio info along the bottom yet.

In the Dark, Waiting For A Search Party

My husband sent me a Carl Sagan video. It was only three minutes long, but a lot was said. And if I could sum it up, the best word would be "hopelessness".

 A thread of hopelessness carried out in Carl Sagan's thick, syrupy voice as he described the audacity of humans to think that we are a valuable design. He spoke about his wonder at the happenstance of light to start this world aglow, and the shame of humans evolving into creatures of faith and trust in a greater being.

 According to Sagan, ""We are lost in a great darkness, and there is no one to send out a search party."

Is that what we look like?

People sitting and waiting for a fictional God to find us? Is that the basis of anyone's belief system? Because if that is so, then we really haven't evolved much. We are lazy, apathetic creatures who expect life to happen to us. We sit and wait in our insignificant existence, according to Mr. Sagan's implication, hoping that God will show up soon.

 But, that is so far from the truth. And, as I have often discovered, God prepared my heart just on Sunday for this understanding. And He did it by retelling a story that I have often leaned into these past months.

Sunday's sermon touched on the story of the prodigal son. He walked away from his father, and his father, in all his wisdom, LET HIM GO. He didn't chase after him...HE DIDN'T SEND A SEARCH PARTY TO FIND HIM. No. He let him go into the great wide world, and discover for himself the heart of the matter: That his father offered him safety, love, and purpose, and the world offered none of it.

 If the father chased after him, sent a search party, dragged the guy back, where would the heart change happen? Could God rejoice in a slave...one who is forced to stay? Or, was Christ's parable of the prodigal son one that illustrates God's Holy desire for our hearts? He is jealous, for our hearts, He is merciful, for our hearts, and He is waiting, for our hearts.

The rest of the story shows the Father running to him in compassion because the son was lost (in his heart, in his place)...and the son was now found (as he chose freely to return with a heart of humility). No search party needed, just a homecoming.

This wasn't the post I was going to write today. I was going to write one about God showing up. Funny, huh? Perhaps, a bit ironic...but, then again, not really.

Because, IN MY FAITH, He has shown up. In tremendous ways. And it's because I have already come to Him and given Him my heart.

So I attribute His glorious works to Him, and I am aware of His amazing signs in my life. But for the one who is sitting and waiting for God to show up with a stone cold heart... Yep, I agree with Carl Sagan on that one: There's no search party coming.