Robin's Nest

 

It’s not your fault you meow at zero-dark:30, B.C. (before coffee.) You’re a cat. It’s what you do.

It’s not your fault I let them talk me into rescuing you. And that I believed them when they said I wouldn’t have to do a thing to keep you happy and healthy or clean fur balls and upchucks from the carpet.

It’s not your fault you walk in on your little stealth feet and your meeeooowww slices through the quiet and alarms me there’s always one more thing to-do. When I just wanna do my own thing.

Like ease into my day. With no interruptions.

It’s not your fault that I don’t have an automatic, jump-up-on-my-lap affection for ya’ll. Not that I don’t have the capacity.

You’ve probably heard the stories of Cocoa. Another rescue. Only she was a dog. I was with her on the floor of the vet clinic crying like a baby. I stroked her fur and whispered, “You’re a good girl,” as her breath slowed and stopped.

So, I do have the potential.

Though we might not ever be besties, we can at least be civil. I can’t make you learn from me, so maybe I’ll learn from you.

About life’s interruptions and how to roll with them and not wish it was different. To trust that when I meet challenges with courage and prayer, I’ll grow from them. And when I choose to be grateful for my blessings, I won’t focus on the burdens.

Yes, I choose Peace.

The most important thing I’m learning is to let cats be cats and let people be people. Including myself. We’re human. We fail. It’s what we do.

We are imperfect works-in-progress. And even in those moments when I get it right, some will misunderstand and I will disappoint them.

That’s okay. Jesus was misunderstood and disappointed many.

Yes, I choose Grace.

Okay Chloe, I’ve probably lost you, but I need to wrap this up. Now that we’ve established we can learn as we go, how about a truce? I’ll stop stressing when you howl and you stop hurling on the carpet?

This morning you didn’t make a peep at zero-dark:30. What’s up with that? Maybe we’re making progress. Or maybe it’s a trick.

It was kinda eerie. You sat in the shadows of the dining room table watching me make coffee. Actually, thank you for that.

Oh dear. Am I really talking to a cat?

This is a weird way to begin a new year. Oh well, such is life.

As long as I keep learning to live large and love well, I’m cool with that. 

Peace Out 😎

I remember a Christmas when my boys were small. We drove from Arkansas to Illinois and visited three homes on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Then we drove ten hours back to Arkansas.

While unloading a trunk full of toys, we were a bit sad. It felt like we kinda missed Christmas. So, the next year, we stayed home and started our own traditions. We don’t regret it. Our kids are now grown and have their own families. And Christmases are our best memories.

I still refuse to race around and stress out on the holidays. If I can’t find the perfect gift, ingredient, or decoration? We don’t need it. Whatever doesn’t get done, doesn’t get done. Traditions are wonderful but if they shackle us to debt, steal our peace or our time with family, then what’s the point?

I believe Christmas is whispering to us.

To feel the nudge and to get quiet. To slow down and remember how God came down to live and suffer among us.

We sense His love that’s unconditional.

We find the Peace this world can’t touch.

And we hold on to a Hope that doesn’t give up. It’s way more than wishful thinking. It’s actively trusting that He walks with us through really hard times. Through every trial and every storm.

God’s Presence is the best present ever.

As we attend parties, enjoy the noise, the shopping, and the toys, or decide to just stay home, let’s listen for the Christmas whisper. It reminds us to pause and be present, fully present. To Him. To them.

Because there’s power in presence. Listening and laughing, compassion and encouragement. This is abundant life. Let’s not miss Christmas. He is here and He is not silent. Celebrate Immanuel, God with us.

 

Peace, Grace, & Quiet moments to you and yours 💗

 

Photo from www.Pixabay.com

 

                                 

   “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” ~ Proverbs 4:23

 

Cornucopia is a fun word. Until I’m awake at 3 a.m. thinking about it. So, what’s a girl to do but roll out of bed and take notes?

We know cornucopias as a classic symbol for abundance and thanksgiving. They’re often depicted as a horn-shaped basket lying on its side with grapes, pears, apples, pumpkins, and ears of corn spilling out.

It makes me think of our hearts. We fill them with good and good spills out. And we know the reverse is also true. It’s a tricky balance, isn’t it? To protect our mind and spirit from filling up with negativity and worry.

Jesus knew we’d struggle. “Don’t worry about these things, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. First and most importantly seek His kingdom and His righteousness [the priorities, attitude, and character of God], and He will give you everything you need.” Matthew 6:31-33.

He invites us to enjoy life. To stop stressing over earthly things and to focus on our spiritual needs. In Galatians, we see an abundance of spiritual fruit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

God has already provided what we need to live a full life. All this spiritual fruit ~ and so much more ~ is available to us. As much as we want.  In fact, we can be so full that the very life of Jesus spills out.

So, our heart is kinda like our own little cornucopia.

And you know what? When we daily fill up our mind and spirit with this good fruit,  worry stops stealing our peace and joy.  Anxiety doesn’t get to decide if we’re thankful, grateful, and blessed. 

And the really cool thing is: We get to be the overflow. 

Someone Jesus loves needs us to be the calm in her chaos. The joy in his sorrow. Kindness in the midst of all this anger. And the patience, gentleness, and self-control amid too many harsh words and way too much hustling.

Around the Thanksgiving table and out in the stores, we get to be different. We get to share the attitude of Jesus Christ, right here and now.

This is the key to living our life empowered by abundance. What a joy and a privilege to be filled up and flowing over. Thankful, grateful, and blessed to be a blessing.

 

😎☮🍇❤

 

“October is my favorite color.” Not sure where I read that, but yes. An extra month of autumn, please.

Fresh air, orange pumpkins, green gourds and Halloween memories. As a kid, I bet you did what I did: Rummaged through Mom’s big box of old shoes, purses, dresses, fedoras, and flannel shirts. Those were the best costumes.

But, what about in our everyday life? It’s easy to put on masks, isn’t it?

Performing and people-pleasing can overshadow who we want to be on the inside.

Sometimes we wear our religion like a label. “Hello, I’m Baptist … I’m Catholic … I’m Lutheran … I’m a Christian …”

It’s become a cultural habit.

We grip it like a magic ticket. Punched and done, we act like it reserves us a place in heaven. As if that’s enough.

Maybe our faith is more like fire insurance. We’re not quite sure where we stand with God so we keep it in our back pocket “just in case.” We whip it out when things get bumpy.

Is it enough to obey rules? To check the boxes on a list of dos and don’ts? Do we want to stay in a dry, guilt-driven, and self-defeating system?

Nicodemus had an inkling there was more to this Jesus he’d been hearing about. He was a prominent member of the Jewish ruling council, the Supreme Court of Israel. Pharisees were all about power, prestige, and performance. Many were puffed up with pride, setting themselves above the common Jew. They relied on their strict rules and religious systems to make them right with God.

They wore faith like a costume.

Jesus called them “white-washed tombs, which look fine on the outside but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all kinds of rottenness.”

Whoa.

As you can imagine, the Pharisees didn’t like Jesus much. They watched him close and asked loaded questions to set him up. All that talk about the Spirit and healing people on the Sabbath messed with their power and their comfortable, religious habits. They liked to keep things surface level with a few private sins on the side. They liked hard-set rules that kept people in line.

But, Nicodemus wanted more. Empty rules and religion no longer satisfied him. So, he risked his reputation and talked to Jesus, one-on-one.

“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miracles you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus told him it’s good to believe his teachings and miracles. And it’s also good to obey laws and do what’s right.

But “Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to: God’s kingdom.”

What? Born again? Is that really a thing?

God created us: Body, mind, and spirit. Until we allow our spirit to be reborn, part of the real us is hiding—is dead actually. We aren’t fully  living our divine design. Like Nicodemus, we sense something is missing inside. And we’re right.

Our relationship with our Creator is incomplete.

At Jesus’ last meal with his students ~ his diciples ~ he told them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Then he made a promise. “I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate [helper], who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth.”

The person we were born to be is fully formed by something we can’t see and touch—the Spirit. 

The only way to be right with God is to have a relationship with Jesus. One-on-one. We do that by inviting him in to live in our spirit and to teach us to live without sin so we can be his hands and heart to a seriously  messed-up world.

So, what about Nicodemus?

We don’t hear about him again  until after Jesus’ death. He wraps Jesus’ body in spiced linen and puts him in a tomb. Which seems nice and appropriate, but here’s the kicker: It was a huge no-no for Pharisees to touch dead bodies. Nicodemus would have been “unclean,” and unfit to do his religious duties. Displeasing his colleagues, he’d  have lost respect. His position and performance sullied.

But, you see, Nicodemus shed his church-y costume. I believe he was born again and grieving. He chose a relationship with Jesus to fill the longings of his soul. Jesus filled that empty space in Nicodemus. The place  reserved only for the God who made him. His insides became more important than his outside. He was tired of being defined by performance and his need for approval. So, he gave up surface level religion and chose a one-on-one relationship with Jesus.

Nicodemus was reborn and he was free.  To live a new life in that spirit-to-Spirit connection. 

And it all began with a simple conversation.

😎❤🕊☮

 

“If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” ~ Romans 10:9

“So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus. For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has freed me from the vicious circle of sin and death. We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us. He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.” ~ Romans 8:1-4