Fruit of the Spirit: Kindness - Lawrence

The fruit of the Spirit as named by St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians are: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I have been looking at each one in turn and, this month, I will meditate on the spiritual fruit of kindness.

…be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:32

What is kindness? I think of kindness as a leap of the heart towards another person. Kindness can be manifested in a pleasant word or action; perhaps a gesture of love, like a smile or a small offering to another person.

Kindness is something that lifts the heart of the one who receives it by its thoughtfulness. It is, indeed, tender-hearted on the part of the giver of the kindness and causes the one who receives it a feeling of tender-heartedness also.

Kindnesses are usually small but are remembered for many years by the recipient. Gestures of kindness may be so minute that the one who performs them may not have any recollection of them.

The spiritual fruit of kindness is small but beautiful. It is like the non-cultivated variety of nature’s fruit—the wild strawberry, raspberry, blackberry and blueberry—growing quietly under the plant’s leaves, small in size and sweet to the taste.

Kindness does not overwhelm the recipient; kindness is unassuming; kindness is simple in its manifestation and expects no thanks. Kindness is like a ray of sunshine that pierces the clouds on an overcast day, giving light and warmth to all who see it.

© Judith Lawrence

This meditation was first published in June 2008 on the meditation page of my website: www.judithlawrence.ca/monthly.php

Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey

Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey may be purchased at my website: www.judithlawrence.ca

Fruit of the Spirit: Patience - Lawrence

In my regular monthly blogs for this site I have been looking at the fruit of the Spirit as named by St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians 5: 22,23: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. This month I will be considering the fruit of patience.

In the past, I have thought of patience as a passive thing. If one is a patient with an illness one passively gets treated in various ways such as intravenous fluids, surgery, or medications; tests, physio-therapy or psycho-analysis. In other words, things get done to one’s body or mind by professionals; these professionals actively perform some treatment while the patient passively receives the treatment in order to become healed.

I thought of the spiritual fruit of patience in much the same way. One meets up with many difficulties as one goes through life and one learns to passively accept them with patience. However, as I have been reading the scriptures on patience and meditating on the words I have read, I began to realize that there is more to patience than passive acceptance of life’s trials.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7. 

Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything to stand firm. Ephesians 6: 12, 13.

I begin to understand that we aren’t just to be aware of the evil forces; we don’t just suffer the evil forces to perform their worst upon our spirits; we don’t just wait patiently for reprieve or passively accept the evil that is done to our souls so that we grow in patient acceptance. No, we are to fight against the evil; we put on God’s armour; no matter how often the evil comes upon us, we patiently endure every attack by putting on God’s armour and fighting against the evil.

Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Ephesians 6: 14-17.

We discover that the fruit of patience grows actively not passively. We must actively participate in the growth of patience; we must defend the fruit of patience as it grows; we must protect it as it grows by fighting in alliance with the Holy Spirit against the evil one. We are not to passively endure whatever comes upon us but actively endure against whatever would destroy our spiritual fruit or plant at whatever stage of growth it is in.

Things that prevent our spiritual fruit from growing to maturity may come from within us or from without. We must have patient endurance to withstand the evil forces that would destroy our spiritual growth, attack our spiritual growth, uproot our spiritual growth, starve our spiritual growth, or choke our spiritual growth.

Some of the things that can prevent the spiritual fruit of patience from coming to maturity are very subtle and can even masquerade as the spiritual plants and fruit themselves. They are like the weeds that grow in our natural gardens. The weeds take on the look and characteristics of surrounding good plants while they become stronger and more aggressive while they put down deep roots and finally choke out the good plants.

The fruit of patience doesn’t grow in passivity; it needs to actively endure and stand firm against the evil forces with the strength of the Holy Spirit and the whole armour of God.

© Judith LawrenceFirst published in May 2008 in www.judithlawrence.ca in Meditations

Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey by Judith Lawrence

Published by Wipf and Stock

All Things in Peace and Silence – Lawrence

All things were lying in peace and silence, and night in her swift course was half spent, when thy almighty Word leapt from thy royal throne in heaven.

Wisdom of Solomon 18: 14, 15

Meister Eckhart, in his Sermon 101, cites this passage and claims that the eternal Word from the Father is new born in time, in human nature.
[Eckhart is quoted in Bernard McGinn’s book, The Mystical Thought of Meister Eckhart. Pgs. 55/56]

When all things were in the medium, in silence, then there descended down into me from on high, from the royal throne, a hidden Word in the ground. The birth of the Word takes place, Eckhart says, in the purest thing that the soul is capable of, in the noblest part, the ground, indeed, in the very essence of the soul’s most secret part, its silent middle.

So in each one of us the Word, the Christ, is born. When we are open in silence to God’s almighty Word, Christ is born in our soul’s centre. This is not only possible on Christmas Day when we celebrate the birth of Christ on the earth but at any time when we wait in silence for God’s coming to be born in our soul.

© Judith Lawrence December 2011 

Still Centre

Return to the still centre,

Wait in patience for him who comes.

Clear the brambles from the pathway,

Open wide the gate in welcome

For him who comes to you.

Welcome him who comes

To your still centre,

Blessed Triune God.

© Judith Lawrence

Fruit of the Spirit: Peace - Lawrence

Over the last few months I have been thinking, in my monthly blog on this site, about the fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, spoken of by St. Paul in his letter to the Galatians 5:22, 23. This month, we will consider the fruit of peace.

As we go along in our spiritual life, sometimes we feel that the growth in our spiritual gardens is not corresponding well with the time we have been working on cultivation. But, as in the calendar year, we find that the reality of our flower gardens does not always correspond to our thoughts of what the season should be like, so too within the spiritual life we may see little progress in a fruit of the spirit that we have given a lot of time to cultivate; then suddenly we realize that another fruit of the spirit has had a growth spurt. Hope is given to us that the fruit of the spirit is manifesting and maturing itself within our souls as the Holy Spirit intends.

What about peace the third fruit of the spirit named by St. Paul? We see so much unrest in the world—violence and fighting, wars and uprisings—that it becomes difficult to think of peace being a possibility. Peace in the outside world is something that is beyond our control; peace within ourselves—the peace that passes understanding—the peace that we can have in our hearts and souls even though there may be a lot of difficulty in our lives, in the lives of our loved ones, and in the lives of people half way across the world, this peace that is a fruit of the spirit is a possibility because it is a gift from God.

When we get into bed at night, we often lie awake worrying about all that has happened during the day, or what we have to face tomorrow. We need to find a place for the Lord at the centre of our being. Instead of fretting, we need to put each anxiety into God’s hands. This puts all into perspective and allows the fruit of the spirit, the fruit of peace, to grow.

We ask God to forgive the mistakes we made, and show us how we can make things right. If our worries about someone’s difficulty keep us awake, we need to ask God to strengthen that person and show us what we can do to help. If we are overwhelmed by some project that we have taken on, we ask God to help us discern the amount we can do and give us the courage to say “no” to the rest.

Putting our concerns in God’s hands gives us a sense of God resting within us. We can think of Christ asleep in the boat, his head on a pillow, while the storm rages around. We allow Christ to rest within us and quiet the tempest. Finding that space where Christ dwells within allows us to sleep in God’s peace and power.

If your anxieties keep you awake find the calm place within you where Christ dwells.

Allow Christ to quiet the storm around and within and say, I lie down in peace; at once I fall asleep; for only you, Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8

© Judith Lawrence, first published in April 2008 in  www.judithlawrence.ca/meditations

Fruit of the Spirit: Joy – Lawrence

Christ reminds us that when we fast, not to look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Matthew 6:16-18.

In March of 1955, over a half-century ago, I received The Bible Reader’s Encyclopaedia and Concordance. I still use this book today. Under the heading of Joy it is written that in no other religion is joy as conspicuous as in Christianity. Joy, it says, denotes the satisfaction of the soul at attaining its desire.

It has been said that some Christians go around in a gloomy disposition. I don’t know why we would do this. Jesus himself was a sociable person. We see him at a wedding; being entertained at meals; talking to women, to Samaritans, to Romans, to Tax Collectors, to Sadducees, and to Pharisees, among others. Jesus was anxious to heal people of their physical illnesses and sinful natures. Jesus wants our life to be abundant and our joy to be full (John chapters 10 and 16).

Joy is one of the Spiritual fruit mentioned in St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians chapter 5, and it is a fruit that we can cultivate. In order to cultivate the fruit of the Spirit we should set our minds upon it. St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans, says, Those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit…to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8: 5, 6

That on which we set our minds will grow and flourish within us. When we think and meditate on the fruit of the Spirit, e.g. Joy, it grows and matures. In The Oprah Magazine for January 2008, there was an article called Awakening Joy, in which it was said that whatever you focus on will grow.

So, think about Joy; practise Joy; look for Joy in whatever situation you find yourself. A friend of mine told me that that was her intention for 2008, to find the joy in everything that happens to her. And, she says, it works! The Spiritual fruit of Joy is growing in her and it makes her feel good. Why don’t we start today in this endeavour?

© Judith Lawrence, Originally written and posted in www.judithlawrence.ca in a meditation for March 2008

Lost and Found - Lawrence

My cousin Thelma and her husband Denys came back into my life a few years ago when they were visiting the U.S.A  and Canada on one of their many golden year extended trips. They were staying at Niagara Falls, Canada for a few days and I went to meet up with them for a day's visit.

It was a cold blustery day in September, but despite the weather we had a good visit catching up with the lost years that time and situations had imposed upon us. Really, we had been out of touch since I was a child, except for a brief meeting at an airport in London, England, as I waited for a plane to return to Canada after visiting relatives in Gloucester for a couple of weeks.

Since getting involved in my genealogy I had been in touch with Thelma and Denys at our annual Christmas card exchange and, a few years ago they asked me if I would collect postage stamps for Denys' collection. This I gladly did and added them to the Christmas card each December. Only recently did I realize that Denys sold these stamps for charity giving the money to a local private hospital that was situated near where they lived.

Cousins Judith and Thelma

I heard from Denys a few weeks ago and sadly learned that Thelma was in poor shape. She is unable to get around without the aid of a wheelchair and is also suffering from dementia, unable to recognize her own husband at times. For a couple who have been married almost 61 years and never been apart for even a day this is heartbreaking. Denys is now the sole caregiver and, when he wrote that letter, was having a time of respite while Thelma went to stay in a nursing home for a couple of weeks.

This long introduction is leading up to the fact that the envelope in which I saved the postage stamps for Denys suddenly was lost. Since learning of their difficulties these stamps had taken on an importance to me beyond any monetary value. They signified something that I could do for them and kept us in touch with one another.

Judith and Denys

This morning, I found that envelope with its stamps, not far from its usual place. How I missed them yesterday I don't know. And now, I say unto you, "Rejoice with me for I have found those stamps which were lost, and now I can rest easy."

Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Won't she light a lamp and sweep the entire house and search carefully until she find it? And when she finds it, she will call in her friends and neighbors and say, "Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin." In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents. Luke 15: 8-10 New Living Translation


[Please also pray for Dorene Meyer whose day this is to post on this blog. She is unwell at this time and is therefore unable to post a blog today.]

Fruit of the Spirit – Love - Lawrence

St. Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit in his letter to the Galatians as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The fruit of the Spirit is the harvest that grows from the seeds that are planted within us at birth.

I first wrote on this subject in my meditations on my website, www.judithlawrence.ca  and I plan to use them in my TWG blog posts over the next few months. In February 2008, I meditated on the first of the fruit of the Spirit listed by St. Paul—the fruit of love. In that month, when we celebrate the feast of St. Valentine on February 14^th, it seemed appropriate to start with the fruit of love.

The love that I am talking about, however, is not the box of chocolates type of love—the overly sweet, heart-shaped gift of love that can be the cause of disappointment, anger or jealousy, when it seems that your partner appears to have forgotten the day, or forgotten you as being the meaningful recipient of that box of chocolates, or Valentine’s card, or engagement ring. No, the love that I am speaking of is the love that St. Paul speaks of in his first letter to the Corinthians:

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Cor 13:4–8.

Love that is the fruit of the Spirit is not conditional; it does not depend on whether my partner remembers to give me a gift on St. Valentine’s Day or not; it does not depend on my partner remembering our anniversary, or my friend remembering my birthday. Love that is the fruit of the Spirit is all the spiritual fruit combined; it is joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, faithful, gentle, self-controlled. Love never ends, it doesn’t keep score of another’s faults, it only wants the other’s good.

This love of the Spirit is all we ever need and all we could ever hope for; it is God’s gift to us and our gift to God and to one another. This Spiritual love is indeed the basis of Christ’s gift to us and to the world, and the source of healing for all the world’s ills.

Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. Rom 13: 8

Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor 13:13

Highway of Holiness is now available for sale on my website: www.judithlawrence.ca

From Seed Beginnings to Transformed Finished Work - Lawrence

Which came first, the seed or the full grown plant? From one small seed’s beginnings can grow a plant or creature totally unlike its original seed; and from within that seed is contained, in embryo, the full potential of its being.

During the winter time of cold and snow, we put out feeders filled with seeds for the birds. Yes, our intention was to feed the birds but there were many side effects of this action; many other creatures were fed too.

Red squirrels always find a way to get on the feeders—and, once they are on, they sit there for great expanses of time. It doesn’t matter how annoyed we become at the squirrels’ feasting at the board that was intended for the birds’ satisfaction. Squirrels need food, too, in the scarce, cold times and, if they are artful enough to procure it, who are we to deny them?

Wild Turkeys

Last winter we also had a flock of turkeys that came. They scraped the ground beneath the feeders, eating every last morsel that remained from the feasting of squirrels, the rejected seeds of blue jays, and any that were dropped from beaks of chickadees, goldfinches, and nuthatches.

And yet there had been at least one seed left behind—one seed that had evaded the digging claws of turkeys and the squirrels’ desperate scavenging of any morsel the turkeys may have missed.

In August we saw a plant we recognized as a sunflower by its leaves. It grew tall among the jewel weed beneath the humming bird feeder. The plant, transformed from rejected seed, grew tall and produced three buds at its top. They opened up, one by one, into small seed-centred, yellow-petaled sunflowers.

Black-eyed Susan

So many seeds grew and formed from this one seed left on the ground; one seed transformed into its full beautiful potential of golden hue to delight the human eye, and seeds for the nourishment of many birds and perhaps a chipmunk or two.

With people, too, even if we only produce a small spiritual harvest from all the seeds that were planted in us, still the harvest we produce can serve many who come into contact with us.

Fundamental – Lawrence

In the local summer Writer’s Group that I attend we each take turns in leading the group. This leadership role includes giving the topic to bring for the following meeting. These writings are taken home by each member and brought the next time with our comments and critiques to be shared with one another.

Our last topic was Fundamental and below are the offerings I presented under that banner.

My Belief Foundation

The fundamental basis of my belief system is that anything that happens to me cannot harm the essence of my being but only make me stronger.

Things happen to us in life over which we have no control. Sometimes they are things that seem good to us and sometimes they are things that seem bad.

In this day and age, with our lives so busy, we have to plan and keep track of our various activities otherwise we would be sure to miss some important meeting with a business associate or a friend.

We cannot control everything; sometimes outside forces come upon us and control our lives. Unexpected, forces of nature, forces of sickness, or forces of evil may come suddenly upon us and throw us off our well-planned path. What happens then to our carefully laid plans?

Having a fundamental belief that says nothing that comes upon me unexpectedly can harm me but only make me stronger, will save me from despair, help me pick myself up, and start again. This may not happen immediately but it will happen. I know this because I have been through such things before and know that all things will work out for good in the end.

Through disasters or failures we learn what is really important to us. What is left to us when we are stripped down to our foundation, when all we have built on that foundation has been torn away, then that is our fundamental ground, the truth of our being, and our core principle.

Success has very little to teach us in the spiritual life but failure and fiascos are great teachers. …We learn much more from our pain than from our pleasure. We learn much more from letting go than holding tight.[1]

            The older I get, the more often my building is torn down and I discover my foundation—the ground of my being once again. I hear the lowest note of my life’s chord and feel the vibration of the essence of my being, my soul, as it is meant to be.

© Judith Lawrence August 6^th, 2011   345 Words

Building on a Good Foundation

We are born into this world

With a fundamental principle

Instilled within our being.

As we go through life

We build upon this basic principle

With materials available to us

And tools that are at hand.

If we neglect to build our house

Upon the foundation we are given

It will be covered over

And hidden from the world

By indigenous growing forces

Like moss or forest plants,

Which may look beautiful

But are not of our doing.

From time to time

We will remember

Our true foundation.

We’ll scrape it down,

Make it clean and clear,

Ready to build our lives

Into what we are meant to be.

We must build upon our own foundation

Not let others do the work.

For the building must show

Who we are and what we have learned

While living here on earth.

As we gain wisdom

And choose better materials,

Our building will become stronger,

Requiring a touch of renovation

Now and then as we learn new lessons

On our pilgrimage.

We are born with a good foundation;

Let us build a good work.

© Judith Lawrence     

August 11, 2011          35 lines

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[1] Richard Rohr, Simplicity P.112

Judith's latest spiritual non-fiction book, Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey, is available at Amazon.ca 

Marketing Prayer — Lawrence

The marketing process is perhaps more difficult to go through than the writing of the book. There is a lot of advice about marketing on the internet today so it should be a cinch to get one’s book out there and onto the shelves of the many users of the net. However, because there is so much information if I was to follow it all I think my brain would either explode from over- excitement or permanently go to sleep from exhaustion.

I would like to follow much of the information that I have read but I know that I cannot follow every good suggestion for lack of time, energy, or desire. After reading a lot of good suggestions I have prayed for God’s leading and chosen those that I feel are suitable for my situation.

It is important, I think, to do things that are a little different from the crowd, something that is within one’s budget, and something that arises out of one’s prayer to God.

As my latest book came close to being published, I wanted to have a Book Trailer. I looked into having it done professionally and found it to be way more expensive than I could handle. Many writers, especially seniors, have this problem. I am quite artistically inclined so, instead of searching for someone to do it for me I searched for a program that would provide me with the means to do one for myself.

I found a program called Smilebox, a program that had many uses as well as being very reasonably priced. For a year’s membership, which included a free month’s trial, it cost $39.00, and I could use it as much or as little as I wished without any extra charge.

Everyone said that Social media was the way to go to market one’s work. I did give it a try for a while but I found it was not for me. I found it took up a lot of my time and gave me very little reward. Besides, everybody was doing it. I wanted to find God’s special place for me and follow that. I composed a prayer to say daily and, by keeping my ears and eyes open to God’s leading, I have found some special marketing things just for me.

At the time of the publishing of my second spiritual book, Glorious Autumn Days: Meditations for the Wisdom Years, I began a website, www.judithlawrence.ca  Now, with the launch of my new book I revamped my website giving it a new look for the new publication, Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey. I have focused the home page on my latest book, added an internet Press Kit in PDF format so that anyone who needed information about me could download any or all of it without a lot of extra work for them.

Last but not least, I composed my prayer for marketing and am diligent in praying it daily and listening to God’s answers to my prayer. If you do nothing else in the marketing arena, I would advise you to do this—to pray and be open to God’s guidance.

Here is the prayer that I wrote and pray daily. You’re welcome to use this as a basis for your own prayer. May God bless each one of us in our writing and marketing efforts.

Marketing Prayer:       Heavenly Father, you have chosen special marketing spots for my newest spiritual book, Highway of Holiness: SoulJourney. Open my eyes that I may clearly see them; cleanse me from fear that I may boldly claim them; assist me to be generous that I may put this book into people’s hands so that they may follow their own soul journey and find their unique relationship with you. This I ask in the name of Jesus, your Son, our Lord, Amen.

No Title, no Subject, no Thoughts — Lawrence

I find myself, the day before my TWG Blog is due to be posted, with absolutely no thought of a topic on which to write.

Some writers, I know, find this stimulating—to come up to the hour of deadline and write their piece on the edge.

Some say they do their best work this way—under pressure—this is definitely not me! I like to be organized, know what I want to write about ahead of time, think about the topic as I go about my days, do a free-fall writing session about the topic in my journal, transpose it to my word processor, edit it and let it sit a few days several times over, until I finally feel satisfied that I’ve gone as far as I can with the topic.

No chance of doing that long drawn out process this month—for, here I am, the day before it’s due and I have no topic about which to write. There is nothing in my mind, in my heart, or under my pen about which I feel inspired to write. Absolutely nothing jumps out to grab me. So, what then will I do?

At the writers’ group I attend during the summer, we have an eight minute free-fall writing period. We take turns each week to choose the subject and it is given to us just before we begin this process. Because of the way my writing brain works (as described above), I find it quite difficult to get started. But, with only eight minutes to come up with something, one can’t waste too much time thinking about it.

I have devised a way of getting started under this pressure-filled moment at the writers’ group, by writing the word on my piece of paper and just write without thinking too much about it and, eventually, something is there on the page to read out to the group at the end of the eight minutes.

Basically, then, that is what you have today in my blog. Nothing! No title, no subject, no thoughts. It is my contention that a writer should be able to write something about any subject he is given. If, however, he has not been given any subject, what then? It is up to you, the reader, to decide whether or not I have been able to fulfil my own assertion that a writer should be able to write something about anything, even if that topic is nothing.

© Judith Lawrence 

www.judithlawrence.ca 

Newest book by Judith Lawrence, available at 

http://wipfandstock/store/Highway_of_Holiness_Soul_Journey 

God’s Guidance Fulfilled — Lawrence

On August 27th, 2010, I wrote a blog on this site called, Acknowledging God’s Guidance. It was about specific guidance that I had received from God, regarding my new manuscript, Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey.

Regarding God’s guidance, I quoted Carolyn Myss from her book, Entering the Castle, in which she says:

“Once you acknowledge guidance, you will always be shown pathways through whatever difficulties arise…You will gradually develop the stamina to act on the guidance you receive, confronting whatever fears surface along the way…you know what it is to hear God. That doesn’t settle the challenge of whether you will follow this voice.”

The guidance I needed was whether or not to self-publish this book, as I had done with three of my other books, or whether to continue to send the manuscript to more publishers and see if it would be accepted by one of them. I felt that I did receive God’s guidance in the following words, “Wait a little while longer; there is a place for you.”

However, I was finding it difficult to wait and began to hedge my bets by beginning to format my manuscript so that I would be ready to self-publish while, at the same time, continuing to send out my manuscript to publishers.

When God wants to prove a point (in this case, I believe God wanted to prove that my doubts of God’s guidance to provide a publisher for my manuscript were unfounded), then miracles happen.

This is the miracle I was given:

I sent in my book proposal one day over the internet as instructed by the publisher, Wipf and Stock. The next morning, I received a reply that they wanted my manuscript. How amazing is that? Eight months later, my book is published and available for purchase. It would have been earlier than that but I became very sick in October 2010 and my manuscript deadline had to be postponed for three months until my health and strength improved.

I give thanks and praise to God for his faithful guidance and miracle of my newly published book, Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey.

Highway of Holiness:Soul Journey By Judith Lawrence

Book Description
You were born on earth in holiness but as you walk along life's road and become buffeted with life's trials you lose the knowledge of the holiness with which you were born. Join Judith Lawrence along her soul journey as she considers God's grace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the abundance of Christ's love, and many other blessings received along life's road. Discover your soul's qualities, discern your soul's voice, and follow your soul's leading along your spiritual pilgrimage. Become a contemplative without a cloister, keep God at the center of your life, and find God's open doors along your pilgrim way. This book will take you through paths of prayer and assist you to become aware of your soul's presence within; it will guide you towards a unique relationship with God, take you along your path to spiritual maturity, and give you a realization of your holiness and oneness with God. The spiritual journey is one of awakening to your soul's presence, rediscovering the holiness with which you were born, and being transformed into spiritual beings.

Retail Price: $16.00
Web Price: $12.80
ISBN 10:
ISBN 13: 978-1-61097-159-1
Pages: 132
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: 05/11/2011
Street Date: 05/11/2011
Division: Resource

Easter Week – Lawrence

We have just emerged from the intensity of Holy Week, the bewilderment of Good Friday, and the amazement of the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday. All through this week of Easter we keep coming back to the wonder of all that has happened.

As in a near death of a family member and his or her miraculous recovery we keep coming back to that person and saying, I can hardly believe this is real; I’m so glad you’re all right; you gave us all such a scare, so the disciples, in the first days and weeks following Christ’s death and resurrection, must have been full of wonder and, at the same time, absolute amazing disbelief, each time they saw their Master.

Jesus Christ proved on Good Friday and Easter Sunday that God loves us totally, by sacrificing his only Son on the cross for our sins.

"We can’t believe that we’re loved with nothing in exchange, absolutely nothing. Our real value depends on what we are and not on what we do. We continually try to be good people, whatever that means. In reality we are not always good, but we are holy. Being good is something that we earn or acquire or achieve, but we’re holy because we came forth from God." Simplicity by Richard Rohr, P. 93.

During Lent we remembered, once more, our sinful ways; now, in Easter-tide, we are reminded again of God’s love for us and his gift to us of holiness.

[Coming soon: Non-fiction Book:
Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey
by Judith Lawrence]

Can we have Easter Delights without Lenten Fasting? – Lawrence

A few weeks ago, when I was out doing the weekly shopping, I was surprised to see all the Easter goodies on the shelves. This was not just the usual chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs but Easter crackers in pastel pinks, yellows and blues—Christmas crackers transformed from red, green and silver into the more gentle colours of spring.

There is rarely a day throughout the year when there is not some reason given for buying greeting cards and chocolate goodies in order to celebrate one event or another. Chocolate Santa Claus and chocolate bells are in stores by October; Valentine hearts are on the shelves almost before New Year’s Day is over; while Easter eggs and St. Patrick’s Day clover leaf emblems sit side by side with little distinction between the two occasions.

It occurred to me that we are continually looking for and being tempted by the good stuff in life; we don’t consider that sometimes we have to go through difficult times and, in fact, it might even be good for us to do so. We begin to think that it is our right to have the good things in life without ever having to experience bad things—we don’t look for the dry bread of Lent, only the sweet treats of Easter.

We certainly won’t see the dry bread of Lent being sold in the supermarket but without some difficulties in life we can never truly appreciate the rich chocolate of Easter eggs. Without the wilderness of Lent, or the rites of Holy Week and Good Friday, we could never truly appreciate our Lord’s resurrection and what this means to us as Christians.

© Judith Lawrence

Old Parr: From Cottage to Palace - Lawrence

A number of years ago my aunt gave me a package of photocopies relating to my grandfather, Edwin Davies. At that time, I had no interest in my ancestors and I filed the documents away. Twenty years later, heavily into my genealogy, I regretted the lost opportunity to have my many questions answered.

The drawing of Old Parr’s Cottage in Shropshire, England, where my grandfather was born, began to hold great fascination for me as I searched for my ancestors’ lost lives. Who was Old Parr? Had he really lived to 152 ½ years? Which of Edwin Davies’ sons had written the caption at the bottom of the drawing? What was cousin Bert’s last name?

I set out to do some research on the Internet but the words “Old Parr” in the search engines brought no results. I e-mailed the genealogical society for the area and by coincidence they had just received information on a Thomas Parr from Shropshire who had lived to a great age. The surprise to me was that his life was five centuries ago—I had assumed that Old Parr was living at the time of my grandfather’s birth.

Having gone this far on my search for Old Parr I couldn’t let it go. I now knew that his first name was Thomas and that he was indeed buried in Westminster Abbey. I went to their web-site. His burial there, I found, was by order of King Charles 1st, and the inscription on the white marble gravestone gave his birth as AD 1483, his burial as November 15, 1635, and his age as 152 years. The gravestone also told us that he lived through the reigns of ten monarchs: Edward 4th, Edward 5th, Richard 3rd, Henry 7th, Henry 8th, Edward 6th, Mary, Elizabeth, James, and Charles.

What would make Thomas Parr uproot himself and go to London at his great age? A change from his simple Shropshire life would surely be hard on him. It is recorded that he did not smoke and that his diet consisted of green cheese, onions, coarse bread, buttermilk, and mild ale. He gave his recipe for long life as, “Keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed, and if you want to grow fat [prosperous] keep your eyes open and your mouth shut.” (Quoted from John Taylor’s pamphlet of 1635, The Old, Old, Very Old Man.)

He did not leave his home of his own volition. The Earl of Arundel, Thomas Howard, while visiting one of his Shropshire estates in 1635 heard about the great age of this man and decided to take him to London to see King Charles. Thomas Parr, I suppose, had no say in the matter. The journey was made in easy stages and the Earl provided a jester for Old Parr’s entertainment along the way. But the venture would have brought him little joy given his old age and his blindness of some 20 years.

When they at last came to Court, King Charles asked him what he had done differently from other men in his long life. Old Parr answered that he had done penance when he was 100 years old. Parr’s penance entailed standing draped in a white sheet in the parish church, according to Taylor’s pamphlet, and was a result of his unfaithfulness to his wife and the fathering of an illegitimate child by Katherine Milton. His first marriage, from which he had two children both of whom died in infancy, was when he was aged 80. Ten years after his wife’s death he married again, but there were no children by this second marriage.

The alteration from his country lifestyle and plain diet caused Parr’s demise according to a post mortem carried out by Dr. William Harvey, who cited a diet change, rich wines and London’s pollution as the cause of death. Though he might just have succumbed to old age! After all, he was 152 years of age!

The point of interest for me, of course, is my grandfather’s connection to Old Parr. Why was he born in Thomas Parr’s cottage some 225 years after his death? Was it just coincidence that my great-grandmother went into labour while she was visiting there? Was she a descendant through Parr’s illegitimate child and calling on a relative? Was there some superstition that anyone born in this cottage would live to as great an age as Thomas Parr?

Apart from the fact that the caption under the drawing tells me that Edwin Davies was born in Old Parr’s cottage in 1859, I have found nothing to suggest that there is any relationship between Parr and my ancestors. By continued research, I hope to get answers to the mysterious connection of my family to Old Parr.
Meanwhile, Thomas Parr is certainly worthy of note and provides us with an interesting tale.

Tuning our Harps - Lawrence

As for our harps, we hung them up on the trees in the midst of that land. / For those who led us away captive asked us for a song, and our oppressors called for mirth: “Sing us one of the Songs of Zion.” / How shall we sing the Lord’s song upon an alien soil? Psalm 137: 2 – 4

We can sing the Lord’s song at any time and in any place, and it is even more important that we sing it when we are on alien soil. When we are captives in a strange land, we need to sing songs of praise—the very singing of these songs of praise releases us from captivity. What is captivity for us? It does not necessarily mean being behind bars in a prison cell, it may mean being captive to negative thinking about a situation in which we find ourselves.

We may not feel like singing God’s praises when things go wrong in our lives, we may want to wallow in our misery. However, a difficult situation is not the time to hang up our harps but a time to sing the Lord’s song with even more vigour. It is a time to strengthen our faith; a time to sing a song of praise and of thanksgiving for the lesson the Holy Spirit is presenting to us.

If we hang up our harps in times of trouble, we are captive to the events in our lives; but if we retune our harps at these times we are free to receive other gifts that God is offering us—new vistas, new horizons, new adventures. When our captors say sing, we must ask, “How loud and in what key?”

If we hang up our harps they will go out of tune and be useless until someone else comes along and takes them, tunes them, sings the Lord’s song, and reaps the benefit. When we sing God’s praises in tough times the Holy Spirit is able to move into our events and give the fruits or seeds of a new harvest. We must listen to what the Spirit says and tune our harps and sing with joy.

© Judith Lawrence

Flowering Begonia - Lawrence

About two years ago, a friend gave me a plant. She said it was a flowering begonia though it had never bloomed while she owned it and the person who gave her the slips from the parent plant had never seen a bloom on hers either.

It seemed, to all concerned, that this plant had been named incorrectly. After all, indoor plant books said that some begonias did not produce flowers.

However, whenever we spoke of this plant, we continued to call it a flowering begonia. Before I transported the plant to my own home, my friend took some slips from it and rooted them. They grew well but still no flowers came.

It was a beautiful plant that had shiny green leaves with pink undersides. It grew in height and was strong and healthy. No need to be sorry that it had no flowers. This was just not to be and it gave me great pleasure as it was.

Then, one day in July of this year, I walked past the plant and, from the corner of my eye I saw flowers. I doubled back to take a second look. Sure enough, there was a spike of pretty pink flowers growing out from between two leaves.

“It is a flowering begonia,” I said, out loud to myself. “We didn’t name it incorrectly after all.”

Sometimes, we just have to have faith in life. Even though we don’t see flowers on the flowering begonia doesn’t mean it isn’t a flowering begonia, it just hasn’t come to its full maturity yet.

Even though we don’t see all the fruit of the spirit in ourselves or in others yet, doesn’t mean that we or they aren’t spiritual beings, we just haven’t come to full maturity of the spirit yet. We have to keep faith in life and in the spirit that we are moving toward that end with Jesus beside us and within us.

Acknowledging God’s Guidance – Lawrence

Carolyn Myss, in her book, Entering The Castle, says, “Once you acknowledge guidance, you will always be shown pathways through whatever difficulties arise…You will gradually develop the stamina to act on the guidance you receive, confronting whatever fears surface along the way…you know what it is to hear God. That doesn’t settle the challenge of whether you will follow this voice.”

Regarding the manuscript I have just completed, “Highway of Holiness: Soul Journey”, I have been seeking God’s guidance on what I am to do about its publication.

I feel that I did receive God’s guidance in the following words, “Wait a little while longer; there is a place for you.” Shortly after this, I remembered some suggestions about publishing a manuscript that a fellow author had shared with me and I believe that they were part of the way on which God was leading me.

I sought God’s guidance; I believe I received God’s guidance; yet I seemed to be fighting against the guidance I had been given.

In order for me to discover why I was unsettled about following God’s guidance, I posed a series of questions to myself in my journal and tried to answer them honestly. Here are my questions and answers.

1. Q. Do you believe God is giving you guidance over your present manuscript? A. Yes.

2. Q. What do you believe that guidance to be? A. I believe that God is guiding me to search for a publisher through the O.A.C.’s Writers Reserve Program.

3. Q. Why are you hesitant to follow God’s guidance? A. I am impatient for the book to be published. I know that I could self-publish it easily and have it on the market quickly without all the hassle of going through the slow process of publishing with an established publisher.

4. Q. Will you commit to prayer, and practice following God’s guidance as it has been revealed to you? A. I will try, knowing that this will help me to develop stamina to act on the guidance I have received from God.

5. Q. You know what it is to hear God’s voice; are you willing to follow God’s guidance? A. With the Lord’s help, I will follow the path that God is showing me.

I continue to struggle with this but I hope that, through this struggle, I will develop the stamina to act on the guidance I have received, grow in patience, and confront whatever fears surface along the way.

How the Lilies Grow – Lawrence

Jesus said, "Look at the lilies and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are." (New Living Translation.)

When I see the variety of beautiful lilies in our garden at this time of year, my mind turns to the more familiar translation of the words of Jesus, "Consider the lilies of the field how they grow…". These words of Jesus and the previous ones about the ravens, are meant to show us how we ought to have faith and not worry about our physical needs. "If God cares so wonderfully for flowers,…he will certainly care for you." (NLT)

Even more than showing us that we should have faith that God cares what happens to us in this life, Jesus reminds us, in the words prior to those about the ravens and lilies, how foolish a person is if he stores up wealth but doesn’t have a rich relationship with God. Luke 12: 21.

It is sensible and a good practice to be careful about our money—to save and not be frivolous with it; to make sure that family, food, bills, and housing are taken care of first before money is spent on entertainment, candy, and toys. Christ does not fault us for that. However, if all we worry about is building up our wealth and give no thought for our relationship with God then, in the words of Jesus, “We are fools.”

How much thought do we give to our relationship with God? Is our connection with God a Sunday only connection? Is our time of communication with God only when we have a need; when we or a loved one is sick; when we are in a difficult situation or the earth is experiencing another disaster?



We need to build up our relationship with God; our time with God should be one of daily presence with him in good times as well as bad. Spending time with God should be one of great joy and desire—reading his word and meditating on it, speaking to God and listening for his guidance, and interceding for those in need.

Let us follow Christ’s suggestion and have a rich relationship with God; and let us have faith that God cares for us as much as he cares for the lilies and the ravens and all other parts of his creation.