The Last Post of 2011

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Proverbs 4:18 

The path of the righteous 
is like the first gleam of dawn, 
shining ever brighter
till the full light of day.





I was going to write about First Fruits but I think I will save that for next week. I wanted to take a moment to reflect back on the past year.  Where have I been and where am I going.  I love the new Facebook Time Line feature because I can look all the way back to last January and follow my posts and remember what I was thinking and doing. Last January I was posting some of my mosaic cards and I was in the midst of my own little Mother Teresa reading marathon. I posted on January 10th

"I am having a Mother Teresa marathon. I read this article and I am reading a book called To Find Hope about her life. I know in my own little bit of work with the poor that there is often great spiritual oppression or darkness that we feel individually and as a team . It has caused me to pull my head out of the sand and admit there is a spiritual war going on. As I try to reach souls for the God's kingdom

I like this quote about Mother Teresa: "Her work in Calcutta's slums illustrated something that the high priests of global development often tend to overlook: in order to pull people out of poverty, it is important to first empower them with self-esteem and with the hope that change is always possible."

 At that time I had not yet started A Devotional Mosaic and was posting occasionally in a couple of other blogs. Here are links to some of the articles that I wrote about my Mother Teresa Marathon. If you are getting this by e-mail you'll need to click on the title and come back to the site. I was reading Mother Teresa at the time because of the work I continue to be involved in ministering to the inner city homeless and poor. Much of her wisdom and inspiration has carried me through this year.

http://called-to-go.blogspot.com/2011/01/mother-theresa-marathon.html

http://called-to-go.blogspot.com/2011/01/silence-prayer-from-my-mother-teresa.html

There are a few others posted there. By the end of January I was sick and struggled to get well for the next couple of months. I was also the chairman of the board of our church and we were faced with how we would survive and at that point it looked like we would close if God did not step in somehow. Amazingly a church that should have died continues to stand on the corner of 2nd and Division in Spokane. We continue to feed 100 - 200 homeless people a week. At this point about 20 -30 of those folks attend our church. I am thankful.

Yesterday we served 230 homeless and poor folks. The end of the month the numbers are high. I think this might have been a record beaker."

In February I posted the following to encourage a friend.

This is my quote of the week - God works in the difficult stuff to. Just because something is hard does not mean God is not in it with us. In 1895, Andrew Murray was suffering from a long lasting and very painful back injury. One day a woman in great trouble came to where he was staying and asked his hostess if he might have any counsel for her. He handed her a piece of paper and said, “Give her ...this advice I’m writing for myself. It may be that she will find it helpful." Here is what he wrote: "In times of trouble, say, “First, he brought me here. It is by his will I am in the strait place, in that I will rest.” Next, “He will keep me here in his love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as his child.” Then say, “He will make the trial a blessing, teaching me lessons he intends me to learn, and working in me the grace he means to bestow.” And last, say, “In his good time he can bring me out again. How and when, he knows.” Therefore, say “I am here [1] by God’s appointment, [2] in his keeping, [3] under his training, [4] for his time."See More " In March we put on a wedding for a formally homeless couple and I had gotten the church web site functional.  My computer had to be repaired and we found in taking opening it up after 10 years of not problems that it was filled with more dust than imaginable. I guess at about that time God began quite a healing work in my own heart that started by saying yes to a couple of friend request from way back in my life. Wow who knew what one very small click of a computer would take me. Had to deal with some big areas to un forgiveness and repentance that I had locked away.  In April this quote spoke to me "Once our eyes are opened by God, we will see all the events of our lives, whether great or small, joyful or sad, as a chariot for our souls. Everything that comes to us becomes a chariot the moment we treat it as such. On the other hand, even the smallest trial may become an object crushing everything in its path into misery and despair if we allow it. ~ Hanna Whitall Smith" One of my favorite christian writer died in April and I posted about it. "One of my favorite writers died this week. David Wilkerson passed away on Wednesday in a car crash. He has stood in my mind as one of the mighty oaks of this generation, a Father in the faith. While I rejoice that he is home with Jesus, I will miss his daily thoughts and inspiration. I know he will have a lasting legacy that will speak far beyond his mortal life.  In May I started laying glass on the Beloved project - that was quite a journey. Through it I discovered that people were interested in the mosaic process and followed my postings about it. June a lot of posts about the Beloved project  In July I started this Blog thanks to the encouragement of a friend. I never imagined that I could actually stick to this Monday - Friday writing schedule. In August I got my bike and remembered how much I loved to ride. I visited my sister and came home with some new direction and soon after started my Coach Training.    September started another year of homeschooling - we signed up for a bunch of on line classes - can't say we have really enjoyed them. Niah will head to real high school next year and Cai wants to go back to the way we did things. We are finishing up what we started.  September is birthday month for my kids. We as a family were quite blessed because my husband won a prize from Coke Rewards by turning in bottle caps at their website. We all got new lap top computers from Best Buy. Very cool. I finished the Beloved project. October - my birthday month. I spent a little time at the Spokane Public Market.  I continue to teach guitar and I have a couple of coaching allies as I keep working through my coach training.  That gets us to November and December where I have continued to write daily, and post about my mosaic projects. I hear from people that the things I am writing continues to encourage them. Its been a full year full of little purposeful steps. I look at my face book page and I think maybe I have grown up to be an artist, and a writer and one who prays for and encourages people.  I have grown to be much more open and transparant in the past year. My life is much more visible and an open book. I still have some hidden things that are just between me and the Lord.  In looking back I realize I have come a very long way over the course of one year. God has been gracious to walk with me step by step, day by day. He has picked me up when I have tripped and fallen. He has cared for me in so many ways.  I think it is good to look back and reflect on what he has done. To take stock of where I am at this point and to hold the vision of things he has put on my heart out there and trust that He is working. I'm sure 2012 will have some things that I can't see just like 2011 has been full of surprises and challenges and some major victories.  I hope this has encouraged you it has me. Cause I can get so focused on my daily struggles and the stuff I have to do that I forget that I am making progress. I am stronger and healthier physically, mentally and spiritually than I was a year ago for that I am very thankful.  See you next year - I'm out of time and will have to post this typos and all. Prayer: Dear Lord,  Thank you for taking us from where we are in this moment to where you want us to go. It is a journey and you delight to take it with us one step at a time.  Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you have started a good work in each of us and you will carry it out to completion.

 

 

Oh The Thoughts In My Head

A Devotional by Margot Cioccio

Order The Beloved Journal - Click Here

Psalm 119:105 
Your word is a lamp to my feet 
and a light for my path.

Today I could write 10 devotionals there are so many thoughts running through my head. I don't know if I will be able to capture them all or not. Inspiration is like that for me. I can go through long seasons of dryness and suddenly the rains come. When the rains of inspiration come I am glad that I did not give up and by faith went ahead and plowed my fields and planted my seeds. I am glad that during the dryness I never stopped believing that God would provide in His time. 

I had a wonderful revelation while driving home just now. I was thinking about something that someone said about dreaming about the future. They said if you are going to dream about the future be sure you take Jesus with you. I realized the it is also true that if you are going to traverse the past it is a good idea to take the Lord along with you. On our own we really are not equipped to make sense of either the future or the past without Him. 

Its funny to me how one thought springboards me on to the next. I found myself thinking about what the future might look like. I had this revelation in that moment that it really was not all that different than today. I would still be walking with the Lord, I would still surround myself with people I love and who love me, there would be new challenges, and problems and new victories. I thought in that moment, if the future I am looking for is one with out lifes challenges then what I am looking for is heaven. For the day that those things come to an end is the day that I will stand face to face with the King of Glory and all that is left of my life journey will be to hear him say "Well done".  Even in that I realize the end of one journey is to begin another. It reminds me of the last pages of the Narnia series in a chapter called Farewell to the Shadow-Lands. They find themselves in a Narnia that is more real and more beautiful than the Narnia they had known before. The Faun tells Lucy "The further up and the further in you go, the bigger every thing gets. The inside is larger than the outside. I love the final page that says "And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the begining of the real story. All thier life in this world and all thier adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before."

I think about the journey of the Beloved project. It is done now and it captures a moment in time,  a snap shot of a moment in time. It is a final chapter and beginning of brand new adventure story.
It was a journey to see, to understand, to feel and to know that project. It was a journey with bright spots of inspiration and long hours of laying glass. Its done now, for me it depicts the end of one journey and the beginning of another.  I realize that life is much the same type of journey there are bright spots of great revelation or excitement or wonder and then there are days of walking through deserts and trying to fix problems and put out fires.  There are times when it feels like we have lost our way, and perhaps we have wandered from the path into places that were never intended for us. There are times when I was stuck and had to stop until something changed that allowed me to move along again on that journey. Even the stuck spots are not so bad.  There are times when we need to stop, rest and regroup.

Jesus stands ready to take your hand and to journey with you. Where is he taking you? What will the future hold? I have decided that whatever it is - I will be ok in it.  I am determined to go there with Jesus and I know that He will be with me then as He is now. I think that each day is an opportunity to know Him more. So today I choose to focus on Him and not the obstacles that seem to block my way to someday. I am confident that I will never exhaust the magnitude of His thoughts, or the wonder His creation. There is always a little deeper and a little more of Him to know. The splendor of the King and the lover of my soul, in Him I find a new place of peace today. I realize that there will always be some part of my heart that is in need of repair. Whatever part He happens to be working on will seem like a big deal to me at that time. He will tells me then as he has told me time and again in the past, I'm here with you, you will be ok. I love you just as you are in this moment and I will love you just as you are in the next. The same will be true in the future. It is not my perfection that He desires it is my presence. He simply loves to be with me. Not because I'm so great, but because I am His. I am His Beloved and He is mine. In this moment that is more than enough for me.

Life is about taking the next step to follow Jesus. There will always be something ahead that is around the bend that I just can't see till I get there. In the show Dr. Who where they are traveling back in forth in time. They call those things in the future that we wish we could see "spoilers". It spoils the wonder of that moment if you know how it will work out in advance.  The question to me is will I trust the hand that guides me? Will you?

Prayer:
Dear Lord,
You know the plans you have for us. You can see around the next bend. You are the light that illuminates our darkness and shows the way before us a few steps at a time. Help us each to find a new level of peace in your presence regarding both the future and the past. Help us to not miss this moment in time because we are worring about the future or still somehow chained up in the past. Come be with us in this momement and in the next and the next for however long this life journey may be. Thank you for the people who will grace this day. For words of encouragement and the little bits kindness both given and recieved.  Thank you for your tender mercies and that they are new every morning. Thank you for today and for sharing it with me.