Morning, Friends! Welcome to my Rose Hill table!

My last post encouraged us all to "Be brave; it pays."

Have you found that to be true? Life is hard at best, between a rock and a hard place at worst?

Friend, that darkness can press all it wants: What the pressures express, however, is the key---sweet or sour? If the Rock against which I am pressed is Jesus, my highest hopes, my perfectionist nature would cross-fingers for the sweetest expression for God's glory.

However, oft times what comes forth is a vinegary mixture of unground chips of my brokenness, of my failures, of my best intentions, of my brazen acts of rebellion.

Now comes the test: Will I be brave to trust that God is permitting the dark force to exert what it believes to be its best grinding tool of destruction--but that the Godly result is the pulverizing force of His power, mercy, grace, foreknowledge and unconditional Love which can melt a stone?

Let us be brave: Let us trust that God's unconditional love--on a daily basis--can melt our unground chips or boulder-sized problems/shortcomings/sinful rebellion/failures with His cleansing Blood--all without our crossed-fingers, our "cross-my-heart-I hope-to-die" feeble bleatings that only substitute baking soda for sugar.

Light-ning

Welcome to my Table, Friends and Strangers! Some of my friend Shirley's cornbread's in the kitchen in the iron skillet...made with bacon grease....That last ingredient may have made some of you dubious, but onmygosh her cornbread is amazing, especially with fresh crowder (dang, that word wasn't even in my Spell Check dictionary...how WRONG is that?!) peas and turnip greens...or green beans....or cold milk....or.....yummm....

I was reading my own profile and wondered whointheheck wrote those words. Has that ever happened to you while looking back upon past writings--and were struck with the "God lives here-ness" of the space they created? That is why we MUST write, MUST create, MUST go boldly where no one has gone before. WHY? To let God shine in our spaces. To let God live in between our lines. To let God inspire our deflated lives---and then invite others to our Tables... to eat cornbread and maybe be struck by the "Light"ning. Below is my reference:

"I use words to make a living as a speaker and a writer. Hearing Billy Collins, the famous American poet, read selections of his work, I had a vision: With the backdrop of Mr. Collins' standing at the podium, in my mind's eye, hundreds of words were moving and blinking on and off like summer fireflies in the trees at Rose Hill. As I sat in my theater seat, a thrill rushed over me like I had not experienced since childhood--pure, unadulterated joy. All I had to do was capture the lit syllables with the glass jar of my mind and then place them on a page to shine every time someone stopped to watch. Bingo. Watching, waiting, writing down the Light. Welcome to my world, Friends."

"Praise God from Whom all blessings flow/
Praise Him all creatures here below/
Praise all ye, heavenly host/
Praise Father, Son and Ho-ly Ghost." Ahhhh-mennnnnn (closed mouth, for all A Cappellas:-)