Hand to Hand

After the Retreat
As my readers know, I spent Saturday at a retreat. Monique led us in very worshipful stretches. Some folks are critical because we incorporate these yoga positions into our creative/spiritual retreat. We are very aware that Yoga is an Eastern religious practice. We do not participate in our stretches in that way.

Instead, we use the quiet reposes to focus on Jesus. We say scriptures in our minds. For example, after several cleaning breaths and sighs, she may say to us, “Be still and know that I am Lord. Ask God what He has for you today.” It is very centering. We clear our minds of bills, children’s demands, husband’s job losses,and anxieties of the day. We just “be” and breathe and seek God. It is wonderful. I could physically see the participants begin to relax as we continued these exercises. Some were new to stretching and holding, but all tried at their level.

Next, I shared with them what the Lord had revealed to me in my morning worship. They listened attentively and agreed we were pushed, shaped, and directed by our technology of today. I asked them to take a more ancient path. I said,” Today we are going to follow the cadence of nature. We will be quiet as the falling snow, and at times birth new understanding that comes as a spring blossom through all the ‘yuck’ we have stored within. “

Next we built our journals. I was so touched by the ladies willingness to reach within and find pictures and scriptures that really represented them instead of how society had labeled them. These were strangers coming together sharing intimately. They laughed and played like children with their stamps and colored markers. Monique and I were right in there with them. We felt the freedom to play, to take time to ponder, to just feel something.

As the ladies shared a few of their journal entries, I was so humbled at how transparent and truthful they were. They felt safe. Sharing laughter and tears, we became the body of Christ. We genuinely cared for each other. We were strangers just five hours ago and now were friends sharing hurts and holding invisible hands. It touches my soul to lead these retreats. I love that we stop our busyness and just hold onto the quiet of the day.

Afterwards and even now, I still hear the participant’s voices. God urges me to pray for these individuals. Perhaps that is why He has called me to present the gospel in this way. Through these retreats, I see evidence of how God has worked in so many lives. I hear testimonies of His provisions. I encourage and acknowledge their creative being. Together, we receive direction from the Holy Spirit. It is a magnificent time. I am grateful that He has given Monique and I this opportunity.

Walden's Pond

Walden’s Pond

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived." These words by Walden inspire me to live life fully. I, like Walden, do not want to come to the end of my days and discover I missed life.

I embrace this idea of living each day by various means. Sometimes living is sitting and listening to a friend’s hurts and concerns. It is taking a morning out to pray for those ill with cancer. It is walking through the golden leaves and feeling the carpet was laced just for me. Other days, it is reading poetry and pondering the earth’s pangs of destruction. Pondering is an important part of the day. It is taking a “time-in “as opposed to a “time-out”.

In this pondering state, I don’t necessarily meditate, but I do sometimes. I just take a period of time where I am not multi-tasking. I am just intentionally in a space where electronics and technology cannot control me. I don’t answer the ringing phone, look at a clock, listen to music, or check my texts. I just am. I am reaching into the deepest part of my knowing and pulling out a memory, a thought, a sound, a smell, or a dream. I begin to fondle it like a lover. I caress that memory and try to pull from it all the thoughts I can. I recollect how I felt when I sat by my father’s side. I can smell the cherry tobacco from his pipe. I can feel his gentleness, and hear his soft, low voice. I just stay there and reunite with that time in my life. If my mind tries to escape, I push it back into that day. If it is a childhood memory, I try to recreate the innocence in which I looked at life, at the little town where we lived, at the teaching given to me by my father. I embrace the presence of that moment and feel the warmth, or sometimes I discover a hurt with which I have never dealt. If it hurts, I may shed tears. If it is affirming, I may bask in that feeling of acceptance. I try to grasp what this moment in time taught me about life. Perhaps this is a whimsical activity to some. To me, it is becoming aware of those moments that shaped me, that formed me into the person that I have become today.

Oh, how I would like to go to the woods and live for two years as Walden did. He pondered how a pine tree’s odor permeated his pores. He observed woodchucks and made them into visitors in his lonely abode. He realized that morning was the most significant time of day. He said, “Let me have a draught of undiluted morning air. Morning air! If men will not drink of this at the fountainhead of the day, why, then, we must even bottle up some and sell it in the shops, for the benefit of those who have lost their subscription ticket to morning time in this world. But remember, it will not keep quite till noonday even in the coolest cellar.” I am inspired by Walden’s affirmation of the importance of the morning air. Morning is the most blessed time of the day. We awaken clear minded and in an almost pure state. If we listen to the news, read the paper, or enter into any aspect of worldliness, the freshness of that moment is lost. We must breathe in that “undiluted morning air” and practice being in the presence of the Lord.

I begin each day with writing morning pages of my wanderings. I sometimes begin by reading scripture and God highlights a specific word, thought, phrase or parable. I may have read this many times before, but it is in this morning time that I realize new truth and application to me life. I discover new goals for my life. I realize my shortcoming as God’s word shapes me in the mornings. It is in this molding and shaping that my life has taken direction. Just as in my pondering times mentioned earlier, I begin to wonder how I would have felt at the foot of the cross. I try to recreate the shouts and cries in my head. I see with my spiritual eyes Mary weeping, struggling, begging, and seeing her son dying in such an anguished way. I stay there in that vision. I pull myself back into the vision, the message, and the inkling within me. I stay there and ask God to reveal to me what lesson I am to learn. How can this truth make me really live life? I , like Walden, do not want to come to the end of my journey and discover I missed my morning messages. I don’t want to discover I missed my destiny. I don’t want to regret that I have not lived deliberately.

A Play Date With God Registration

In just two weeks, Monique and I will be leading the one day workshop for women on November 13th.  We would love to have some of  our facebook friends join us.  Registrations are coming in , but we need you.  The first five ladies to register this week will get a bonus gift from me.  Early registrations help us plan luncheons and supplies better.  So, you will be rewarded next Saturday for helping us out. 

The day will open with scriptural yoga .  The retreat will teach women how to connect wtih God in more creative and spiritual ways.  The cost of $65.00 will include journals, decorative materials, and lunch. Reservations can be made at http://www.lamplightercounseling.com/ or by calling Sandi at 289-7049 or Monique at 499-1974.  Anyone attending should bring a Bible, a picture of yourself, and a yoga mat if you have one.  The retreat is held at the People of Praise building at 3300 W. Moore Rd.  We will have a relaxing yet productive time together.  We will peel away unwanted labels that we carry and discover how God sees us and made us.  Please join us for the day.  It will be a blessed one.