The following piece is what I consider to be one of the best quotes I've ever read on Christian love; it sets my soul on fire!

  "The better power, which arises from profound and affectionate knowledge of the human heart."  ---

  There is no human being to whom we look with so true a faith, as to him who shows himself deep-read in the mysteries within us; who seems to have dwelt where Omniscience only had access, and traced momentary lines of feeling whose rapid flash our own eye could scarcely follow; who put into words weaknesses which we had hardly dared to confess in thought; who appears to have trembled with our own anxieties, and wept our very tears.

This initiation into the interior nature is the quality which, above all others, gives one mind power over another. If it comes upon us from the living tones of a friendly voice, we listen as to the breathings of inspiration; if it acts on us only from the pages of a book, the enchantment is hardly less potent. That a being, distant and unknown, perhaps departed, should have so penetrated our subtlest emotions, and caught our most transient attitudes of thought, should have so detected our sophistries of conscience, and witnessed the miseries of our temptations, and known the sacredness of our affections, that we appear revealed anew even to ourselves, truly seems the greatest of triumphs of genius. It is a triumph peculiar to those who love the sympathies of their kind, and because they love them, instinctively appreciate and understand them. It is essentially the triumph which Christ won when the minions of tyranny and hypocrisy shrunk back from him in awe, saying, 'Never a man spake like this man.' James Martineau. Endeavors Pg. 223 Vol. 1.                  

This kind of thinking and seeking for spiritual insights and ways to be the best servant of Christ we can be, is sadly uncommon. I seldom hear sermons where we are encouraged to become people of sympathy, and people of understanding and encouragement. Much less to be 'deep-read' in the mysteries within us.' 

I hear dogmatic and threatening sermons warning us not to stray from the traditions of the church, beware of all new thought, and often those who question are demonized and called apostate.

But isn't it true, we love those who understand us and truly comprehend our situation. We listen to those who love us.

We are far more like Pharisees than we realize. We have the agenda to proselyte far more than to comfort. I have heard many sermons on soul-winning, and the libraries are full of books on the subject; and we will study and learn how to win souls but neglect how to win hearts.

He goes on to expand this by saying - "People of sympathy wed themselves to a benevolent scheme but it is thrust aside as a dream or fantasy by others; they may demonstrate a truth of startling magnitude; and it is acknowledged and passed by. They describe some misery of the poor, the child, or the guilty, and the world weeps, but the oppression is untouched. They put forth their conceptions of perfect character, and seek to refresh in men's minds the bewildered sentiment of right; and every conscience approves but not a volition stirs."

 So many of Christ's teachings centered on sympathy, just think about that for a minute.   

  Our church closes one Sunday a year to go into the community and do charitable work like yard clean up in Schools, Non profits, and other community organizations that can use the help. I joined about 16 others who helped at a halfway house for women in recovery. I prayed that I might make a meaningful connection with someone there, either in the house or in the team working. As God would have it, He was pleased and I ended up meeting a man near my age with 30 years experience working in prisons and jails. I also met a woman who's been sober for a number of years and was interested in some resource material I have. I also met the director of the house, and she is over a number of houses for both men and women and was eager to have me do some Bibles studies for the residents. And lastly, I met a woman who was a victim of abuse when young and was lost in drugs for years until the Lord called her out. She's at a place in her life where she feels strongly the call of the Lord to do ministry and her heart burns with zeal. The Holy Spirit was all through our conversations and I'm eager to see where it will lead because she is interested in going into the jail with me as well as the mission. I left the job knowing she, if none of the others, was a divine encounter. Can't wait to see what God is going to do!

  "Never have I enjoyed youth so thoroughly as I have in my old age.

I have drunk the pleasure of life more pure, more joyful, than it ever was when mingled with all the hidden anxieties and little annoyances of actual living. Nothing is inherently and invincibly young except spirit. And spirit can enter a human being perhaps better in the quiet of old age and dwell there more undisturbed than in the turmoil of adventure... Old places and old persons in their turn, when spirit dwells in them, have an intrinsic vitality of which youth is incapable; precisely the balance and wisdom that comes form long perspectives and broad foundations. Everything shines then for the spirit by its own light in its own place and time; but not as it shone in its own restless eyes." George Santayana.

This is the best book I know for true Biblical healing from Child abuse, sexual assault, domestic violence and all other traumatic events so many in our culture have faced. The Bible speaks to all these issues, though most pulpits don't. But this book is used in many countries to successfully bring Christ's healing to victims. Author Steven Tracy, professor of Theology at Phoenix Seminary and his wife is a Christian therapist.

I ran across this piece written by a person about the same age as I, and I can relate to so much of what she says. Hard to explain but she got as close as I've seen.

  "I am nearly seventy-one years old. I always thought I should love to grow old, and I find it even more delightful than I thought.  It is delicious to be done with things, and to feel no need any longer to concern ourselves much about earthly affairs. 

I cannot describe the sort of done-with-the-world feelings I have. It is not that I feel as if I was going to die at all, but simply that the world seems to me nothing but a passageway to the real life beyond, and passage ways are very important places. 

  My wants seem to be gradually narrowing down, my personal wants,  I mean, and I often think I could be quite content in the Poor-house!

I do not know whether this is piety or old age, or a little of each mixed together, but honestly the world and our life in it does seem of too little account to be worth making the least fuss over, when one has such a magnificent prospect close at hand ahead of one; and I am tremendously content to let one activity after another go, and to await quietly and happily the opening of the door at the end of the passageway, that will let me in to my real abiding place. So you may think of me as happy and contented, with unnumbered blessings, and delight to be seventy-one years old." Mrs. Pearsall Smith.

For those of you who love trees as I do, here are some things about them you may not know.

Trees

Trees use hairy leaf surfaces to trap and filter out ash, dust and pollen particles carried into the air.

Trees dilute gaseous pollutants in the air as they release oxygen.

Trees provide food for birds and wild animals.

Trees lower air temperatures by enlisting the sun's energy to evaporate water in the leaves.

Trees increase humidity in dry climates by releasing moisture as a by-product of food-making evaporation.

Trees give us a constant supply of products - lumber for buildings and tools, cellulose for paper and fiber; as well as nuts, mulches, oils, gums, syrups and fruits.

Trees slow down forceful winds.

Trees cut noise pollution by acting as barriers to sound. Each 100 foot width of trees can absorb about 6 to 8 decibels of sound intensity. Long busy highways, which can generate as much as 72 decibels, this reduction would be welcome to residents.

Trees provide shelter for birds and wildlife and even for us when caught in a rain shower without an umbrella.

Trees shade us from direct sunlight better than any sombrero.

Tree leaves, when fallen, cover the ground to keep the soil from drying out.

Trees camouflage harsh scenery and unsightly city dumps, auto graveyards, and mine sites.

Trees offer a natural challenge to youthful climbers.

Tree branches support ruggedly used swings.

Trees break the onslaught of pelting rain-drops on the soil surface and give soil a chance to soak up as much water as possible.

Tree leaves, by decaying, replace minerals in the soil and enrich it to support later plant growth.

Tree roots hold the soil and keep silt from washing into streams.

Tree roots help air get beneath the soil surface.

  Trees help supply oxygen we need to breathe. Yearly, each acre of young trees can produce enough oxygen to keep eighteen people alive.

Trees help keep our air supply fresh by using up carbon dioxide that we exhale and that factories and engines emit.

Trees salve the psyche with pleasing shapes and patterns, fragrant blossoms and seasonal splashes of color.

Trees break the monotony of endless sidewalks and miles of highway.

Trees beautify our gardens and grace our backyards.

  "The first impulse of the 'natural man' is to seek peace by mending his external condition; to quiet his desires by increasing his ease, to banish anxiety by increasing his wealth, to guard against hostility by making himself too strong for it; to build up his life into a fortress of security and a palace of comfort, where he may softly lie, though tempests beat and the rain descends.

The spirit of Christianity casts away at once this whole theory of peace; and declares it the most chimerical (imaginary, fanciful) of dreams; and proclaims it impossible ever to make this kind of reconciliation between the soul and the life where in it acts. As well might the athlete demand a victory without a foe.

To the noblest faculties of the soul, rest is like a disease and a torture.

The understanding is commissioned to grapple with ignorance, the conscience is to confront the powers of moral evil, the affections are to labor for the wretched and oppressed; nor shall peace be found till these, which reproach and fret us in our most elaborate ease and luxury, and put forth an incessant and satisfying energy; till instead of conciliating the world, we vanquish it; and rather than sit still, in the sickness of luxury, allowing it to amuse our senses, we thrust ourselves upon it to mold it into a new spiritual creation. But attempt to make all smooth and pleasant in your outward circumstances, and you thereby create the most corroding of anxieties, and stimulate the most insatiable of appetites within.

But let there be harmony within, let no clamors of self drown the voice which is entitled to authority there, let us set forth on the mission of duty, resolved to live for it alone, to close with every resistance that obstructs it, and march through every peril that awaits it: and in the consciousness of immortal power, the sense of mortal ill with vanish; and the peace of God will virtually extinguish the sufferings of the man. 'In the world we may have tribulation; in Christ we shall have peace."  James Martineau.