All This Newness...

Each December 31st, I prepare my new calendar with all the notations of events or tasks I need to remember for the new year.  They come from looking at last year's calendar.  I do the same for the journal I keep each day.  It is a poignant time I spend preparing for all the newness of the blank pages yet to be filled by perusing the filled pages of last year's journal. Loss and gain, the unexpected and the expected are recorded often in the same day!    

The older I become (now in the last category you can check on all written forms), the more I am grateful for understanding how the old and the new need to be next to one another.  I am blessed to be part of several things, including my church, where the new will always be an interjection alongside the time honored and well-respected. 

The new is a shot in the arm to perspective that has become too settled or shortsighted.( Maybe, I should just tell it like it is...too stubborn to receive!) It is the B-12 we all need!

 The old is the firm foundation on which to build the new. Hand in hand they are a dynamo from which the next generation catapults its additions to the ideas, inventions, and  progress of tomorrow.

I hope that I never lose my fascination with the new, nor my ability to take what God has chosen to show me through it.  Equally, I pray that I may always interject the wisdom that it has taken a lifetime of gleaning to gain.  How blessed I am to be asked for it more often than expected. It is not mine...it is based on God's Word.  Many times new crossroads appeared on my path.  I needed consultation with the ancient well of timeless wisdom before making my choices. 

It is time for me to get back to something new I need to attend to. I pray a blessing on the blending of the new and old of 2014.

In Praise to His Goodness

 For all that you have done

 For every battle won,

 I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord.

 For all that You’ve defeated,

 For every work completed,

 I thank You Lord, I praise You, Lord. 

For the Spirit who hovers,

 And the blood that covers,

 I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord.

 For the things you’ve delivered,

 For bondages You’ve severed, 

I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord. 

 For strength and endurance

 For salvation’s sweet assurance,

 I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord

. For life not lived by chance,

 For purpose in every circumstance,

 I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord.

 For strength to endure,

 For faith that’s secure,

 I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord.

 For peace in the storm,

And life far above the norm,

 I thank You, Lord, I praise You, Lord.

 Amen

A Soul Set On Freedom

A Soul Set On Freedom

By: Sharon L. Patterson

Anguished, abandoned, alone;

Blamed, burned-out, burdened;

Distressed, disturbed, depressed;

Entangled, estranged, embittered;

Tense, tarnished, tormented;

                 Unheard, unwanted, unloved;

Weighed down, worried, wounded-

UNTIL…He came to free me!

NOW…I am a soul set on freedom:

Astonished, amazed, afire;

Blessed, bold, beaming;

Delighted, daring, dancing;

Enlivened, embellished, eternal;

Trusting, tender, tenacious;

Understanding, unabashed, unafraid;

Wise, worthy, worshipping.

New songs, profound joy in the land of unknown

New Songs, Profound Joy in the Land of Unknown

How amazed I continue to be as I travel to the Land of Unknown once more

Having absolutely no idea of what God has in store;

But knowing I can trust this new adventure will certainly

Find new songs and profound joy rising inside of me.

That has always been the way

My Savior fills me when I pray

Laying down my fears for what I dred

Understanding I am not being led

This way for nothing less than my good

And the precious substance that gives glory where it should-

To the source of new songs

To the deep well of profound joy belongs

All my praise

All of my days.

In the Land of Unknown

 

Giving Voice to the Right Words

Due to the fact that my upcoming surgery will deal with an area close to my voice box, I have been conscious of the things I give voice to.  It is just crazy what comes out of my mouth at times.  The Lord must shake his head as he questions, "Why on earth did she say that?"  I am sure the angels assigned to guard me must also query some of my comments.

I have such a tendency to speak before I think...a bad habit I have had since childhood.  It is my prayer, however, that "the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart may be acceptable to you, O God" and also, that my "yes" would be "yes" and my "no" would be "no".  Proverbs tells me that even a fool, when quiet, may be considered wise. 

What I give voice to matters...right words matter.  I want my words to encourage, to line up with God's Word, to be like "apples of gold in pitchers of silver."  I want them to come from faith and not doubt, spirit and not flesh, peace that passes understanding not contention and confusion that lead to every kind of trouble.

Well, I think less is more today and so I will let my prayer be to surrender to the one who lives within me that I will give voice to the right words this day.

Fullness of Joy

Fullness of Joy

One thing He promised that I would find

Has proved greater than most things that come to mind

Although it is not easy to possess

And comes at points of hardest access-

Still, there is fullness of joy.

I have found it at the oddest of times

When life's poems have lost their rhymes,

When reason has left the stage

And sorrow has spilled onto every page

Of daily existence-still there is fullness of joy.

Because He is the very source

Proven in time through every course

My tears may flow

My mind may not know

How it can be- still there is fullness of joy...

For He is my fullness of Joy!

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March Winds

March Winds

By: Sharon L. Patterson

It is March but this month’s preview blew across my area less than a week ago announcing impending unknowns with a bluster I have yet experienced in my sixty plus years in Texas.  The wind blew-HARD and it blew all night and all day with the same velocity.  It affected changes throughout the city and in my own back yard.  A garden angel lost her wing; an umbrella was lifted out of the patio table and blown across the yard; the gate to our fence was ripped open and the remains of what was once a lock lay scattered.  Not bad considering stories of greater damage I heard others had sustained. 

There has been a lot of blustering of news concerning changes that begin today, March 1, 2013.  The forecast concerning winds of change reaches much farther than my corner of the world.  Sequestration is now more than a forecast.  It is part of our not yet fully known reality. Everywhere we turn, no matter the mode of communication, March winds are blowing. 

 It reminds me of a mighty storm that came up on the Sea of Galilee mentioned in the gospel of Luke, chapter 8, verses 22-25. Jesus asked a very significant question that resonates as much to us modern day disciples as it did to the original twelve:

     “One day, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side of the

lake. So they got into a boat and set out.  As they sailed, He fell asleep. 

  A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and

                      they were in great danger.  The disciples went and woke him, saying,

                      “Master, Master, we are going to drown!” He got up and rebuked

                       the wind and the raging waters:  the storm subsided, and all was calm.

“WHERE IS YOUR FAITH?” He asked his disciples.”

Great question!  May our answer focus our faith on the Storm Calmer, not on the storm, nor on the March winds of 2013. May we, like those first disciples respond “in fear and amazement…,”Who is this?  He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey Him.”