Tag: inspiration

Sustaining

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, Fields, Mountains, Photography3 Comments

IMG_2626 cows mountain meadow ch

The clouds, too, drink up their share,
raining it back down on the mountains from the upper reaches of Your home,
Sustaining the whole earth with what comes from You.
And the earth is satisfied.
Thus You grow grain for bread, grapes for wine, grass for cattle—
all of this for us.
And so we have bread to make our bodies strong,
wine to make our hearts happy,
oil to make our faces shine.
Every good thing we need, Your earth provides;
our faces grow flush with Your life in them.

(Psalm 104: 13-15 The Voice)

Deeper

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Photography6 Comments

IMG_9734 banff coach reflect ch

Solitude is the place where we can connect with profound bonds that are deeper than the emergency bonds of fear and anger.

– Henri Nouwen

When I was a child I asked Jesus into my heart because I was afraid of God. I hoped Jesus would protect me from the wrath to come. I heard stories about how the world was going to get worse and worse and then a terrible tribulation was coming. My unspoken prayer was really, “I’ll do whatever you want. Please don’t hurt me.” I was essentially accusing God of soul-rape.

The way something is established is often the way it must be maintained. A relationship built on fear needs more fear to keep it going. I heard plenty of dire warnings.

Eventually I became tired of being afraid. I let go of that angry controlling God. I didn’t care if he killed me.

That’s when I began to hear a sweet alluring song in the wilderness. The quiet Voice of love sang to me in the place of solitude where the harsh lying voices that provoked fear of Him no longer motivated me.

A relationship established on God’s love is maintained by God’s love, not by my performance or my ability to love someone I was afraid of.  It’s about His faithfulness, His joy, His peace, not mine. I had only to respond to that love and his peace became mine.

It was not difficult.

For the Beauty

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography2 Comments

IMG_1787 forsythia flowers

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies,
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our grateful hymn of praise.

– Folliot S. Pierpont

Well, we made it through another winter, Ma.

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Photography7 Comments

IMG_2302 crocus backlight

 

I’m unduly fond of the little crocus flower with its white fuzz showing up like the tiny hairs on Grandma’s chin in the sun. When I was a child I brought Grandma a fistful of prairie crocus blooms as soon as they poked through last season’s dead leaves of grass. Grandpa would say, “Well, we made it through another winter, Ma. There’s your proof.”

We made it through.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you.

The Conductor

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Music2 Comments
Let There Be Light
Let There Be Light

 

Sing a new song to the Eternal;
sing in one voice to the Eternal, all the earth.

Sing to the Eternal of all the good things He’s done.

Psalm 96 (The Voice)

I think the ultimate instrument is the voice.

I love a lot of contemporary solo music as well as the classics. It touches my soul so often and songs play back in my head in the night. Music carries messages that comfort and challenge and lift my soul. Something marvelous happens in corporate worship when voices singing together are not drowned out by amplified instruments and a singer with a microphone.

People talk about singing a new song and a new sound arising. I wonder if the new sound is an old sound we have forgotten? The Bible speaks of God singing over us and of us responding to Him with song when we realize that He really does love us.

There is something in choral music that speaks of unity in the Spirit. How I long to hear the entire family of God joining their voices in praise to the Creator.

Sometimes, in the night, I do.

And the angels join in.

Great

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Music, Photography2 Comments

IMG_1852 kootenay park mountain

It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to the Most High.

It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning,
your faithfulness in the evening,
accompanied by a ten-stringed instrument, a harp,
and the melody of a lyre.

You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me!
I sing for joy because of what you have done.

O Lord, what great works you do!
And how deep are your thoughts.

Only a simpleton would not know,
and only a fool would not understand this:

Though the wicked sprout like weeds
and evildoers flourish,
they will be destroyed forever.

But you, O Lord, will be exalted forever.

(Psalm 92: 1-8 NLT)

I suppose the guitar is the modern equivalent of the harp and lyre. Recently I found the music of the marvelous guitarist, Rodrigo Rodriguez (was he born to this?) Here he plays “How Great is Our God.” Enjoy.

 

Surface

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, PhotographyLeave a comment

IMG_2101seal head above water
At the Edmonton Zoo this week.

Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly, with mere appearances; but penetrate into the depth of matters.
– Isaac Watts