GREENSide Update
  • reflecting a bit
    • Easter 2019: Four ‘D’ Words of The Passion Week
    • Spring 2019: ‘Kingdom of God’ Reflections a Week After
    • Early Winter 2018: Taking a Closer Look at The Advents
    • Late summer 2018: Impressions from the Incapacitated
    • Summer 2018... Confronting Fears
    • Happy New Year 2018 Wishes
    • Christmas 2017 - Reconstructing the Christmas Story
    • Fall 2017... Returning, Rest, Quietness & Trust
    • Summer 2017... Reflecting Pools Matter
    • Spring 2017... The Singularity of God's Kingdom Purposes
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016... One Foot, Two Feet, Three
    • Fall 2016... Personal Confessions of Mistaken Political Thinking
    • Summer, 2016... Waiting and Listening
    • Resurrection Sunday, 2016
    • Winter 1st qtr, 2016... The Marrakesh Declaration
    • Christmas 2015 Greeting
    • End of Year, 2015... Are We To Care?
    • Spring 2015... What are you and I doing about it?
    • New Year's Day 2015... New Mercies Never End!
    • Christmas/New Year 2014/15... Holiday, Holiday, What have you done?
    • Fall 2014... On Kingdoms... Past, Present and Ethereal
    • Spring 2014... Didascalicon: Man, God and Greatness
    • Christmas 2013... Even in the Air and Space
    • Winter 2013/14... Callings
    • Christmas 2012... 'Jumping Beans' in old age
    • Spring 2012... New Beginnings
    • Fall 2011... People of Promise
  • a look behind
    • Spring 2019: ...Off the Starting Blocks
    • Early Winter 2018: Sabbatical Results and First Furlough Leg
    • Summer 2018... "Come and See"
    • Summer 2017... Making Full Circle
    • Spring 2017... Completing Pre-furlough Commitments
    • Fall 2016, JJ's New California Home!
    • Summer 2016... Accomplishing Significant Milestones
    • End of year, 2015: Building God's Kingdom Among the Middle East Unengaged Muslims
    • Summer 2015... Building Deeply in Small Ways
    • Christmas 2013 photos
    • Winter 2013/14... Up and Running!
    • Winter 2012... 'Global Impact 29', first steps
    • Fall 2011... A great school; A promising alliance
  • a look ahead
    • Spring 2019: Finishing Touches to a Special Furlough
    • Early Winter 2018: Expanding to New Beginnings
    • Summer 2018... Winding Around the Country
    • Summer 2017... Three Decades and Counting
    • Spring 2017... My Upcoming Two Greatest Decades
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016... Our Upcoming Furlough, Part Two
    • Summer 2016... Our Upcoming Furlough, Part One
    • Early Winter 2016
    • Summer 2015... Looking to Remember the Middle East
    • Winter 2013/14... The West heads East
    • Winter 2012... Coming out, going deeper
    • Fall 2011... Getting and Giving 'Perspectives'
  • prayer
    • Spring 2019
    • Early Winter 2018
    • Late summer 2018
    • Summer 2018
    • Fall 2017
    • Spring, 2017
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016
    • Fall, 2016
    • End of year, 2015
    • Summer 2015
    • Why pray?
    • Winter 2013/14
    • Winter 2012
    • Fall 2011
  • finances
    • Spring 2019
    • Early Winter 2018
    • Summer 2018
    • Winter 4th qtr. 2016... Year-end giving
    • Fall, 2016
    • End of year, 2015
    • Summer 2015
    • Winter 2013/14
    • Winter 2012
    • Fall 2011
  • get involved
  • fun
  • more contemplation
  • in case you missed it
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Late summer, 2018
on... Impressions from the Incapacitated
Amy Carmichael once said, “In acceptance lies peace. When we can accept the constraining circumstances of our lives as something allowed by God for purposes we may not understand, we can quit blaming ourselves and others, and let the task at hand be experiencing His presence and our growth. Instead of asking, ‘Why?’ one might ask, ‘What can I learn in this circumstance here and now?’”

This quote is all the more impacting when one realizes Amy Carmichael spent her last nineteen years bedridden on account of a catastrophic fall into a hole in Tamil Nadu, India, where she founded and guided the Dohnavur Fellowship from 1901 to 1951 (the year of her death at age 83), an incredible work of God among young girls and women snatched from forced prostitution to Hindu Temple gods. Were it not for those difficult latter years of her trials and suffering we today would be all the more impoverished for not possessing her profound writings given from a vantage point looking heavenward from a bed. 

As recovery from my ankle surgery moves ever so slowly forward I thank God for giving me weeks of immobility where I can look out over these beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains and contemplate things I so seldom make time to do. Accepting my present circumstances has not only brought peace, joy and rest in Him, but I find it also produces in me a renewed sense of worship of God for all that He has done in, and through me over the years. Lying on my back with my foot in the air I remember the good times and bad, but quickly push back to ask what it is He wants to teach me right here and now in my present circumstances. This leads me to prayerful reflection regarding what it is He still has for me to do for Him as I look to the future. I pause, remembering again the words of a good friend, “Kelly ol’ boy, you need to know the best decade of your life, your sixties, is still in front of you, right around the corner!” (yes, it is true, I will be 60-years-old come March 1, 2019). I choose by faith to believe the words of my friend, not because he’s my friend, but rather because “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day,” [2 Timothy 1:12, KJV].  I likewise find solace in Holy Scripture with words penned by Paul of Tarsus, “…I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling…” [Philippians 3:13b,14, NLT]. With these words I repent of reflecting too much on the past; rather, making a conscientious choice to assume Paul’s resolve for a transformed future. Peace comes to me. It is the same peace that comes in acceptance of our circumstances. “Then God’s peace, which goes beyond anything we can imagine, will guard your thoughts and emotions through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7, GWT.

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First name: KR
Last name: G
Personal account #: 004527
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