Category: joy

Potential: Expressing Possibiiity

 

 
Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
(Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message)
 
 
“Living deep in God’s “good” ness, I will seek to travel with others toward peace and deep joy while diligently tending to my own garden.” (Juniper Gillian)
 
 
 
 
This week as I have been contemplating potential, exciting things have been expressing themselves in my soul. I cannot explain how the good news grows from a seedling of faith into a full blooming flower of joy. I have been on a journey with Jesus as my central love, sometimes ardent, sometimes wavering for more than four decades now. He never ceases to surprise me with joy and hope and peace and things sprouting and flourishing in my soul that I don’t even remember being planted there.
 
Over the last twelve years, I have been dreaming about what I want to be when I “grow up.” When our boys were in high school, my husband and I spent three days with a couple to look at our lives, to see where we had been and where we were going. Here is the statement, which I wrote about my personal significance in the summer of 2005:
 
Personal Significance is…
 
Minimum of a two year college degree
Written and published at least one book
Created and maintained a website for spiritual encouragement
 
In many ways, God has exceeded the desires of my heart. In December 2011, I graduated with my Bachelor of Arts in English and we self-published a book of devotions, titled Defining Moments: Overflowing with Living Words. And since 2008, I have maintained this blog, Nourishment for the Soul: A Place to Feed on Words.
 
This journey has proved to me the value of writing down our dreams, capturing them in a visual medium and sharing them with others. Through learning to lean close into God’s goodness everyday, He is leading me in ways I never thought possible.
 
And now, He is opening doors for me to experience more impossibilities. By the end of the summer, I plan to have a website that hosts the blog, promotes creative soul workshops and potentially the unveiling of spiritual adventures. Please pray for me as I branch out and take steps of faith to bring this possibility into actuality.
 
For now, I’m going to keep the name of this enterprise a surprise to unveil with the website. So stay tuned!
 
(Many others besides, Don and Sherie Zimmer, who we met with in 2005, have been influential in this dream becoming a reality including my husband, who defies enough superlatives to ever express my true heart towards him, our two sons who have grown up into renaissance men, my mom, who gave me life and confidence, my sisters, Juniper Gillian, Michelle and Dani, who love me and cheer me on, my Magnificent Friends (you know who you are),  my journaling friends and mentors, Lynn D. Morrissey and Mary Ann Kuechler, my writing friends and journaling friends (hugs) and my friend and life coach, Tracy Flori! And now I feel like I’m at the Oscars and I just know I’ve forgotten to thank someone…I am thankful for all the friends and teachers over the years who formed who I am today. Dreams take a lot of work and support and I so appreciate God bringing each one of you into my life.)
 
May God enable each of us to express our possibilities (and impossibilities) in order to create space for His goodness to flourish as we each, “Live out our God-created identities, living generously and graciously toward one another, as God lives toward us!” (Matthew 5:48 The Message)
 

When’s the last time you recalled the good news alongside the goodness of God?
 
 
Linking up with…
 
 
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 6

Dream: To Consider as a Possibility

 
 And Jesus said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.
(Luke 18:27 KJV)
 
 
 
Daring to
Return to
Edenic joys
And 
Music

 

 
 
 
As I look forward to a weekend with some other dreamers, I wanted to know more about the word…
 
Dream comes from Old English meaning “music, joy.”
 
Often we ask, what is “my dream” or what is God dreaming for us?

Today as I discovered this unexpected root meaning of dream, I asked myself these questions:
 
What is my joy? What music does my life express? What makes me want to sing for joy?
 
I look forward to exploring the answers to these questions with God over the next few days and especially as we gather this weekend for  Jumping Tandem-The Retreat.

 

 Jumping Tandem: The Retreat
Posted on by kelrohlf 6

Poem: A Piece of Imaginative Writing in Verse

 
When my soul is in the dumps, I rehearse
everything I know of you,
From Jordan depths to Hermon heights,
including Mount Mizar.
Chaos calls to chaos,
to the tune of whitewater rapids.
Your breaking surf, your thundering breakers
crash and crush me.

Then God promises to love me all day,
sing songs all through the night!
My life is God’s prayer.
 

(Psalm 42:6-8 The Message)

Psalms and poems,
April showers and May flowers
That is what Spring is made of.

The poetic language of the Psalms express my heart, as my joy ebbs and flows with the sunshine and clouds of Spring. To celebrate and contemplate this season of joy, my heart is drawn to poetry and to flowers. Poetry is celebrated this month, so I thought I’d join the festivities by posting some poem/prayers of my own, some from others and some from God’s word.

Flowers are the iconic representation of Spring, and with my new access to varieties unlimited through the Missouri Botanical Gardens, I will have photos to share. Last week, I went with my sister and the nieces and nephews. We were able to enjoy the superb display of orchids.

I plan to highlight guest poems on Thursdays, so if you have a poem you’d like me to post or link up here, please send me an e-mail with your poem or link at kelrohlf@gmail.com

Without further ado, here are some flowers and  a poem.

cloudless blue (Kel Rohlf)

 

cloudless blue raked by bare branches

redbud blossoms soften the view
warmth of spring swishes past
with just a hint of winter chill

man made droning behind the scene

breaks in upon this dream
echoing a great stream rushing
behind the woodland screen

senses drop to the underbrush

greening, growing unseen life
lush
underneath the winter gloom

Posted on by kelrohlf 7

Season of Joy

 
He grants the desires of those who fear him;
He hears their cries for help
and rescues them.
(Psalm 145:19 NLT)
 
 
 
 
On Easter Sunday, we gathered around my mom’s picnic table feasting on the spread placed before us. Afterwards, I gave the nieces and nephews tote bags for them to keep their jammies and bedtime books safe and in one place. Patrick proclaimed himself a hobo, and the three little ones paraded around the yard with their “hobo” bags. I don’t remember telling them about my hobo honeymoon Lenten journey, but it made me smile that they wanted to be hobos.
 
Then Loryn, the youngest, surprised me with a presentation and a gift she made for me. She ran in the house and came back with her hands behind her back. She said something like:
 
First: I love you. Second: You’re the best aunt and so are all my other aunts. Third: This is a gift for Easter.
 
She handed me a scrap of notebook paper with words scrawled in her own hand, with one correction made by her mom.
 
I read it out loud to all present, and barely could keep from choking back tears as God loved me in words from the pen of a child. (I was touched by her desire to record her worship experience with pen and paper.)
 
 
 
 
She wrote:
 
Today I am going to church.
Day 1: Alive  
God is always with you.
You can hare (hear) God.
God loves you.
God is always in your hearts.
 
As I read the sentence, “You can hare (hear) God,” it pierced my heart, because earlier that morning I was doubting my ability to hear. Later my sister told me that was the exact question she and Loryn were discussing at church. Loryn knew God heard her, but she wondered if we could hear God. Her mom assured her that we can hear God, so Loryn wrote it down, affirming her new found truth.
 
The other message that seemed directed to my heart was; “Day 1: Alive.” After these past forty days of observing the fast of Lent, I sensed that in her simple way of keeping track of the first day in her journal and the title of the sermon, she hit on another truth. Easter Sunday is Day 1. We can keep counting on the aliveness of Jesus each day. Alleluia!
 
 
Day 2: Alive! Jesus lives and I am glad to be alive!
 
And for those following the church calendar, I was pleased to be reminded that Easter is a season, not just one Sunday. I look forward to the continued feasting which lasts fifty days, until Pentecost. Grace, grace, God’s grace!
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 3

Joy: Well-Being

 . . . fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
 (Hebrews 12:2-3 NIV)

 

As the bride enters the room, all rise and turn to her, but her eyes are fixed on her prize, her longed after groom.  This last, sacred week of Lent, I remember that I chose to take this journey as a bride, not a penitent.  At the start of the day, I felt forced and false. I was not looking forward to recounting the death of my Savior. I wanted to shake this grave feeling, but I needed someone to help me, like Lazarus needed unwrapping after four days in the tomb.

I ran to the Living One, who is no longer in the grave, begging for a week of celebration, rather than despair. I desired more time to linger over our honeymoon journey. I did not want to spend the entire week reeling under false guilt and recounting lost causes in my life.

And then I remembered these words: For the joy set before Him!

The cross was a joy, even though the pain was excruciating. The journey was a delight, in spite of the scourging and being spat upon and the jeering that Jesus endured. And He offered Himself to the cross, to be humiliated before all. He willingly went to that hill, because He knew that the stone would be rolled away, that His sacrifice would make possible a miracle. His love would melt our hearts of stone and bestow on us hearts that rejoice. He believed that mercy is new every morning! He had us in mind as He endured the oppression, and our faces eased His pain. For the joy set before Him!

Today, when I was tempted to give into false Lenten misery, I called my hobo (homeward bound) friend, Carol Ann, the one who invited me to see this journey as a honeymoon with the Beloved. She was feeling the heaviness, too.

But the Beloved had something else in mind for us. He was beckoning us both to experience joy. He invited us to embrace the snow laden, spring day.  I packed us some fresh bagels and coffee.  We drove past the railroad tracks to an abandoned neighborhood. We trekked to a picnic shelter, poured coffee into our mugs, dunking the bagels in our coffee for some quick nourishment. Then we packed up the picnic, bundled up in our mittens and scarves to stroll through the wintry landscape. Large snowflakes bathed us and eased us into other worldly calm, immersing us into the beauty of the Beloved.
 
 
Posted on by kelrohlf 2