Ten Ways To Cultivate A Spirit Of Joy

A Few Kindly Chosen Words

  

 Keep a child’s perspective on life – live in wide-eyed wonderment, anticipation and dependence
Take time out for a few quite moments with God every day – get to know well the one who created you
Throughout the day, come back to the center, where God dwells deep within your soul

Take a walk with God – spend time talkin’ with Him; even better, just stop an’ listen to what He has to say
Call to mind God’s mighty deeds in your life – give Him thanks!
Enjoy your children, your grandchildren – listen to them; help them picture their special future
Do random acts of kindness; senseless deeds of compassion
Take time to make a new pard – you never know when a man will be in a need
Encourage someone who is down, hurting 
Show the woman you love true devotion and appreciation – you’ll never be able to measure the dividend
RWHollar April 30, 2011
Response to Spiritual Classics; John Henry, Newman; Corporate Disciplines, Celebration – Pg 332

Doin’ What I Was Created To Do


It’s a quiet unmolested mornin’. Only the song of a few sparrows flittin’ here and there fill the air. ‘Cept the grouchy sound of a Bell’s vireo, chatterin’ and gripin’ over some happy bird’s life.

The smell of spring mingles with the aroma of fresh brewed coffee sittin’ on the stand next to me. Hard to resist taken a seat in my favorite back porch chair. Ahhhh. Jes plain peaceful. I’m sittin’ relaxed, quiet; listenin and breathin’ the Lord’s good air. My elbow bends, automatic like, to draw up a sip of that steamin black brew.

My eye catches movement above me. Cat like reflexes turn my head up to the edge of the porch roof; pointy little nose, whiskers shining’ in the sun light and two big eyes embedded in a furry little face are leaned over the edge. A Fox squirrel is starring me down from his loft, about five feet up. His head disappears in a few seconds, then reappears. Seconds later…gone again…but not far. He takes to the air from the roof to the fence line. He scampers across the top of the fence and catches the first branch he sees. Up he goes, into his element.


The tall standing Red Oaks, Post Oaks and Black Jacks are nothin’ more than a maze of trails and back roads to that little ol’ Fox squirrel…just a playground. Gray coat and golden belly, the little feller winds his way through that maze of limbs and branches, dodging leaves and Jays.
He chatters his way along a crooked, snarled trail of branches and twigs. Up one limb, down another; leaps four feet onto a tiny twig that would hardly hold one of those sparrows. I see panic in his eyes as he is scrabblin’ to land on another more suitable perch. Then he stops. Tail twitchin’, curlin’ and straightening. Off again. In a flurry of furry moves he disappears into that leafy maze – I’m lookin’ at branches movin’ but he’s clean outa sight.

“Now, Lord, where you recon that little feller is headed?” 

Much to my surprise, the Lord answered me. “Well,” he says, “I ‘spose the same place as you.”

“Huh? I mean ‘xcuse me Lord?”

“Whatcha got planned for your day pard? Lots of runnin’ and scramblin’, tail twitchin’ and nail bitin’ leaps onto thin branches? – That little feller is jes doin’ what I created him to do. How ‘bout you?”

Now, a smart man knows when he’s licked. Liftin’ my eyebrows into those trees, lookin’ jes over the back lip of that cup I’m drawin’ up to drink from, I take a long slurppy sip of hot coffee. Thinkin’ real careful like.

A feller needs to consider carefully what he’s fixin’ to say to the One who created all I’m takin’ in this mornin’. I’m thinking’, “Better get this right Doc.” 

A few quiet moments pass.

“Well, Lord, I’d be pleased to be at your disposal today. I’m gonna spend some time in this Book of yours by my side and I’ll be listenin’ to what you got to say.”

“SHOW ME LORD, WHAT I WAS CREATED FOR TODAY.”

Whatever I do Lord; I’ll do it with all my might and give my all to honor you today.
(Ecc 9:10; 1Co 10:31)

(c) Photos & Verse according to RWHollar
March 31, 2017

Here Comes The Rain



Here Comes The Rain
 (Verse according to RWHollar)

Lightin’ a shuck, we’re runnin’ hard for shelter;
Here comes the rain pourin’ down helter skelter.
Thunder cracks, lightnin’ flashes and steed bolts with power;
The line shack’s in view, but further ‘an I remember.
Yellow slicker a’ flyin’, rain beaten our face;
Horse and rider in dead run, to find a dry place.
Beatin’ hooves, mud flyin’, soaked through from the storm;
Got one thing in mind. Get safe, dry and warm.

(c) RWHollar
May 23, 2016

Dewdrops And Trickles

Not every written word in western life turns out to be “Cowboy Poetry.” Sometimes the thoughts a man has when he’s sittin’ quiet and alone just have to follow a logical path. Somehow that path turns into a kind of philosophy about how things work. Sometimes it’s real clear. At other times the thoughts just have to meander awhile. Eventually a man ends up where he didn’t know he was goin’. Fer example: I was thinkin’ recently, “How can one Scripturally motivated prayer every day make a difference in anyone’s life?”

As I was sittin’, contemplatin’, the Lord said to me, “Son, when you come to your secret place of prayer and devotion, I’m going to make sure you don’t leave empty-handed. When you open My Word and I show you an insight, you can be sure that it will impact the life for which it was given. It might be yours. It might be a child, a nation or a friend. You take that insight and pray it over them. The next day will be the same; then again and again, till one thought turned prayer becomes two, three, and four. Years down the road those daily insights, dewdrops of mercy, have turned into little trickles. Those trickles turn into streams and streams turn into to creeks. Creeks turn into rivers flowing from on high, over falls and then empty into great gorges moving steadily to mighty oceans.” That’s what God said.

So it all begins when one little dewdrop of water falls quietly, unnoticed and unseen. That dewdrop falls silently, softly, unnoticed into a leafy forest bed, one upon another. One by one the drops form a trickle moving slowly, steadily down ancient pathways. Leaves and branches form tiny estuaries of mist and dew leaving small watery trails behind them.

An insightful pilgrim travelin’ Oregon soil captured exactly this scene as he took in the beauty of Wahcella Falls:
 “Many powerful amazing things start from secret sources…No one may know all the good things you do quietly every day [the God thoughts you have or the prayers that you pray]. But some day their result will pour forth in glory [Behold, a small drop can become a grand story.] (1)

A prayin’ dad, a prayin’ mom, granddad, grandmother – these come quietly day by day with a steady drip, steady prayers that become a silent, secret trickle. Those dewdrops, all taken together, one by one, over time become mighty powerful rivers and finally great oceans of prayer.


So I’ve come to the conclusion that God is found mostly in quiet, out of the way secret places. He speaks to men not so much to write books, give grand speeches or eloquent sermons. God intends mainly to simply set His folks to prayin’ in secret.

From a Scripture thought comes a prayer; 
A dribble that’s a drop, great things to be heir.



One dewdrop upon another until soon they become a trickle. That tiny trickle wanders through a wilderness seemingly without direction. It knows not its final destination. Somehow that trickle finds an infinite irresistible force, a river, an ocean that can’t be stopped and proves eventually its majestic and mighty power. (2)

Yep, “dewdrops and trickles” is how one Scripturally motivated prayer day by day can make a difference. And that’s why God says we should pray without ceasin’.

_____________________________________________________________________

1 Ken Duncan, (Australian photographer), Walking With God In America, 2008, Thomas Nelson Publishers, (Pg. 121).

2 Some thoughts here were inspired by Karl Rahner (1904-1984); The Contemporaries Meet The Classics On The HolySpirit; Compiled by Randall Harris; 2004, Howard Publishing, (Pg. 40).

DEWDROPS & TRICKLES

This piece comes straight out of my Morning Watch notes, April 4, 2013.

It was one of those pensive morning times with the Lord; one of those

times when He just dumps a load and you do the best

you can to pick it all up.

© RWHollar, http://www.bootheelramblins.blogspot.com, January 19, 2014