Hope & Spiritual retreats

"Hope lies in braving the chaos & waiting calmly, with trust in the ONE who loves us. The idea is to still ourselves, to draw ourselves back to the deeper life that flows beneath the deeper life that flows beneath the surface of our days. " 

- Sue Monk Kidd

Today is an un-official Come Away (Spiritual retreat). It is a day I was suppose to be on last month but it slipped my mind as I had much to do at the office. Slipped my mind. sadness of the busyness of ministry. The whole theme this month is HOPE. I have spent all morning in the beautiful redwoods of Mount Hermon where I live. and now as my distraction grows I will wander down to the shores of a random Santa Cruz Beach to finish the thoughts on hope, as well as re-cap this spiritual journey that this Come Away 2007 - 2008 "Arms Wide Open"has brought me through. I realize that today I have broken the rules by even typing this blog but as I reveled in the beauty of it and how I so often do not write about what God is teaching me through them, I felt compelled to say something here.

May today and this week you find time away from the busyness to listen to what God is saying to you. What is God inviting you into? I know he has been messing with me this morning...in a good way.  And the song Acres of Hope by Shane and Shane keeps returning to my heart and mind this morning. 

I leave you with this:

Christ before me, Prepare the way

Christ behind me, restrain my inclination to go alone.

Christ about, shade me from the flames of the enemy.

Christ beneath me, become the bottom when the door drops away.

Christ to the Left & to the Right, SUPPORT my ARMS so that I might fly.