The River is Eternal

"And always, from a time before anybody knew of time, the river had been there. From my sitting place where the woods stood up at the edge of the pasture, I could see the river, risen a little, swift and muddy from the spring rains, coming down the mile-long reach above the Willow Run bend, swerving through the bend and coming on down past the landing, carrying its load of drift. And I saw how all-of-a-piece it was, how never-ending—always coming, always there, always going."

Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow: A Novel (Port William) (pp. 131-132). Counterpoint. Kindle Edition. 

In this, the 4th week of our Book Study over at Michele Morin's site:

 Living Our Days

our friend, Jayber Crow, has begun to settle in as the "Bachelor Barber" of Port William.  The previous barber had pulled up stakes, and left the town in need, to which Jayber stepped in and found a place that was Home. 

(A Little Disclaimer Here: Within these chapters we find some  "earthy" language and experiences that might be unsettling if you are expecting only a "Christian Lifestyle" book.  However, there is much to be gleaned about how the Mercy of our Lord steps into the grittiness of real life.)

As Jayber begins to find some measure of acceptance into the community, he begins to find his own way of accepting. Becoming familiar with his customers, and learning their individual quirks, he makes some keen observations:

 "I liked them varyingly; some I didn’t like at all. But all of them have been interesting to me; some I have liked and some I have loved. I have raked my comb over scalps that were dirty both above and beneath. I have lowered the ears of good men and bad, smart and stupid, young and old, kind and mean; of men who have killed other men (think of that) and of men who have been killed (think of that). I cut the hair of Tom Coulter and Virgil Feltner and Jimmy Chatham and a good many more who went away to the various wars and never came back, or came back dead."

Berry, Wendell. Jayber Crow: A Novel (Port William) (p. 125). Counterpoint. Kindle Edition. 

And once again, the preacher-cum-barber stirred my own heart to look at the kind of acceptance I have been allowed.

How often 

has my merciful savior 

looked beneath to see my dirty places?

How often

has HE parted the coverings

above my hidden failings?

The River of Eternal Love, that flows from the heart of my Lord, will never run dry. I can never exhaust the supply of Living Water that He offers for the cleansing of my ways.



 "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb." Revelation 22:1

Are you faced with the sight

of failings?

Are you feeling the weight

of too much weakness?

Would you join me at the foot of the Cross,

at the edge of His River of Love,

for this prayer of 
honesty and

Gratefulness?

Dear Lord of the Waves,

I confess that my soul

is still so much of this world.

I am so in need of your 

Mercy.

Would you have full sway in me,

to part and reveal the places

where I still cling

to the old.

Would you replace my heart of clay

with your Sweet heart of Love,

And cleanse away those old habits

of selfishness.

Thank you that your River of Love

is never ending.

Thank you that there is no one

who can care as deeply as you.

In Jesus Name We pray,

Amen. 



"It wasn’t so long ago that we ourselves were stupid and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder, hated and hating back. But when God, our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in, he saved us from all that. It was all his doing; we had nothing to do with it. He gave us a good bath, and we came out of it new people, washed inside and out by the Holy Spirit. Our Savior Jesus poured out new life so generously. God’s gift has restored our relationship with him and given us back our lives. And there’s more life to come—an eternity of life! You can count on this."
Titus 3:4-6 MSG 



I pray that this classic hymn from Babbie Mason will bless you as it has blessed me today:

You can find Jayber Crow, by Wendell Berry at Amazon by clicking here.

I am linking this week with these great bloggers:

Suzie Eller, #LiveFreeThursday 

Debbie Kitterman, #TuneInThursday 
Meg Weyerbacher, #TeaAndWordTuesday 
Barbie Swihart, #Glimpses 

 

 

An Eye of Forgiveness

Is there no one here to speak for me?
She had cried out in her shame.
Buried beneath a sin so deep
With no way to escape

The judgment poured down on her.

                           

But Jesus stepped into the crowd
Bent down on the sand

And waited, waited for her

Accusers

Those without sin to cast the stones.

Woman, He asked,

Where are your accusers now?

None stood here without sin.

Neither do I accuse you then.

Freedom became her theme.

Another woman bore a shame

She knew her part in the sinning game

But saw in Jesus’ eyes

Forgiveness calling her out

Mercy drawing her in.

From the depth of her freedom

Came a Love stronger than shame

For ONE had pled her case.

An offering for mercy’s sake

Of much she was forgiven.

Alabaster jar broken open

Fragrance filled the judging room

A washing clean had happened

Worship spilled the tears there

As Love was finally free.

                          --BG

Jesus pled their cases

Jesus spoke up for those

Who could not speak

You can read the stories of these two women, the first one in John 8:4-11, and the second one in Luke 7:36-50. Jesus brought each of these women into a life of forgiveness, something the leaders of his day were not expecting. To the first He said:  

“Then neither do I condemn you,”  

Jesus declared. 

“Go now and leave your life of sin.”

John 8:11 

And to the second He spoke:

 

“Your faith has saved you; 

go in peace.”

Luke 7:50 

My own heart has been taken up in the stories of those around me, friends and neighbors, who have found themselves in need of rescue.  

When the world condemns, 

and even at times the Church ignores, 

where is the true Body of Christ to be found? 

Am I so willing to speak?

Am I so willing to forgive?

Am I so willing to bring in?  

Oh, friend, may we take 

JOY 

and love with the same

 LOVE

so freely given to us.  

May we point to the

RESCUE

that only our Savior can give.

I am linking this week with:  

Barbie, Swihart, #Glimpses 

Jennifer Dukes Lee, #TellHisStory

 

The Face of Love

I started my week with a Devotional and this Quiet Scripture reading, little guessing how similar these words would echo the final chapters for our study at Michele Morin's site:

Living Our Days

for C.S. Lewis' myth retold, Till We Have Faces. 

"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 NIV

We have come to the final two chapters of the book, and I find myself overwhelmed with so many thoughts from these words penned by a supreme wordsmith.  But C.S. Lewis was not using his words only for the sake of beautiful and cunning language. No, he addresses that thought, the ultimate inadequacies of our language, as he alludes to the meaning of this book's title:

"When the time comes to you at which you will be forced at last to utter the speech which has lain at the center of your soul for years, which you have, all that time, idiot-like, been saying over and over, you'll not talk about joy of words. . . Till that word can be dug out of us, why should they (the gods) hear the babble that we think we mean? How can they meet us face to face till we have faces?"

In the last days of her life, Orual was given vision after vision, taking her closer to the depths of her own heart. In one final vision, Orual brought her (mostly) finished story and her complaint against the gods.  As she stood reading her complaint, she suddenly realized that she had been reading the same words over and over again, and the gods themselves had been silent.  

There in the silence she understood that the very complaint she had brought before them, thinking she was judging them, was in fact, the judgement of her own ways. She was the one who had treated LOVE unfairly. She was the one who had abused the heart of her Dear Psyche, and the one who had sent her away.

In the moments before Orual faced her trial before the Supreme Lord, she was shown glimpses of her life, and of Psyche's life. As she watched their parallel paths, she saw the heart difference displayed in Psyche. While Psyche still carried joy through her wanderings, Orual had only carried sorrow and bitterness in the deep caverns of her soul.  A clarity began to form in Orual's heart.

Haven't I faced that moment of clarity  when the True God placed before me the decision to choose HIS Life,

to be offered a full repentance?

Psyche offered to Orual, a love that was without restraint. A love that Orual had never been able to attain:

"Did I not tell you, Maia (Psyche's name for Orual,) that a day was coming when you and I would meet in my house and no cloud between us?"

Psyche brought Orual to the edge of a pool, and the joy and the love that Orual had never understood before, was offered to her through Psyche's gift. Even as the Supreme One approached them, and Orual felt herself "pierced through and through with the arrows of it. I was being unmade," she knew why all of it mattered:

"The earth and stars and sun, all that was or will be, existed for His sake. And He was coming. The most beautiful, the only dread and beauty there is, was coming."

And in that moment, the unmaking of Orual was the birthing of something more beautiful than she could ever have thought. In the reflected vision at the pool, Psyche's love and Psyche's beauty became her own. Same but not the same. Mercy had won over judgement. Only Love remained. 

Her book demanded a different ending:

"I ended my first book with the words 'no answer.' I know now, Lord, why you utter no answer. You are yourself the answer. Before your face questions die away. What other answer would suffice?"

And my own heart wept as another glimpse into the mercy of my God filled my soul. All of my own striving to love, all of my own searching for beauty only leads me to a deeper shame, and a deeper knowing that I cannot attain to what is required. He, the ONE who is everything, is not within my reach.

But His Mercy made a way

His Mercy sent Jesus

His Son

To show me what 

only He could bring:

The True Love

that paid the price

for the complaint

brought against me,

and you.

In His Face 

we find our own faces

when we choose His Life

His Love

The God who spoke light into existence, saying, “Let light shine from the darkness,” is the very One who sets our hearts ablaze to shed light on the knowledge of God’s glory revealed in the face of Jesus, the Anointed One.

2 Corinthians 4:6 (The Voice)

He takes the same Love that's inside of His Heart

And He puts the same love deep inside of me.



To find an index for all of the posts in this series on the study of C.S. Lewis' Till We Have Faces,
click here

I am linking today with:
Debbie Kitterman, #TuneInThursday

Suzie Eller, #LiveFreeThursday

Stillness

The Stillness of the first Snow 

ushers in the Pause,

The Pause of Advent,

 When waiting hovers all around

And Mystery calls out to me. 

Yesterday I read the words of Bonnie Gray, The Faith Barista, again, and  remembered my first weeks as a blogger, when she began her #OneWordLent series. Only now, the months have passed, and she invited us to join her as she begins a new series for #OneWordAdvent. Find her first post  by clicking here where she shared her words at the (In)Courage Site.



Those first weeks as a blogger were so scary to me (not that I feel much braver now, 80 posts later,) and her words of invitation brought a stirring followed by a response in my heart that was hard to ignore. I knew that God was the one calling me out, and asking me to listen for HIS #OneWord. 

Could it be that He is still

asking me to seek out

the #OneWord He 

would speak today?

And the Ancient Words flutter

down through time,

words we memorize as children

become so familiar

that we miss the meaning

lose the mystery.

 

^" And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.'"

Luke 2:8-11 NIV 

I wonder how dark the night was as they watched their sheep. The darkness seems very deep around my soul, around the souls of many that I love right now.  Who is keeping watch?  Who is guarding the sheep this night?  And how well were those shepherds trained to listen for the predator in the dark?

I have a feeling that no amount of training could have prepared them for the explosion of mystery that rang around them, and brought them to their knees on THAT NIGHT.  Who was watching the sheep then? And where was the BRAVE when the sky fell down around them?

My heart is heavy

for those who watch

the sky falling

and find their faces on the ground.

My prayers feel useless under a weight

that is full of my own fear as well.

Did the shepherds cry out for mercy

in that moment

before the 

Angels sang?

The angel's first words make so much more sense to me now. Unless the sky has fallen around you, you cannot feel the weight of those words:

"Do not be afraid"

And unless you have felt the weight being lifted off your shoulders

as the Mystery of God Coming to Earth envelops you, you cannot see the beauty:

 Grace in a Shepherd, 

Mercy for the sheep.

  

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
John 10:7, 9-10  


So what is my #OneWordAdvent
for this week?


STILLNESS

I will be still, and know that HE is God.

God come to earth
for me and for you

to be the perfect shepherd caring for us
the sheep of HIS fold. 

GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY for all the people. 




I am linking this week with:
#TellHisStory, Jennifer Dukes Lee 
#TeaAndWordTuesday, Meg Weyerbacher 
#LiveFreeThursday, Suzie Eller