Category: Random thoughts

A local magazine announced the winners

of their photo contest. There was some stiff competition – aMAZing entries. I’ll admit, I was slightly disappointed not to hear back about my photo entries…shows you how optimistic (or naive) I can be. Add this disappointment to the still lingering memories of friends mocking me because I used a ‘real’ camera and not a phone with a camera the last time we were together. The mockings, the rejections – this kind of stuff can shut you down and hold you back, but I’ve found that I can be grateful to God for showing me that there’s something in those ‘trials’ that has the potential to make me stronger and more determined to keep trying.

This early morning photo proves that I’m still finding joy in the simplest of things like dead leaves, sunlit on a snow covered porch.

Good or Best?

A70B2C84-94AF-41F3-9061-5F886C09238BWhat a winding path this newest song has taken me on…and now that the song is finished, while the thoughts are fresh in my word-filled-brain, and it’s quiet at the camp, maybe now is a good time for me to contemplate the journey.

It’s always a relief to finish a project…but chances are that tomorrow I’ll be moping about because I’ll think that I’ll never write another thing. Truth is, I never do know when I will and I’m done anticipating when the inspiration will come and where God will take me, because who can know the mind of the Lord? But I began writing this song knowing that I need a Deliverer. We all do. And He’s so much more than capable no matter the mess we’ve made of our lives.

The fact that I was stuck for several days trying to resolve some text issues, really brought the reality of needing a Deliverer home. It was ONE phrase…one I kept trying to make work. I have the scribbles on scrap paper to prove it! I kept waiting for that just-right spark of inspiration, while trying to work it out for myself. I’m never happy with how that works out, but, silly me, I keep trying.

Then, at the Spirit’s urging I REMOVED the ‘offending’ phrase from the text. NO!!! I felt GUTTED!  But it wasn’t until I removed that one sentence, that the process that had once been freely flowing, was finally free to flow again. (I like illteration – did you catch that?)

So I asked myself these 3 questions:

Question #1: Is the process I just went through an analogy for my life?

Question #2 Is there something ‘good’ that is getting in the way of God’s best? 

Question #3 How can I avoid falling into a similar trap in the future? I’ll only take the time to answer question #3…I’m not sure on this side of Heaven that it’s always possible, but this long-awaited phrase that the Holy Spirit just hours ago gave me to complete the chorus, sure does seem extra-relevant to me in the of light of my struggle these past few days…

“You will not forsake me; 

What have I to fear?

I’m singing songs of deliverance, 

‘Cause my Deliverer is here.”

 

Timetable

 
This lily was a gift to my mother when my father passed away in 2006. I’m not saying that it has never bloomed since then, but I have never seen it bloom, other than when it was first gifted to Mom. I’ll be the first to tell you that she had a green thumb…I DO NOT!!! Exasperated with the necessity to clip off MORE dead leaves, I nearly…I mean VERY NEARLY tossed it into our compost heap at the edge of our backyard LAST WEEK! A plant on its own timetable could not be rushed along, but could be nurtured. There’s a difference. There’s more to this story, but suffice to say, I’m glad I helped it along just one more time.