… pressing joy …

This past year reminded me – layer shedding layer – we share … the gift, the grace of timing. Timing has a way of syncing presence & perspective… toughening … & tenderizing … in inexplicable… striking … soft & strengthening … yet fragrant ways.

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When weakness gnarls & fractures quake,

and darkness taunts … hours, annoyance, anxiousness, arrogance act as if they’re conspiring… smothering the light.

My earthbound eyes widen … failing focus & fixate in earnest… away from the eternal.

And I may cringe under the excessive press from without…

or the barren press from within.

 

Subtly… Then… The Light of Life

whistles & whispers in the breeze …

-a pressing joy-

if I’m listening, poised to perceive…look up,

receive & accept an invitation –

I step in & we dance.
I see, I hear, I taste, I smell,

and I feel…

His perfecting, His timing…

no rushing

no demanding

no denying

no raging

just a little testing…

toughening & tenderizing

-maybe a little stiffening or stumbling-

a whole well of heart-holding enduring.

… teaching me the beauty & bold …

& humility of pausing & pressing…

through

the hard…

.

hallows the beauty with a enduring beat.

Remembering to Remember

– always reaching & reflecting another side –

… texture, scent, sound, flavor… 

beyond feeling to His Pressing Joy.

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“Dear brothers and sisters, 

when troubles of any kind come your way,

consider it an opportunity

 for great joy.

For you know that 

when your faith is tested, 

your endurance has a chance to grow. 

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So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed,

you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing. 
.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. 

He will not rebuke you for asking. 
But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. 

Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled

as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. 
.

Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 
Their loyalty is divided between God and the world,

and they are unstable in everything they do. 
.

Believers who are poor have something to boast about,

for God has honored them.

And those who are rich should boast that God has humbled them. 
They will fade away like a little flower in the field.

The hot sun rises and the grass withers;

the little flower droops and falls, and its beauty fades away. 

In the same way, the rich will fade away with all of their achievements. 
God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation.

Afterward they will receive 

the crown of life that God has promised

to those who love him.”

James‬ ‭1:2-12 ‬ 

One of the wonders of all this… is this Christmas Cactus that slumbered through Advent and winter knew to bloom for us through Lent and Easter this spring.  Dormant seasons are easily misunderstood ones.  Grateful for Grace to Grow again.

 

-Our Christmas Cactus post Easter –

(our marvelous surprise to our Lent

 & Easter this year). 

fresh delight,

Heidi

#naturestudy #swfl #LivingHope #orchids&aloe