All thats left...

I would that I would disappear...and that all you would see is Christ.

My Facebook-isms

All healing is temporary. All but the soul kind. How to be a celestial celebrity...Daniel 12:3 Excuses are noose we tie so we can hang in to our failures. The rest of the universe would give its last galaxy...for one little earth. If both of you put the other person first neither of you will ever feel diminished.

What I Would Change If I Could Change

Me. YOU. Us. THEM. Choices made. And the lack thereof. Leaving. Staying. Not spending enough time with you. How I spent my time with you. Priorities. Inferiorities. Holding on too tightly. Letting go too easily. Stubborn resistance. Unrelenting persistence. My thinking. Your feelings. Goodbyes. Poor buys. Blind love. Seen hate. The lazy poor. The crazy rich. Quiting joys, out of fear and hurt. These in me, and me alone, are changes I'd make, and chances I would take, if only eye could change.

ThanksLiving

Thanks. To THE Giver. OF All. Let's all Live our Lives back to our Maker. That would be the most Thanks we can give. Its the least we can do.

Decided on Mom's epithaph yesterday: "to laugh, to love, to live for Jesus"

I have a thousand hugs left to give her. Since I can't hug her again for a while, let me give one or two to you.

Enlightened sadness:Hopefilled Grief. I'm always shocked by the temporary finality of death. JESUS WEPT. Thats my kind of God.

Mom left me a Fortune

A Day with Mom. Heart Treasures.

My Mother walked into heaven yesterday. Between the sobs and the choke-hold of grief I felt, I spent time today with the stuff she didn't take with her. Oh, she’s gone. But I still spent the day with her. Someday all of you will get to go through someone’s “stuff they’ve left behind,” be ready for some shockers. In my own process of sorting, I found out that my Mom had left me a fortune. An unfathomable inheritance in Memories: in letters between her and dad; in everything I had ever written to them...since childhood. I found them at the bottom of the blanket chest; in the drawer of her bedside stand. Treasures.

In the Bible the Gospel writer Luke said (2:9) “Mary kept these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Mary remembered and reflected on the unimaginable events of her remarkable son’s life. Those memories became the most complete recording of the events of the young Jesus’ early life; many scholars believe that Mary was Luke's most influential source for the facts and records inspired to become the Gospel of Luke. Like Mary, all Moms are equipped with a special formula of heart glue. Nothing escapes a doting Mom.

But I do think that we are at risk of experiencing the The Last of a Generation of the Treasure Keepers.Treasures like Letters on Paper. No matter how hard we try to warm it up Digital is impersonal.There is no way to recognize someones unique penmanship...I assume that there are thousands of fonts in world...but there’s only one Laura Hurst’s unique handwriting style. I received a wonderful comment thread of comfort on Facebook...something that FB can actually provide of great value...but Mom got get well cards. Her and her sister exchanged weekly cards. I will be doing some major scanning over the next few months because paper will disintegrate over time. Mom left me stacks of love letters that Dad had written to her..and I want them digitized. But those scans will never match the tactile delight of paper. Because Mom saved me my own legacy of love expressions in letters I had written for her and Dad ...I will now get to relive those emotions and thoughts for the rest of my life.

So do yourself a favor. The next time you really want to communicate that you love someone, take some paper out of the printer and put a pen in your hand and write. Create some bury-able treasure.

Thank you for your love mom...filtered through intelligence and wisdom...and the hidden treasures you left us at the bottom of the blanket chest

Loving her before you even meet her...

A friend asked me about what to share with their grandson about how to treat young ladies as they begin to enter their dating years. Here's what I shared. Treat every girl like you would want boys to treat the daughter you might have someday. Remember that every outcome of premarital intercourse has real life complications...risk of pregnancy and disease...but worst of all it confuses our hearts...lessens our ability to trust...and reduces our ability to bond with our life partner down the road. Its a matter of committing to the best possible life for ourselves and our future mate. Thats loving her before you even meet her.

A Workin' Man's Hands

Start of a Country Song:
A Workin' Man's Hands...
(1st verse and chorus rough draft)
My lover's caloused hands might be cracked and rough,
but as he gently holds mine they're loving enough
to bring a shiver to my heart
and a quiver in my soul
I love a man that's been workin' with a shovel and a hoe.

Workin man's hands, workin man's hands, lovin' my man who plans with his hands,
Gonna Marry Me, Gonna Carry Me
Cross the threshold, to our household,
made puttin' blisters on a Workin' man's hands.

Mr. Pockets

He sat on the curb.
Raggedy and worn.
A rugged man's face,
ruddy,
unshorn.

Smoking a stub he found on the street
with barely whats left of shoes on his feet.
He grinned me a grin, a rotted grin
with smilin' eyes, yellowed now by gin.

He said, "Got a minute?
Got a moment to share?
I'm not askin' for nothin'
just want you to see me
and not treat me like air."

He reached in his pockets;
pulled 'em inside out.
"Empty pockets ain't nothin'," he said,
"to brag much about,
but I got a story, a story to tell
'bout a life lived up and shot all to hell."

"That's not how it started,
I'm not at all what I seem.
I just had lots of bad luck,
finally ran out of steam."

"I once had it all, looked a lot like you,
lost my last job of twenty
then my wife said we're through.
So I picked up a bottle
to drown all my pain
stopped caring about anyone
so it's all down the drain."

"How 'bout you,
you rich lookin dude,
what you got to show
for your life lived true?
Nice house and cars
and money in the bank?
While you still have it all
don't forget who to thank."

I said, "Well, thank you, Mr. Pockets
for reminding me of you.
I once was right where you are
not knowing what to do.
But I remembered life was ticking
like a time-bomb in arrears.
And I chose to make a difference
with with all my days and years."

"So I found a man with hammer
and I said I'd be his nail
and he took me up the mountain
and he took me out to sail
he said if you'll just work for me
I may start you with a pail,
but I'll let you grow with honor
and I'll let you pick your trail."

"So are you going to sit and pull
empty pockets out to show
or are you going to come with me
and watch those pockets grow?
More and more you'll have each day,
more than enough to share,
for that's the way that I was told
to find my way back there."

(dedicated to the jobless workers who really just want to work)
By Randy Hurst

Past Clingman's Dome.

Once for all. Sacrificed for sin.
Now conquered death, He lives again.
In us, Himself; in Him we live.
Because he rose, know life, no end.

Hope with purpose, to be, to do.
Love and give and find what's true.
He showed the way, what 'er the cost,
to do God's will, when done, not lost.

With grateful hearts we lift our praise,
to the risen king of all our days.
We, too, will live, just past the grave.
and be with Him, prepared both ways.

So be at peace my fretting child;
these days are short, but for a while.
He'll come to take you, take you home,
to the place He's made, past Clingman's Dome.

propheT
easter 2010

Whiners vs Winners

There are basically two types of people: Whiners and Winners, Dampers and Doers, Deniers and Believers; those that look for opportunities to complain and those that make opportunities happen. If you are in the second group, obstacles turn into opportunities by the sheer force of your will. Winners are too busy doing "winnerly" chores to be concerned with the minor irritants of life. If Whiners would spend the same amount of time coming up with solutions as they do making up excuses, they would, well, be Winners.