Consider what you owe to His immutability.
Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once.
Charles Spurgeon
(beauty found in shelf fungus / Julie Cook / 2018)
“I am sent not only to love God but to make Him loved.
It is not enough for me to love God, if my neighbor does not love Him.”
St. Vincent de Paul
“The very places that we presume God not to be are the very places
that are filled with His footprints and littered with His fingerprints.”
Craig D. Lounsbrough
(a small tree frog sunning / Julie Cook / 2017)
At an abandoned house, void of all things that once were…
where brittle dried leaves now line all walkways and stairs…
while broken branches litter a yard once enjoyed by some forgotten family…
Neglect and indifference meld sadly into a quickening eyesore.
Yet even in the silence of abandonment a small reminder suns himself…
As I am graciously reminded that God will always remain…
Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them,
for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you;
he will never leave you nor forsake you.
Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”
Deuteronomy 31:6 /8
When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies
Don’t you want somebody to love, don’t you
Need somebody to love, wouldn’t you
Love somebody to love, you better
Find somebody to love
Lyrics Somebody to Love
Jefferson Airplane
(St Kevin’s Monastery / Glendalough National Park, Co Wicklow, Ireland /Julie Cook / 2015)
“He who dares not offend cannot be honest.”
Thomas Paine
Finding ourselves living in the balance between Truth and Lies
With fiction far outweighing reality,
The faithful stand caught in the middle…
bewildered, battered and weary.
When did this vacuum, now plaguing the land, become so fierce…
As so many are now left reeling in total shock and confusion.
No longer able to discern between this or that
as all lines have finally merged and blurred beyond recognition.
Hawking on the sidewalks, like a street vendor peddling hotdogs,
the falsehoods and fake tales are pushed as the gospel to each hungry passerby.
“Read all about it,” they shout with verbiage in hand,
while passing out dribble like candy to an unsuspecting child.
As the affluent youth tear and burn a once proud flag.
With reality and truth now being pawned off as phobia,
the righteous are stripped and thrown to the wolves.
While the insatiable appetite of the beast is impossible to quell.
The time to take courage has arrived right on cue…
As a handful of the faithful now remain ready to defend…
Yet in the end, when all is finally left in tatters and ruin…
there will be only one thing left standing in the smoldering debris,
which is the only hope that will set those who remain free…
and that being, simply…
the Truth…
But I will leave within you
the meek and humble.
The remnant of Israel
will trust in the name of the Lord.
13 They will do no wrong;
they will tell no lies.
A deceitful tongue
will not be found in their mouths.
They will eat and lie down
and no one will make them afraid.”
Zephaniah 3:12-13
“Well I won’t back down
No I won’t back down
You can stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won’t back down”
Tom Petty
(my son’s 7th grade school picture shortly following 9/11–
the kids all made the small flag pin he has pinned to his shirt—we still have the pin)
How is it that we remember?
How do we mark those important moments in life?
How do we best remember them–both good and bad?
From the perspective of a parent, it is most likely by our children.
how old they were…
where they were…
what they were doing…
My son was in the 7th grade that fateful September day.
It was a warm Georgia, clear blue sky, kind of day.
With razor sharp precision,
we remember exactly where and when,
on those earth shattering days when tragedy strikes…
as life suddenly stands still.
Life stopped in time,
that New York, clear blue sky, fateful Septemeber day.
Life stopped in time,
that warm Pennsylvania September Tuesday morning.
Life stopped in time,
that typical September Tuesday morning in Washington D.C.
For thousands of Americans that September day,
life simply ceased.
Stopping forever for…
young and old,
male and female,
Black,
White,
Latino,
Asian…
For stopping and ceasing does not bother to discriminate nor separate.
Parents were suddenly gone.
Brothers were suddenly gone.
Grandparents were suddenly gone.
Sisters were suddenly gone.
Mothers,
Fathers,
Friends,
Husbands,
Wives,
Children
all suddenly gone.
With the breaking news…
those of us who were parents,
suddenly felt an innate urge to run and find our children.
It mattered not that they were at school, day care or with sitters
and that we were at work, or at school, or on business trips….
We wanted our children.
We wanted to run to them,
gathering them in our arms…
Wanting, needing, yearning to…
see them,
touch them,
hold them…
holding them close and tight in our arms—
reassuring ourselves that our small world was…
still safe,
still real,
still whole…
For thousands of Americans that clear blue sky Tuesday September 11th morning…
their worlds were broken…
forever…
for both those who were gone and for those who remained….
And the fact that those holes still remain in the hearts of those who survived…
or remain in those who simply remained,
left to carry on without those who they loved and still long to hold close…
that is something the rest of us must always remember…
Show us your mercy, O Lord;
And grant us your salvation.
Clothe your ministers with righteousness;
Let your people sing with joy.
Give peace, O Lord, in all the world;
For only in you can we live in safety.
Lord, keep this nation under your care;
And guide us in the way of justice and truth.
Let your way be known upon earth;
Your saving health among all nations.
Let not the needy, O Lord, be forgotten;
Nor the hope of the poor be taken away.
Create in us clean hearts, O God;
And sustain us by your Holy Spirit.
Book of Common Prayer 1979
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