Abundant Life

“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.” – Deuteronomy 30:19-20

Dear WordPress Family,

Today I contemplate my abundant life; the life given to me as a gift from God.  A life of restitution and virtue.  A life of sin and sorrow.  For how can I celebrate this life without recognizing all of the choices I make with free will; the laughter from following God’s Word but also the tears from following my inherent conspires.

This abundant life, a gift, has offered me so many opportunities to listen to God with the ears of my heart; with love.

Over the summer of 2016 I was faced with a transgression.  My husband and I got separated.  It was devastating; especially the spiritual experience that followed right after the separation.  I am still learning to pray my goodbyes.  To let go and let God.

How may I be redeemed?  God has a plan for me.  He sees all, knows all and does all.  He is my Father in Heaven and will nurture my soul so that one day I will be able to live a wholehearted eternal life.

I have faith.

And then in November 2016 my then four year old son was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) after several months of misdiagnosis from his pediatrician.  He was so close to death when he was diagnosed.  We thought this is when he would be called home to Heaven.  My whole being shook and cried out for him.

It has been eight months since he was diagnosed and he is now in remission and on a maintenance plan for the next three years.

This last year has drained me but not of faith.  I continue to see and hear God everywhere I am.  He continues to lead me and shape my life abundantly.

It took me a year to write this post as I did not want to reflect upon these events and how I let myself lower into one of many months of living in a “dark night of the soul”.  It has been exhausting and I need lifting.  I need to start listening again.

There are so many experiences I have had over the past year that I need to process here. I hope to so do this year.

I am so grateful to have all of you here with me witnessing the Grace of God.

With Love and Peace,

Brooke

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The Wilderness

Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. – Matthew 3:4

The young ones flee to the wilderness. They have heard through whispers that is where Greatness resides.

They go to the wilderness, ushering through the clumps of fearsome rocks and sandy soil, to rest with the old ones; the abbas and ammas, the ones that wholly listen with the ears of their hearts.

They pursue a life less lived. A life brimming with raw honey, locusts, pungent wine, prayer and unity. A life they dare not dream but a life all the same prominent in love ever after.

Love not in the sense of promiscuity but of innocence—that of the beginning—in which the golden rays of the guiding stars in Heaven shone.

In this wilderness they find a knowledge uncanny akin to their childhood faith, one that swallows them whole with wonderment.

They vow to the aflame that is growing from the Breath ever so gently exhaled on the spark from within.

It is then that they are let loose.

They have grown from the young and unmindful to a wise and timeless tribe.

They witness the Holy, in all the living world—even the flesh—and that which is illimitable.

It is through the wilderness that they are able to make their way back to the widely known.

To the place often traveled.

Not to subdue or go back to ways of the common but to spread the passion of goodness.

Lead by righteousness.

It is in this worldly place they are able to free themselves from the binds that constrain them. The binds that had permanently mark their tender skin—transforming them into the wake of tomorrow.

They know from their rest that they will be able to flourish and witness the Holy in the darkest of shadows; within the greatest cities, across the vastness of plains and in the depths of the sea.

It is there that their light will shine brighter than ever before, dripping with a thick and rich solace.

This same solace will spread with glory; pulsating all the different colors of glimmering warmth that has been cast and revealed through a crystal so clear.

And in that glimmering warmth a remarkable Presence is acknowledged.

In that moment the Truth will be known; no hesitation, no questioning.

Purely cell-splitting willingness and awareness.

In the darkness.

In the night.

In the wilderness.

Amongst all that ever was.

That is where Greatness will transcend all; ever breathing, light-giving in the stillness like wintertide.

 

With Love,

Brooke

Life Before Death

“The great spiritual question is not, ‘Is there life after death?’ but is, ‘Is there life before death?'” – Anonymous

To live is to not only acknowledge but to take peaceful action.
Live a life with attention to God and for the good of others.
In other words,
you push me and I will pull you.
We counter each other.
Nature is the perfect example of what I write.
The wind blows and the trees sway,
for if the trees push while the wind also pushes then they show resistance to force.
Thus, they face the natural consequence of breaking a limb.
Some would say that the trees would do well to resist;
but to what purpose?
To drive out the consciousness of God through resistance and agitation?
Who’s agenda is being worked with that ignorance?
Oh, don’t you see?
The wind and the trees work in perfect harmony with the community of the world;
praying through their movement;
dancing with one another;
bringing creation to life.
All the while, the wind helping the trees take a new shape with their outter appearance;
while strengthening their untouched godly core.
They are not enemies but partners in life and thereafter.
As you may know, the inner and outer appearance are truly, truly the same.
We only name them to express wonder and existence.

Peace,
Brooke