Facing Life's Uncertainties.... quotes from the "red book"

I often use the "Guide to Prayer" books from the Upper Room for my devotional time.  The three that I have are the red, the green, and the blue.  There has recently been a black one published too.

The red one, A Guide to Prayer For All God's People, caught my attention this week.

The title for the week with Sunday coming between August 7 and 13: "Facing Life's Uncertainties".  It starts on page 253.

The Invocation for the week:

 

Almighty God, who always moves with clarity of will and singleness of purpose, help me to live and work with certainty in an uncertain world.  Light a lamp before me so that my feet do not stumble.  Make my path clear so I may never wander from your chosen way.  I pray in the name of Jesus who comes to make your way clear before our eyes. Amen.

One of the quotes shared:

"Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations.  Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to your heart's desire."--From The Seven Day Mental Diet by Emmet Fox

I thought that was interesting quote by this person Emmet Fox, but I had never heard of Emmet Fox, to my recollection.  So, I did what all curious folks would do.  I searched him out.  What an intriguing story.  I learned from this biography site that he had a ministry in New York and that mainline church folks reading his materials would be considered closet readers.  At least at the time of the publication of that material.  Dr. Fox was born in Ireland.  He seems like someone I would like to know better.   

A second quote in the week's reading that caught my attention was one from the view of a potter.   I enjoy pottery and have a few (okay, if "few" literally means three, then I have more) pieces of pottery that I have bought in NC at a variety of places, plus the chalice set from KY, and the very first chalice set from my friend that she made for our wedding.  The process of making pottery intrigues me too, so the analogies never cease to draw me, connect with me, or feed me.

http://www.chemistryland.com/CHM107/EarlyChemistry/ClayChemistry/potteryWheel.jpg

"The woman potter summarized not only the making of a pot but her basic belief about life:

Both my hands shaped this pot.  And, the place where it actually forms is a place of tension between the pressure applied from the outside and the pressure of the hand on the inside.  That's the way my life has been.  Sadness and death and misfortune and the love of friends and all the things that happened to me that I didn't even choose.  All of that influenced my life.  But, there are things I believe in about myself, my faith in God and the love of some friends that worked on the insides of me.  My life, like this pot, is the result of what happened on the outside and what was going on inside of me.  Life, like this pot, comes to be in places of tension.  Life comes to be when we learn how to avoid looking for answers and finally learn how to ask the question that will bring us to life.

       There is a tendency in us to want to live tension-free.  But, like the woman potter, I believe that this tension is God's gift to us, a gift that sometimes will not permit us to escape its presence.  I believe that creative energies are activated by just that kind of upsetting tension.  It is in responding to this gnawing discomfort that we have the possibility of giving shape to dreams that are at once faithful to who we are and who we can become."

                                                   -- From Growing Strong at Broken Places by Paula Ripple

 

I didn't know who Paula Ripple was either.  So I wanted to found out more about her.  Though I wasn't able to find a biography easily, I did find some of her writings, and several places that mentioned the above book from which the quote came.   She wrote an article about divorce, "The Journey Through Divorce".  From what I was able to find, I see that she spoke and wrote on family issues and was of the Catholic faith.  I am using the past tense, but I don't know if she is still alive or not.  She won an award in 1988, the Rev. James J. Young Ministry Award, but there wasn't anything other than a picture for her.

 

Even though I can't find a whole lot out about either of these persons, their writings still touched and inspired me this week.  As I continue to reflect on both the quote and the writing from the potter's perspective, there are quite a few things that shake out and settle into my life as I face my own uncertainties.  The phrase that stands out to me most at this time is this one: "the possibility of giving shape to dreams that are at once faithful to who we are and who we can become"

 

What about you?

 

As you read the quotes, what word, words, and/or phrases stand out to you?  Where do they speak into your life?  How can you carry them into your situation?

 

Blessings on your journey,

 

Debra