I will pray for you, Chris. Please pray for me. Pray that I begin to take notice the way you so masterfully do. The way my senses stand at attention for the brief ahem period after each time I read your messages.
I will pray for you as I do for you and Kathryn each day. But In this instance, have you considered that your poetry conference challenge simply equates to a game of golf? “Swing easy,” they say. “Just. Try. Harder” never works. Perhaps take a mulligan and let your senses swing easy?
Chris, I owe you one from last week’s Stable post so this is a twofer. I see a nice symmetry between these posts.
When I feel balanced, God is properly sized (big) and in control of my heart and mind, while I am properly sized (small) and obedient. That is the soul condition I long for. Too easily, distractions, fears, worries, idols fill my mind and self becomes too big, too central. It’s as if I’m in a perfectly balanced kayak and all I can do is roll over. To right the ship, I pray for God to take these daily challenges, ask for His abundant love and care to bring me peace, and turn over navigation of the kayak to Him.
When life seems unbalanced for me, I look inward and miss a lot of life around me. You can call that not noticing I suppose, because I am too self-centered, too distracted, under water. Things are not fitting for you right now, maybe your treatments are throwing off your rhythm. Maybe all you had the ability to notice last week is that you were distracted. That’s ok. As Kris mentioned, take a mulligan, you deserve one.
You are an amazing noticer. Probably a class 5 rapid level noticer. You notice the intricacies of spider webs, the uniqueness of an oak leaf, lying on the ground amongst thousands of other leaves, the calls of the birds in your yard, the smell of freshly baked bread, and on and on. We are all blessed that you notice things we miss or take for granted and you write about them. That inspires me to notice. You behold the glory of God’s creation and the amazing opportunity we have to live in it. I am grateful that you share some of your thought with us.
I pray for you and Kathryn. I pray that God will bring you peace this week so that you can pray and contemplate. Lean into God’s strength friend.
I don’t know anyone who notices things better than you do my friend. So if you feel that is a failing for you then I am doomed by comparison. In all seriousness, I think we all go through times where we are numb to the world around us. Maybe God designed us that way to give our spidey senses a chance to rest and recuperate. Maybe some of us, not you, are too focused on things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of this thing we call life. I don’t just read your writings because you are a friend but because you are hyper focused on NOTICING things that I do not or have not. They are changing my perspective and I thank you for this lovely gift.
Surely there is no boundary line between prayer, contemplation, and paying attention. One begets another so seamlessly and beautifully!
And surely you are right that “striving” to notice is a fool’s errand - purity of heart brings this gift from God to us without our effort. I think Grace is in order for what you experienced this weekend because I assure you that what you have “noticed” along your journey has changed many lives!
And YES to prayers for you Chris! Thank you for this letter ❤️
Hi Chris. I'm reading your blog for the very first time (Thank you, Theresa Norton, for mentioning it in this week's Thrift Store Prayer Requests.) and I will definitely be back. I am praying today that we both can simply abandon ourselves into the one extending his hand.
Oswald Chambers* and I had a Holy Spirit moment this morning, as he was talking about Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me." He said, "The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words, Come unto me. Not - Do this or do that; but Come unto me."
Although I've read this same devotional countless times, it just shattered my heart today, in the best way possible. Lord, help us all.
*Confession: This was June 11th's reading. Sorry, but I am one of those people who reads ahead.
Even though it's been a few days, I've been thinking about your note much of the time between receiving it an now.
Chambers' words, and your sharing them are deeply moving to me. I'm not sure whether it comes across in these posts or not, but I am coming to believe there truly are remarkably few questions that matter in life - a thought that comforts me more than I can say.
I have found them answered by: God is Love. God is sovereign. God is here. But may even these three answers, taken together, are really the same as "Come unto me."
Thank you again for the note. And your secret about reading ahead is safe with me. ;-)
I will pray for you, Chris. Please pray for me. Pray that I begin to take notice the way you so masterfully do. The way my senses stand at attention for the brief ahem period after each time I read your messages.
I will pray for you as I do for you and Kathryn each day. But In this instance, have you considered that your poetry conference challenge simply equates to a game of golf? “Swing easy,” they say. “Just. Try. Harder” never works. Perhaps take a mulligan and let your senses swing easy?
Chris, I owe you one from last week’s Stable post so this is a twofer. I see a nice symmetry between these posts.
When I feel balanced, God is properly sized (big) and in control of my heart and mind, while I am properly sized (small) and obedient. That is the soul condition I long for. Too easily, distractions, fears, worries, idols fill my mind and self becomes too big, too central. It’s as if I’m in a perfectly balanced kayak and all I can do is roll over. To right the ship, I pray for God to take these daily challenges, ask for His abundant love and care to bring me peace, and turn over navigation of the kayak to Him.
When life seems unbalanced for me, I look inward and miss a lot of life around me. You can call that not noticing I suppose, because I am too self-centered, too distracted, under water. Things are not fitting for you right now, maybe your treatments are throwing off your rhythm. Maybe all you had the ability to notice last week is that you were distracted. That’s ok. As Kris mentioned, take a mulligan, you deserve one.
You are an amazing noticer. Probably a class 5 rapid level noticer. You notice the intricacies of spider webs, the uniqueness of an oak leaf, lying on the ground amongst thousands of other leaves, the calls of the birds in your yard, the smell of freshly baked bread, and on and on. We are all blessed that you notice things we miss or take for granted and you write about them. That inspires me to notice. You behold the glory of God’s creation and the amazing opportunity we have to live in it. I am grateful that you share some of your thought with us.
I pray for you and Kathryn. I pray that God will bring you peace this week so that you can pray and contemplate. Lean into God’s strength friend.
I don’t know anyone who notices things better than you do my friend. So if you feel that is a failing for you then I am doomed by comparison. In all seriousness, I think we all go through times where we are numb to the world around us. Maybe God designed us that way to give our spidey senses a chance to rest and recuperate. Maybe some of us, not you, are too focused on things that don’t matter in the grand scheme of this thing we call life. I don’t just read your writings because you are a friend but because you are hyper focused on NOTICING things that I do not or have not. They are changing my perspective and I thank you for this lovely gift.
Surely there is no boundary line between prayer, contemplation, and paying attention. One begets another so seamlessly and beautifully!
And surely you are right that “striving” to notice is a fool’s errand - purity of heart brings this gift from God to us without our effort. I think Grace is in order for what you experienced this weekend because I assure you that what you have “noticed” along your journey has changed many lives!
And YES to prayers for you Chris! Thank you for this letter ❤️
Hi Chris. I'm reading your blog for the very first time (Thank you, Theresa Norton, for mentioning it in this week's Thrift Store Prayer Requests.) and I will definitely be back. I am praying today that we both can simply abandon ourselves into the one extending his hand.
Oswald Chambers* and I had a Holy Spirit moment this morning, as he was talking about Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me." He said, "The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words, Come unto me. Not - Do this or do that; but Come unto me."
Although I've read this same devotional countless times, it just shattered my heart today, in the best way possible. Lord, help us all.
*Confession: This was June 11th's reading. Sorry, but I am one of those people who reads ahead.
Kim,
Even though it's been a few days, I've been thinking about your note much of the time between receiving it an now.
Chambers' words, and your sharing them are deeply moving to me. I'm not sure whether it comes across in these posts or not, but I am coming to believe there truly are remarkably few questions that matter in life - a thought that comforts me more than I can say.
I have found them answered by: God is Love. God is sovereign. God is here. But may even these three answers, taken together, are really the same as "Come unto me."
Thank you again for the note. And your secret about reading ahead is safe with me. ;-)
In love,
C