the project house

the new roundy place

What is man that thou art mindful of him??

Praying with Eddie Askew

i found this on J.R.'s blog and thought about the discipline of slowing....for a second :)

08.09.2009

Busy Man. Portrait, Venice, Italy.

Originally uploaded by E. B. Sylvester

Lord, life’s a whirlpool.
So much to do.
I rush around, faster and faster,
intent on today,
this moment.
Never looking beyond the immediate.
My good intentions,
wet and waterlogged,
slide down the plug hole,
gone.


Out there,
on the blurred edge of vision,
people stand, beckon, call.
So indistinct I can pretend
I don’t see them,
except to myself.
But I rush on.
No time.
Scattering, perhaps,
a little largesse on the way.
Greasing the palm of charity.
My once bright conscience dulled
with tarnished generosity.
Encrusted rust, self-damaging.
My own collecting boxes
full of good intentions,
never cashed.

And yet, Lord,
there are moments
when I hear your voice.
Soft, yet insistent.
Your voice, coming,
not from some cloudy heaven
above, beyond,
but somehow centered
in the people I ignore.
And when I take my courage in both hands -
and doing that
means putting down my diary first -
and turn to them,
I find I’ve turned to you.
Among the lonely.
You are the neighbor I ignored.
The injured on the Jericho road.
And when I walk by,
on the other side,
I sidestep love,
and I’m the lonely one,
Self-exiled by my busyness.

Lord, help me try again.
Find time for others.
Find time for you.

From Facing the Storm

I wonder if music tells more about life than we can comprehend

"Stand by Me" performed by musicians around the world from SKAT on Vimeo.

interesting link to the heart of God

http://www.chicagobaptist.org/?action=getpage&page=10314
i hope this works:)
yeah--i know---i'll try anything-with or without info
anyway,What do you think and what is your experience in your neighborhood?

hopeful enough to walk

May the living God, the risen Lord, and the life-giving Spirit make you strong and brave and hopeful enough to walk where you’re led.

Sometimes, I wonder if I focus to much on the being led and not enough time being hopeful. Receiving hope is sometimes a hard thing for me-although I so believe that every perfect gift comes from above. Just today-I receive your hope in your way for your path that I'm searching out.

Dust

I've spent quite a lot of time considering the dust of the rabbi as it settled on the disciples as a model for journey and learning from the master and from those that He puts in my way to lead me.(bell influence) These are two of my great friends in the world making some serious dust. Today, through the link on the side, I was challenged on ash wed to consider what I need to lay down as dust in order to collect more from the master. Father, give me the ability to look straight into the dirt, name it, and lay it down-left as dust.

A Season of Shame

As she came riding into town that day, did she think everyone was looking? Did she travel with people that only looked out the corners of their eyes at her? Did she wear some extra clothes and try to smile extra to ease their uneasiness? Today I spoke with a great friend who helps people to see themselves better this time of year, he called it a season of shame. As I wait for the day that we celebrate the messiah's birth, I have started to look into the eyes around me just to see if I can see a little deeper than normal. It seems more often than I care to believe, the eyes contradict the smile on their face. I believe that the journey I'm on and the one I wait for should make me an open receptor for the shame of others and a welcoming hand in a world of isolation. Father, help me to feel what they feel! "Wisdom is shown to be right by it's results"---the one known as a glutton and a drunkard and a friend of sinners---the one for whom we wait