Waterfall

I love reading several blogs, of "real" friends (as in, yes, I know them) and blog friends. As I read through them today I was caught up short in realizing I haven't posted anything in over two weeks. Not good, when my goal is to post at least twice a week....

But I'm happy to say it's not for lack of anything interesting to write about! I have so many things going on that it feels like I'm sitting under a waterfall and enjoying an abundance of adventures and challenges and opportunities. As the saying goes, when it rains it pours. I also know what it's like when things are so heavy and dark that it is nearly impossible to get out of bed, so I take these good times as gifts to be enjoyed to the fullest, and not clung to.

Some of the fun is found in little things... discovering a new blog that makes me smile, using swiss chard from the garden to make an omelette, listening to a bunch of new music and rev up for summer, taking yet another great ride along Alameda Padre Serra on my "scoot scoot" (looking at sailboats in the harbor, the Channel Islands, scudding clouds in the sky...) with such a big smile that I'm sure I come home with bugs in my teeth!

Additionally, some adventures have to include my ongoing life with young people: the joy of seeing beloved students graduate from Westmont last weekend, catching lunch with former youth groupies and continuing to be deeply touched by their earnest souls, teaching my new class of students for Westmont Mayterm, and sneaking in a remarkable lunch with a high school student who asks such. hard. questions. week after week. See? It's a waterfall of goodness!

I look forward to other endeavors soon to come ~ the kickoff for Year 2 of Free Methodist Summer Interns this week, a cool new leadership development conference in Seattle that is one big unknown, a lovely week of vacation in Grand Teton National Park, plus a wide assortment of consulting and coaching that ranges from Washington State to Florida to all over So Cal. More waves of God's faithful care wash over me, and I am grateful.

These words speak to some of what I am living:

These words were spoken to Catherine of Siena, a fourteenth-century mystic: “Beloved daughter, everything I give to you comes from the love and care I have for men and women. I desire to show my mercy to the whole world and my protective love to those who want it. My care is constant. I did all this so that they will know me and rejoice to see me forever.” 

Henri Nouwen: When the mother of James and John asks Jesus to give her sons a special place in his Kingdom, Jesus responds,  "Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?"  (Matthew 20:22).   "Can we drink the cup?" is the most challenging and radical question we can ask ourselves.  The cup is the cup of life, full of sorrows and joys.  Can we hold our cups and claim them as our own?  Can we lift our cups to offer  blessings to others, and can we drink our cups to the bottom as cups that bring us salvation?

By God's grace, I have been able to choose to drink deeply of my cup. As I prayed this morning, "I accept my story. While it has pain and grief that still hurt, it has brought me to a tender and open place where I hunger deeply for your Spirit on a daily basis. THAT is worth it. I am free, I am happy to be in this creative and encouraging place."

Pray this with me...

Psalm 108:

1 My heart is confident in you, O God;
    no wonder I can sing your praises with all my heart!
2 Wake up, lyre and harp!
    I will wake the dawn with my song.
3 I will thank you, Lord, among all the people.
    I will sing your praises among the nations.
4 For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens.
    Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens.
    May your glory shine over all the earth.