#creativereflections

As the world transitions from the quiet, dark embrace of night to the soft, luminous glow of dawn, we are presented with a unique moment of rebirth and renewal. This dawn, let us embark on a journey of self-discovery, using the first light as a mirror to reflect upon our inner selves and the world around us.1. Wake with the Dawn: Set your alarm to wake you just before the first light. Find a…

One A Week Psalm Project

Psalm 13

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Ps 13:5 But I trust in Your unfailing love, my heart rejoices in your salvation.

I’ve possibly written before about how sometimes I feel like I’m getting whiplash from how quickly the psalm writers go from sorrow to praising. A week isn’t enough to sit with a psalm and really sit with it and allow it to seep into your soul.

I guess the question always is, with each new struggle, how we get to the point of being able to say – ‘the Lord has been good to me’ whilst in the midst of our troubles?

I’ve been drawing scribbles and things in pen on the creative page over the week and then had a go with some new watercolour pencils and used too much water for the weight of the paper. I thought it would have created a big old mess but this morning when I pick up my book I didn’t mind it and actually found it quite interesting. It’s messy and energetic in a way I don’t physically feel – but maybe it’s a reflection of ideas or spiritual engagement and energy rather than actual physical energy.

The spiritual journey can be as interesting and adventurous as a physical journey.

Prayer

I know You are the maker of all.

I know You are Saviour of all.

I trust in You to take what I cannot.

I give all my frustrations and joy to You.

I trust in Your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.

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One A Week Psalm Project

Psalm 11

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As I read back on this week there is a lot, and much more than I can incorporate into these type of posts.

Ps 11

vs 1 – In the Lord I take refuge

Vrs 2 – How then can you say ‘Flee’…

In God we find refuge, even though we often try to blame God. Even though we might be tempted to run from God, the running takes us from God and then things can be exactly the same but without God. God is not the cause of the danger, but the refuge in which we can gather our strength, and rebuild ourselves.

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Prayer

Help us not to flee but to remember you are our refuge into which we turn in times of trouble.

Give us strength and wisdom, gentleness and patience, love and joy.

May your presence be known and felt.

The 2 verses that stick out are ‘his soul hates violence and ‘the righteous will see his face’.

The constant swing between these two- that we are surely all capable of violence given the right circumstances but that we are all searching for his face – the intimacy of seeing God’s face – even when we perhaps didn’t already realize it.

I’m reading Victor Frankl’s ‘Man’s search for meaning’ at the moment as well and it illustrates these two extremes living (barely living) hand in hand. He writes so eloquently about the desire to retain himself (themselves) in the camps, and yet how close violence lived to the surface and bubbled over everyday, the strength it must have taken to resist, and the strength it still took even when they did not.

One A Week Psalm Project

Psalm 6

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Creative reflections

I seem to be having a lot of creative project ideas at the moment.

Is it because I am having times of reflection in the morning?

Is it because of the time of reading the bible even if they appear unrelated?

Is it because I am feeling more well overall; less fibro-y?

One A Week Psalm Project

Psalm 6

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Still Moments

We need to remember our ‘still moments’.

Not when the air or the weather is still, or even when the world is still around us

although they may in fact coincide,

but rather the still moments

within your body and soul – your inner self – your integrated self.

When you can feel a realization, or a touch from God, when a moment of clarity descends upon you, despite the world around.

We must recognise these still moments,

and reach out and grab them for they are few and far between.

They are important, for they are the liminal moments in our lives

when we stand on the threshold

between waking and sleeping,

between the real and the really real

between the physical and spiritual

and are in both places at once.

These are the moments when our inner selves are alive

and awake to this moment of the ‘more’ in life.

When we are open and available and ready,

even if we were not aware we were ready,

we must reflect on them

ponder them, pray on them and

be thankful for them,

for they are no more or less real than the everyday moments,

but they can be harder to remember.

They can be seeds, so long as we water and fertilise the

soil where they fall within our inner-selves.

Otherwise they will be there in the sun, parched &

eventually dry up, wither & fall away.

But nurture them, reflect upon them, &

develop what you have learned & felt in your everyday life & hopefully,

prayerfully,

One A Week Psalm Project

Psalm 4

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Be purposeful and unhurried.

The enemy of everything is rushing.

The salve for everything is loving-kindness.

Reflections on the verses

Verse 8 ‘I will lie down and sleep in peace for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.’ I both adore and struggle deeply with this.

Despite my health and my experience of insomnia, this is true for me; I have always been safe and while I haven’t always slept well, I have always slept, eventually.

But I struggle with this because it feels like a guarantee and yet lots of bad things happen to people of faith - they don’t sleep in peace or dwell in safety.

Am I able to come to this verse with the hope & prayer that my sleep will include physical safety, but also be satisfied believing that it ultimately refers to the safety of our true selves ending up with Christ, safe in eternal life with God?

That death, pain, and torture cannot separate us from our true selves in Christ and that this, eternal life with Christ, is our eternal safety?

Does that deny too much of this present reality?

Is it excusing the evil of this world or is being realistic?

Is this in reference to the ‘godly set apart for himself’ from verse 3?