Shared Wisdom: Words On The Road

We have arrived in Kentucky and are spending time with family in Louisville.  So far we have travelled through 14 States, a couple of them twice over.  Even as I travel, I am aware of words that float up from memory, or that I encounter as I journey from place to place, or that I find scribbled on pieces of paper tucked into my meditation books or my gratitude journal.  So here are some words of wisdom from the road.

“Life is curly, don’t even try to straighten it out.”                                                                                (Rebecca – age 11 years)

“What God gives us in answer to our prayers will always be the thing we most urgently need, and it will always be sufficient.”  (Elisabeth Elliot)

“What matters supremely is not the fact that I know God, but the larger fact ……… that He knows me …….. I am never out of His mind.  All my knowledge of Him depends on His sustained initiative in knowing me.”                                                                               (J.I. Packer)

“Light does not resist or avoid darkness.  It merely includes it, welcomes it, loves it.  Light is not afraid of the shadow for it knows the appearance of the shadow is the first sign of illumination.”                                                                                                           (Paul Ferini)

“We are  not alone on our journey.  The God of love who gave us life sent us {His} only Son to be with us at all times and in all places, so that we never have to feel lost in our struggles but always can trust that God walks with us.”                                                      (Henri J.M. Nouwen)

“I’m a girlfriend-kind-of-girl.  I love having women in my life.  In fact, I think women who claim they don’t need a girlfriend just haven’t found a good one yet.  I don’t have that problem.  I am surrounded by an abundance of the most remarkable women God ever created to be my sister, mother, daughters, and friends.  It’s a blessing I don’t take lightly.  Quite simply, having such dear women in my life makes my heart tingle.”      (Suzy Toronto)

“When you take the first step to embrace God in your circumstances, He will go the distance to embrace you.”   (Stormie O’Martian)

“When the reed is empty, blowing through it makes a beautiful sound, a sound that returns effortlessly to silence.  When mind is still, thoughts arise spontaneously, offer themselves, and die in the wind.  There is no complexity here.  The goal is not to make thinking go away, but to slow it down so that it comes to rest in its natural container.  Once you rest in that place, you no longer desire to be anywhere else.”      (Paul Ferini)

“Faith is meant to be lived moment by moment.  It isn’t some broad, general outline – it’s a long walk with a real Person.”    (Joni Eareckson Tada)

Blessings to you all.