Hopeful

Contemplating 1 Peter 4:19 in the New English Translation (NET Bible)

So then let those who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator as they do good.

At Always, God

In the beginning, it is God.
Creator of beauty and mysteries
that startle us each day,
it is God who makes us, and
makes life and beauty so grand.

Starting our lives fresh and clean,
with that smell of baby hair,
it is God who labors to make us love,
who loves us to accept us,
to gracefully embrace us.

In the sun, as we grow and move,
it is in the son, where we feel
the light, and see in the light, and
too often head off into the shade,
and the light yet shines around us.

In the light now we grow,
and daily we yearn to know,
and in the…

A D V E N T  2 0 1 4:    D E V O T I O N S   T O   O U R   G O D   I N   T H E   M A N G E R

Week 3                                                                                                            Redeemed

Isaiah 35:1

 Joy of the Redeemed

I believe, I believe, I believe,
and I am giddy in joy,
warm and excitable this day.
Today my longing is deepened, my
search for home more lively.
Hope thrives in the wilderness,
my dreams made new each day,
God waiting for me in the stillness,
the stillness awakening me.
My smallest concern is in this wilderness,
Jesus my comforter.
I am a partner in hope,
redeemed.
Let peace begin with me,
shared through me.
I have surrendered my cluttered thoughts,
awake in joy–
Joy in redemption.
God heals the world,
and I walk gently in the way of Christ’s peace,
this…

Mark 9:24

A D V E N T    2 0 1 4:    D E V O T I O N S   T O   O U R   G O D   I N   T H E   M A N G E R

Week 3                                                                                                            Redeemed

Redeemed, Help my Faith

I believe, I believe, I believe,
I believe, and yet:
Help my unbelief today.
How can it be?
Redeemed and healed, I am often filled with joy,
And yet,
Where does this unbelief come from? Where was it hidden?
Was it hidden at all?
When this faith becomes doubtful of itself,
it stands in temptation again,
as it was in the beginning, in the edge of the garden.
Fragile in our faith, we are sorely tested
each day.
It was
God’s love—his grace—in Jesus that saves us.
It is our faith that takes us there to gaze on Jesus,
To grab hold of…

When I was young, did I even listen to me?
Sometimes I heard and sometimes I listened to some, and sometimes to me.
I heard and tucked far back, because it hurt to listen, to hear.
And now in the stillness of the nights, I listen and observe.
The words are soft, and the silent movements fill the words in greater ways.
They shuffle in some days, and I see so many words in their eyes.
The words fall from my pens, and the letters seem to be to me,
or written to someone who once was me.
Who is there left to read these words today?
Do they care?
Do I care today?
I do care, and I write these words for me and for my sons.
And for sons and daughters I know, but miss most days.
Where are they today?
The words press on me in these…