Letters to Dawn

( . . . but if YOU need them, I know she would share.)

12 January 2012

Dear Dawn:

When the news came of your unjust dismissal from work, I sent out a swift reply from my heart to yours. I promised to pray and entrusted you to His care.  Since that time you have poured out your heart in this post at your blog-site and many wonderful friends have left their words of encouragement in your comments.  Conspicuously absent is a response from me.  

Sometimes it happens this way . . . I just have to wait . . . and carry you in my prayers until I hear or read what He wants me to share.  Shortly after dinner, I picked up my Henri Nouwen devotional volume and read today's selection. My spirit leapt as I read these words, knowing in an instant that they were for you.  

The Spiritual Work of Gratitude

To be grateful for the good things that happen in our lives is easy, but to be grateful for all of our lives . . . the good as well as the bad, the moments of joy as well as the moments of sorrow, the successes as well as the failures, the rewards as well as the rejections . . . that requires hard spiritual work.  Still we are only truly grateful people when we can say thank you to all that has brought us to the present moment.  As long as we keep dividing our lives between events and people we would like to remember and those we would rather forget, we cannot claim the fullness of our beings as a gift of God to be grateful for.

Let's not be afraid to look at everything that has brought us to where we are now and trust that we will soon see in it the guiding hand of a loving God.

I commend you, dear friend, for the hard spiritual work you are engaging in as you determine to give thanks in this difficult time.

Standing with you,

Andrea Dawn

P.S. Just before turning out the lights I reached for the Message, wanting to review some verses I have been chewing on.  More words from Papa's heart were highlighted for you, dear Dawn.

"We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that He has already thrown open His door to us.  We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand . . . out in the wide open spaces of God's GRACE and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise.

These's more to come:  We continue to shout our praise even when we're hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next.  In alert expectance such as this, we're never left feeling shortchanged.  Quite the contrary . . . we can't round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!"

Romans 5:2-5 (MSG)

13 January 2012

Dear Dawn:

Do you know how much your Papa loves you?  I do!

I just finally found my copy of The Daily Light yesterday and as I turned to this morning's reading, there it is.  His love for you  . . . saturating the pages and crying out to be shared.  Giggling with delight I am overwhelmed with joy to have found Him so faithful, once again, to give words of spirit and life to one who is hurting and so needing comfort, encouragement and direction.  

• Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee.  Isaiah 26:3
• Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and He shall sustain thee;  He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.  Psalm 55:22
• I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.  Isaiah 12:2
• Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?  Matthew 8:26
• Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  Philippians 4:6,7
• In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.  Isaiah 30:15
• The effect of righteousness shall be quietness and assurance for ever.  Isaiah 32:17
• Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.  John 14:27
• Peace, from Him which is, and which was and which is to come.  Revelation 1:4

Praying you are encouraged and find grace and peace as you wait to see what God is up to.  God is good, all the time.

Much love, Andrea Dawn

Things My Papa Told Me

As I have struggled with pain and discouragement in these weeks following my surgery, I have wept many tears of frustration, guilt (should I have had the surgery?) and just plain lack of sleep.  Getting this knee to bend to the degree it needs to seems absolutely impossible.  How can I push through the pain?

My feeble cries for mercy . . . "Help me, Papa". . . seem to go unheard most of the time.  

Yet,  I know He sees, He hears, He cares.

And then there comes a whisper . . . I have loved you with an everlasting love . . .
a phrase in a sermon . . . He is speaking to me . . . and that changes everything.  As one of my favourite chorus's says, "to hear what He's saying brings life to my bones".  His words bring hope, create vision and so, I press onward.

The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying:

"Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love;

Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

Again I will build you and you will be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel!

You shall again be adorned with your tambourines,

And you shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.

You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria;

The planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food.

For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim,

Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the LORD our God."

Jeremiah 31:3-6 (NKJV)

It is VISION that gives 

PURPOSE to PAIN.

                                            ~ Kris Valloton

"So keep a firm grip on your faith.  The suffering won't last forever.  It won't be long before this generous God who has great plans for us in Christ . . . eternal and glorious plans they are! . . . will have you put together and on your feet for good.  He gets the last word, yes, He does.

1 Peter 5:9-11 (The Message)

Such Like Matters

"He used to talk to farmers
about corn and mustard,

wheat and tares, sheep and goats,
 and such like matters,

all purely agricultural,
and which they thoroughly understood.

He used to talk to fishermen
about matters widely different,

and such as belonged to their craft . . .
nets and fishes;

to gardeners about vines and fig trees;

to women about domestic matters,

such as come within their province . . .

kneading dough and sweeping houses.

By means of these familiar figures

He teaches lessons unheard of before . . .

lessons of Divine wisdom,

of supreme value, of sweet interest,

of infinite love, and of eternal importance. "

~ Griffith Thomas