the meadowlark

Around the time Mike & I were dating, I must have read this excerpt from the book journey of desire (see below)… I was so moved by it that I printed out a picture of a meadowlark & hung it up in my cubicle….

Later, when I went through all of my stuff as I was getting ready to move to Thailand, I found the printout of the meadowlark in a stack of papers… but by that time, I tried & tried but could not remember why the bird was special.... so I threw it away.

I was so encouraged when this came... it solved the mystery and was a timely reminder of the message of the meadowlark to me today….


The Meadowlark
10/29/2006
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The meadowlark has long been my favorite songbird. I love its song because it evokes so many summer days out in the fields and streams of the West. Its song means summer, hay meadows, long lazy days, fly-fishing. More than anything else, it has become for me a symbol of hope. The meadowlark returns to Colorado in the early spring, and as I’ve mentioned, that typically means it arrives about the same time our major snowstorms hit. What courage; if it were me, I’d wait until June when the weather warms up. But they come in spite of the snow, and take their place on fence posts and the tops of small trees, and begin singing. Hearing a midsummer song almost seems out of place when the flurries are whipping about your face. But that is exactly when we need it.

I heard two meadowlarks again this spring, calling and responding to each other on a cold and windy day. God began to speak through them. I heard him urging me to keep my own summer song, even though life’s winter tries to throw into my spring cold wind and snow. Do not throw away your confidence, he said. Do not budge from your perch, but sing your song, summer confident, sure of my great goodness toward you. You did not bring this spring, dear child; you do not have to arrange for the summer to follow. They come from thy Father’s will, and they will come.

Brent was buried on a Thursday afternoon. As we gathered by the graveside, Craig read these words: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25–26). He closed his Bible and we all stood in silence, not really knowing what to say or do; no one wanted to leave; no one really wanted to stay. It seemed so final. At that moment, a meadowlark sang.

This is my song in return.

(The Journey of Desire , 210–12)
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From The Ransomed Heart, by John Eldredge, reading 302
Ransomed Heart Ministries www.ransomedheart.com


to hear the song of the meadowlark, go to:
http://www.naturesongs.com/weme1.wav

one more...

i'm convicted that my latest blog entries have been a bit "fluffy", to say the least... so here's a little substance for you from the latest Ransomed Heart devotional...
i'd say it applies to the men, as well, by the way... even though it's excerpted from a book for girls :).



What Is It That God Wants from You?
10/01/2006

He wants the same thing that you want. He wants to be loved. He wants to be known as only lovers can know each other. He wants intimacy with you. Yes, yes, he wants your obedience but only when it flows out of a heart filled with love for him. “Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me” (John 14:21). Following hard after Jesus is the heart’s natural response when it has been captured and fallen deeply in love with him.
Reading George MacDonald several years ago, I came across an astounding thought. You’ve probably heard that there is in every human heart a place that God alone can fill. (Lord knows we’ve tried to fill it with everything else, to our utter dismay.) But what the old poet was saying was that there is also in God’s heart a place that you alone can fill. “It follows that there is also a chamber in God himself, into which none can enter but the one, the individual.” You. You are meant to fill a place in the heart of God no one and nothing else can fill. Whoa. He longs for you.
God wants to live this life together with you, to share in your days and decisions, your desires and disappointments. He wants intimacy with you in the midst of the madness and mundane, the meetings and memos, the laundry and lists, the carpools and conversations and projects and pain. He wants to pour his love into your heart and he longs to have you pour yours into his. He wants your deep heart; that center place within that is the truest you. He is not interested in intimacy with the woman you think you are supposed to be. He wants intimacy with the real you. (Captivating , 120–21)
From The Ransomed Heart, by John Eldredge, reading 274 Ransomed Heart Ministries www.ransomedheart.com

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until November...

Healing the Wound

I get little snippets like this everyday from the folks at Ransomed Heart ministries... most are quotes from their books (most of which i've read) & are always short, but powerful, encouragements & reminders for me.

Healing the Wound 08/17/2006

If you wanted to learn how to heal the blind and you thought that following Christ around and watching how he did it would make things clear, you’d wind up pretty frustrated. He never does it the same way twice. He spits on one guy; for another, he spits on the ground and makes mud and puts that on his eyes. To a third he simply speaks, a fourth he touches, and for a fifth he kicks out a demon. There are no formulas with God. The way in which God heals our wound is a deeply personal process. He is a person and he insists on working personally. For some, it comes in a moment of divine touch. For others, it takes place over time and through the help of another, maybe several others. As Agnes Sanford says, “There are in many of us wounds so deep that only the mediation of someone else to whom we may ‘bare our grief ’ can heal us.”

So much healing took place in my life simply through my friendship with Brent. We were partners, but far more than that, we were friends. We spent hours together fly-fishing, backpacking, hanging out in pubs. Just spending time with a man I truly respected, a real man who loved and respected me—nothing heals quite like that. At first I feared that I was fooling him, that he’d see through it any day and drop me. But he didn’t, and what happened instead was validation. My heart knew that if a man I know is a man thinks I’m one, too, well then, maybe I am one after all. Remember—masculinity is bestowed by masculinity. But there have been other significant ways in which God has worked—times of healing prayer, times of grieving the wound and forgiving my father. Most of all, times of deep communion with God. The point is this: Healing never happens outside of intimacy with Christ. The healing of our wound flows out of our union with him. (Wild at Heart , 127–28)
From The Ransomed Heart, by John Eldredge, reading 229 Ransomed Heart Ministries

If you'd like to subscribe to this daily mailing, go to the "My Profile" section on www.ransomedheart.com and create a new profile... then you'll need to check the Daily Readings List checkbox in your profile.