Tag: contemplation

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Fridayfootprints – Friday 30th June 2023

A garden, as a reflection of creation’s glory, should be enjoyed at a leisurely pace.

This is our ‘taking time out to smell the roses’ especially when the ‘roses’ are the Trinity! Fellowship with Him requires time; quiet time and quality time.

We can never really get to know our Lord without spending time with Him. Within the gardens of creation, we need to seek out the moss-covered pathways and rest on soft, green-cushioned rocks that are the seats less sat on, as we embark on the traverses of our faith.

Here, we find the time to delve deeper, and deeper still into our relationship.

Here, we begin to become aware of the nuances between the leaves and the blossoms in their tiniest form. When we can hear the whisper of a dew drop as it runs down the stalk, then when are that much closer to hearing Him.

Searching for Him is a journey led by the Holy Spirit, and when we allow it, takes us to places seldom seen. He leads us to a perspective that goes far deeper than the superficial beauty of a garden seen from afar. Through Him, we are introduced to a sense of simplicity, and a stillness of inner peace.

Find your ‘road less travelled’ where you can be undisturbed with the Holy Spirit. Somewhere where the moss beckons and its softness is a pillow of rest from the turmoil. Our Lord is present in the forest of moss spikes, He waits to meet you there.

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Fridayfootprints – Friday 14th April 2023

Do we know how strong the Butterfly is, if we haven’t felt the windstorm from its fluttering wings?

Or, do we know the faith of the Mantis, if we cannot hear him pray?

If trees can talk through leaves and roots, can we hear the words that are buried in a whispering cross?

From folklore and fairytales, fake news rules the day and the wilderness of my reasoning is bombarded by the unseen and unknown facts that form a labyrinth within my existence. Yet through it all, I believe.

Not only is He Risen: He walked amongst us to show the wounds on His hands. He has bared His tunic so that we could see His pierced side.

If we can believe all the untruths of politics, and the marketing ploys of business, surely this must be a story too far-fetched to ignore. If we can believe the lies of love and lovers then; why not, the truth that He lives?

Rest in the garden of creation until you feel the wind from a butterfly’s wings, listen until you hear the mantis pray, speak to the trees, for they listen with an attentive ear, and know that God is in His Heaven and the Lord is by your side. Feel, as the wind of the Spirit gently wafts through the golden grasses to tell you that He is near.

Be blessed because you believe!

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Fridayfootprints – Friday 31st March 2023

Finding silence is to draw a film around me to cancel out all the ‘white noise’ that threatens to overwhelm my space. This seeking of silence is a journey of discovery and Lent is a time to embark on an adventure to a place where the presence of the Trinity is welcomed into our midst and their every word rings out like cathedral bells, clear and distinct, peel after peel with angel choirs in heavenly chorus.

Creating a bubble of silence allows us to focus on the sounds of His creation. A place where we can concentrate on nature’s sounds and twittering’s. Here we will discover a place of safety. And it is here in this ‘bubble’ space that we can start to still the words of the world in our mind and begin to hear with our soul.

The ears of our inner being are finely tuned to the sounds of His whispers. Words, that form and grow in the spaces that we have opened where the words turn into phrases and sentences. And the sentences into paragraphs and pages dispelling all other sounds.

These ‘stomach’ words are the soul food He offers.

Felt in the very depths of our core as an aching desire to hear more and to live on the sustenance it brings. From here, His voice spreads back until it is absorbed into our thoughts to become the very essence of being in fellowship with Him.

Lord, help me to find the bubble of silence within, where I may open my innermost ear to receive your word.

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Wilderness Whispers

Nestled between eye-stretching beaches and forest-clad mountains lies the capital of Paradise. A village interlaced by rivers and lakes, worthy of the Eden in which it finds itself.

Wilderness. The name conjures up images of stillness, beauty, solitude and perhaps even a little danger elicited by the unknown.

For those that have walked the trails in any wilderness area, there must always have been a thought, a dream – to live in a wilderness of their own.

My wilderness; is Wilderness!

I have walked many trails. I have touched and smelt the fragrances of Africa in the dust of its savannas and in the dews of its forests. I have been alone in the nights with the hyena’s eyes and the leopard’s cough. I have sweated on Africa’s fields and tasted the salt of its wounds.

My reward has been to find solace in Wilderness and God.

Wilderness is my soul food. A place where humanity comes to enjoy the fruits of its labours. A place where a bustling crowd is simply a room full of people and stillness is coffee time shared between two hearts. And if you want to escape the noise, you can let the bird song drown out the crickets or the seagull’s cry from the surf line chorus in the dolphin’s streamlined wake. In the gardens of Eden, we share our gardens with nature or perhaps it is nature that shares her gardens with us. This is creation on your doorstep with a threshold we step over in-and-out, countless times a day.

If the wilderness has always been a place in your dreams – make Wilderness Whispers a place in your reality and let the dream be wakened.

My wilderness is my whispers, heard in the corridors of my being. Words that feed the cries of hope and comfort the tears of hopelessness. Words that bring perspective to our journey on the paths of our lives. Words that touch a little light-heartedness to illicit a smile on the darkened days.

My Wilderness Whispers are words conveyed over the firelight of a spiritual connection with humanity. Join me and find your Wilderness and may we walk the trails together.

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#fridayfootprints – Friday 4th November 2022

Lay me down on creation’s pillow where fallen petals are the pages of a life caught between the book ends of an existence in a world created through thoughts and dreams.

On each petal are scripts of dramas which get to be played out by the characters of imagined personas that strut the stages of our realities.

The spotlights that shine on this stage, give meaning to the play and to the roles and with the sounds emanating from the orchestra pit, it is here that the audience can feel the nuances of a spirit-filled life.

The plays and the stages are our own. They are written and produced with guidance from an anxiously onlooking Trinity. Only when the Spirit’s lights come on, and the Angels’ choir begin the refrain, that the world will see the truth revealed in each of us.

What that truth will be, is entirely up to the words of the inscriptions on our petals, voiced and performed throughout each scene.

We pray, Lord, that the light of the Holy Spirit, shines on us and highlights your ‘Truth’ and the extent of Your Grace through the roles we play. Be gentle, Lord … and lay me down on a bed of Your truth, may Your fragrance of salvation be the whispered words of holiness that accompany me all my days and into eternity.

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#fridayfootprints – Friday 28th October 2022

Tears of joy? Tears of sorrow, pain or even relief are all borne on the cheeks of sacrifice.

The gentlest of tears caress the blood of sacrifices made throughout our journey here on earth. As we seek to blossom there is always the softest reminder that we need to bloom in His name.

It is whilst the thorns of sin cling to the sheath of our lives that the flower, surrounded by the sharp reminders of our sin requires that we give time and contemplation to what is really going on in our lives and whether the sacrifices we make are for ourselves or for Him.

Pick just our blossoms lord, so that we may leave our sin-filled existence on the branches of our earthly lives. See the splendour in our lives Lord that your sacrifice made possible and let us walk in the dawn of your creation, new and fresh. Ready to burst forth and glorify your name.

Let your Heaven be graced by the splendour of a floral masterpiece, resplendent in angel vases throughout the halls of your kingdom.

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#fridayfootprints – Friday 16th September 2022

Symphony of prayer

As the darkness of the world creeps closer, our souls are called to witness unspeakable pain and heartsore. And any view of the world will see arms outstretched in pleas for mercy and begging for justice to be served on a society imbued in power and greed.

We desperately seek intercessors. Mediators between us and God, as if our conduit for prayer is blocked.

When such evil exists around us, and when there isn’t a worldly cure, doctor or hospital for those plagued by a sickness of the soul, then we need to gather in prayers of faith and hope.

We seek angels to carry our whispers as a symphony of prayer in their pollen baskets to a honeycomb in heaven. There, to be turned into the purest and sweetest excelsior.

Pour out your golden honey Lord, that its essence becomes the healing balm of our society, melting into the hearts of mankind. Amen

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#fridayfootprints – Friday 18th March 2022

A mere glance in the mirror is never enough to discover who is in the reflection looking back.  To tell the tale that only the heart of the beholder understands, we must look deeper than the surface glow.

Is the slowly fading image that of ‘self’, as it slowly degenerates, allowing the view of His Holiness to shine through? Or is it the reverse? Where it is the Holy Spirit that slowly dissipates from our being, whilst ego and self-interest shine out.

From the beginning of creation, we have been called to make a ‘Soul-sacrifice’ to Him!

Lent is our journey to reflect on this gift to God of the most precious thing we own. Once we have laid our Soul on the altar of the Lord all the elements of our purpose here on earth come into clear focus.

Every prayer uttered for His guidance, strength and grace is made possible through the whisper from His wilderness that requires a selfless sacrifice. Nothing more … yet nothing less! Every drop of the water from our baptism is there to soothe the pain of our wilderness walk.

But walk it we must!

Every denial of temptation must inevitably be made for our soul-sacrifice to be what we want it to be. Lent cannot exist without it.

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#fridayfootprints – Friday 25th February 2022

Through the firmaments of Heaven, angel wings lie trembling in anticipation, waiting for that one breath of God that sends them off on a new task.

His whispers, His words are the pollen of our Christian journey. They are the spores of a faith-driven purpose to be scattered by the pollinators of humanity.

Imagine a world where we have a storehouse of Christian pollen. An existence where the focus is on being bearers of ‘Good News’ pollen and our behaviour luring the pollen feeders in.

As we disperse in the gardens of creation a new purpose is revealed – to be stamina driven stamens. To become the tallest blossoms in our wilderness standing as lighthouses of irresistibility to all concerned.

Imagine if our purpose was to be land-based angels ready for each breath of God. Ready to be the answer to a prayer to any need sent our way.

Let us blossom for His glory and allow testimony to Him to become the pollen-laden example the world cries out for.

We are holders of His whispers, let us set them free to the world that they may fly on angel wings!

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#fridayfootprints – Friday 31st July 2020

God’s creative genius gives us an insight into our own soul.

Time spent in nature is a journey where we can free our spirit to run where God wants us to run. We get a chance not just to read about His exploits, rather we can experience it first-hand.  We see the beauty and the desolation.

If we want more of God, nature is where we find it. If we want less of the world; His creation is our refuge. If we mourn, we find solace through the touch of His Sun and if we praise Him, we can raise His beautiful bounty to the Heavens. The whispers we seek in His wilderness are ever present when we allow ourselves to live in His world.

Knowing that all creation is His, is part of the journey of discovery He sends us on. It is not enough to read from all the libraries of wisdom that exist without taking a step outside. Once taken, we then allow Him to enter inside our own centre of existence. And that is where we find peace and understanding.

Look anew on His creation and marvel as we experience His miracle and what it means when we gaze upon it as He meant us to and then examine your soul in peaceful contemplation as we become bound to Him. Whisper Wilderness Whisper!

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