Know Yourself

KNOW YOURSELF 

Know yourself they say 

and don’t be led astray

but how can I know who I am 

when I’m different every day?

Some days I’m the smart one 

with the answers people need 

and some days I’m the strong one 

standing up to take the lead.

On other days I’m sure 

that if the wind blew me too hard 

I would shatter like a glass

into a million tiny shards.

And on those days I cower 

and I hide out from the world

waiting on my inner child

to blossom and unfurl.

And each day I’m surprised 

by the newness that I see

the things I’m finding out

the complexity of me.

So how to know yourself 

when you’re all things rolled in one? 

you simply must decide

to love whatever you become.

Donna Ashworth

From ‘I Wish I Knew

I remember him

He was so beautiful. I'll always remember him. He was so beautiful like the morning of that day.

 beautiful he was when we were alone

 we never met after because the night took him away

 everything like a secret was left behind in the light

 his lips hands face full of tears maybe it's best time you raise it all the pain

 but still often too often too often I remember him

 daily the rain is falling by the park

 I stand alone 

memory came over me 

I remember the morning of all the sorrow

 I remember the night with it he went away

 He was so beautiful like the morning of that day

 beautiful he was when we were alone 

we never met after that because the day took him away

An Understanding Heart

 Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?

1 Kings 3:9
 
The death of President Franklin Roosevelt abruptly thrust Harry Truman into the presidency. He traveled to Capitol Hill to address Congress, and at the end of his speech he said: “As I have assumed my heavy duties, I humbly pray Almighty God, in the words of King Solomon: ‘Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?’ I ask only to be a good and faithful servant of my Lord and my people.”[1]

The Sound of Our Breathing

The Sound Of Our Breathing
Take a breath and breathe it out. Do it again, slowly, and try to mean it. Breathing – of all things maybe we take it most for granted. Do we ever wonder why we are built this way, this soft machine of ours always pumping oxygen in and out?

In sadness, we breathe heavy sighs. In joy, our lungs feel almost like they will burst.

In fear we hold our breath and have to be told to breathe slowly to help us calm down.

When we’re about to do something hard, we take a deep breath to find our courage. When looking at it this way, can breathing be said to be a kind of praying?

But what is the sound? What are we saying?

When Moses had the nerve to ask God what his name is, God was gracious enough to answer, and the name he gave is recorded in the original Hebrew as YHWH. We’ve added the vowels to it to have it become Yaweh.

Breathe in again …Yah now exhale….Weh. A wonderful question rises to excite the imagination: what if the name of God is the sound of breathing?

This is a beautiful thought, especially considering that for centuries there have been those who have insisted that the name of God is so holy that we dare not speak it because of how unworthy we are. How generous of God to choose to give himself a name that we can’t help but speak every moment we’re alive. All of us, always, everywhere, waking, sleeping, with the name of God on our lips.

It makes you wonder what this means in key moments like when a baby is born – newly arrived on planet earth, must they take their first breath, or rather speak the name of God if they are to be alive here?

On our deathbed, do we breathe our last breath? Or is it that we cease to be alive when the name of God is no longer on our lips?

Can’t find the words sometimes when you pray? Breathe in. Breathe out. It’s all we need. Yahweh. He knows our hearts. In Romans 8:26 we read “He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs.

-Taken from The Rabbit Room- Jason Grey 2011