Faith

Grateful Reflections

Posted on May 7, 2012 by backfromtheborderlands

In the wee hours tomorrow morning we will begin our journey home.  I am tired but happy.  Two months away, from where I now call home, is good for this 54 year old, mom and new grandmother.  I’ve been stretched a bit, which is always a good cure for fossilization.

My overwhelming feeling is gratefulness.  I am grateful to have been near when my grandson was born and help his parents in the first three weeks of his sweet life. I am grateful that there is still work for me to do here in these Asian lands where I have spent two thirds of my adulthood.  To see life and growth in those I have invested has brought much joy to my heart. I am grateful to continue to work with and walk along side my partner and husband of 33 years.

The dramatic Central Asian spring bursting in color and freshness contributes to my feelings of hope.  Truly life is at work in our world. Seeds push through the ground after awhile and life is renewed.  The natural world mirrors the spiritual world.  The Kingdom of God intersects with our lives on planet earth and life continues to burst forth.  It takes some perspective combined with time to see it happen.  For time and perspective I am also grateful.

Categories: borderlands, Faith, Life | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

Good Friday

Posted on April 7, 2012 by backfromtheborderlands

Bread of heaven

Coming down from the Father

Giving life to the world

I take this bread

I believe in the One sent

To feed the world

The life it so desperately needs

 

Being gluten intolerant

It’s wise to switch from this earthly bread

Which makes me sick

I can’t digest it

No life in it for me

Maybe we are all gluten intolerant

When it comes to

Substituting

Bread of Life

For whatever we fill our hunger with

It will kill us in the end

Instead of nourishing us

And bringing

Life forevermore

 

© 2012 Julie Clark

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Nervous in Pune

Posted on April 5, 2012 by backfromtheborderlands

 

Only three things have been making me nervous here in Pune: the traffic, the dogs, and my son’s pressure cooker.  My son has told me that the dogs, all though mangy, are fine.

 

“It’s live and let live here mom, don’t bother them and they won’t bother you.”

“Ok son, but what about this one that keeps jumping on me that is supposed to be guarding your apartment?”

 

“Oh, he’s just friendly, give him a knee and he will stop.”

 

I guess he got the message with my knee once so he has stopped jumping on me.  So the dog nerves are subsiding.  The traffic?  I find it best on my nerves to close my eyes from the back seat and think of flowing rivers.  Of course praying mostly under my breath helps too:  “mumble, mumble, mumble, GOD HAVE MERCY! Mumble, mumble, mumble, LORD HELP US ALL! Mumble, mumble, mumble.”  I think those nerves are subsiding as well, except I had a relapse last night when he was trying to use his CELL PHONE while zigging and zagging.  Admittedly, I haven’t seen any accidents just a lot of weaving, stopping and starting.  Also a whole lot of horn honking. Perhaps what looks like near misses to me are just the normal ebbs and flows of traffic around here?

 

There are reasons I have never owned a pressure cooker.  I think my mom had a run in with one and never would have one in the house.  I know it is great for getting tough meat nice and tender, and cooking rice or beans really quick. It’s just that little bit of letting off steam that really gets me unexpectedly.  My son calls those whistles.  It would be nice if it would actually whistle a gentle tune, not that sudden high-pitched, nerve wrecking screech. My usual response after the initial jolt is to head for the kitchen door and wait for the “whistle” to subside. I am getting more used to it now since I made a nice dhal all on my own the other day.

 

My darling grandson is gaining weight and getting settled into his baby routines.  His Mama is healing well.  We just heard our visas for Kazakhstan are on their way.  We may even make our original flight on Sunday.

 

 


Categories: borderlands, Faith, Life, Travel | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Looking for the Light

Posted on December 13, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

It is dark and gloomy outside,

And inside for some of us.

This is my third Christmas back,

And I think I am finally getting it, about all the Christmas lights.

We need light!

We crave light!

It reminds us that there is hope,

That we will not be consumed.

It is our stand against this encroaching darkness.

Yet, somehow this darkness is our teacher.

Slow down, relax, build a fire, eat some soup, sleep,

Give way to this season of life.

Waiting is not giving up, it is an inside growing and maturing.

It is where hope gives birth to faith.

I am reminded of another search for light.

It’s about a people walking in darkness who saw a great light.

It’s about a star pointing the way on a very dark night in a very dark time.

This light is still shining and making a home in us,

Until, we are a City on a Hill,

Shining brightly and giving light for all to see.

I am also reminded to look for the light in others.

It is there!

We are all image bearers of God.

We all have light sides and dark sides.

Can we search, as in a treasure hunt, for the diamonds in others?

When all around is so dark,

It is time to shine for others who are struggling in their battles with the darkness.

It is time to lend a little more light to them.

Use our good deeds: our hands, our feet, our ears,

Our words of encouragement, and even our money.

Whichever way we shine the best.

© 2011 Julie Clark

 

 

 

Categories: Faith, God, Hope, Life, Poetry, Seasons | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Leaves aflame

Posted on October 31, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

Leaves aflame

With sun light fire

Seen through

The stained glass

Reminds me of

The night sky

Falling

With shooting stars

Falling, falling

All is falling

It is time for the earth

To renew itself again

Aided by time and gravity

Keeping it all here

The death and the dying

The brokenness and the shame

They aren’t going with us

When we fly

© 2011 Julie Clark

Categories: Autumn Poems, Faith, Poetry, Trees | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Gratitude

Posted on August 17, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

Receiving not grasping

Thanking not demanding

When I do this

It changes my heart

From self-centered, woe is me, how hard is my life stone

To warm

Glad to be alive

Gratefulness

For all I have

The beauty that surrounds me

(When I open my eyes fully to see it)

For those I love and who love me

Making room for more love and more gratitude

When I cannot be grateful for something directly

Because it is too painful and I can’t see its purpose

I can move around it being thankful for what I can see

And in the meantime my heart will expand to include more

And perhaps gratefulness for the good will dislodge the bitter weight of the evil.

It is more than looking at the world through a glass half full

What about thankfulness that the glass is half empty

There is room for more to come into that half empty glass

More opportunity to grow and to receive

Unfinished and limited am I

Yet still alive, ever-changing and growing

Ingratitude limits and restricts

Making the world smaller and harder

Pulling down into a spiraling vortex

Seeing without hope is a kind of not seeing

I will take rather the wings offered

To soar above

With the eagles

© 2011 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, Life, Paths, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Three Poems of God as I see Him

Posted on July 25, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

God is

God loves

God is working through the chaos

Look back

Look beyond

Hasn’t he always been?

His reign continues

His door is open

His invitation remains

The fire has been burning

Since our first parents

Grasped what was not theirs

It burned then

It continues to burn now

Until the day

All that can be burned will be gone

And what will be

Will be glorious and pure

© 2011 Julie Clark

Call me Treasure

Call me Pearl

Sought and found

You the merchant

You the farmer

All sold

All given

Until I was yours forever.

Only now

Can I love

Because I am loved

By the first lover

Can I give

Can I live

Breathed on

With fresh life

Responding daily

To my name

Treasure and Pearl

© 2009 Julie Clark

Heartbeat of God

Ever reaching for His children

Justice and Peace

He longs to bring with

Connection to His streams of Life

His life breathes life into what is dead or dying

Reviving, weaving, creating purpose

For each new day.

©  2010 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, God, Life, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Seeds, Fruit and a New Life

Posted on May 15, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

Bill and I met Scott in a sports bar last night.  We were there because of NBA playoffs and a bad cable connection.  Bill had been waiting all day to see the game.  So when he couldn’t fix the cable and it was a no-show for watching the game at our house we started talking about a Sports Bar.  He did a little research on-line, we pushed back dinner plans and off we went.  We walk into the bar with 4 TV’s going and men sitting around watching and chatting.  We find our little table and start focusing in on the game.  Bill brings out the moose dice he got from our 80-year-old buddy in Colorado.  He loves that game! We watch the game, sip our beers, and play a little moose dice during the lulls.  As the game is winding down Scott comes over and says, “Hey, what game are you playing.”  We invite him to sit down and we’d teach him.  Well, we never got around to that. Instead he starts pouring out the pieces of his broken life.  He has a little girl, a broken marriage, and drug and alcohol addictions. He has a Lutheran background, but where is God?  Who is He? We told him we were sent there just for him.  We never came here before and probably won’t come back. We had a message for him. God loves him and hasn’t forgotten him.  Later I wished I had added, “you can turn your life around now, today, one step at a time, God will help you.”

Scott made a lot of choices to get to where he is today.  We each make choices everyday.  Galatians talks about the seeds we sow.  Seeds are small, if you don’t look close they seem insignificant.  But if you plant a row of little carrot seeds, after a while you will get some delicious orange vegetables.  If you plant a row of weeds what will you get?  Seeds produce fruit, the fruit produces a new life.  That is what counts.  Not keeping rules and laws, but letting the Spirit help us to make good choices, plant good seeds, bear good fruit, live a good life.

At one point Scott pointed to the men around and said: “Divorced, divorced, divorced – all of them!”  Not only that but we heard in the same 24 hours several stories of divorce, brokenness, drunkenness leading to bad decisions. Ok, Lord what are you saying?

Little things are important.  Very important.  They add up to become big things. Choices I make every day.  Choices to love, to forgive, to accept, to work on relationships, instead of giving up.  Choices to be kind, to be patient, to be self-controlled, not to be angry.  We make these decisions everyday.  They add up!

For Scott

Am I lost or am I found?

If I party hardy will I drown?

Lift my head up

See the light

Take my feet out of this mess

See the path laid out for me

Drying out along the way

It’s clearer now

More like the day

If I focus I can stay

Now I see the hand that guides

I feel the presence by my side

Lead me home

I want to go

Now I see where I have been

Away from You

My wounds so deep

My heart is shattered

How can I live?

Your words bring hope

I will listen, not lose heart

Stay this course

You’ve got my back

© 2011 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, Life, Paths, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Two Post Easter Poems

Posted on April 25, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

Redemption

Taking broken pieces of pottery

Once beautiful in their wholeness

Now scattered in the ground

Found and gathered

Painstakingly pieced together

Into a magnificent mosaic

The Connection

Love is the strong bond that grows and tightens

Our connections with one another

It is tested frequently

And when the result is acceptance

And the choice is to continue to love

The bond becomes ever stronger

Love gives us the desire to know the beloved

To see the one loved in a true and forgiving light

This knowledge means I know to some degree

The unhealed pain in the heart

That drives the madness

We all have at times

Yet, choose again to love

© 2011 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, God, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

My Measure

Posted on April 11, 2011 by backfromtheborderlands

Let my measure be large

Not of cake or pie

Or gold or silver

Or stocks or bonds

Or oil futures

But of

That which I give away

Of love and mercy

Kindness and peace

Forgiveness and acceptance

Then I will be like

My Father in heaven

And what could be better

Than that

© 2011 Julie Clark

“Give and it will be given to you.  A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.  For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Jesus

Categories: Faith, God, Love, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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