Let's make them beautiful

My heart lies in a place unknown.

As I have been reading a little bit about St Francis I have rediscovered some of what I am passionate about. I have relearnt that God cares for the poor, the sick, the destitute, the broken. I have recalled why I wept over these things once upon a time. And yesterday I wept once more.


Chasing Francis has been a challenging book for me. Wonderfully written and brilliantly told the story unfolds in a majestic challenge to the Christian who has forgotten the way is Jesus. As mentioned in an earlier post the book explores pilgrimage. As the main character, Chase, is coming to the end of his pilgrimage he tells his guide that he must leave in two days. In response his guide says,


"Let's make them beautiful."

 These four words brought me to tears. I had forgotten what it is like to call a day beautiful. I used to drive to work singing, "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." I lost something of this joy recently. It ebbed away as I carried on working in my own strength, trusting to my own skills and my own knowledge. Instead, I need to turn to Christ, to kneel at his feet and find joy in supplication once more. I need to remember that each day can be beautiful, that each moment is as beautiful as I make it. As I step into tomorrow and the day after I am thinking to myself, "Let's make them beautiful."
 

Three Word Wednesday in a Tweet #2

Please be lenient on me as I struggle through this fog of unknowing.

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Three Word Wednesday in a Tweet

Cling on dear one, for there is a murmur that all hope is not yet taken. 

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Time to be a pilgrim

My decision to seek shalom concides with one of those times when you hear one word repeated over and over again in different contexts; one of those times when God is speaking. 

A wise man (@UrbanFriar) suggested I read 'Chasing Francis' by Ian Morgan Cron. I have begun this book, and I am enjoying it immensely. An evangelical pastor coming to a crisis of faith begins a pilgrimage looking back over St Francis of Assisi's experiences.

Last Thursday was my last day of college (three years of degree complete, bar one assignment which hangs over me like a piano on a thread) and our year tutor shared with us her thoughts on Psalm 84, particularly verse 5 which reads 'Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage.'

So, what is pilgrimage about? 

Dictionary.com says a pilgrimage is a journey, especially a long one, made to some sacred place as an act of religious devotion. A pilgrim is someone who undertakes such a journey. 

As yet, I cannot work out what this means for me. Perhaps a journey awaits, whether literal or metaphorical I do not know, but in order to start a journey one needs to take a step.  


So today, I shall take a step.

Exhausted and I know it

I have decided to stop my protest against the new google privacy policy. I was refusing to post under this new policy, but have decided it is time to blog once more. 

It crept up on me, and I feel like it has knocked me over.

Once upon a time I was filled with zeal and energy. I was able to give apparently endlessly. Now that time has ceased. Now I need a holiday.

In the past month and a half I have had three full days off and now I am completely drained. I cannot even think of a reflection for my youth work session tomorrow on Daniel and the Lions' Den (any ideas welcome). 

I need to rest, to find shalom. I know not where I'll find it but I had better start looking once more.