Healing Hearts

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul. (Psalm 23:1-3).

He heals the brokenhearted
and binds up their wounds. (Psalm 147:3)

Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed;
save me and I will be saved,
for you are the one I praise. (Jeremiah 17:14)

But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing
in its wings. (Malachi 4:2)

He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those
who needed healing. (Luke 9:11)

For some reason this has been lost in the recent offerings of the church.
Perhaps it has been our pride, which has kept us from admitting that we are
broken. Lord knows I’ve done that for years – probably am still doing it now.
Perhaps it is our fear of getting our hopes up; it seems too good to be true.
Perhaps it’s been the church’s almost total focus on sin and the cross. But the
Scripture is abundant and clear: Christ came not only to pardon us, but to heal
us. He wants the glory restored. So, put the book down for just a moment, and
let this sink in: Jesus can, and wants, to heal your heart. What does that
rouse in you?

John Eldredge ~ Waking the Dead

Photo taken at Shakamak State Park, Indiana

Day 509 – Day Nov 21 2010 – Reprieve from loneliness.

I met two men in need yesterday. I was seeking safe passage to Mexico and they were seeking a way back to their campground. The father and son (Rodney and Caleb) had broken down on the bridge to Mexico.

We talked for a while and I took them back to their camper and then to the auto parts store and Wal-Mart and then back to their truck. It still didn’t start so I took them back to the camper where they were able to get a tow. We talked and ate for two days. I had so much fun.

They thought I was an “angel” sent to rescue them but they rescued me. A weekend of solitude led into two days of laughter and friendship. Thank you Jesus for sending them to be my angels

Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2 NIV

Day 498 – 11.10.10 Many beautiful sites on my way back to Santa Fe

Cimarron State Park

Eagles Nest Recreation Area

Taos

I’ve always regarded nature as the clothing of God. – Alan Hovhaness

Day 480 – 10.23.10 Stepstone falls, Arcadia sp, Beach Pond Park, Rhode Island

The Lord loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of his unfailing love.         Psalm 33:5

Day 479 – 10.22.10 Pachaug lake & Yantic Falls, Connecticut

Let us permit nature to have her way. She understands her business better than we do. – Michel de Montaigne

Day 476 – 10.19.10 A day in Maryland

Herrington Manor State Park, Swallow Falls State Park & Sliding Hills scenic rest area    

Good luck and Good work for the happy mountain raindrops, each one of them a high waterfall in itself, descending from the cliffs and hollows of the clouds to the cliffs and hollows of the rocks, out of the sky-thunder into the thunder of the falling rivers. John Muir

Day 470 – 10.13.10 Acadia National Park

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. – Ralph Waldo

Day 469 – 10.12.10 A day in Maine

Camden Hills State Park

Grafton Notch State Park

Highway 26, Northwest Maine

Lake George Regional Park

Penobscot Narrow Bridge

Screw Auger Falls

Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit. ~ Edward Abbey

Day 464 – 10.7.10 Presque Isle State Park, Pennsylvania

“Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.”   ~Henry David Thoreau, journal, 5 January 1856

Day 399 – 8.3.10 Grand Marias, Minnesota

“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.”  Henry David Thoreau

“And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.”   Nelson Mandela

“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.”   John Muir

Day 396 – 7.31.10 Superior National Forest, Minnesota

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance?

Isaiah 40:12 (NIV)

Day 380 – 7.15.10 Lake Huron

He who forms the mountains,
who creates the wind,
and who reveals his thoughts to mankind,
who turns dawn to darkness,
and treads on the heights of the earth—
the Lord God Almighty is his name.

Amos 4:13

Day 365 – 6.30.10 Lake Huron

Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral. ~John Burroughs

Day 360 – 6.25.10 Lake Erie

Nature is the art of God. ~Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, 1635

Day 358 – 6.23.10 Tawas point Light, Lake Huron

For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.         

Day 355 – 6.20.10 Lake Michigan Lighthouses

While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.

 John 9:5 (NIV)

Day 295 – 4.21.10 Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, Kentucky

“Nature is the art of God.”  – Thomas Browne

The view from my “room”

Climb up on some hill at sunrise. Everybody needs perspective once in a while, and you’ll find it there. ~Robb Sagendorph

Day 214 – 1.30.10 Natchez State Park, Mississippi

I chickened out again. Another cold weekend so I turn to the state park system where I can have an electrical outlet for my little heater.

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods; There is rapture on the lonely shore; There is society, where none intrudes, by the deep sea and music in its roar: I love not man the less, but Nature more.” -Lord Byron

Day 211 – 1.27.10 Ross Barnett Reservoir, Natchez Trace Parkway

In wilderness I sense the miracle of life, and behind it our scientific accomplishments fade to trivia. ~Charles A. Lindbergh, Life, 22 December 1967

Day 204 – 1.20.10 Lake Chicot, Arkansas

So sick, need a place to rest…and God provides.

The poetry of the earth is never dead. ~John Keats

Day 199 – 1.15.10 Natchez National Historic Park, Natchez Mississippi

Natchez National Historic Park preserves a piece of antebellum life and the height of the “cotton kingdom”. The park is centered on the Melrose home and plantation of the estate of John McMurran.

Before the Civil War more than half of US millionaires lived in Natchez. The elegant mansions that still exist throughout Natchez remind us of plantation prosperity as well as its horrible consequences.

Day 198 – 1.14.10 Dubuisson Lake Rest Area, Opelousas, Louisiana

As you sit on the hillside, or lie prone under the trees of the forest, or sprawl wet-legged by a mountain stream, the great door, that does not look like a door, opens. ~Stephen Graham, The Gentle Art of Tramping

Day 131 – Nov 8 2009 – A new perspective

I’ve noticed I get very irritated when I encounter people in wilderness places, I get annoyed and maybe even a little angry. I’m definitely not showing God’s love. I spent two days at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina/Tennessee and spent most of it being very annoyed. I couldn’t wait to leave. This place is beautiful with waterfalls thrown around along the side of the road like someone splattered paint to mark trees. It’s just amazing; however, my patience was tried more than ever. It was so packed with people, bumper to bumper traffic and even early in the day. Where are all those people going and why aren’t they at work? It took two hours to drive the length of the park and it’s only about 30 miles. I didn’t dare stop to photograph anything. I didn’t think I could get back in line.

I tried again Saturday. Traffic flowed much better but still heavy. Trails were difficult and often impassable due to the number of hikers. I Still couldn’t wait to leave. There were waterfalls in Georgia I wanted to see so I decided to cut this part of the trip short.

Sunday I spent the morning at Tallulah Gorge State Park and the afternoon at Unicoi State Park. There were several beautiful fall at Tallulah Gorge but unfortunately I couldn’t walk down to the gorge as the river had been flooded to allow for a kayak run. Sure wish I had a kayak. I didn’t see the falls at Unicoi, I was still exhausted from my morning trek and I had yet to begin my long drive to Missouri. I did take time to enjoy the park. I picnicked under a shelter overlooking a lake doing a little piddling on the computer. Luckily there were electrical outlets. But even better there was a water spicket. There is nothing more refreshing, rejuvenating or attitude changing than a good hair wash. Wow, did I feel better. Peace and calm were restored as I washed out the frustration through the cleansing of my hair. I was able to remember, I’m not on this journey to be a friend to all, I’m here to be with my Lord. That’s a bit hard with the clatter of noise from others.

So guys when your girls won’t go out with you because she’s washing her hair, remember she may be getting an attitude adjustment.

Life is far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about. – Oscar Wilde

Day 114 – 10.22.09 Matthiessen State Park & Starving Rock State Park, Illinois

Matthiessen State Park & Starving Rock State
Park, Illinois

“Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.”    Albert Einstein

Day 102-103: Oct 10-11. Superior National Forest, Minnesota

Superior National Forest, Minnesota

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. So I concluded there is nothing better than to be happy and enjoy ourselves as long as we can.          Ecclesiastes 3:11-12 (NLT)