Mercy House proclaims 2016 as "The Year of the Heart."
Cindy Kightlinger
Something that I have felt impressed about for 2o16, for therapists and counselees alike, is the state of the heart. If our heart doesn't change, how can our behaviors change? So this year I am working with staff to develop our hearts because I realize that what we are awake to in ouselves, will allow us to be awake to in others. What we heal in ourseves will help us to heal others. The first Wednesday of the month our whole staff meets for spiritual direction and I am excited about how that will impact our lives, our counseling and our hearts. Throughout the year I will share some of our discoveries.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3/1/16
Life seems to be filled with contradiction...I give and receive in my giving. I take and receive as well. I anxiously wait and that brings patience. I hope and the hope is dashed only to bring trust at a deeper level. I experience that dark night of soul, only to see things more clearly and in a different light. God seems far off and yet so near. I have sorrow and am yet comforted. I was lost and am found....and on and on it goes...no endings, no beginnings.
3/9/16
As I was doing my devotions this morning, I sensed that someone out there, perhaps someones, are experiencing some bitterness, disappointment, perhaps even unresolved sorrow that they have carried into the new year. Maybe you have suffered rejection, abandonment or loss. The Psalmist (27:10) said, "Although my father and my mother have forsaken me, yet the Lord will take me up [adopt me as His child]." Child of God, He has loved you in every moment of your existence. "Wait and hope for and expect the Lord; be brave and of good courage and let your heart be stout and enduring. Yes, wait for and hope for and expect the Lord." (Psalm 46:14) II am expecting, hoping and waiting to hear about what great things are in store for you in 2016.
"A universal angst or anxiety fills the heart of modern man with a sense of meaningless. His immersion in a pragmatic materialism has suffocated his communion with the Holy Spirit deeply within his innermost self." - George Maloney. Re-read the first sentence. We fill our lives with meaningless anxiety. We worry because we are always trying to fill a need in our lives. We fuss...we fret all the while taking precious time off of our hands. Why? Somehow we believe that this worry will change things. The worry then becomes our God. We think of this worry endlessly. What if we let go and breathe God into the worry? He has it anyway. Perhaps by letting go...you may experience peace...wisdom.. and who God truly is.
3/25/16
Christina Rosetti penned the famous poem, "Who has seen the wind?"
...Who has seen the wind, neither you nor I, but when the trees bow down their heads, the wind is passing by." In John 3 Jesus tells Nicodemus, "The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit." So what does that mean to me? To you? It is the sacred mystery of being moved by God, to flow in the direction He sends us. Early in my Christian walk God told me to put on my sandals and He would take me to a land I did not know. He reaffirmed the same sense to me a week ago. All I have to do is set my sail, the Wind will breathe, and if I don't tether myself to earthly things the Wind will send me where it wills.
...such a peaceful thought\
4/4/16
As I age I seem to reflect a lot about time...there was a day that time was inconsequential--there was so much of it. I never thought of expiration dates, especially my own. Time held little value to me. Now in this moment called today, I am thinking that if I blink my eyes it will be tomorrow and yesterday will cross my mind with all its' sorrows and joys. I wonder how it was for Adam and Eve pre-sin--when time was not marked off by the boundary of death. Were they ever present? Was there any awareness at all, about time--or was it perpetually just this moment? Perhaps that is how I am supposed to live--uncarved by boundaries. What do you think?
4/11/16
I was driving to work, listening to some relaxing music--I thanked God for the beauty of the strings, and thanked God that I was able to take in that sound; it calmed me--then I thought the same ears that perceive sounds that quiet are also agitated by incessant noise, the eyes that enjoy the pink tinted sky on a gray morning also behold ugliness and hands that hold, also push away, and hearts that are full are some days empty...what a strangely beautiful capacity God has given us humans...
April 18, 2016
Do you know what "true love" is? It is seeing the godliness in the "other" and serving it so it grows and develops. It allows the other to be themselves-not changing them into what we need them to be so we can feel better. When we "truly" love, we look for that uniqueness in the other and let go--we don't hold on. There aren't expectations, desires maybe, but no expectation to meet our selfish needs. This is how I see God loves me, I have experienced it time and again and am woefully inadequate in fulfilling it in others. What about you?