Future Days...

I see the ruins of Rome...walking amongst the creation of a people who lived so long ago, still standing today...the Parthenon and Acropolis of Athens, Greece....feet slapping the ground where thousands made their home, their livelihood in an age so far past....making friends I've never met before in foreign lands...sitting down over Turkish coffee and discussing life and love and political events...

Collectively raising a toast to God in countries I've never set foot in...yet....

I have over the past months been overwhelmed with waking dreams of lands full of mystery and history...feeling the energy of souls long lost and laid in the ground....standing in churches magnificent in their architecture, frescos and murals....drinking wine or ale in pubs hundreds of years older than our own country...drinking in the history, the lives and loves set out in examples before us if only we have the ears to hear, the eyes to see....

One day...I will set foot and walk paths walked by Jesus and His disciples....ride a camel across a land so different from ours, greet women and men that live a faith rooted in a millennia of worship, hardship and experience...my own faith pales before it...

"There are no strangers here, only friends you haven't met yet” William Butler Yeats

This past week I had the opportunity to meet a group of coworkers from other cities/towns and sit over a cold hard tea beer with heat hazed mountains as a backdrop. After a long day of climbing one of those mountains and the consequent slide/hike down...the cooler patio air and cold drink and good conversation revived and rejuvenated body and spirit.

I took in the buzzing of a dozen voices...the laughter and chatter...the murmurs of other patrons...observed the interaction between one of my crew and other provincial crew members she felt she could never talk to, interact with, felt awkward with....and smiled, incredibly content. We had chatted about this just hours earlier...a life lesson complete with just a few words of encouragement....

God is good...truly. Despite the many differences...common ground can be found...a healthy respect for the uniqueness of each person...a love for others that transmutes, that carries across....each of us made connections that day...though we may never talk with those particular crew members again, each one of us learned something of others we did not know before and opened ourselves to growth, to an enlarging of the mind and heart for others no matter what walk of life they may trek.

Today...I know deep within that God has a plan for me...just for me...as He does for you, just for you....each of us bring talents, characteristics, traits and foibles to the table that no one else could...we are, each of us, unique and created for a distinctive path...

Today...I see the goodness of a God who orders my path, my steps...and I trust, I love, I stand rooted in the present, ready to move, to live....to experience all that this life has to offer....I see abundance, I see a life full of miracles and moments so large they overtake any pain from the past, any sorrows still hanging on...

Life....life is possible dear hearts....a life of joy, of love, of grand possibilities and miracles, of a fulfilling of hopes and dreams....a fruition of work and drive....

I wondered....many times I wondered what there could be for me....the feeling of walking a foreign land amongst familiar landscapes, amongst known highways and roadways...a foreigner in my own land....oh yes, I wondered as I know you do too my friends....you wonder what there is for you now, broken and lost....that/this, is not your future...it is only the beginning of a path meant to drop, discard and defeat the demons riding upon your weary shoulders. The winding, the circling, the faltering, the flailing, the drowning....oh dear friends, it ALL comes to an end just round the next bend, over that dusty old. mountain....one day you will wake to a great lessening, to a grand alleviating, to a massive attentuation of the weight of the worlds you have been carrying upon your person, upon your spirit....you will no longer stand bent as an old crone, no!...you will stand up straight and tall....you will breathe free air again....you will soak it in, bathe in the glory of a knowledge no one will ever take from you again....

Do you see the strength within you dear hearts? Do you feel the promise of a future built upon hardships few will ever know or understand? I see you....I see you standing with hinds feet in high places, surveying the land below with God-given pride, with a light so bright you must stand apart so as not to blind....

I see you standing tall, standing proud, with dignity and grace speaking your truth...with confidence walking your own path, no one else's....I see you standing in a group, holding hands in a gathering of others who have walked a similar path of destruction, of greedy hands and mouths stealing your joy, your essence....It is time, is it not my friends? Time to speak on matters swept under the rug for years, for generations....time to break those generational lies and hidden truths....Time to speak....

I pray for your discernment as you make your way out...for your protection as you find your way to freedom and a life full of joy, love and kept promises....

I pray for your continued strength, though it may feel small and insignificant...it is there, though shining small...it shines and will grow brighter to light your path.

I pray for your eyes to see, your ears to hear....and the courage to accept the truth of your situation. This is not easy...it is excruciatingly hard to accept, to know that the one you love does not love you the way you need, the way you love...who feels the need to hurt, to maim, to take rather than give....remember this one thing; you are loved, needed, necessary and seen as you are, right now...broken down and so low you feel as though you are crawling through the mud, the muck, the filth...daily, moment by moment.

Right there....oh dear friends...right there is where God is, crawling with you...speaking to your heart, whispering words of love and grace...declaring new life, new hope over you....

You are not alone...never alone....rise dear hurting ones...rise to what God has for you....rise and walk...loved, cherished, needed....always.

May God walk with you this day, and every day....May He light the way, illuminating a path through the darkest of hells, the blackest of nights...