“Where are you? Do you hear me asking? Do you feel my words speaking in you, calling you to me now? Where is the one I love? Where is the one I made? Where is the one I search for? I know you, and I seek you. I ask you where you are because I want you to know the state of your heart…”

“I like the way you think–how you wonder, how you imagine. For I have made you to ruminate and question. I have made you to experiment and explore. I have made you to be curious–desire learning. I have made you to want to figure things out…”

“Do not think this day is monotonous. Do not think this day is ordinary. Each day is miraculous, isn’t it? Aren’t I the one who holds everything together? Making light shine upon the leaves of every tree. Bringing breath to your lungs. Letting you make decisions about who you think you are, how you feel, what you deem important to do and not do? Aren’t I steady and sure? Aren’t I calmness in storms? Aren’t I peace when nothing about you can be controlled…”

“It is easy to ignore me. It is easy to stay preoccupied. The world sets a pace that is maddening. It is a pace of rushing and proving, striving and getting ahead. It also encourages you to numb your heart–to have you choose busyness, productivity–so that you feel uncomfortable with silence, with space, with rest, with being with me…”

“The world is raging. When is it not raging? The world is overwhelmed with pain. When is it not in pain? As a whole, the world is broken. And beautiful. And what I love, I love, I love, with my whole heart…”

“How do you hold your thoughts captive, child, when you are full of anger? How do you hold your thoughts captive when you are irritated, critical, your heart filled with judgment towards other people? How do you turn to me when you feel the push and pull of tension within you? How do you surrender yourself to my love, to what is good, to what is better for you than strife…”

“I love the sounds of connection–of people gathering together. But I love the sounds of silence too. Do not be afraid to be alone. Do not be afraid to sit and be in solitude–to sometimes keep just your own company. It is not a boring place; it is a captivating, thrilling one. When you are settled down, at rest, you can be more awake to the world within you, the world experienced through seeing and listening with your spirit–not with your physical eyes and ears…”

“There is life ahead, you know. Not all is heavy. Not all is work. Raise your head now. See me. Catch my eye. There is joy here. Now–in this moment. There is joy in me…”

“He is sweeping across the land. He is resting here. He makes your home his home–your spirit united with His–and invites you to your true home. Come, come into the deep home of your heart where freedom resides. Freedom from all connections that are not of me. Freedom comes where the Spirit resides. For where the Spirit resides there is love. And love holds all things and makes a way for all things, as I say, in my Son’s name…”

“Can I hold your heart now? Touch the parts that hurt? The parts you try to hold together? It is made to break open–and it is made to become whole. I am not the one who breaks hearts, but I am the one who mends them…”

“You have heard me tell you that you are my delight. Sometimes you hear me. Sometimes you don’t. But listen now: You are enough. You are all that I want you to be. There is a picture that you can’t see yet, but I want to help you see it–the vision of your life from my perspective. All the ways you captivate me. All the things you do that make me smile…”

“You are not alone. Do not be scared. I know you feel disorientated now, the world so different from what you knew before. What you knew before has fallen away. But even here, when what was familiar is gone, I have not left you. You are my child, and I promised long ago that I would never leave…”

“What do you want this day to be? What do you wish would happen? What are your deepest desires? At the end of this day, as you lay down your head, what do you want to feel? What situation do you hope for the most…”

“You forget I am with you, that I never leave you. You forget how my constant presence is for you, equipping you to do all things I have for you this moment, this day, and all days. You can get through days like this without me, without remembering me, but not very well, not in the way you could…”

“My ways are not your ways, I tell you. But this doesn’t mean I am not familiar to you. This does not mean you are unable to relate with me, get to know me, understand my character, my desires, my dreams. My ways are better than yours. Yet my ways are ones I can teach you to know and appreciate and want more of…”

“Discouragement is not permanent, child. The uphill battle will end. You are not missing out on qualities of personality or of talent. You are not missing out on opportunities you are meant to have. You are not a mistake in your physical makeup. You are not a flaw in my plan. You are not messing up my original hope for you. You just can’t see all that I can see. You just don’t know all that I know. And what you do see and what you do know gives you a flawed, incomplete picture when you look through the world’s eyes…”

“I want you to see what I see. All the possibilities. For I am not holding out on you. I am not careful with how I give away my love. I am not a Father who withholds what He has for his children. All good things are what I have for you. All newness coming–also much to bring forth that you don’t yet see…”

“How much do you want my closeness? Is it only so much that I don’t get in your way? Is it only enough for me to bless you? Is it only enough for me to protect you from harm, from danger, from sadness? Our relationship is not a transactional one, is it? For it is a shallow kind of love that only gives what it expects in return. And my love is not shallow. It does not expect from you what you can’t give in order to give to you everything I have. I want to give you everything I have. Do you want to receive it? Do you want to receive Him? I give you all of me, everything. It is what I love to do most. And my joy comes from you receiving all the good I have for you…”

“I know you feel it—how there is more available for you. More to see and hear and touch. Heaven makes you wistful. It makes you hungry, craving what is true. It makes you long for something true within you to come out of hiding—like there is something just out of your grasp, not quite available. And you long for it. You long for it more than anything…”

“Open your hands. Listen deep within you. Your mind, your imagination...let me direct what you are thinking...help you give attention to what you are feeling now…”