October 15, Today’s thought – Chronos vs Kairos

my stuff 001My clock

Good Morning,

To every thing there is a season,
and a time to every purpose under the heaven:
Ecclesiastes 3:1

from Simple Abundance, A Daybook of Comfort and Joy,
by Sarah Ban Breathnach

“Once upon a time.
Up until this time.
For the time being.
Time and time again.
Time’s up!

time’s mystery is difficult for most women to appreciate because we’ve so little of it. Although we’ve all been allotted twenty-four hours each day, it doesn’t seem to go very far. So if we experience anything a all, it’s dread, because we keep running out of time. Again and again. And it doesn’t matter what kind of time it is —Greenwich, daylight saving, standard, eastern, mountain, central or pacific. All that matters is we never seem to have enough of it.Which is why all women I know constantly feel time worn.
. . .
In order to know a semblance of serenity during the days of our lives, we also need to discover Time’s twin mature, which the ancient Greeks called chronos and kairos.

Chronos is clocks, deadlines, watches, calendars, agendas, planners, schedules, beepers. Chronos is time at here worst. Chronos keeps track. Chronos is a delusion of grandeur. Chronos is running the Marine Corps marathon in heels. In chronos we think only of ourselves. Chronos is the world’s time.

Kairos is transcendence, infinity, reverence, joy, passion, loev, the Sacred. Kairos is intimacy with the Real. Kairos is time at her best. Kairos lets go. In kairos we escape the dungeon of self. Kairos is a Schubert waltz in nineteenth-century Vienna with your soul mate. Kairos is Spirit’s time.

We exist in chronos. We long for kairos. That’s our duality. Chronos requires speed so that it won’t be wasted. Kairos requires space so that it might be savored. We do in chronos. In kairos we’re allowed to be.

So how do we exchange chronos for kairos?

By slowing down.
By concentrating on one thing at a time.
By going about whatever we are doing as if it were the only thing worth doing at that moment.
By pretending we have all the time in the world, so that our subconscious will kick in and make it so.
By making time.
By taking time.

It only takes a moment to cross over from chronos into kairos, but it does take a moment. All that kairos asks in our willingness to stop running long enough to hear the music of the spheres.

Today, be willing to join in the dance.
Now you’re in kairos.”

With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 15, 2013 at 11:16 am  Leave a Comment  
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October 14, Today’s thought – At the Cross

oct 11 007Pink Japanese Anemone from Grandma Crain 

Good Morning

Matthew 11:28-30
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Four memorial services in one month are too many:
a 50 year old niece, and three 80+ year olds.
What spaces unfillable!

I don’t understand God’s timing but I do know His way is perfect.
The song At The Cross of Jesus Bowing brought comfort.

1 At the cross of Jesus bowing,
Here I find a safe retreat
From a world of care and trouble,
In His presence calm and sweet.

Refrain:
Sweet stillness of heaven around me I feel,
While low at the cross of my Jesus I kneel.

2 At the cross of Jesus bowing,
Here I count my blessings o’er;
Here I drink from life’s pure fountain,
Drink until I thirst no more. [Refrain]

3 At the cross of Jesus bowing,
Here I spend life’s sweetest hour;
Here I taste the joys of heaven,
Fill my heart with conq’ring pow’r. [Refrain]

4 At the cross of Jesus bowing,
Let me never from it part;
For His dying love has conquered
My rebellious, roving heart. [Refrain]

5 At the cross of Jesus bowing,
Here I own His way is best;
In the shelter of Mount Calv’ry,
Let me die in peace at last. [Refrain]
D.O. Teasley

a link to the song

Bowing . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 14, 2013 at 11:11 am  Leave a Comment  
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October 7, Today’s thought – Waiting?

oct6 008I’m thankful for my new mouse.

Good Morning

Psalms 138:6-8 Though the LORD be high, yet hath he respect unto the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and thy right hand shall save me. The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

We don’t like to wait.
We’re the giddy-up generation.
We frown at the person who takes eleven items
to the ten-item express checkout.
We drum our fingers while the microwave heats our coffee.
“Come on, come on.”
We really don’t like to wait!

Look around you.
Do you realize where we sit?
This planet is God’s waiting room.
The young couple? Waiting to get pregnant.
The guy with the briefcase? Waiting for work.
Waiting on God to give or to help.
Waiting on God to come.
The land of waiting.
And you?
Are you in God’s waiting room?

You may be infertile or inactive,
in limbo, in between jobs
or in search of a house, spouse, health, or help.
Here’s what you need to know.
While you wait,
God works!
God never twiddles His thumbs.
He never stops.
Just because you’re idle, don’t assume God is.
Trust Him.
In the right time, you’ll get through this.

From You’ll Get Through This ~~~Max Lucado

Wait . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 7, 2013 at 5:17 am  Comments (1)  
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Sunday Bible Reading – Matthew 27:57-61

october 21 dead zinnas & sunflowers 006An Autumn Sunflower

Good Morning

Matthew 27:57-61
When the even was come,
there came a rich man of Arimathaea,
named Joseph,
who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:
He went to Pilate,
and begged the body of Jesus.
Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.
And when Joseph had taken the body,
he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,
And laid it in his own new tomb,
which he had hewn out in the rock:
and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre,
and departed.
And there was Mary Magdalene,
and the other Mary,
sitting over against the sepulchre.

Were they . . .
waiting
in shock
grieving
weeping
trying to hold on to hope
like Mary and Martha sure Jesus would ‘rise again in the resurrection at the last day’ (John 11:24)
numb?

Jesus knew all about those feelings and fears,
remember He wept with the grieving.

Have compassion with the grieving  . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 6, 2013 at 9:46 am  Comments (1)  

Ocotber 5, Today’s thought – Hope is a Promise

oct4 004Coleus

Good Morning

Hope is a Promise

“And this hope is what saves us.
But if we already have what we hope for,
there is no need to keep on hoping.”
Romans 8:24

Faith is a power, and Hope is a promise.
For Hope is always about that which is yet to come;
never about what we currently possess.
Faith reaches into the future
and brings into the present
a borrowed power that enables us
to live today in the strength of tomorrow;
to posses this earth with heaven in mind;
to live in the presence of the “not yet.”
But Hope differs in this regard:
it knows what is promised,
even though it cannot see it,
and though it will never lay hold of it
until the day it actually arrives —
Hope holds firm without wavering.
Faith is for this world;
Hope is for the next.
There will be no need for Faith
in Heaven once we are there,
so we should spend all that we have while we are here.
But our Hope will pay off huge on That Day
when we cross the threshold of Time into Eternity
and see what our hearts have only imagined.
Hope is a promise
that holds our hearts forward to a better day,
that lifts us above the present darkness of a bad stretch
and keeps us buoyant in the midst of turbulence and trouble.
But sometimes Hope flags in the face of delays;
and Hope deferred can make the heart sick.
Thus weakened with soul-sickness,
our hearts may lose their grip on what is promised;
our Hope may fade
and our passion to keep a forward view
can diminish in the dusk of uncertain turns.
That’s when Love steps in to lift Hope back on its feet
— for Love never fails.
Love is a Person.
We’ll meet this Person tomorrow.

For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Romans 8:24-25

Hope . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 5, 2013 at 5:00 am  Leave a Comment  
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October 4, Today’s thought – Come Ye Aside

july7 shoting 018Fall’s Beauty

Good Morning

Luke 9:10 And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. And he took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city called Bethsaida.

In order to grow in grace, we must be much alone.
It is not in society that the soul grows most vigorously.
In one single quiet hour of prayer
it will often make more progress
than in days of company with others.
It is in the desert that the dew falls freshest and the air is purest.
~~Andrew Bonar

“Come ye yourselves apart and rest awhile,
Weary, I know it , of the press and throng,
Wipe from your brow the seat and dust of toil,
And in My quiet strength again be strong.

“Come ye aside from all the world holds dear,
For converse which the world has never known,
Alone with Me, and with My Father here,
With Me and with My Father not alone.

“Come, tell Me all that ye have said and done,
Your victories and failures, hopes and fears,
I know how hardly souls are wooed and won;
My choicest wreaths are always wet with tears.

“Come ye and rest; the journey is too great.
And ye will faint beside the way and sink;
The bread of life is here for you to eat,
And here for you the wine of love to drink.

“Then fresh from converse with your Lord return
And work till daylight softens into even;
The brief hours are not lost in which ye learn
More of your Master and His rest in Heaven.”

Rest . . .Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 4, 2013 at 11:29 am  Leave a Comment  
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October 1, Today’s thought – Your Mess

IMG_5297Grandma Crain made this star from seeds and cones and berries she found in the yard and along the road.

Good Morning

Deuteronomy 11:1-7
Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway. And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots; how he made the water of the Red sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day; And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did.

Your Mess Can Be Your Message

I like the conversation Bob Benson recounts in his book, See You at the House,
about his friend who’d had a heart attack.
For a while it seemed his friend wouldn’t make it. But he recovered.

Months later Bob asked him, “How did you like your heart attack?”

“It scared me to death, almost.”
“Would you do it again?”
“No!”
“Would you recommend it?” Bob asked.
“Definitely not.”
Then Bob asked him, “Does your life mean more to you now than it did before?”
“Well, yes.”
“You and your wife always had a beautiful marriage, but are you closer now than ever?” “Yes.”
“Do you have a new compassion for people—a deeper understanding and sympathy?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Do you know the Lord in a richer fellowship than you’d ever realized?”
“Yes.”

Then Bob said, “So, how’d you like your heart attack?”

Deuteronomy 11:2 reminds us to remember what you’ve learned about the Lord through your experience with Him. Do that, my friend, and your mess will become your message!

From You’ll Get Through This~~Max Lucado

Learning . . . Today
With my prayers, desiring yours, Leslie

Published in: on October 1, 2013 at 5:27 am  Comments (1)  
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