Fall Approaching

Approaching the Fall of a very busy year, tired but loved. Looking over some past things and looking forward to others. Aware of the steadfast and unchangeable affection the Father has for His own.

Praying for a rhythm that lets me paint more and post more. It has been a year of illness and moves and poetry and days that were too long or not long enough. "Life."

In the mean while the best kind of left overs I revisited today:

http://iamcallingshotgun.blogspot.com/2011/03/i-will-burst-his-heart-with-my-loving.html

A God-love repost that gets me every time.

http://iamcallingshotgun.blogspot.com/2011/11/his-sea-bed-is-love-without-end.html

NOW

"God, why don't you do something n-o-w?"

Maybe because we are the Holy-Now the world is waiting for...

Nourished (by relationship to Christ)

Obedient (by purposeful commitment to live out God's preferences)

Women (creative by design).

-kl

You Do It

Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have... Acts 3

I remember finding it odd when the Lord told the disciples to give the multitude something to eat. They had not a sack lunch of their own yet he said, "You do it. You give them something to eat."

Now here are Peter and John on the way to church and they plunge right in among the beggars whose hands are out expecting something. Those beggars knew exactly what they wanted. Peter and John knew their own pockets were empty. Did they choose a less conspicuous route? We know the answer. They plunged in.

In speaking of this story, Will Willimon observes that, "The path toward significant prayer is a way that goes straight through, not around, human misery."

I would be false to say that I do not walk into the Mission sometimes and look at a situation that I feel is beyond my personal resources. Experience has taught me not to take the less demanding route. Christ has taught me what I have in His Name.

Time and again I have seen Heaven fasten its eyes on someone broken and stand them on their feet when I or one of our Chapel workers head right into the middle of the problem. "You do it."

Christ has given us His mighty Name. Fold that into love and obedience and you have, "Such as I have..." and the lame walk. It has to be God for we do not have it in us otherwise. The lame man wanted a coin. He got his life back instead.

As you pray, remember us. We need obedience and vision so that the broken may rise and re-enter life on level ground.

May the Holy Spirit reveal to all of us the wonderful possibilities of what we possess for the Kingdom.

In His service,
Rev. John T. LaMantia

(September Director's Letter)

Benefactor

Your words drop into my days

like coins in a purse.

I am rich. I am full of

astonishing abundance.

Let the mice come with

their nibbling teeth.

I am tethered to the storehouse

of a thousand sunrises;

to the One who spoke

silver into seams,
coaxed gold into mountain streams,

who bled into rubies and

set the sapphires with stars.

Benefactor

-by Kat

Dragonfly Rain

I saw a dragonfly in the rain
stinging and relentless it came down
He was so still I thought he'd drowned

But when the sun began to shine
I saw with joy that he was fine
and had in no way come to harm

I saw a dragonfly fly again
A storm that might so easily oppress
had but made him iridesce

Lord, may the dragonfly's flight be mine!

Dragonfly Rain
-by Kat Cavanaugh LaMantia

Many are saying about me,
"Even with God on his side,
    he won’t be victorious.” 

But you, O Lord, are a shield that surrounds me.
    You are my glory.
    You hold my head high.

I call aloud to the Lord,
    and he answers me from his holy mountain. Selah
I lie down and sleep.
    I wake up again because the Lord continues to support me.

-Psalm 3 (The Voice)

In Community

And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity. 1 Corinthians 13:13 KJV

I find that whatever ministry I practice must be done in the larger context of community if it is to have any authenticity at all; if it is to have any lasting value to the person ministered to and also if it is to be of benefit to me.

I do not give a sandwich away without giving my heart along with it. If all I give you is a pair of socks your feet will be dry but your soul will remain a desert- and so will mine.

Jesus was more about connections than He was about fish and bread. We belong to one another. That is the only real basis for charity if charity is to become a bloom not a blight on the human landscape.

May our hearts fill our hands.

Bless you as you step into the week ahead.

John LaMantia