Life Beyond Comfort

April 15, 2014April 18, 2014 / Jaimie / Leave a comment

When the comfortable numb ceases to be comfortable, we can choose to escape and join the living or we can choose to delve deeper into denial. It is possible to stuff feelings into caverns we visit only when useful for some advantage. We can justify the remnant with clever notions about self preservation. But to truly feel is an adventure for the bravest of souls. To live deeply unafraid of the breaking takes resolve and courage.

We continue steadfast into the fray while the waves of life beat us hard into jagged edges of rock and earth. We continue to focus on prizes unseen though our eyes flinch to blink at offenses hurled at us headlong.

We will not be silenced when the night begs for songs of praise. We will not grimace at the need set before us as we offer more than what logic compels us to bring to the table of the hurt and lonely or sick and tired.

We will look past the present to the hope of glory when all seems stacked against us…when the walls we’ve built crumble to dust around us…when our towers of achievement turn to pillars of salt good only to season us with grace.

We will fight passed normal to the place where life begins, where we end. The place where our plans give way to his purpose.

There we will find the fullness of joy.

Sweet Tea

April 6, 2014April 18, 2014 / Jaimie / 2 Comments

This is a guest post from my daughter. I couldn’t resist sharing. She is fourteen and a lot like her mama.

Sweet Tea

Cut me open and what will you see? An entire gallon of sweet tea.

When I’m at a restaurant in despair I know that sweet tea will be there

When I’m old dying all I need is an IV filled with sweet tea

Why am I writing this poem you ask? Because sweet tea will always last.

While divorces go through
And love fades away
A path, sweet tea, will pave.

I know this is crazy and slightly obsessive but hey sweet tea’s a blessing

With sugar so sweet and lemon so sour it’s in sweet tea that I will shower.

With my heart filled with glee, sweet tea is bæ, don’t judge me, okay?

-Rachel Woodland

Tapestry

April 2, 2014April 2, 2014 / Jaimie / 1 Comment

Photo credit http://www.craftscotland.org/

I am a tapestry

Woven together, each fiber of my life until only beauty remains

Each color and hue lending to the whole

A piece of the picture you designed throughout the artistry of time

I’ve been pattered with purpose

Knit together with meaning

All I am rests in the hand of a loving craftsman

I am a masterpiece in the making

Psalms 139:1-18 O Lord, You have searched me and known me.
²You know my sitting down and my rising up;
You understand my thought afar off.
³You comprehend my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
⁴For there is not a word on my tongue,
But behold, O Lord, You know it altogether.
⁵You have hedged me behind and before,
And laid Your hand upon me.
⁶Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is high, I cannot attain it.

⁷Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
⁸If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
⁹If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
¹⁰Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
¹¹If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,”
Even the night shall be light about me;
¹²Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

¹³For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
¹⁵My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
¹⁸If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

Cranky baby

March 12, 2014March 12, 2014 / Jaimie / 2 Comments

I love my cranky baby in the morning even though he pulls my hair and wails, fussy, fidgety.
I love his smile that sneaks past his facade and lights the morning.
I love his voice, expressing his frustration in a symphony of “da-da’s,” ba-ba-na’s and mum-num’s”
I love that I love him the same when he’s happy and that nothing will change the way I feel about him.
No amount of sickness, runny noses, goofy coughs, sore ears or crying will cause my love to waiver. In fact, they raise my compassion towards him.
He needs me and all I want to do is be there, to comfort him, to show him how loved he is
Even in the sadness and frustration. Even when he whines and screams and bites and kicks.
Love isn’t effected by such things, love endures all, forgives all, love never fails.
I love when he settles on my breast, leans close and lets go, drifting off to sleep reminding me of the dream that it is to be his mother.
And I realize that I am the child of a king and His love surpasses mine.
I’m so thankful that he too loves a cranky baby in the morning.

Today

March 7, 2014March 7, 2014 / Jaimie / 1 Comment

When the waves crash hard and my toes grip the sand and I wobble at the weight of the blow,

I remember that to keep standing I’m going to have to move,

Adjust to the shifting of the earth beneath me and trust that the waves will reside and in their place something new will emerge.

Today, I will be awake.

Today, I will stand on the shore of my life, look to the horizon and be what I was purposed to be.

Tomorrow will take care of itself if I remember to care for today.

Autopilot

March 4, 2014 / Jaimie / Leave a comment

Autopilot – when I go through the motions

Head down, resolved, ready to do whatever it takes to make it happen

And then I sometimes break as resistance pushes me to realize I’m not built to maintain; I’m built for greatness.

Not greatness I’ve built with the persistent efforts of my hands, but greatness that comes only when I let go of my ambitions and allow yours to take over.

I ask so often for you to take all of me and then I feel injured when it’s pointed out that I can’t do everything on my own.

Why I allow the stubborn me to crawl off the altar of sacrifice and proffer a vote, I’ll never understand.

So today, once again, take it ALL.

Take my rights, my self preservation, my emotions, my ambitions, my plans.

Make them yours and use them for your glory.

I will fix my eyes firmly where they should stay, on the prize of the high calling of Christ.

There my feet find wings and fly, above the clutter, into your presence.

There, I find peace.

Peace

February 22, 2014August 17, 2014 / Jaimie / 5 Comments

I’ve been looking for you all week. My souls been craving that moment of still when all is right and the soul is breathing as it listens to creation singing softly songs of praise.
Today, I found you in the rhythm of the waves.