Kitty Crenshaw's Blog, page 29
June 21, 2018
June 22
We were created in the image of God the Creator, and our unique expression is crucial for God’s design for the healing of the world. ~Betty
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June 19, 2018
Name It, Claim It, Tame It
Betty Skinner, inspiration for The Hidden Life Awakened, discussing the importance of being aware of our behavior—and of naming, claiming, and taming it, in order to learn how to love unconditionally.
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June 17, 2018
June 18
God is always saying to us, “If you will give Me everything, I will give you everything.” ~Betty
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June 14, 2018
June 15
You have not been left to endure life’s sorrows and temptations alone. ~ Betty
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June 12, 2018
A Letter From Betty
Dear Ones
I reflect anew on my own inner journey, travel once again by memory, from decade to decade. Each of my nine decades has affirmed one reoccurring theme: a call, the cry to let go into the Light.
For years my hidden life and my visible life were in great conflict and tension. My visible life was imprisoned in guilt, fear and unspeakable pain. At the same time, the haunting Voice of my hidden life was gently inviting me to stay, to embrace my pain, to fall headlong into the suffering. At forty-two, the intensity of this relentless inner struggle sent me reeling into a debilitating clinical depression. It was here in the darkest of my times that God’s mercy not only awakened me to its Light, but to a life-changing truth: that the Light was not only the drawing power of God’s great love, but was the very presence of Divine Love Itself. I felt a surge of assurance, a freedom I had never felt before. In retrospect, I was closer to the Source of all healing, the Center of the Circle of Love than I ever could have imagined at that time.
Very, very slowly, in faith and obedience, one step at a time, I came to understand that to reach my destination, the Center of the Circle, intimacy with the Beloved would cost me nothing less than everything. I was called again and again to periods of solitude and silence, to intensive listening, to discerning choices, to depths of patient waiting and trust. Yet as I chose to yield to the draw of the Light, to gaze at its luminous field, I began to see and to perceive my visible life with new eyes, new ears, and a new heart. I began to feel this Light and Love healing and connecting all the pieces of my broken and shattered life. At last I came to a knowing of Whose and who I am, ultimate freedom, and the supreme gift of healing and wholeness. I sensed the Sacred Source at the center of the circle drawing all things into Itself and I, as His chosen, being drawn freely along with it. There was no resistance.
Entering this Light filled me with an abiding presence and peace; a quiet strength and certainty. It continues now to sweep me along in its divine love flow spilling over with the beauty, mystery and wonder of God, weaving an ever deepening tapestry of Love, the Face of Christ, the explosive story of my heart.
I have shed the green and sleeping leaves of youth
Stripped by the wind of the spirit down to truth.
Emptied and alone I stand uncluttered.
A lens for lives beyond my own:
A frame through which another’s fire may glow;
A harp from which another’s passion soars.
Blow through me, O wind of spirit and of life.
So simple and so humble have I come.
Pared down at last to bone
So fragile yet so fearless have I grown.
~BWS
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June 10, 2018
June 11
Our deepest suffering comes from the way we perceive and label the things we carry in our hearts. ~Betty
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June 7, 2018
June 8
Amid all our failed hopes and expectations, we belong to a God whose great love has transformed forever the meaning of success and failure. ~Betty
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June 5, 2018
Where Beauty Meets Brokenness
This world is full of such beauty, but beauty that so often cradles brokenness. It’s hard to comprehend how such joy and sorrow can coexist; heavy heartbreak all tangled up in holy presence. Yet what freedom comes when we stop resisting the mystery, but instead give in to the ways of the Beloved, who has tasted death all wrapped in victory.
Yes, where beauty meets brokenness. This theme that keeps repeating her melody to me. Story after story, song after song, as it becomes the heartbeat of my days, and if I let it, my very offering.
In brokenness, there is beauty, this I have come to know. And I know that when I’ve tasted suffering, I’ve tasted eternity. The joy of knowing Him more, even in the breaking.
“Our Lord reaches out from the cross to embrace us with both arms. One is the arm of sorrow, suffering, and pain, and the other is the arm of peace, love, and joy. We cannot have one without the other. The cross is the gateway to oneness with Infinity Itself. Yet we do not pass right through. We must stop and abide in the Life that we find there—the passion, the compassion of the Crucified. As we welcome our pain and unmet longings with hope, we open to the divine embrace. We are, at last, resting in God. This is the hope that the Apostle Paul knew when he exhorted us to rejoice and give thanks in all things.” -an excerpt from The Hidden Life Awakened book
Lord, grant us hearts to believe
more than what our eyes can see.
Let us meet You in that tender space,
where loss becomes gain
where suffering becomes joy
where even death springs up into eternal life.
Let us not resist the ways of your kingdom
This glorious,
other-realm,
upside down kingdom.
Let us not be afraid of brokenness.
Because brokenness is the way of the cross
and the cross is the way of our Beloved Lord.
The man who embodied this mystery,
where beauty is bound in brokenness
and death is swallowed up in victory.
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June 3, 2018
June 4
There is not one thing you can do to change another person, but there is an awful lot you can do to change you. ~Betty
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May 31, 2018
On Retreat: June 2018
Our prayer is that “On Retreat” will help you break from habituated patterns of mind and frantic activity, make more space for God, and step into a new way of seeing, believing, and abiding. Each retreat will focus on a healthy body, a serene mind, and a powerful spirit. Your devoted guide will be modern day Christian mystic, Betty Skinner.
Affirming the Hope Hidden Within You,
~Cathy and Kitty
Open-Ended Waiting
A Healthy Body
Hydrate: Drink a little water with lemon or green tea to begin.
Move: Do a few simple stretching exercises to energize your body.
Rest: Silently integrate the inner peace of your stretching practice for a few minutes.
A Serene Mind
Begin this portion of your time with God by sitting with a warm cup of coffee, tea, or water with lemon in a comfortable chair in a quiet place with your Bible close. Light a candle as a symbol of God’s presence with you.
Opening Prayer
Let Betty’s lovely Centering Prayer video help quiet and refocus your mind or read it on page 53 of our book, The Hidden Life Awakened. Listen for His voice in silence for ten minutes.
A Reflection from Betty
Waiting is one of the most difficult pieces of a deep, inner spiritual journey. We want to outrun God, but our growth depends on consciously letting go of our fear and allowing our circumstances the space to teach us what God intends. This is hard because so much of our waiting is filled with anxiety and our own expectations of what should happen. Thus, it subtly becomes a way of trying to control the future as well as a way of setting us up for disappointment, discouragement, and despair. As long as we are still waiting in fear and anxiety, we will not experience growth. We will stay stuck because when we are fearful, we are disconnected from the Source. We are not trusting that whatever God brings will be exactly what we need.
It is important to understand that waiting is not passive and fearful but active and open ended. Active waiting is always a movement from something to something more. The secret of waiting is to be always alert, always waiting with hope, trusting that something new has been awakened within us—a work in us has begun. Open-ended waiting is filled with radical hope, trusting God’s perfect love to cast out our fear, knowing that all shall be well. The desires of our hearts will be fulfilled but fulfilled according to God’s perfect will and timing for our lives. The Hidden Life Awakened
Beloved, embrace me
in the dark night of my praying,
in the deep silence of my offering,
in the confrontation of my dying.
Beloved, enable me
by faith to know You without seeing You,
by hope to possess You without feeling Your presence,
by love to desire You above all desires.
Beloved, grant
that I might put all faith in love for You,
all hope in love for You,
and to know that all desires fail but one:
my desire to be loved by You.
BWS
A Powerful Spirit
Spend a little time now, letting the Living Word speak to your heart.
Divine Reading
Psalms 130, 62
Rest Quietly with God
Use your imagination to visualize Jesus sitting there with you. Tell Him what you desire so deeply. Will you hand that desire to Him in love and trust with total release of the outcome?
Reflective Writing
Journal whatever thought arises without filtering or censoring just as a child would. This is the indwelling Spirit speaking truth to you. Trust this for now.
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