joy in finding my voice again..and seeing more evidence of God

Not sure how long it has been since I gave myself a rest from daily posts, articulating my thoughts and just putting on favourite music. I actually found that it took more time to search for music on YouTube than it takes to write a post. But it was helpful for me not to seek to express stuff for a time, and to do bottom line stuff about my life in the Lord. That seems to be the theme these days for me anyway. There is lots going on in my life on the surface, and just under the surface, and way down deep below the surface. But it seems some of the angst is subsiding. It seems that my level of trust in the Lord is growing and covering the floor of the basement of my heart. I like that image - just came up with it. It's as if I've had..and probably still do...lots of raw patches on this floor of my heart...areas where it hurts to tred...where the floor is rough and cold and bare and hard. Now it seems there is more of a soft layer of carpet over more areas...as if there is more trust in God's total love and care for me.


An extra blessing came for me when Belinda, the organizer of the devotional blog I write for, http://www.whateverhesays.blogspot.com/, emailed our team to say that my post had been quoted on another blog. Marilyn, the writer on that blog, had quoted the line from yesterday's post, "When he came into the room, the air changed." ( see her blog if you like, http://asgoodadayasany.wordpress.com). It was such a blessing to have Marilyn say that our team blog is one of her favourites, and also to expand on the theme in those words I quoted about my grandfather.


Most of all I have found my voice again because I woke up in the night...3 a.m. with the words "Psalm 84" and so of course got up to read it and see what God had to say. I read it in three translations, NIV, the Living Bible, and The Message. Check it out. The main gist I'll refer to today is that I have come through the "Valley of Weeping" and am stronger because of it. I am blessed because of it. So it is a confirmation of what I often quote from Streams in the Desert.


I also found myself singing "Who Am I", the song I embedded yesterday, from Casting Crowns. The line about the Bright and Morning star thrills me. Think of all the names there are for Jesus in the Bible. I must study them again. I have a whole book about them. But somehow that name is so amazing. He can only be God when we call Him that. I can feel so often that I have known God so intimately for so many years, and yet there is so much I don't celebrate. I guess that can be true about people too. We can be so caught up in negative issues about people in our lives that we don't stop to celebrate the positives...the amazing things about them...and even about ourselves.