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Beauty!

quietBy Judy Villanueva

 One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze on the beauty of the Lord 
and to seek him in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

It was completely silent, except for the sound of lake water sloshing against the sides of the metal fishing boat that held us.  I was stretched out reading while my husband sat patiently, rotating the reel, waiting for the tug that would mean we were having fish for dinner!  It was one of those extraordinary moments when one feels held within the beauty of God and, ushered into a great shalom!  Between the blue skies that watched over us, and the hundreds of pines that surrounded us, it would have been difficult to imagine that we could  be unsettled by anything ever again!  I remember stepping into that little boat with an anxious heart and returning to shore at peace.  What is it about gazing at beauty that quiets the soul and bears witness to the reality of God—on the throne, alert, in love, and magnificently reigning over heaven and earth?

God is beautiful!  Massively, spectacularly, incomprehensibly beautiful!  It would be impossible to tell the story of His infinite beauty and yet, He has graced us with foretastes  scattered throughout the earth!  We see hints on purple mountain peaks laced in snow, and in the array of colors splashed across the landscape.  We marvel under the magic of a night sky and catch our breath in the presence of the sun rising in splendor. Beauty blesses our soul and speaks to us of God in ways that words cannot.  When all seems lost and despair has declared a victory, beauty always has the final word…and that word is hope!

Reflecting on the attributes of God is a worthwhile and faith-building practice.  Awakening to His beauty in this world anchors us to the reality of God…a good and beautiful God.

There is something in the human spirit that intuitively understands that beauty doesn’t just happen.  It reflects and points to its Maker!

To behold His beauty is to discover His heart, peek at His face, and hear His loving whispers.  There is revelation of God on flower petals, ocean waves, and glaciers…ladybugs, redwoods, and the milky way!  At the heart of beauty is a happy God and our soul is calmed in its presence.  It bears witness that He is real, on the throne, alert, in love, and magnificently reigning over heaven and earth!

“Thank You, Father,  for this world and every inch of beauty within it!  Help me to notice and hear Your voice through all of it.  I am so grateful for starlit skies and glassy lakes, for delicately colored flowers, rainbow trout and moose!  I praise You, most beautiful God!  Amen.”

What about you? 

How does beauty impact you?  Does it?

When was the last time you were astounded by God’s beauty in creation?  How did it make you feel?

Is beholding beauty a familiar practice?

Do you know God as beautiful?

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“Lovely” by Chris Tomlin

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Whatever is Lovely

DSC_1493By Judy Villanueva

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:
That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the Lord
And to meditate in His temple. (Psalm 27:4)

It was completely silent, except for the sound of lake water sloshing against the sides of the metal fishing boat that held us.  I was stretched out reading while my husband sat patiently, rotating the reel, waiting for the tug that would mean we were having fish for dinner!  It was one of those extraordinary moments when one feels held within the beauty of God and, ushered into a great shalom!  Between the blue skies that watched over us and the hundreds of pines that surrounded us, it would have been difficult to imagine that we would ever be unsettled by anything ever again!  I remember stepping into that little boat with an anxious heart and returning to shore, at peace.  What is it about gazing at beauty that quiets the soul and bears witness to the reality of God—on the throne, in charge, and magnificently reigning over heaven and earth?

God is beautiful!  Massively, spectacularly, incomprehensibly beautiful!  It would be impossible to tell the story of His infinite beauty and yet, He has graced us with foretastes scattered throughout the earth!  We see hints on purple mountain peaks laced in snow, and in the array of colors splashed across the landscape on a spring morning.  We marvel under the magic of a night sky and catch our breath in the presence of the sun rising in firey splendor.  Beauty blesses our soul and speaks to us of God in ways that words cannot.

When all seems lost and despair has declared a victory, beauty always has the final word — and that word is hope!

Reflecting on the attributes of God is a worthwhile and faith-building practice.  Awakening to His beauty in this world anchors us to the reality of God…a good and beautiful God!

There is something in the human spirit that intuitively understands that beauty doesn’t just happen.  It reflects and points to its Maker!

To behold His beauty is to discover His heart, peek at His face, and hear His loving whispers.  There is revelation of God on flower petals, ocean waves, and glaciers — ladybugs, redwoods, and the Milky Way!  At the heart of beauty is a happy God and our soul is calmed in its presence.  It bears witness that He is real, on the throne, in charge, and magnificently reigning over heaven and earth!

“Thank You, Father, for this world and every inch of beauty within it!  Help me to hear your voice through all of it.  I am so grateful for starlit skies and glassy lakes, for delicately colored flowers, rainbow trout and moose!  I praise you, most beautiful God!  Amen.” 

What about you? 

How does beauty impact you?  Does it?

When was the last time you were astounded by God’s beauty in creation?  How did it make you feel?

Is beholding beauty a familiar practice?

Do you know God as beautiful?

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Friend of God

papiEliBy Judy Villanueva

Mark 14:32-34

They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled. “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” he said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”

Straining to see through the crowd, I searched for the face of my beloved friend.  Throngs of people poured out of the area where passengers are deposited after their flights and then, like ants, are scattered in every direction.  I waited eagerly, not wanting her to slip past me until at last I recognized her gait and smile maneuvering toward me!  The look in our eyes said it all, “Welcome!  So good to see you!  Hooray, you are here!”  What a precious gift God gives us when He gives us a friend, someone whose heart we trust and who will be there for us in good times and bad.

I rarely think of Jesus as a man in need of a friend.  Most gospel stories depict Him as a man on a mission, living life secured in the company of His heavenly Father.  Storms didn’t disturb Him nor  did the threats of those who sought to destroy Him.  But here, in the garden, we see our Lord struggling and asking his closest friends to stay and keep watch with him. The idea that Jesus, dare I say it, needed a friend is one that confronts me.

Have you ever considered that Jesus doesn’t only offer you His friendship, but also desires yours?

It is a wild notion!  On any given day we can seek His company and respond to His gentle invitations to sit with Him and pray.  By turning our attention to His company, seeing what He sees, and  praying we engage with Jesus and offer him our friendship.  By noticing a need and offering assistance, forgiving an offense, giving our best, putting others first, and in simply trusting God in the day, we bless and give love to King Jesus.

All good friendships are mutual and require  two-way efforts to sacrifice and love.  It’s easy to fall asleep, forget or minimize the gift we’ve been given as friends of God but, think of it! Just like the friends who kept watch with Him in Gethsemane, we too have daily opportunities to bless Jesus with our presence and love Him with our lives!

How marvelous a speculation that our prayers, attitudes, and acts of grace can actually bless the heart of God!

It isn’t a one-way friendship where we simply receive His kindness and consolations, but rather, a reciprocal one where, as friends we love God back — where we watch for His arrival and welcome Him into our days with gladness!

“Lord Jesus, thank You for being a good friend to me!  That you desire my friendship is indeed a precious gift.  Help me to live in the days aware and awakened to how I might bless Your heart through my prayers, thoughts and acts of love.  Amen.”

How about you?

Do you know Jesus as your savior and most faithful friend?

Is your relationship with God one-way?

Have you ever considered that you can bless God with your acts of love?

How might you be a friend of God today?

 Worship:

Father, Forgive Them

duncan houseBy Judy Villanueva

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)

There He is hanging on the cross…nails in His hands and feet, blood oozing from his side, a crown of thorns pressed into His brow… beaten, bruised, torn open, and naked.  To make matters worse, from the cross he looks down on the people he is dying for only to hear their mocking words. They don’t get it!  How can they not see and embrace the gift that Jesus is giving as He gasps for air?  More to the point, how does Jesus not cry out, “You ungrateful people!  Don’t you see what is going on here?  Just forget it!  Go to your graves hanging onto your sin!  I’m outta here!”

Nope.  Never entered His mind.  Instead He calls out to His Father with whom He has shared intimate friendship for all eternity, and asks for a pardon for those who are killing Him.  How on earth?  How in heaven?  The love that fills Jesus’ heart for mankind is beyond imagination.  It is immense and unstoppable!  The fact that they were undeserving, self-willed, head-strong, mean-spirited and blind didn’t count against them.  It didn’t matter!

Nothing mattered except that Jesus loved them.   He never flinched.  It was never a question.  He is love and loved us unto death.

How do I respond to this kind of Love?  How do you?  If I stand beneath the cross and look up at my Savior, I feel pierced with sorrow at His suffering.  If I then take in the reality that He hangs there for me…I fall to my knees!  I wake up most days with this story in the background of my awareness and can live separate from it, but I don’t want to!

I want this act of Love to sit in the foreground of my life so that whenever I open my eyes, I see it!

To see Jesus loving me and going the distance on my behalf pushes me out of complacency and fills my heart with overwhelming gratitude.  It pulls out of me the deepest desire to live loved and to love well.   It makes me want to love Him back every moment and with all of me!

“Jesus, how can I thank You for dying for me?   Help me to remember… to call to the foreground this most precious gift each day and fill me so that I might love you with my life.  Amen.”

How about you?

What do you feel when you stand at the foot of the cross and look up?

How do you respond to this kind of love?

Is the reality of the cross in the background of your life or the foreground?

Take time to remember the cross, to bring it’s reality into your heart each day.  You are loved with a mighty love.

Worship

O Love of God!

DSC_0732 By Judy Villanueva

“Could we with ink the ocean fill,
   And were the skies of parchment made,  
Were every stalk on earth a quill,  
And every man a scribe by trade;  
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;  
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

 Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!  
How measureless and strong.   It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.” (Frederick Lehman)

There was no moon that night.  I sat on the deck in my favorite spot with my face pointed upward at the sky, listening to the hushed song of the pines as the summer breeze played chase amongst their needles.  The stars joined us with a heavenly brilliance that stretched out like diamonds across the black expanse.  Magnificent!  It was as though God had taken off the sky-blue lid that covers the earth by day and invited a peek into infinity!  I felt so small by comparison and insignificant in the grand scheme of heaven and earth.  I remember thinking of all the millions of people who had come before me since the beginning of time and even now, considered that I am but one among millions on planet earth.  Beneath the twinkling canopy that enveloped me I prayed,  “How, Oh God, can You know me?  I am but a speck in the vastness of creation.”  And, that is when it got interesting!

Feeling that our lives have meaning is so core to our sense of well being that relating to a speck of dust can cause an unpleasant plummet.  Indeed, it did for me that starlit summer night until, that is,  I became aware of God speaking to my heart.  He said, “You’ve got it all wrong, daughter.  You are looking at things backwards.  Come! Sit with Me.”   In those gentle moments under the heavens, I felt God enlarging my vision and redirecting my focus from my finite way of looking at my place in the universe to His face.  Boom!  There, all previous notions of insignificance evaporated and what was left were the beautiful eyes of my Father.

What had once spelled out “speck”, now spelled out “LOVED”, and rather than feeling small and insignificant, I felt in awe of God’s capacity to know ME among millions.

That He can and that He does  makes Him an awesome Father and mighty God!  His love infuses our lives with meaning and transforms unpleasant plummets into a dances of wonder and worship!

God’s love spreads out around us all the time!  It is the ground beneath our feet and the sky-blue lid over our heads.  God’s love is grand, profuse, and ecstatic with joy!  It celebrates our company and eagerly awaits our notice.  The love of God is star-studded spectacular,  pure, and everlasting!  The night sky no longer speaks to me of my smallness, but shouts to me of my Father’s glory and grandness…and through it I see His beautiful eyes that watch over me!

“Father, the stars will probably always take my breath away and remind me of this very night and way you helped me see beyond myself.  Help me again and again to seek and find your face.  Thank You for loving me.  Amen.”

What about you?

Do you believe that God really knows and notices you?

Have you ever thought about God’s measureless capacity to know and love you personally?

What does it mean about God that He can?

How would it feel to live a day noticed and known by God?

Do you know how to sit with God?  Try it…He’s waiting for you.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
 your faithfulness to the skies.  (Psalm 36:5)

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Loving Matters

photo-13By Judy Villanueva

1 John 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

I tiptoed into my children’s rooms, one at a time and kissed them goodnight.  With mixed feelings I stared at their beautiful sleeping faces, so sweet and peaceful.  All I could think of was how impatient I’d been that day when all three needed me at once, and how much I longed for quiet during the afternoon play hours.  Ugh!  Guilt.  How would these children survive me, such an imperfect mom?  I remember sitting with my dad one day, confessing my short-comings as a mom and asking for his wisdom.  His input was unexpected but so  life giving.  He said, “Just love them!  You’ll make lots of mistakes in parenting.  It’s impossible to get it perfect, but you can love them…and that makes all the difference.  Loving matters.”

The truth of these words has stayed with me over the years and guided me faithfully through many situations where I have felt inadequate.  Entering the prayer room,  counseling office, or even having breakfast with a friend,  I always wish I had more to offer in the way of wisdom and healing “know how”.  Do you ever feel that way?  Listening to stories feels very sacred and as tears flow and heartaches are shared my first reaction is always to want to bring immediate relief.  If I could, I would waive the wand to relieve suffering, but since I cannot I follow compassion to the cross and look up for help!

There in its shadow,  I hear God speak a familiar refrain. “Just love them.  I Am doing what you cannot but you can love…and loving matters!”

Let us love one another!  It will surely cost us our comfort and may be inconvenient.  Most of the time, it won’t feel like enough and every time our hearts will ache to do more, but loving matters and is  the closest some people ever get to the heart of God.  When we join another in their suffering, when we share a burden and offer love, we give and are given a priceless gift.

Loving, even when done imperfectly, touches pain with our presence and ushers people into the arms of God.

“Thank you, God, for your love. How I need You and depend on Your presence to love well.  Give me courage to bear burdens and share suffering.  Fill me with Your love, fresh and mighty for each new day.  Amen.”

What about you?

Do you ever feel inadequate when face to face with another’s deep need?

Do you also need courage to bear burdens and share suffering?

Would you rather fix something or love someone?

Have you felt the power of love carry you into the arms of God?

“Let us love one another…for Love is from God!”

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Cultivating Joy!

lake louiseBy Judy Villanueva

Psalm 16:11
You will make known to me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.

We reached the top and stood facing a full view of the Rocky Mountains iced in snow! The wind was blowing and the air was a warm 63 degrees…spectacular! Have you ever felt joy sweeping you up through your senses? As we walked down the hill I savored the feeling of the sun on my face, the sight of my husband walking slightly ahead of me, and the sound of pines as they sifted the wind. It soothed my soul and placed my worries in a larger context, a joyful one held securely in the hands of God.  If I ever need convincing that God is kind and good I need look no further than how He designed us to share in the beauty and glory of all that He has made!

One of my favorite questions to ask a new friend is “What gives you joy?” “What delights your soul?” “What draws you into the goodness of God?” Problems and challenges seem to find their way to the forefront of our awareness because, like the prick of a needle, pain demands our attention and, unfortunately, can be rather hoggish about it.

Being present to joy amidst and alongside life’s struggles, however, helps us remember that God is good.

Witnessing His love and kindness through the joys that a day offers inspires hope and shifts our attention to the reality of God with us. He is with us!

When my daughter was little we used to play a game on vacations or wherever we happened to be when we bumped into beauty!  I would say, “Stop! Now, freeze this moment.  Take a mental picture and never forget…” the aspens we were hiking through or the lake we were sitting by or the feel of the wind blowing through us!

Cultivating joy is a powerful spiritual exercise, not to mention its potential to transform our perspectives and enlarge our capacities to see God in and above, before and behind all of life.

But, it requires our engagement and sometimes our willingness to confront old patterns of thinking. God has designed us to share His life and see His glory in the midst and alongside our real lives. He is present in warm winds, sweet fragrances, good friends and countless other secret plans to sweep us up with joy and help us along our way!

“Father, thank you for the gift and grace of our five senses and the way they allow us to take in beauty, sounds, flavors and the feel of Your love around us. Awaken me to the day’s invitations to joy and help me to tuck away your goodness and remember Your history of faithfulness to me. Amen.”


How about you?

What gives you joy?

What draws you into the goodness of God?

How might you cultivate joy today?

Can you receive His joy today, however it may come to you, in the midst and alongside your real life?

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Contentment

DSC_0316By Judy Villanueva

Philippians 4:11-12

 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

“As soon as God comes through for me and heals ‘this’ area of my life or provides ’that’ answer to prayer then, I’ll be content!  I’ll never doubt Him again and I’ll finally be happy!”  Sound familiar?  Tying contentment to circumstances can be a slippery slope.  If you are anything like me, my favorite solution to any and all angst usually involves getting what I think I need now.  But,   IF  I’ll make a little room for my discontentment to do its work, I just may find myself tripping over my truest and deepest longing, the one that is always reaching for God and touched by His presence!

The secret of contentment that Paul speaks of seems to be unraveled by the imperfect and discontented places of life.

They remind us that our souls ache to be filled!  I’ve often wondered if God didn’t create the five senses so that we can physically experience a foretaste of fullness.  Good food, sweet melodies, and inspiring vistas help us to know what it is to be satisfied.  Likewise, feeling hungry or empty, bored or lonely can motivate us to reach beyond the here and now for the ONE who is able satisfy our souls deep cry for love.   We were made for His presence  and in His company we find the secret of  contentment.

Today, as I shoveled snow off the driveway, I looked up and noticed I was being showered with the fluffiest, most beautiful snowflakes!  In this unexpected midlife moment, I felt like a child playing outside, caught up in the beauty and magic of what felt like a living snow globe!  I looked over at my husband, who was also helping to relocate millions of snowflakes, and felt Grace enfold me.  It drew me into an acute awareness of God’s goodness and seemed to sift out worry and offer me a cupful of joy! 

All of a sudden, I felt lucky and aware of what IS blessings my life, rather than what ISN’T.

I stood there with my face toward heaven and my arms stretched out, so as not to miss one ounce of the Grace that was falling all around me!

“Father, thank You that You want to be my place of deep and residing contentment.  Help me to follow my longings to Your heart that waits for me.  Thank you for always waiting and reaching for me.   Amen.”

What about you?

When did you last feel full and content?

Where and how are you now discontent?

What helps you feel close to God?

Have you experienced the secret of being content?

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To Live is Christ

DSC_0021By Judy Villanueva

For me, to live is Christ. (Philippians 1:21)

With my eyes closed, I soaked in the beauty of the worship ballad being sung over the congregation.  It was a sweet melody that offered an enfolding of love so scrumptious that I felt I could stand under it all day long.  Suddenly, a jarring noise from across the aisle pierced the song and shook me out of my blessed trance.  Feeling my peace disturbed, I glanced over in search of the source of these discordant notes and felt my breath catch as I found it!  There, across the aisle, was the most beautiful face lifted upwards and a little boy singing at the top of his lungs.  With one hand on his walker, he stood and belted out his perfect gift of worship with a smile that I believe lit the heart of God.  I wiped away tears, deeply touched and taught by this pure and holy offering of love.

The experience felt like a sacred moment where God was pointing to purity and saying, “Look!”  I’ve been praying lately about my fickle heart that, in one moment flows with love and, in the next, with self-interest and impatience.   I don’t like that.  It feels jangling and yet, reminds me of my great need for Christ and the fact that, while saved by grace, I am still a “creature in-process” of becoming holy.

The discord in my heart alerts me to the choices I have throughout the day to either turn to the Holy Spirit for help to live well or follow the impulses of my heart.

Without this tension, I’d likely become complacent and  step out of the flow of grace that is meant to wash, refine and carry me into the likeness of Christ.

I want to live, love and worship from a pure heart and truly mean it when I say, “For me, to live is Christ!”  Today, as I prayed for God’s help, I became aware that Jesus had drawn near and was, once again, pointing to something and saying, “Look!”  There was a hush in my soul as I turned my attention to my dearest friend who gently and lovingly drew my eyes to the cross.

There, beneath the echo of love’s purest song, I could feel my heart surrender and all preoccupation give way to joyous gratitude!

Can it be that simple?  In the shadow of the cross my heart is inspired, filled up and set free!  Love’s purest gift made a way once…and once and for all.

“Jesus, thank you for the cross and for belting out your purest gift of love so that I can be set free.  Help me remember that my job is one of receiving this gift and letting it empower me to live well.  Thank you for that little boy who gave me a picture of a heart freed to love!  Amen.”

What about you?

What does “To live is Christ” mean to you?

Do you want what you want?

Can you discern the discordant notes in your soul that are meant to help you feel  your need for Christ?

Have you felt the power of the cross wash over you?

Stand still and look up at your dearest friend…on the cross…pouring out love’s purest gift to set you free.

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Practicing His Presence

DSC_0213By Judy Villanueva

Psalm 5:3

I say this prayer to you, Yahweh, for at daybreak you listen for my voice;  and at dawn I hold myself in readiness for you.  I watch for you.

“He does not ask much of us, merely a thought of Him from time to time, a little act of adoration, sometimes to ask for His grace, sometimes to offer Him your sufferings, at other times to thank Him for the graces, past and present…the least little remembrance will always be the most pleasing to Him.  One need not cry out very loudly; He is nearer to us than we think.”  Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

The sound of happy squeals filled the living room on New Year’s morning.  The Rose Parade was on in the background while the foreground enjoyed an eruption of four-year old giggles!  Our grandson stumbled into a game where he would jump behind grandpa on the couch, and eagerly wait for him to lean back!  “Stop, Papi, stop!” he would cry, and Papi would then lean forward so that our little one could squirm free.  It amazed me that each time he got squished was a new moment of fresh joy…over and over again!  I quietly marveled at the beauty of presence and the capacity of children to free-fall into the middle of it!

As the year begins, like most of us, I find myself thinking about fresh starts and living more “on purpose”.  Watching my grandson makes me hungry for the freedom to get lost in present moments…to welcome and not hurry them away.  It reminds me of Brother Lawrence’s experiment where he endeavored to practice God’s presence throughout the day.  His goal was to live in expanding awareness of God.

Our lives are lived entering and exiting divine awareness.  We awaken to God one minute and forget Him the next.

Responsibilities and schedules tend to tempt our attention away from God incrementally, until sadly, we can find the day spent without much thought of Him at all.  I wonder if the fullness of life that the Bible speaks of doesn’t have everything to do with

remembering God and allowing His beautiful presence to shower our moments with love and hope and wonder and blessed expectation.

And, I wonder if  our capacity to free-fall into the middle of moments grows as we live with God in expanding awareness, play in His presence… and lose all track of time in the pleasure of His company!

“Father, help me to enter and re-enter awareness of your presence throughout the day.  I am easily derailed by work and worry…good things and careless things.  Thank You that Your attention is constant and real.   Amen.”

What about you?

What would it be like to live a day ready and watching for God?

How do you do at “practicing God’s presence” throughout the day?

Do you experience “fresh joy” and freedom to lose track of time with God?

The practice of returning to awareness of God’s presence is a powerful and life-transforming prayer!

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