It's been a dreary couple of weeks here in New England. No snow (which is a big disappointment to this here winter lover), lots of rain, and basically bleak.
Inside and outside.
A small part of my personal life is, once again, in serious upheaval. Draining emotional issues that leave me numb and useless. It is times like these that we should turn to God. Yet my perfectly formed little human ego - makes that a huge challenge for me.
We doubt your goodness
We doubt your love
As if every promise from your word
is not enough
Doubt. Such a human thing to do. Even as I pray ceaselessly, I doubt.
Is God listening? Does he hear my "desperate pleas"? Does he even care?
But he is there always. And those blessings as well. They do abound no matter what else is going on around us. Yet when those other things leave us feeling disoriented - as if our very soul has fractured into a million tiny pieces - God is still there.
Even if we don't feel him, hear him, or even worse, acknowledge him.
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms,
The hardest nights, are your mercies
in disguise.
God is there. In our nightmares, our worries, our fears, our anguish. In our joys, our laughter, our happiest moments.
Did you know that the heart is mentioned over 800 times in the King James version of the Bible? Or over 500 times in the New International version.
Something to pay close attention to. Clearly God wants us to know that he knows our hearts better than we do. And that he wants to be in our hearts 24/7/365.
2023 is my Year of Kindness. I want to spread my own kindness outward to others - in words and deeds - in the hopes that the kind people already among us will do the same. And that the unkind may receive kindness and be transformed.
You can't be kind if your heart isn't generous. God can grant you that generosity of spirit thru prayer and trust in him.
Entry to the new year was, for me, bumpy to say the least. Work was more challenging than expected and certain other things outside of work proved to give me more than what I thought I could handle.
Yet I'm still standing. Prayer - can do that for a person. Keeping it simple today...
And it has been a week. Even though it was only 4 work days it feels like 30. The Fortune 100 can be like that.
In fact, the pace of my work has increased exponentially over the past 5 years or so. At this time last year I said to my hubby - I don't know that I can sustain this pace all year.
And here I am, one year later, working at a much faster pace than this time last year. I am once again wondering how I will keep this up for 2023.
That is only my professional life. My personal life is also moving at a rapid pace. I find myself stumbling along to keep up. And it gets ahead of me to the point where I feel like I'm falling...falling downward so fast and so far.
Then I remember who is in control and I reach out to my Lord and ask for a safety net to catch me.
I thought it would be nice to start the week with a prayer. I collect these wherever I find them. For the most part the original authors are unknown.
I strive to say this one every morning; I can get to 5 out of 7 most of the time. It is a gentle start to my day and brings me new resolve each time I bow my head over it.
With all creation I sing praise to the King of kings
You are my everything and I will adore you.
"The Revelation Song" performed by Philips, Craig, and Dean. (Based on the fourth chapter of the mighty Book of Revelation.) A long-time favorite song of mine; I'm a sucker for the harmonies.
And also for the message. Appropriate all year long and most especially on this last day of the year.
I'm leery of saying anything about 2023. The past 3 years have shown me, personally, that I need to stay in the present moment. Looking too far ahead will only set me up for disappointment - or worse.
Staying in the moment means letting God dwell in my heart. The thing I pray for most often and it is decidedly NOT easy to do. Speaking for myself - I am a planner. I plan all day long in my profession; I plan most of the time in my personal life as well.
So it remains quite the challenge for someone whose DNA is programmed to plan - to stay in the moment. I succeed maybe 5% of the time. :-)
Yet God has a larger plan for me - for all of us. Only he knows the depth and breadth of that plan. And while that can be utterly frustrating, I find when I do yield to God and let things unfold in his time - I am calmer. My ever-present anxiety settles down. The pace of the days also evens out a bit more. Things don't feel so frantic.
As another year comes to a close, I pray for God to continue to forgive me when I neglect to turn my cares to him. I pray for his wisdom to guide me thru my days. And I pray fervently that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ returns to Earth again - to put to right all the wrongs that man has wrought all over the world.
With the celebration of Christ's birth just one week away, I wanted to focus this week on Holy Mary's courageous "yes" to the Angel Gabriel. I know, I'm about 9 months late for this but as we have spent the last 4 weeks focusing on the coming birth of Jesus Christ, I thought a throwback to the origins of our Savior would be appropriate.
The first prophecy of The Messiah can be found as far back as Genesis, and throughout Old Testament Prophets like Nathan, Daniel, Isaiah, and Ezekiel. Through the Gospels in the New Testament. This miraculous coming is foretold so many times.
The how of it all is not revealed until the Angel Gabriel appears to a young, unassuming woman named Mary (The Gospel of Luke 1:26-38).
God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a city in Galilee. The angel went to a virgin promised in marriage to a descendant of David named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary.
When the angel entered her home, he greeted her and said, “You are favored by the Lord! The Lord is with you.”
She was startled by what the angel said and tried to figure out what this greeting meant. The angel told her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will become pregnant, give birth to a son, and name him Jesus.He will be a great man and will be called the Son of the Most High The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. Your son will be king of Jacob’s people forever, and his kingdom will never end.”
Mary asked the angel, “How can this be? I’m a virgin.”
The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy child developing inside you will be called the Son of God.
Imagine it. You are a (roughly) 17 year old girl from a humble background, engaged to the man you love, and an angel tells you that you are pregnant. And not just pregnant, but with the savior of mankind.
All of this makes Mary's yes so remarkable. As a human being she had every right to say "Thank you but no thank you." As a faithful Jew however, having heard all the prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, her yes was necessary.
In fact, her yes was foretold as often as the coming of The Messiah himself. It's a "built in" element of the stories.
All of which brings me to this glorious piece of music - Gabriel's Oboe by Ennio Morricone, composed for the 1986 film "The Mission".
One of the most famous songs in all of Morricone's film scores, Gabriel's Oboe is a device used for a missionary to call to, and convert, a jungle tribe.
It's long been a favorite piece of music. It's haunting melodies get under my skin and bring me to tears.
This year it appeared in a Pandora station of instrumental holiday music. I didn't think it really belonged there...yet it felt so right. I listened intently and heard the message God was sending to me.
Gabriel ... The Angel Gabriel ... The message to Mary.
Listen to those first notes from the oboe. Feminine, lyrical, soothing. The presence of an angel.
Then it builds, the higher notes expressing something that brings you to the heart. Mary's response.
Then the notes creep still higher as the heavens rejoice.
The melody repeats once again. Angelic encouragement. A demure yes. Rejoicing.
More rejoicing.
Then the strings take over to amplify the echoes of the heavens as the coming of the Messiah is physically assured.
I've heard this song hundreds of times. Always as the theme song from "The Mission".
Now I don't believe I will hear it as anything but the clarion call of God announcing the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ.
