On lee's knees

New Years eve has dawned on us.  God we have ended another year and stand on the shore of a new one.  What will it hold?  Only You know.  What we do know is that great joys await us.  Adventures and thrills as we have never known. Sights of beauty, love and moments of exquisite fulfillment will be ours this year.  Abundant love, love so deep and fresh our hearts will weep rivers.  Happiness and gladness, joy and hope, laughter and sincerity, all shall lift us up this year and carry us along as the wind in winter’s wheat.  God, all of this and more You have created anew for us to live this coming year.  But then there is the other side.  Life will come this year in many ways that will hurt beyond hurt.  God shield us and ours in ways that give us wisdom instead of scars for all the days coming that will wound and harm us. 

A new year.   We know that no tomorrow is guaranteed but in Your graciousness You allow us once, every 365 days to behold the promise of an entire new year.  Such a gift!  If a second of time is of such value what can a year hold?  Opportunity.  OPPORTUNITY!  Unbelievable opportunity!!!  Oh God help us to serve You with all our hearts, souls, minds and strengths as the greatest opportunity of our lives.  Remind us daily to love others, as we are so fond of caring for ourselves.  Help us to pray diligently and give completely to our spouses and our families.  Allow us the life of seeking out the hurting, the hungry, the unloved and unlovable and once we find them, help us to be You to them.  Let us be love, nourishment, comfort and aid to all, let none be turned away, but all will be, however slight, aware that God loves them.  God give us the opportunity to remain daily grateful, thankful and overwhelmingly sincere in our awareness of Your love for us in the way You create Your beautiful world.  Let us hear the birds sing, see the blue skies, know the tress and hills and relish in every still small voice of Your creative love.  God it is all You, nothing above or beyond but You, You and Eternally You, forever and ever, Good and Love. 

A whole year!  A whole new year!  A whole Happy New Year. 

Hallllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeluuuuuuuuuuuuujahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. 

The joy of our salvation

It is about you!  In fact it is all about you!  Why do you think fresh cut grass smells so good?  Why does chocolate taste so good?  Why do waves on a beach sound so good?  Why does polished wood feel so good?  Or why does a sun set look so good?  And why is there an infinite number of these things?   I do not see how anyone could live on this planet in this universe and not believe that someone is consumed with you.  This universe seems to be made to make us think that someone really likes us but more than that, it’s almost like they are enamored with us.  The reason we so often live lives completely unaware of this nurturing relationship is that we do not know who we are.  This is very important because the universe was made for who we really are not who we think we are, who we are told we need to be and most often who we are striving to be. This sets up two ongoing conditions that deny us the joy of our salvation.  One, we fail to experience the joy of someone being in love with us and two we fail to ever know who we really are.  If you place this in a common context it would be like an unbelievably wealthy relation wanting desperately to make you their heir while you unknowingly shun all their offerings because you don’t believe the offer is extended to you. What a sorrowful state of poverty.  But we do not need to stay in the constant state of “sorrowful poverty” but it is a difficult thing to overcome.  We have to practically reject all that society stands for and more difficult still, we must live above what most Christian culture in American has adopted as normal.  It is a very difficult thing to turn our backs on what we have for a lifetime of being taught the “way of the Lord”. 

On lee's knees

The blog today:

When I was 18 (35 years ago) I had nothing to live for and lived like there was no tomorrow.

Today I have everything to live for and a body broken so it is hard to make it to tomorrow. 

a. lee benson

On lee's knees

Sitting in my living room enjoying a fire while it sleets outside.  I have been meditating on fire all day.   I opened the day reading in Genesis about Abram, his altar building and the fire that consumed the offering of animals he had prepared.  Nothing started that fire it just appeared, no wood, and no fuel at all.  I learned in elementary school that it takes three things to have fire: fuel, oxygen and an igniter.  The fire in Genesis lacked two, fuel and igniter.  It just occurred and oxygen was available.  What has intrigued me throughout the day is how fire comes to be.  You can hold a lit match to a perfectly good piece of paper and it will suddenly change into fire.  Can you imagine selling that magic trick?  I can make something change into fire!  That’s quite a feat.  What gives certain material this magical quality, wood for instance?   As I thought about it today I was stunned that I had never considered it before.  Some material has the ability to be changed from its natural occurring state to fire.  That is a marvelous gift.  Can you imagine if someone made you the fire czar?  You were responsible for making fire exist.  What would be the first fire making thought that came to mind?  You wouldn’t have one.  Our minds cannot think on that level.  That is a Holy level.  The more I meditated on it the more I was thankful.  For instance, trees grow all over the world giving man an abundant fire source.  Fire can be used for so many good things like warmth, light, protection, cooking and I won't even bother going into the industrial uses.  But also think of the romance that fire has inspired; the meaningful experiences we have had around fire, all the camaraderie, the relationships, the joy.  I have heard it said that fire was the cave man’s Wii.  I often ask my students which one they would have rather invented, the light bulb or fire.  Fire of course.  Fire has served us so well and yet I have no idea where it comes from.  I understand matches, Zippo’s and Bic’s but I do not understand how fire comes to be.  

It’s still sleeting outside and I am a little chilled.  Time to add another log to the fire.  I bet it will change to fire.  Magic.  Someone sure does love me.  

on lee's knees

i was reading today in genesis about the flood and it got me to thinking about rain. I've always enjoyed the rain and love laying in bed in the early morning hours and listening to it, but why does it rain?  i mean i know the scientific reason that rain exists - water, evaporation, cold and warm fronts etc. but i don't know why it rains.  why does it rain?  why, on a regular basis, does water start to fall from the sky and then just as regular it stops.  there are places on the earth that it doesn't rain and there are places that get regular rain but have, at some point, experienced a drought.   does the "dust bowl" ring a bell.  i have always thought of rain as one of the greatest gifts, beyond miraculous, beyond, beyond.  would you like to be in charge of rain?  not making it which could be the topic for another time, i mean, would you like to be in charge of getting rain to start and stop.  would you like to name the government  or name the committee that would be charged with the assignment of starting and stopping rain.  so reading about the flood this morning is why i was thinking about rain.  i am certainly glad, for what ever the reason, rain starts and stops.

i have always thought that getting rain to start and stop was one of the greatest signs that Someone loves us. but more than that, its like Someone is enamoured with us!