"The Realest Thing About Me"

As a believer I have the blessed opportunity to gaze into my own heart and see Jesus Christ. To find the mad paradox of His beauty and light and goodness and truth breaking irresistibly through the many chinks and cracks of this very flawed human vessel. To call myself a saint, of all things, and to laugh at the gorgeous joke of it and to know that it’s the realest thing about me.

~ Lanier Ivester, The Two Trees ~

I just read a marvelous post by a one of my favorite online kindred spirits.  I first "met" Lanier through reading her vivid posts on the YLCF, but she has now also joined the writers of the Rabbit Room.  Do read the post here, and be encouraged.

Oh, and the poem she quotes was surprisingly familiar to me, as parts of it make up this song from my favorite Celtic singer:

Had to share that.  Now I'd better go write and get my characters out of trouble. ;-)

"the best love letters"

"...the best love letters are the ones simply breathed and lived and laid down with a life."      ~Ann Voskamp~

Ann over at Holy Experience is such an inspiration and calming presence to me, though I've never met her.  This is a lovely post of hers I just read and had to share: How to Really Write a Love Letter 

Hope Comes Galloping

I long to see him face-to-face. I long to put my hand in his side, and touch the scars. I want to thank him and to worship him without this confounded veil between us. Just fighting to believe can make you weary, and faith is hard to hold. 

But we are given moments of reprieve. Easter comes around and the pews are full of every-Sunday sinners and once-in-a-blue-moon saints. The ice melts. The daffodils glow like little suns. We remember the earth-shaking fact of the resurrection of Jesus, and hope comes galloping in from the east, trumpeting the tune of victory.

~ Andrew Peterson ~

Read the rest, and listen to an achingly lovely song, here:
Easter Song of the Day: "Risen Indeed"

He is risen!

Psyche's Longing

"What is it?" said I, looking down at her lap where our four hands were joined.

"This," she said, "I have always - at least, ever since I can remember - had a kind of longing for death."

"Ah, Psyche," I said, "have I made you so little happy as that?"

"No, no, no," she said.  "You don't understand... It was when I was happiest that I longed most.  It was on happy days when we were up there on the hills, the three of us, with the wind and the  sunshine... where you couldn't see Glome or the palace.  Do you remember?  The colour and the smell, and looking across at the Grey Mountain in the distance?  And because it was so beautiful, it set me longing, always longing.  Somewhere else there must be more of it.  Everything seemed to be saying, Psyche come!  But I couldn't (not yet) come and I didn't know where I was to come to. It almost hurt me.  I felt like a bird in a cage when the other birds of its kind are flying home."

~ from Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis ~

Meeting Andrew Peterson

A few years ago, my older brother Sam and I were driving for five hours across Texan and New Mexican desert to visit old friends.  Sam is a computer engineer, a wise and quiet man of thought, so he brought excellent listening material for the trip - talks from the Truth Project, John Piper speaking on God's glory, and a CD by some guy named Andrew Peterson who he thought I would like. 


Far Country - Listen! 


I did.  Oh, how I did!  Those moments of listening to Peterson's stories and poetry filled me with new longing for Home.  I was lifted above everyday life to get a glimpse of the bigger picture, wider and freer than even the vast plains and endless desert sky.  More homelike than the welcome of candles and music and laughter at our little trip's end.
 
I hope you like it, too.



(By the way, if you know me apart from online, I don't have this, this, or this album yet.  Oh, and my birthday's coming up... *cough, cough*)

Little Pretties

 I thought I'd pop in at my blog for a few minutes.  Greetings from my desk on a beautiful Saturday afternoon!  Doesn't this cup of garden flora look delicious?  It smells like a whole field of wildflowers and honey.  Mmm....

And don't candles make you feel studious and excited?  I love how they brighten up any little corner.  They're almost like cats on the hearth, a dog at your feet, or the perfect background music.  Why in the world does a little fire enchant us so? 

 

Here's Little Dorrit the Desk, and the lower edge of a hat quilt that was handmade by my great grandmother.  

Alright, as you can see, my desk is so pretty and cozy that I must get back to work at it. Goodbye for now! 

Aslan song

Good song I just listened to on Pandora Radio! Hope it encourages someone as it did me. :-)

Aslan

-Kendall Payne-

Don't stop your crying on my account
A frightening lion, no doubt
He's not safe, no he's not safe
Are you tempted now to run away?
The King above all Kings is coming down

But He won't say the words you wish that he would
Oh, he don't do the deeds you know that He could
He won't think the thoughts you think He should
But He is good, He is good

I know you're thirsty, the water is free
But I should warn you, it costs everything
Well, He's not fair, no He's not fair
When He fixes what's beyond repair
And graces everyone that don't deserve

No one knows Him whom eyes never seen
No, I don't know Him but He knows me
He knows me, He knows me

Lay down your layers, shed off your skin
But without His incision, you can't enter in
He cuts deep, yeah He cuts deep
When the risk is great and the talk is cheap
But never leaves a wounded one behind

White Teeth?

Good article today at Boundless!

"In this life, we live amidst the pretty, the corrupt, and the artificial. We live among those who do not believe beauty exists, and among those who think beauty can be manufactured. In such a context, we are the ones who have to say we know beauty, and it is none other than Jesus Christ the Lord." ~Dr. Albert Mohler~

The Source of Radiance

Those who look on Him are radiant,
And their faces shall never be ashamed.
~Psalm 34:5~

This is what I want - to radiate Christ's glory and beauty and holiness. To reflect joyfully what is all from Him, as the moon mirrors the sun's light, as a lonely person beams with delight at sight of an old and beloved friend. But of course, so much greater is our joy from God!

~~~

As my dear Daddy noticed, I'm attempting again to post daily. Let's see how long I can keep it up, shall we?

My tendency is to spend way too much time reading other blogs, so if I need to vacate myself from the blog world altogether, this may be short-lived. I've felt an uncomfortable conviction lately that I need to redeem my time, that I've been piddling too much of it away. So I'm praying about what that will look like and mustering courage to make some changes.

Now, I know pictures make blogs way more exciting, but one constructive habit at a time is hard enough to form, so I can't promise regular pics. What else might you my readers like to see in my posts? Descriptions of the garden's progress? What we have for dinner? Quotes on a particular subject? Book/movie/music reviews? Theological quandries? Rants on the culture? Stories from my childhood?

Have a redemptive Thursday, do hard things, look to the Lord and be radiant!