Tag: (re) series

(re)set: to change the reading of often to zero

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God said, “My presence will go with you. I’ll see the journey to the end.” (Exodus 33:14 The Message)

Often I dream about carefree days. No responsibilities. The freedom to just take a whole month off for some much needed R&R.

Today in  Jesus Calling, I read these lines: “You are among these weary ones, who are like wounded soldiers needing R&R. Take time to rest in the Love-Light of My Presence. I will gradually restore to you the energy that you have lost over the years.”

Often life seems to be going from zero to 110mph in seconds.

Today, Jesus calls me to reset. To change my pace from often to zero. To take the time off. So for the next month, I am accepting the invitation for rest and recuperation. Some good old fashioned rest and recreation is just what I need.

 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (Matthew 11:28-30 The Message)

Linking with Jesus today! Be back in a month or so . . .

Also linking with The Sunday Community, Sunday Stillness and Still Saturday…

I will be posting my Making Manifest posts on Thursdays at my other blog for the rest of May.

 

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(re)plant: to plant again or anew

Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way. (James 1:2-4 The Message)

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a little baby watermelon plant just replanted today!

My friend, Jeanie Kelley, provides us with some words to munch on over at her blog. Her real life struggles return us to the heart of the matter. Her tenactity to trust makes me think of gardening. We buy our baby plants at the nursery or in my case some wonderful friends gifted me with seedlings from their winter greenhouses. We replant them trusting the growing process to produce good fruit.

Jeanie does the same thing in her life when she faces trials; she replants her faith in our trustworthy God. Thanks for the encouragement, friend.

Click here and here to read what God has been planting in her life.

 

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(re)imagine: to form a new conception of

God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. (Ephesians 3:20 The Message)

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As I have journeyed this week, through the adventure of Making Manifest, my relationship with words, poetry making and art has deepened. My approach to creation is being renewed, revised and re-imagined.

The exercises gave me time and space and direction to write. The following poems flowed out of putting pen to page, birthed from revised journal entries. Ten sentence challenges offered me a safe place to rearrange and revise and revisit an idea or a thought. I culled from the exercises snippets and images and tiny memories.

Awakening I

my body awakes me
before the radio clock
tunes into KMOX.

to rise or roll over?
the urge to pee
gets me out of bed.

the covers call me back
to snuggle and sleep
a little more,

to wait for the
radio voices to
coax me out of bed
later.

Awakening II

gypsum encrusted,
mortar-chipping hands.

vegetable stained,
weed-pulling hands.

tree bark-ripped,
wood-stacking hands.

cracked, hurting, not
quite bleeding hands.

Awakening III

I remember the way you used to speak to me,
while I sat for hours holding you
on my knees

soft hair,
tiny completeness.

Sweet aroma of baby lotion and
sour spit-up.

An expression of two–
a tangible someone
to call our own.

Awakening IV

bits and pieces
glued
here and there
to tell a story
or not

an attempt at
adding beauty

making a mark
plumbing the depths

resurfacing to catch
a glimpse

of being something
new, not
seen yet

Linking with Sandra Heska King and other Manifest Makers! (Read Sandra’s offering and at the bottom of the page you will find the link-up!)

 

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(re)visit: to consider or take up again {and RJD Link-Up}

Now go and write down these words.
    Write them in a book.
They will stand until the end of time
    as a witness.

(Isaiah 30:8 NLT)

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Today, I’m joining up with my favorite journal keepers Dawn and Susie over at the Random Journal Day Link-Up. I randomly chose this journal. It was fun to look at how I decorated the cover with summer themed stickers. Summer brings out the kid in me!

One thing, I like about keeping a journal is that I can revist it anytime I want. When I consider where I “was at” in my life on a certain day, I get to see how far I’ve come or not come in personal progress.

Here’s where I visited:.

Friday, May 6, 2011 (Almost three years ago)

I feel tired. I walked with T in the am. Gave energy to tutoring Latin. More energy to walking again with K. Energy to shopping and putting thought into a box for Scotland [my sister and her family were living there at the time.] I always want to put so much into the box. I wish I could deliver it myself. This time last year I was getting ready for the adventure to Scotland. I wish I could go back–but I have new adventures this summer–work on Bellerive [Honors College Literary publication] –finishing work–projecting work–discovery work–restful times and active times.  B comes home Tuesday. Another soul to interact and fuse with…new dynamics.

As I revist this entry, I notice that while my circumstances have shifted, living takes energy. Relationships matter. Walking is good. Work is good. New adventures and new dynamics continue to beckon me to keep living and breathing and moving.

On one corner of the page, I pasted this quote:

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A defining moment! Looking back I can see that my experiences in 2011 foreshadowed where I am today. On the next page, I made the declaration that I wanted to be part of the journaling revolution, a clarion call from my friend and journaling mentor, Lynn Morrissey. Three year laters I am part of the revolution, sharing here with RJD and teaching classes that incorporate journaling techniques combined with collage and mixed-media art.

And one of my greatest passions lately has been inviting others to “Be YOU!” How amazing that this germ of an idea would come to fruition three years later.

God values the written word and He instills beauty in each of us. Let’s celebrate and proclaim His goodness in words and all kinds of mark making. Let’s leave our imprint on this world, in such a way that it causes others to come closer and examine for themselves this strange sight of personhood spilling over on to page and screen.

Linking with RJD.

 

 

 

 

Posted on by kelrohlf 11

(re)fine: to remove the unwanted

Behold, happy is the man whom God corrects;
Therefore do not despise the chastening of the Almighty.

(Job 5:17 NKJV)

For our fathers used to correct us according to their own ideas during the brief days of childhood. But God corrects us all our days for our own benefit, to teach us his holiness. Now obviously no “chastening” seems pleasant at the time: it is in fact most unpleasant. Yet when it is all over we can see that is has quietly produced the fruit of real goodness in the characters of those who have accepted it in the right spirit.

(Hebrews 12: 10-11 J.B. Phillips)

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It was storming outside and I was restless inside, so I stepped out onto our porch. The ebb and flow of the swing was a shelter while the thundering darkness surrounded me. I glanced toward the street lamp and noticed this ring of lights reflecting in the branch of our river birch with the redbud blossoms in the foreground. I was mesmerized. I was relieved to see such beauty in the midst of the rainy night. It felt like redemption in the middle of these days of refining grief.

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The next day, I read a Scripture with the word chasten in it. I was intrigued by this archaic word for discipline. A dictionary hunt was called for! I was surprised how the definition combined gardening terms with art technique.

chasten (v): to prune (as a work or style or art) of excess, pretense or falsity; REFINE (www.m-w.com)

Usually words like chasten and refine make me cringe. And discipline does cause pain, but in the end it produces change.

I never thought of pruning or refining as a style of art before. Imagery of cut off branches littering the ground and fiery furnaces scorching a piece of iron ore fills my mind’s eye. But when I started thinking like an artist, the act of pruning and refining produces shapely, ornate hedges in an English garden and shiny, amber blown glass forming at the end of a tube.

God, as master sculptor is chastening me, chipping off the unwanted attitudes that detract from His holiness and goodness. He chisels off the pretense. He scrapes away the excess. He melts away the false.

When I look closer at the meanings of refine, they reduce down to the process of “freeing from” or “improving upon.”

God, the refiner, is freeing me from what is “coarse, vulgar and uncouth.” Apparently, refinement “improves something by making small changes!” What a relief! The master artist takes His time with the me, not rushing to get a result.

He gently snips off the unruly growth of disobedience. He polishes out a ugly spot of unbelief. And before I know it, He has enriched my life with His holiness and goodness, which I could never achieve on my own.

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Linking with Soli Deo Gloria Party!

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