"the art of deep seeing makes gratitude possible."

this quote came to my mind in the middle of the day yesterday.  wednesdays are usually hard days for me.  i'm not sure why.  they just usually aren't my favorite.  but when this quote came to mind (likely not from my own mustering.. hmm..ehem, *God*), i decided that for the rest of the day, my eyes would see things deeply.

deep seeing:

like unoccupied benches in the wilderness to read in weather that lets you
like hibbard's brilliant orange against the sky's brilliant blue
like stumbling upon jazz night in the cabin
like meeting with friends in the middle of the day at a public university to read and ruminate on God's word
like yui, with his sunglasses inside like a diva (:
like lynette, a caf worker who stands in the same spot every day and remembers my name
like windows that let in the golden hour light in the hibbard penthouse
like friends standing for freedom
like the lyrics "Your name is like honey on my lips, Your Spirit like water to my soul"
like night class getting out early and walking up the hill in light

i am no expert at deep seeing.  if anything, most of the time my eyes are bent towards whining.  but would you, along with me, ask God for eyes that see deeply today, friend? 

deep seeing makes gratitude possible.
deep seeing makes gratitude possible.

the wilderness and the dry land shall be glad;
  the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus;
2 it shall blossom abundantly
    and rejoice with joy and singing.
the glory of lebanon shall be given to it,
    the majesty of carmel and sharon.
they shall see the glory of the Lord,
    the majesty of our God.
3 strengthen the weak hands,
    and make firm the feeble knees.
4 say to those who have an anxious heart,
    “be strong; fear not!
behold, your God
    will come with vengeance,
with the recompense of God.
    He will come and save you.”
5 then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
    and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6 then shall the lame man leap like a deer,
    and the tongue of the mute sing for joy.
for waters break forth in the wilderness,
    and streams in the desert;
7 the burning sand shall become a pool,
    and the thirsty ground springs of water;
in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down,
    the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
8 and a highway shall be there,
    and it shall be called the way of holiness;
the unclean shall not pass over it.
    it shall belong to those who walk on the way;
    even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.
9 no lion shall be there,
    nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it;
they shall not be found there,
    but the redeemed shall walk there.
10 and the ransomed of the Lord shall return
    and come to zion with singing;
everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;
    they shall obtain gladness and joy,
    and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

"wesley died on wednesday march 2, 1791, in his eighty-eighth year.  as he lay dying, his friends gathered around him, wesley grasped their hands and said repeatedly, "farewell, farewell."  at the end, summoning all his remaining strength, he cried out, "the best of all is, God is with us," lifted his arms and raised his feeble voice again, repeating the words, "the best of all is, God is with us."

-taken from the wesley center online

i found myself with tears in my eyes after reading this, and repeating that phrase over and over on my walk down the hill to class this morning.  and how beautiful!
the best of all, God is with us...
the best of all, God is with us...
best of all, God is with us...
God is with us.
wow.

what if i am broken?

what if i am empty?

what if i am not who i say i am?

what if i fall and fail and sin?

what if i am dry and thirsty and have nothing left to give?


i am just feeling the weight of my own brokenness tonight and this isn't meant to make you concerned, and this isn't meant to induce sympathy-  i just want this blog to be a place that's real, one that has parts of life that are hard, too..

like being a broken, messy sinner in need of a Savior.



will Your grace run out if i let You down?

i am a sinner and if it's not one thing, it's another.

caught up in words, tangled in lies.





but You are a Savior and You take brokenness aside and make it beautiful.

i'm so thankful God is who He is.

-- Bob Goff// Love Does

proverbs 16:24

Let us go right into the presence of God with sincere hearts fully trusting him.

For our guilty consciences have been sprinkled with Christ’s blood to make us clean,

and our bodies have been washed with pure water.

Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm,

for God can be trusted to keep his promise.

Hebrews 10:22,23




Oh, that we might know the Lord!
Let us press on to know Him.


He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn 
or the coming of rains in early spring.


Hosea 6:3

"So often I thank Jesus for enjoying beauty.  How much more lovely is it to serve someone who likes and creates beautiful things?  I was humbled to realize that if He is the Creator of all we see, then beauty originates from who He is.  He is beauty.  He is light.  He is art.  He is color.  We serve a God who makes everything of worth eternal.  When He is passionate about something, He doesn’t hold back.  He made our souls eternal, our relationship with Him eternal, and beauty eternal."                   -a post i stumbled upon

this quote really got to me because i simply couldn't agree more.  praise God for beauty!

my prayer for the day is that we would see God as a beautiful one... that we would be constantly surprised by His beauty throughout the day, and that we would have eyes extra open, aware, and sensitive to the ways that He is beautiful and has filled our lives to the brim with it all around!  just too many beautiful people and food and sunsets and colors and sounds and little glimpses of Him to let them go unnoticed.


& ohhh i love that He's that kind of God.

so God, show us Your beauty.

You are everything good, You are everything beautiful, You are everything, You're everything...

my prayer today is that we would see God as our Father like this.

that we, as His dearly loved sons and daughters, would ask Him to reveal His intimate love by letting Him show us what needs whittling out of our lives in order to become the people He has intended for us to be.

this prayer is a raw one. a humbling one.  but it is one that will inevitably bring us closer to God when we find that He is a loving Father.