Inspiration

One of my Very Favorite Songs from the New Josh Garrels Album

If you haven’t downloaded Josh Garrels’ brand-new (FREE!) album “Love & War”, what are you waiting for?!

“Farther Along” – Josh Garrels

“Farther along we’ll know all about it
Farther along we’ll understand why
Cheer up my brothers, live in the sunshine
We’ll understand this, all by and by…

…So much more to life than we’ve been told
It’s full of beauty that will unfold
And shine like you struck gold my wayward son
That deadweight burden weighs a ton
Go down into the river and let it run
And wash away all the things you’ve done
Forgiveness alright…”

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Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

a quiet friday morning

surprised baby face offcenter in photograph

it’s friday. i woke up to grumpy little noises, an impatient baby reminding me she hadn’t eaten in three whole hours. i picked her up and walked into the living room — right into coral-colored sunshine. the rays had painted a bright swath down the middle of our living room, and were dancing happily against the edges of the window. i smiled. it’s been a long time since i thought a morning was actually beautiful. mornings and i aren’t the best of friends, but lately, we’ve grown closer and closer. i’ve been seen all the shadows of the sundial over the past four months. sunsets, sunrises, and all the faces of the in-between moon.

it’s beautiful, this life. this wild, great, unpredictable life. and it’s so full of hope. this morning i read jeremiah 46:26: But fear not thou, O Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

there’s so much comfort in those words. i read them over again, as the coffee filled the air and aveline leaned her velvety cheek on my shoulder. fear not. be quiet and at ease. none shall make you afraid.

happy weekend, dear friends. be filled with hope today, and face–without fear–whatever the day brings you.

baby hand grasping handful of blanket

plush lamb teething rattle on light blue background

Inspiration

if there is any meaning…

“If there is any meaning in the life of Jesus of Nazareth, it is this: that there is a God who create us, and who loves us so much that he would stop at nothing to bring us to him. And I really suspect that of all things that we want to know, the only thing we really need to know is that we are loved. And if Jesus means anything, he means that you are loved. I hope you know that. And I hope you stop worrying about all the stuff that you don’t know, because I don’t think it amounts to  a hill of beans.” –Rich Mullins

Life in Photos

“there’s a joy in your sweet abandon, like the cowgirl ballerina”

i just adore my little family. we are unbelievably blessed. when i look at her bright eyes, i can’t help think of this beautiful rich mullins song:

26PM Josiah Munsey and baby girl Aveline Alenka -- father and daughter photo

“O Eli
There’s a sanctity in your innocence
A certain beauty and no uncertain strength
That brings me to the faith
I don’t know if I
If I am climbing to or falling in
But it comes like grace from your tiny hands
When I hold you in mine

And I pray that the eyes
Of your heart
Shine bright
With the hope to which you’re called
And may you know with all the saints
The height ~ the depth ~ the width ~ and the length
Of the love of God

O Eli
There’s a joy in your sweet abandon
Like the cowgirl ballerina
Leaves that ride
The wild and holy bucking wind that the sky
Sent through you to blow away these walls I’ve built
Walls of selfishness and walls of guilt
That leave me free to be a child

And I pray that the eyes
Of your heart
Shine bright
With the hope to which you’re called”

Poetry & Words

“i pray light will leak from our pockets” -josh garrels [listen!]

i can’t even begin to tell you how much the (very newly discovered) music of josh garrels has blessed me this week. take a moment to listen to jacaranda tree.

image via joshgarrels.com

“Sitting on porches
Since Friday while the sky
Tilts like a watery glass
We wait for downpours
A drenching joy
A carnival sky
But what I don’t say
What I can’t say
Is that with this joy Continue reading ““i pray light will leak from our pockets” -josh garrels [listen!]”

Poetry & Words

worry

“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.” -Corrie ten Boom

list of things to pack - moving

i needed to hear that word, last night, as i was labeling boxes and stacking them in the living room. we’re only maybe three or four boxes into this process, but the tears did come. the tears and the worry and the sense of displacement. and then in that moment in my mind, i heard the perfectly husky voice of rich mullins, singing with reckless abandon into an old cassette recorder, singing,

“You did not have a home / birds have nests, foxes have dens / but the hope of the whole world rests / on the shoulders of a homeless man.”

and I was reminded that the Son of Man had no place to rest. and then i saw a message from my daddy, and he said, “i am so happy to hear you have a place to rest your head.”

and i have courage and hope to press on.

“for you have not as yet come to the resting place and the inheritance which the Lord your God is giving you. When you cross the Jordan and live in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and He gives you rest from all your enemies around you so that you live in security, then it shall come about that the place in which the Lord your God will choose for His name to dwell, there you shall bring all that I command you.” -deuteronomy 12:9-11

“the Lord takes by it’s corners this ol’ world and shakes us forward and shakes us free to run wild with the hope.” -rich mullins

i am running wild with hope.  and the sky is about to rain.