Surprised by Sweetness

    I was feeling all yucky inside, with all the ‘stuff’ happening and the sickening words and actions of the times. Just yesterday I had spoken in church about the crucial need for listening to God directly, rather than relying on our own or other people’s understanding. For decades I have used those little speckled journals to listen and try to write down (by 'taking dictation’) what He says, as best I can. 

   Writing down has helped me stay focused, with my thoughts zinging around my mind and external distractions calling out to me.  If there’s ever been a time to commit to significant times of listening to the Holy Spirit, it’s now. Yet sometimes it’s difficult to quiet our souls to just be with Him and listen. To persist until His voice breaks through and begins to flow in our minds. 

   This morning was a challenge to LIVE what I advised just yesterday. I was tempted to just give up and start the rest of my day. Thankfully, I didn’t. His deep peace descended, and He told me to ‘soak my dry bones in His Spirit...His ‘abiding place,’ to absorb His life-giving nutrients’. “Let me refresh your mind," He said..."wash, wash, wash (image of a washing machine), cleansing it from the ‘stuff’ that has attached itself. “

   I can only describe what I then experienced as a sweetness which came to me. It was like hearing a tender Christmas carol and smelling the scent of evergreen,  while tucked up on the sofa in front of a lighted tree. "Oh yeah, that's what that feels like...purity, innocence, and peace all rolled into one.  I'd forgotten."  The Holy Spirit is the source of all that is pure and beautiful and life-giving.

   At the same time that I was trying to listen to Him, sweet and creative ideas were flowing faster than I could record them. “Are these distractions, Lord?” I asked. “I’m trying to pay attention to what you’re saying!”

“I know creative ideas are flowing all around you,” He answered...“faster than you can pull them out of the water.. When you place yourself inside My Stream, they will flow continually along with and around you. They always exist there by My creative Nature. You will be like Lucy and Ethel at the chocolate factory!”

“You are SO funny, Lord.  And a pun on 'sweetness', too? Really?"