There will be a day God lifts His children from the earth and delivers them from the darkness of this world, into the everlasting light of His. Those people who walk with Him here will enter their eternal home with Him. They will escape the doom that is coming.

It must be said, walking with Jesus is not just about living with abundance and joy and going to heaven. Walking with Jesus is also about that day. It is about living in this world of treachery with discernment and hope.  It is seizing the gift of our lifetime and averting the snares, lies and eternal abyss of evil. 

You may not even see the lies. You may not believe in pending doom. Walk with Jesus a while. Read His words in the gospels. Get to know Him. Sit in a pew and listen. Ask Him to reveal the Truth to you. You only have everything to gain. 

One could never list all of the benefits that God has provided us through His Son. They are too many to count, like the stars in the dark sky and the grains of sands on the beaches and everything that is good between them. Follow Him. He will show you.

But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  1 Thessalonians 5:4-5

 

I surrender to Him. He molds me. I am not my own, I am Christ’s; my life is not my own, it is His. Christ walked with us for a while and now, endowed with His Holy Spirit, we walk. We walk to be seen. We walk so that others may know Him.

In my early 30’s I took my family to church. I wanted to heal and learn and worship. I sought a traditional Bible study but was encouraged by a well-meaning member to join an evangelism class. The whole thing scared me. I just started attending church, how could I evangelize?  I needed to learn to swim but was thrown out to sea. It was way over my head. I loved God, but I didn’t know yet what I had to offer to anyone. I was still finding my own way to Him, how could I guide others?

At the same time, another member told me if it wasn’t readily apparent to others that a person was saved then they weren’t truly “born again.” This gnawed at me. Does being saved look the same in everyone? Are there not depths of intimacy with Christ? Doesn’t God know my heart and lead me into the waters of His love in His perfect way? I wanted to be a Christian, unafraid and bold. I had to trust that God was working that out in me.

It’s not that they were wrong; it’s that I wasn’t strong.  I hadn’t walked far down the path, but I was being shown glimpses of things to come along the way. I am thankful for the small faith and hope in Christ that I had. It was visible to Him.  May the love of Christ be visible in me. May the light of Christ in me gently and lovingly make the way clear for others.

The woman said to Elijah, “now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”  1 Kings 17:24

 

I’ve been giving some thought to that fancied life of seclusion. Maybe the life of a monk, or my naive impressions of it, was the only way my mind could conceptualize living fully with God. Perhaps I didn’t have the strength to have both feet in my normal life and with God at the same time. It could be that deep in my spirit I knew there would come a day I’d have to choose between the world and Christ and I couldn’t conceive how that would unfold. On my walks, as I came to know Him more intimately, I left those mysteries in His hands.

When you can’t imagine how it will work, when the unfolding makes you nervous, when your heart declares Him in secrecy, but shies in the open: surrender it all to Him. He put the longing in your heart, it’s not wholly up to you to bring it to fruition. How could it be? You don’t know His plans. They are beyond your imagination and current capabilities. Just know they are good and that they intricately involve His intimate presence.  Just to say, Lord, I love You. My heart sings for You. I am willing. Then take His hand and go where He goes.

God asks me to live in Him fully, not only in seclusion. Loving God isn’t a condition requiring quarantine, no, His love is more life-giving in the spreading. I receive Him in solitude and carry Him forth like a wave pushed from the sea, breaking and spraying, washing and refreshing. Retreating, filling and surging to break on the shore again.

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Ephesians 5:8

 

God wants us for keeps.  He wants us now and for all eternity. There is no time to wait, why would you? God sent His radiance and glory to earth so that we may have abundant life—starting now! We may walk in His radiance and glory starting now, furnished with His Holy Spirit, love, guidance, and divine purpose. Jesus came to claim us, to save us for Himself and once we are saved, we are secure in Him. 

What does that mean? Will nothing uncomfortable or difficult befall us? We can be saved, but the things of earth are not. As long as evil is roaming, we will still see trouble. Jesus wept when He was here on earth; he faced death, unbelievers and sin, corruption and persecution. This is the stuff of the world so we will see it and may be touched by it. We can choose to face it without God, senselessly and without end, or choose God and through it all, take comfort in the One whose aim is to be our loving Father forever. Not adrift in desolation, no, we are safe in His arms and He will bring us home

Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14

 

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 1 Timothy 6:17

My office is adorned with found items from my walks. I have rocks, shells, an imitation gold chain, little colored felt balls and feathers. I gathered them up, like special gifts dropped before me along my course. It is good to remember all the gifts, both tangible and sublime. 

The moments collected with God are not moments spent, but moments invested. It’s not just about quality, it is about quantity. A moment with God is without question a moment of value, so increase the quantity. Invest more of your moments in Him. God does richly provide me with everything for my enjoyment. Walking with Him is truly delightful.  The more delighted I become in Him, the more delighted I want God to become with me! It became my passion to make our walks the most enjoyable part of His day too! 

Soon those golden moments begin to spill, back to Him and upon others. I become more willing and eager to give to others, to treasure and be available to those He put in my daily path. Collect His divine gifts to overflow that they spill to the benefit and blessing of others.

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.                   1 Timothy  6:18-19

 

 

God created me for success. It is a powerful thing, writing that sentence. Those words never existed in my being before I walked with Jesus on these quiet paths. I never knew that He had intended anything for me, let alone success. Isn’t “success” greed and self-importance and fame? No. Success is surrendering to God and responding to His call.

God has a plan for me, He told me as we walked. He put a divine purpose into my hands and smiled. Then he clasped His hands heavily around mine and looked deeply and incredibly lovingly into my eyes. We’ll do these things together, He said, and I realized this is all I’ve ever wanted.

It is the desire of the hearts of all God’s children to surrender to Him fully and serve Him joyfully. You may not have fully realized this yet, what with all of the noise from the outside and all the doubts on the inside, but God is the desire of your heart. Walk a while with Him alone and you will see.  He has been waiting to show you. 

The noise of the world will fade to birdsong and koi splashes and in His company, doubts will scatter with the leaves, tumbling further and further away until they blend with the scenery. It won’t be long, after you’ve made some fragrant, open space for Him, that your own plans and devices lose their luster. You find yourself wondering aloud to God what His intentions for you might be. He will answer you, and you will listen like never before. Then your heart will respond to His call with assurance that you are, on every side, girded and hemmed with His blessings.

Let the weak say I am strong.  Joel 3:10

 

When my eight days of silence and retreat came to an end, I marveled how I had survived adulthood without a yearly retreat! Sure, I’ve had vacations, but vacations are simply plans to do new activities somewhere else. This retreat, however, like my daily walk, was a stripping away, a purposeful decision to remove all distractions and do nothing but seek God.

I experienced this still serenity as a child in summers at the farm. This is where I tasted long soulful days filled with the stuff of monks. Sweeping old dusty outbuildings, feeding the chickens, their low clucks calling the others, stepping barefoot through the milkweed to the elderberry bushes that grew in the ditch at the edge of the woods. I spent hours in my attic room reading and writing in the hot thick air, a mattress, a journal and an dusty trunk my only amenities. I did not miss my home in the suburbs. I was complete to cup the goat’s sticky grain under her nose and feel her fuzzy lips in my palms. There, in her stall, sweet with fresh hay and the hushed bleats of her new kid, God’s universe whispered. 

I think my soul has always longed to go back to Carla’s barn and that attic room. Big Pop Pop’s farm taught me how to hear the things unspoken, how to enter the spaces uninhabited, how to cultivate life in fields lying fallow. God is here. He will speak to you, He will till your wild soul and plant something beautiful.

And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out  into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has  been  given to us.    Romans 5:5

God created me to desire. He wants to speak to my heart and find there a fire burning for Him, so He can quench it with good things. He wants me to know that His hand—and only His hand—provides all that I need, so my fire will burn eternally for Him.

There is a photograph of  a very young me standing with my first friend in the center of town. There was some sort of giveaway for kids and we gathered around a fire engine with our hands out. I’m sure I was very excited to get a present, but the photo shows me dejected, looking into my father’s camera with a small doll blanket hanging from my hand. Isn’t that how life can be? We desire, we grab, we are disappointed, we grab again. 

There are endless ways to pacify desire, but only One satisfies. Even if a frivolous purchase pleases me for a moment or a year, it may sooner or later spoil and become a bother. Or worse yet, I will cling to it forever, never realizing it is a worthless imposter of the provision of God. 

Why would I place my hope in gifts or promises from the world? The world doesn’t know me. When I put my faith in God and keep confident in His promises, He fills my needs, He gives me gifts, He makes me to desire the way He leads and the endeavors He sets before me. God’s gifts will quench your desire. He does not disappoint

The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live  in the clefts of the  rocks and  make your home on the heights, you who say to  yourself, “Who can  bring me down to  the ground?”   Obadiah 1:3

 

I learned about release when addiction darkened our doorstep. My son and all that had been precious in his life had been wrenched away and eventually, because they told me I must, I let it go. I put him into God’s hands and then I was free to love him without the impossible job of fixing him.

One day, in our seventh year of this heartache, we thought our worst fears had come true. I was told where to find him and knocked on the door. He was alive. I told him I loved him, hugged him, and left him with God. Several days later he called and said he was done. He was ready to live again.

Throughout the year of my walks with God, He asked me to release many things. One might think after releasing my son to what I believed was imminent death, I was an old pro, but it was still hard work to let God bring light to the darkness of my closed fists. I fear I’ll be left vulnerable, even if the thing I am to release is causing me pain! I hold on to painful things because I feel like I am supposed to be sorting them out, like holding on to an addicted son in the vain hope I can heal him. There are some things only God can do. So I open my fists and stand vulnerable in the light of His merciful healing.

Life gets a little easier when I hold the things God puts in my hands and drop the things He hasn’t. It can be as simple as that when I know and trust God’s eternal goodness. He works for the good of all who love Him. Let go and let Him do wonders.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.  Galatians 4:8

 

The hours on retreat were wide open and ripe for the taking. I walked three times a day. Having settled in early at night with tea and a book, weary from the sun and exercise, I awakened every morning in first light.  

My daily “walk with God” was early with  the rising sun while my mind was fresh and clear to listen for the messages of inspiration, now titling these pages. Afterward, I would take my breakfast in the silent dining room, then go to my room to meditate and write in preparation for my time with Sister Kathleen. Another walk before lunch or maybe a bike ride around the cozy neighborhood of Cape May Point, then lunch. 

After noon, I took my chair to the sand and parked at the fringy hem of the sea. In the wake of this glorious vista, I am helpless to imagine another able to speak the rhythms of God’s creation more eloquently. The tide that brings the things of life to my feet; the tide that takes them back. The shells that scoot by me on legs, the empty ones I carry away to cherish . The sun that rises and falls, encircling the Point like a ring on the finger of God.

After dinner, many of us set out, one by one, alone yet together, to stand in the surf or rest on the sand or walk to the west as the red sun merged with the water. A tour guide’s voice drifts from a boat, as it rounds the point to dock.  Shadows of fishermen stand at the water’s edge, children linger to finish one last sand castle, and the silent women raise their faces to the divine fulfillment of another glorious day.

Then I heard  every creature in heaven and  on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever.  Revelation 5:13