May your unfailing love REST upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.

Psalm 33:22

Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love SURROUNDS the man who trusts in Him.

Psalm 32:10

Sharon Betters

“God sent me a treasure of encouragement this morning, a gift designed to turn my heart toward Him and I am still stunned by its simplicity and potential for transforming this day from the mundane into the majestic.

The means by which He delivered this treasure reminded me of the priceless gift of covenant community experienced when God’s women gather. Last night I enjoyed meeting with our Bible study small group. I soaked up the words and insights of my sisters as our leader guided us deeper into the truths of Psalm 32. We were daughters of the King enjoying a family gathering as we considered this “letter” from our Father. What difference would this study of confession and repentance make in our lives?

This morning I began working through our next assignment, Psalm 33. I picked apart the first few verses:

Sing joyfully to the Lord, Praise the Lord with the harp; make music to Him, Sing to Him a new song; play SKILLFULLY; SHOUT for joy.

Psalm 33:3

The rest of the passage declared multiple reasons for me to joyfully proclaim with music, my words and my life, the goodness and unfailing love of God. And there it was, that treasure of encouragement that helped turn my heart toward Him in a new way.

May your unfailing love REST upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You.

Psalm 33:22

I turned back to Psalm 32 and read:

Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord’s unfailing love SURROUNDS the man who trusts in him.

Psalm 32:10

Ahh –  God’s love RESTS on me; SURROUNDS me.

Have you ever watched the colors of a sunset spread out like multiple cans of spilled paint? In that moment this morning, that’s how God’s love looked to me. I pictured a bucket of God’s deep, pulsating passion for me, His daughter, resting on my head. Then with a smile, in a surprising move, He tipped it over and covered me, surrounded me with love that is unfailing, steadfast.

How do I take this moment into my day, I thought? I pictured the waiting tasks: a doctor’s visit, errands, time with some of our grand-kids, laundry, cleaning, preparing a meal for a friend. I started imagining how an intentional recognition of God’s surrounding love could impact my response to the needs of the day, my interaction with cashiers and the doctor’s staff, and our grandchildren or unexpected phone calls or emails. How could this treasure of encouragement from God Himself make me more like Jesus in my response to others?

My day looks different than it did a few hours ago because I’m more aware that God’s love rests on me and surrounds me. I plan to look for evidence of that love wherever I go. I have a feeling I may be challenged with difficult circumstances, perhaps an irritating person, disappointing news, a conflict – only God knows (Psalm 33 reminds me of His sovereignty and that He considers everything I do). This treasure of encouragement is equipping, enabling me and exhorting me to look for His love in those challenges, and then to display that love no matter what.”

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Sharon’s words so encouraged me a few weeks ago, God’s love both rests on me and surrounds me, that I knew right away, I wanted to share them with you. You can find more of Sharon’s wisdom on her daily blog at https://markinc.org. Click on Resources and then Daily Treasure. FMA (Far More Abundantly),
sue

A similar title caught my eye recently as I thought about this past year and the pandemic we’re hopefully coming out of. Am I languishing in my time with God, or am I lingering and enjoying his presence?

I’ve shared before, I start each morning with sitting and staring, with quiet, listening, lingering. It readies me to read; it readies me to hear; it readies me to connect; it readies me for whatever the day may hold. Unless it doesn’t.

Lingering with God and his creation has been a spiritual discipline I’ve practiced for several years. But it was slipping.

What has changed? Why is this very good habit not quieting my heart, feeding my soul? Why is it suddenly hard? Are you noticing a difference in your times with God?

The pandemic affected me more than I realized.

I didn’t need to adjust to working from home — that was my norm.
I didn’t need to adjust to home-schooling — our nest is empty.
Ministry looked different — but ministry was happening.

But there were minor (at least that’s how I described them previously) changes creating new normals, normals with sizeable outcomes. Cyberspace instead of blacktops or planes soaring through skies connected me to others. I’m actually connecting with more people than before. True, but is that good?

Screen-time became common and perhaps too easy.
Grand-kid connections switched to Marco Polo and Google Hangouts.
Groceries were ordered on the small screen of my cell phone and picked up without ever leaving my car.
Church was online, in my pajamas with coffee in hand.
Ministry was by Zoom.
Texting passed along quick and easy answers.
Echoes of Grace supporting my ministry became my ministry life-line.
Group emails became normal, relating to many at once.

Then it happened one day — one morning really. My website crashed. Google wouldn’t let me in to my email. Mailchimp suddenly didn’t recognize me. I crashed too — my lifeline had been snapped.
And I thought back over the past 15 months, those long pandemic days.

At first I couldn’t comprehend Covid’s reality. Did we really need to close schools? Did we really need to hoard toilet paper and joke about its shortage?

At first I kind of enjoyed screens dominating my Sunday morning. I could attend my church and within an hour transport myself 1000 miles away and listen to my son preaching at his church.

Then came summer.

We moved to our Sanctuary, our small cabin in the Wet Mountains. Our Sanctuary is designed to be a time, a place of recharging and refueling. My cell phone still delivers emails, texts, and an occasional phone call. But my computer is okay with not being fired up daily. (At our Sanctuary, it is rarely fired up.)

I shifted into Sanctuary mode. It was good. It felt normal. I donned my mask for the weekly grocery trip because I actually went into this store for our bread and meat and weekly connection with other real live people.

In the fall I picked up where I left off. My computer once again a lifeline (see the paragraph that starts with the word screen-time).

In January we took a two-week island vacation. My computer stayed home; even my cell phone was quiet with the exception of its camera. Every morning I sat outside with my Bible and my journal, lingering with God. Listening to the sounds of creation, experiencing the warm breeze, loving the view. I especially loved spotting a Bananaquit several different times.

We returned home and I returned to life as I knew it the past 10 months.

But I began sensing a difference. Lingering with God wasn’t happening quite so much. Perhaps languishing, that feeling of stagnation and emptiness, was a more correct adjective.

The time at our Sanctuary and our January vacation were reprieves and they were good. But those brief weeks did not counteract the many weeks and the many reasons for screen-time.

The pandemic affected me more than I realized. Lingering was stunted. It became too easy to do life from my desk, and my desk called to me everyday.

Seeing those words together, languishing and lingering shocked me into realizing. Caused me to remember what I was missing. Lingering invited me to return.

“For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
‘In returning and rest you shall be saved;
in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.'”
Isaiah 30:15

How did the pandemic affect you?

Copyright, Sue Tell, May 2021

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Something different from Echoes of Grace this week. My friend Janet Newberry was a guest on the weekly Trueface podcast last month. It just might be the best 30 minute investment you make in your day today.

A few of my notes to whet your appetite …

How God sees me is not the same as how I see God.

When I aim at performance, my maturity is stunted. When I aim at trusting relationships, performance is off the chart.

Love is not an emotion; love is a commandment.

And so much more!

The link is below in the comments.

For me personally, the teaching of Trueface has transformed me. Or rather, meeting God through the ministry of Trueface has transformed me! It is my privilege to walk with my friends through their 10 week video course, 10 brief video’s with conversation starters. We do it on our own time. Might you be interested? Check it out here, https://courses.trueface.org. The Relational Journey, Behind the Mask.

Here’s Courtney’s words after we finished the course.
“Walking through Beyond the Mask with Sue was an answer
to prayer that I hadn’t known to pray. Though much of the
content was not new to me, the presentation of it paired
with the discussion questions encouraged me to engage
with it in a deeper way. Being able to share this journey
with Sue has been a gift during a time I have needed it
most.”

Copyright: Sue Tell, May 2021

I just checked my blog.
Nope. No little bell going off.
Then I checked my Facebook.
Nope. No little hearts for likes.
Then I checked outside.
I found hundreds of both.

Father, forgive me. I often chase the empty, short-lived praise of man, when your word to me is love.”
~
“For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man?
If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
Galatians 1:10

 

Poetry and Pictures, compliments of Heidi Viars.

Heidi is a new friend I’ve met through my writing class. She blogs at https://heidiviars.com. I’ve been so blessed by her words. I hope you’ll click over to her blog and be blessed as well!

My Aunt Pat walked into heaven two weeks ago on May 10th.

As I remember Aunt Pat, two qualities stand out. Aunt Pat trusted me. Even as a young teen, Aunt Pat was willing to call on me as her babysitter. She was a brave woman. I wonder if I ever told her of taking her young son to the lake and how he almost escaped from me running toward the water? Probably not. It was pretty scary for me. And I wanted to continue to be trusted. I was.

And Aunt Pat was an affirm-er. Her words always left me with a smile. My last phone conversation with her was a few months after my Mom died. Not only did she abundantly thank me for calling, affirming me, she also affirmed my Mother. She spoke of my Mother believing in her and trusting her. She told me how my Mom’s words were powerful enough to change the scene on her wedding day. Aunt Pat’s remembering was a gift to me.

Two days after Aunt Pat died, I sat in front of the large picture windows at the end of the hallway, Bill sleeping a few doors down anesthetic still controlling his body. More memories flooded back. Aunt Pat had a long career as a nurse.

As I watched the nurses scurrying from room to room ministering meds and hope to those in the beds, I thought of Aunt Pat. It was easy to picture her offering meds and hope to those in her charge.

While I watched, my earbuds privately delivered a podcast — I didn’t want to disturb the patients or the nurses. The topic of the podcast was fairy tales, magic, and being human. The speakers suggesting that fairy tales with their magic can deliver faith to the humans who listen and are quiet enough to be enthralled.

The podcast connected me in a new way with Aunt Pat.

Aunt Pat’s grand-daughter, Maggie, a self-proclaimed “Discoverer of the magic in the ordinary”, wrote a beautiful tribute to her Grammie testifying to her faith, caught as a child through the wonder of magic. Curly gray hair connecting with tattooed arms, generation to generation, through pretending and believing. The beauty of their bond offering a legacy of hope.

Their bond strengthened over the years. Maggie grew and followed her Grammie into nursing. They had much in common, much to share. Like the nurses I observed two weeks ago, Aunt Pat and Maggie both chose a life of service to those who are hurting, who are scared, who need the magic, the reality of hope.

I didn’t know my Aunt Pat in the same way Maggie knew her Grammie. I’m thankful for the gift of Maggie’s words painting a more complete and deeper, more beautiful picture of Aunt Pat.

In her waning days, my cousin’s (Maggie’s dad) wife sat and read the gospel of John to Aunt Pat. Another story, this account not a fairy-tale, but the true story of Jesus, the true story of God’s love unfolding through the God-man becoming flesh, becoming human so that we may believe.

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples,
which are not written in this book:
but these are written
so that
you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that by believing
you many have life in his name.”
John 20:30 and 31

I understand that hearing is the last sense to go. As Aunt Pat lay silently, she lay listening to this true story.

“So faith comes from hearing,
and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Romans 10:17

I wonder, was Aunt Pat also remembering?

The podcast I was listening to, “The Gospel According to Fairy Tales”. https://outoftheordinarypodcast.com/128-the-gospel-acccording-to-fairy-tales/

Copyright, Sue Tell, May 2021

It was 2008. The plane was packed to capacity. Bill sat in the middle. I was to his left on the aisle. Our friend Lindy was several rows behind. We were on our way to Wisconsin for Bill to officiate a funeral.

35,000′ up his breathing became shallow and rapid. Something wasn’t right. I looked at the child across the aisle, “Please, get a flight attendant — quick!”

The flight attendant came armed with a cool washcloth and an oxygen tank. I also asked for my friend. She would pray. They moved her to the row right behind us.

In the midst of the scary, those times when prayer could calm, I’m hopeless —
I need my people to stand in the gap.

Second verse, same as the first … It happened again last week. I’m in my writing room on my cell phone listening to Mary’s story. Bill comes in. “Just a minute Mary, Bill needs to tell me something.”

“The PA just called. After reading the results of my blood test yesterday, she wants me to go to the ER. She suspects Kidney stones.  A CT scan at the hospital can confirm or deny.”

I say good-by to Mary, gather my car keys and a book, and we left.

Would surgery be needed again like two years ago?

I text our sons and physician daughter-in-law — our own personal doctor.
I text our couple’s group — please pray.
The texting circle widens as I think of more who will pray.

In the midst of the scary, those times when prayer could calm, I’m hopeless —
I need my people to stand in the gap.
Some things never change.

The CT confirmed it.

I go home for the night leaving Bill hooked to IV’s and a blood pressure cuff.

Things moved quickly the next morning. Bill had surgery to remove the stone — only one this time.

But I was shaking.

That same night my friend Diane (unaware of our circumstances) shared a devotional she recently wrote based on Joshua 1:8 and 9.

google images

“Do not be afraid” or in some versions, “Fear not”.  “‘Fear not’ is the most often repeated command in the Bible, appearing more than 200 times.” Diane Spuler.

Was I afraid? I was shaking. I needed my people.

And our Far More Abundant God provided according to his character.

1. God provided through the truth of his Word. The scriptures I have recorded in my leather journal in ink and review almost daily spoke peace to my hear. “and he (God) will be the stability of your times…” Isaiah 33:6. God provided stability that day through friends.
2. Friends who prayed. Kay texted, “You are both being covered!!!” Covered in prayer after I shared how hopeless I am with prayer in times like these.
3. Friends who ask me questions rather than sharing their similar story.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          After we were home, Bill texted our couple’s group, our Splendid Friends, “Hey all — Bill here. Thanks so much for all your prayers and support for sue…” (bolding mine) Bill knows me well.

“Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
Corrie ten Boom

“love one another” John 13:34
“pray for one another” James 5:16
“accept one another” Romans 15:7
“serve one another” Galatians 5:13

I’m very thankful for those who stood in the gap on our behalf. Truly, I needed them!
And there were others.

Copyright, Sue Tell, May 2021

I highly encourage you to go to Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or your favorite place to buy books, get your copy of Growing Slow and soak in it’s wisdom.  And then let’s share the nuggets with each other that speak to our hearts.

Copyright: Sue Tell, May 2021

Happy Mother’s Day, my Friends!

I loved visiting Mom in the springtime. As I drove down her street her immaculate Dutch Colonial home encircled with the beauty of spring drew me like a magnet.

The deep pink and white Azalea bushes lining her front walkway led to the front porch. They were the first things my eyes would see. Mom always had a chair placed invitingly on the front porch where we could visit  and enjoy the beauty of her neighborhood with its deciduous tree-lined street.

As I drove in the large Rhododendron bushes with their lovely white blooms hugging her driveway communicated, I am home and Mom is here.

Mom was a strong woman, a hard worker, a leader, and a lover of beauty. She gave time and effort, even into her 90’s, to make sure the flowering bushes and trees were well cared for.

It was her mature Magnolia tree gracing her back yard that took my breath away.

Mom’s Magnolia Tree

It’s beauty grew with each passing spring day. The Magnolia tree with its delicate pink and white blossoms was a gift of our good creator for us to enjoy. We often sat on Mom’s screened in back porch and visited on those warm days enjoying each other, enjoying the beauty of the Magnolia tree, and enjoying a glass of Mom’s iced coffee. Who needs Starbucks?

Jack King on his blog, KnoxPriest, called it “Reading the Book of Creation”. For sure I need my Bible to connect with God. I’m also learning that when I connect with him by first enjoying his creation, he always leads me to where he wants to connect in his word. (This week its been Psalm 73.)

For me listen is a better verb than read. As I gaze at creation and listen for God’s voice, invariably we connect as he leads me to the place he wants me to read.

I’m learning that sitting and gazing at the beauty of God’s creation quiets my heart and is a necessary first step for listening, listening for the voice of God.

“Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear to me, and come to me;
hear, that your Soul may live;”
Isaiah 55:2, 3

Colorado beauty is different from northern NJ beauty where Mom lived. Our majestic (still snow covered) mountains, the deep green of the pines and other evergreens, the delicate green leaves of the Aspens in the summer, and their gold leaves in the fall capture my heart as well.

This Aspen tree at the edge of our deck is filled with small buds getting ready to pop. It will be a few weeks yet. Look closely in the distance, the white is the snow on top of Pike’s Peak.

Listening to God by first enjoying his creation has redefined my morning devotions. I even have a new name for it, Sue’s S-C Plan, or My Sabbath-Canvas. My S-C Plan has three S-C sub-points that lead me to stewardship and cultivating maturity.

I’ve created a feminine S-C bookmark and I’d love to send you one. Just put your address in the comments or email me, sue@suetell.com. Happy Mother’s Day to you!

Thank you Mom for caring about and caring for beauty. Happy Mother’s Day in heaven.

“Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.”
Psalm 96:6

Copyright: Sue Tell, April 2021

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