I Give You My Heart...

 "Lord I give you my heart, I give you my soul. 

I live for you alone.

Every breath that I take every moment I'm awake,

Lord, have your way in me."

Reuben Morgan, "I Give You My Heart"

My first day of retreat, the first line of this song ran through my head. Now, mind you, I hadn't sung this song or even heard it for at least ten years! In fact, I was trying to fill in the gaps of it and kept getting the tune mixed up with a pop song. But, the first line was worth investigating because it said exactly how I felt that first day at Marymount. Thanks to Spotify, I found it and prayed with it all week! It was such a gift to be able to put my feelings into a song--well, I didn't, but Reuben Morgan did and I thank him from the bottom of my heart! I invite you to click the link below and listen to this splendid version by Chris Bethel of "I Give You My Heart." Take a minute or two to pray with this song and just give your heart away...to the One who holds and cherishes it. Love, heidi

I Give You My Heart

The power of waiting...

"Never underestimate the power of simply waiting for grace."

Sr. Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB, "Abide" (as quoted in Give Us This Day)

This is so true and doesn't it feel like what we are living through right now? Simply waiting...and waiting. For things to get better, for the virus to slow down, for our jobs to start, for things to return to something closer to normal. It's so hard to know what to do during this waiting time, too. I'm more of a do-er than a wait-er. All this waiting around can be very uncomfortable for me! But, as Sr. Macrina says, there is power in the waiting. The waiting hones us and prepares us, like the crystallis gives the future butterfly the time to get strong and be able to survive outside. This time is beneficial for us, even as it may feel it isn't. When I think of all that has gone on since March, it feels like three years instead of a few months. But we don't know the extent of the good that is happening deep within. There is deep good happening and we need to simply trust God that it is true. Our second reading today was St. Paul to the Romans, "...nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God." (Romans 8:39) Good to know! Even this difficult time is not capable of separating us from the love of God. God loves us all the more--that the one thing we needn't fret about.

Friends, I feel I want to apologize to you for being fairly absent this summer. It's not that I'm not doing the readings, or praying, or any-of-it. It has been hard to try to always be a positive voice through all of this and I believe positive voices are needed. I can get discouraged and frustrated with all that is going on and passing that along seems rather unhelpful. I'm headed up to Marymount tomorrow for five days of deep peace and contemplation. You will all be in my prayers and I hope to return with good stuff to share in future posts. For those you don't know, I have been writing for Treasure Valley Prays, a rich offering by the ELCA community here in the Treasure Valley...the link to the site is here:

Treasure Valley Prays

My love and prayers, heidi