Crescendo of Spirit

 CRESCENDO OF SPIRIT

     Moments. They tick by us so rapidly as do the seconds on a clock. If we blink we’ll miss most but the important ones we will hopefully pause and take note of. The ones that we should never miss are what I like to call the “ crescendos of the spirit”. THEY are the significant times, the times that ring loudest and are like vitamin shots to our souls, and nourish our spirits and highlight our lives. 

     “Crescendos of the Spirit” may come in the form of watching the birth of your children or walking your daughter down the aisle or just standing in the middle of nature and breathing it in. Whatever your ‘crescendo moment’ looks like, well, you’ll know it when you’re in it! A wave of emotion like no other will sweep over you and take your breath and there may even be tears. The ticking of times clock will seemingly stand still and you won’t even care. The man of your dreams could drop to one knee or a college professor could hand you or your son/daughter a significant piece of paper or there may be a long hike and the pinnacle of the mountain is realized and you gasp at the beauty that stretches in front of you. The height of human emotion is met face to face with your life’s script. 

      Some of my crescendo moments have been in nature. I know there are many others that have ticked by for me but in my later years it seems to involve nature and the beauty that surrounds me. One I particularly remember is a morning recently where the trials of life had washed over my spirit and I had been up nearly all night crying. I was feeling so overwhelmed that I know the Lord knew I needed an uplifting of spirit. I got up out of bed and went outside to stand near my garden. Literally as I stood there the sun burst from behind the clouds, birds were flying around in mass and singing their hearts out and the flowers that I had planted were beginning to bloom. You can’t make this stuff up but that’s exactly what happened . Like the crescendo in a song I heard it all quite loudly. The lament of loss in my spirit melted into peace and contentment. The songs of the birds brought instant mirth to my tear stained face and the flowers made me lose all sense of my surroundings . The only thing that mattered was the moment I was in and like a vitamin shot  my spirit was renewed and I was smack dab in the middle of my crescendo! I didn’t miss it because it was meant to be significant. The master time keeper laid this crescendo out for me and it came at just the right time. 

     Crescendos of Spirit come in the timeliest of fashions and if you would it would behoove you to pay attention, bask in those moments as long as possible and never allow distraction to rule the moment. Soak, bask, linger, absorb, relish, and cherish are the important hands on the clock of your time in that crescendo. Stay as long as you can. Soak in every sweet moment of your time. These are the moments that make It all worth it! Your song needs pinnacles of hope to keep you climbing. Listen and keep your eyes open  and today may be your day for a ‘Crescendo of Spirit’. 

Romans 15:13. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. As you continue to place your trust in God, He will continue to fill your heart with joy, peace, and a hope that overflows into the lives of the people around you ...

A New View

 There are days that come when all can look cloudy and dreary and rainy. We grow sad, apathetic, and depressed. How do we snap out of that place in order to get a new perspective on our outlook? I believe the answer is to “change our view “! We can choose to stand and gaze out at all of the dark and dreary things that currently may be taking place in our lives or we can choose to push back the curtains of darkness and allow the light and love that are present, even when we can’t see it, to come in and penetrate the darkness . It sounds so simple, you say, but easier said than done. Yes, it does take effort. It does take stepping out of our darkest places and times and making the choice to do it differently. How? Small steps make for big changes I’m thinking. Let me share my story and current situation if I may. It may help to relate to what I’m saying. 

A short time ago My dear husband of nearly 50 Years starting exhibiting signs of physical decline and it began to worry me a bit. Then he took a fall and broke some bones which in turn required surgery. He’s hold up in our house now with a cast on his arm and a faraway look in his eyes that tells me he is struggling to find the hope in things. I have been attending to his every need and taxiing him to Dr. Visits and physical therapy appointments and the dark cloud that rested over his head now has taken up residence above mine. In the middle of it all we were told that we would have to move from the house we’ve been renting because it was being sold and we would only have 30 days or so to accomplish it all. Well, I don’t know about you but if you’ve been married for any length of time you know that you can accumulate things. And that was true to a great extent in our case. Our three children and their families have been wonderful and have come alongside us to help us to downsize and make choices in our later years here. To say that this journey of late has been very very hard is quite an understatement. There have been tears there have been angry moments and there have been amazingly good ones as well. Our family, our church family and our friends have shown us love beyond measure. Now here is where my advice on changing your view comes into play. My husband and I have been offered a place to live in my daughter and son in laws home. That gesture alone is chocked full of love and care and honoring that is hard to comprehend. Nonetheless, we are getting ready to change our view, literally. Through all of our dark clouded moments God placed different loved ones at different times to pull back the curtains and let the light in for us. They have held our hands, held our arms up, prayed and encouraged us all along the road. And I am here to tell you that those curtains were very heavy and hard to push back but they were pushed back and now the light is streaming in and the hope lights up our whole room.

In the process of all the darkness and change, when those curtains were pushed back and change came the light came with the change. If we had chosen to look out on the gloom of it all and no one ever pushed back the curtains then we would still be standing in the shadow of hopelessness and dread. But change brought about the joy. Now, here’s another thing to “tweek” your thinking. Every bit of that darkness that settled in over us I believe was ordained, orchestrated with purpose to accomplish something. That’s right! Even those dark moments that seemingly cloud out anything “hope filled”are happening in order to do something in us. It’s true!

Look at this and remember . . . . 

The veil was the heavy curtain in the Temple at Jerusalem which was torn when Jesus died. Matthew 27:51 says, "Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the Rocks rent. 

The darkest day on the face of this earth yet there was a curtain that would be drawn back, in fact this one was torn in two. It was a darkness like no other, a sadness that couldn’t be equaled yet there was a curtain, a curtain that was torn in two in order for the light to be revealed. Every bit of it , every tear, every agonizing moment was ordained and served a purpose far greater than we could possibly comprehend. The darkness mattered. It was a precursor to the light of hope that Jesus was giving his life to bring. 

My situation pales in the shadow of this story but it’s still very sugnificant in the eyes of my Father. It’s meant to make me stronger and exhibits the extraordinary love that he has for me. And all it took was for me to change my view! Spring is upon us, the Winter of our season of hopelessness is over but only if you choose to let in the light! 

One last note: Theses a line in an older song called “Remind Me” that says, “roll back the curtains of memories now and then, show me where you brought me from and where I would have been”. 

Ask God to remind you today of where you could have been or could be if your curtain was rolled back. Maybe, just maybe you need to change your view! There’s always light when the curtains are pushed back. 

Shattered Cup

 I love pottery. I’m not sure what it is about it but I just love handmade pottery. I have a very vintage shaving mug rack that was from a barber shop in a town near me. It held shaving mugs for the barbers’ customers. When they would come in for a haircut and a shave each one had their very own mug with their name on it and a small cake of soap in the bottom that the barber could whip up into a froth and slather it on their face for the cleanest shave that they ever had. Well, this mug rack now holds all of my special pottery mugs for coffee, tea or whatever beverage anyone chooses.  I have a favorite, of course that I gravitate towards every time. It was taller than most of my 40 or so mugs, had a tree painted on it ( my weakness is a love for trees) and it just felt “right” in my hand  you know! One day as I routinely headed for my mug rack to grab my favorite mug for my morning cup of Joe I noticed that it wasn’t there. I turned and looked at my hubby who had been unloading the dishwasher and he had that ‘ deer in the headlights’ look on his face and he slowly produced , you guessed it, my favorite mug. However, this once perfect vessel was now in 3-4 pieces. I was as crushed as that mug! I quickly ran for the glue and started trying to make it look as it once had. When the last piece was set into place I could see that it would never look as it did before and most assuredly would never serve the same purpose that it had in the past.  The last piece that I’d tried to glue back into place looked ok but something about the mug was off. My thought was that the glue would get hot when the mug was filled with coffee and the glue would release. I picked up my shattered and broken mug and walked into my sunroom and sat down. My sunroom is where I sit and watch nature and get inspiration for my art. I took my favorite mug and sat it Next to my chair. I sat there looking at all of my paintbrushes scattered everywhere so I pick them up in a nice bundle and put them down inside of my broken mug. Now my broken mug would hold my favorite tools and I could still look at it everyday. I know it seemed silly and childlike but I asked God, “Why? Out of all the 40 other mugs did it have to be this one that was shattered?” Sometimes in life things don’t seem fair, they don’t seem like they serve our best interests. Oh, but they do! You see, as I sat there feeling sorry for myself and mourning  the loss of a coffee cup, the Lord was doing something in me. I looked at that mug holding all my beautiful paintbrushes and looked at it and looked at it and realized that I could look at it. I realized it was still here! It was still my favorite, but it had just taken on a new purpose. Instead of holding my coffee it held my tools. Its usefulness was still intact. It wasn’t the mug that was shattered but my expectations of what made me happy and what was normal in my mind that was shattered. Sometimes things change. Sometimes our thoughts of what a perfect picture can be can get shattered just like my mug.  Sometimes we lose things that are dear to us, sometimes we lose people that are precious to us or sometimes we have to move on from our comfortable and normal spots in order for change to be realized. The mugs’ purpose changed and it was a good thing. But the good thing was that I realized in my heart that God has more than one reason for things happening to us and it’s how we resolve it in our hearts and move on and embrace the change that actually makes the difference. God always knows what he’s doing and why he’s doing it. It can be sad, it can be depressing, it can be hard and it can test your mettle at times but ask God to show you and renew your mind and your thinking about all the questions of why? I have a paintbrush holder that I love, it’s my favorite and it has a tree on it ! It reminds me of the days when I drank deeply of the pleasures of my morning coffee and time with my Father and  now I have a wonderful memory of that PLUS a new smile because I now realize that by drinking deeply in the presence of my Father that my eyes can now see that His ways and His purposes reach much farther than the shattered brokenness that is evident in front of me.