nature Archives - Turning the Page on Suicide

Posts Tagged: nature

Jesus, the Spirit of Truth

Posted March 12, 2020 | Karisa Moore

I was lowered into a grave of fickle flesh.
Royal robes stripped, I submitted to the battering
will of I AM.

His love pulls starved faith
onto nourishing knee and tucks truth
into my stories–stirring souls to adventure life.

My life willingly pick-pocked by man’s understanding,
as Satan plumps his purse with the clink-clink of despair.

In the garden, I grafted man to me.
Plant saints and sinners in the fertile
soil of my tilled blood.
Root righteous oaks of transformed lives
by streams of fulfillment.
Display my glory.
Build a testament with the screaming
Tap, tap, tap,
of nails into my hands.

Poetry Posts every Thursdays at 7p.m.

Turning Your Page

Poetry is a way of studying the nature of God and how he loves you. Spend time walking wooded paths, well-tended gardens and linger by streams. All described in scripture by the psalmist, God, and Jesus. Growth comes from an awareness that he is both sovereign and near.

How do you view God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit?
Describe something in nature that stands out to you as an aspect of God’s provision and nature?
What questions do you have about God’s character?

Lord, open my eyes to the truth of who you are, not who I think you might be. Quicken my heart, that I may know what part you have in my life. Amen

Finding Sunshine in Despair

Posted December 5, 2019 | Karisa Moore

I search for sunshine among shadows.
And find you, creator of dark and light,
dancing with fireflies under
the spotlight of moon and stars.

Summer Psalmist

Posted July 6, 2019 | Karisa Moore

I stretch out on a blanket, book in hand, bare
feet crisscrossed in meditation while soaking in
summerâ€™s choir. Scripture’s sweet serenade rustles
remembrance of Creator and creation, beneath whispering
willows.

The sopranos and altos chirp from
tree and grass harmonizing as they
exert; while crooning frogs flirt with baritone
bellows, calling for their girl.

Summer’s song invites me into the steady
rhythm of tire swings and popsicle stained, childhood
giggles. Book abandoned, I dangle over river’s edge,
pumping legs in eager anticipation of touching
clouds and releasing cares as I plop into the
cool refreshment of your love.

Provision At My Window

Posted June 20, 2019 | Karisa Moore

Jesus said to his disciples: â€œTherefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? –Luke 12:22-26 NIV

Dear Page Turners,

A little goldfinch visited today. I am quite sure she tapped on my window a year ago, her strange behavior still the same. She was more interested in what happens inside our home than anything outside. She sat, looking directly at me, tilting her head. Then she landed on the sill for closer inspection. Neither the barking dog nor the kids frighten her away.

My little friend is a love note from God. Love notes are moments when God does something that wows me. Iâ€™ve received many of them throughout the years, but this was extra special because it reached through the haze I walk through these days and stirred my heart. My problems are deep and multi-layered, but God’s is faithful.

She sat there looking at me and declaring with every little twitch of her head. â€œHe loves you, he values you, and he is providing for you.” She spent about an hour with me her last visit, but I easily dismissed the visit as a passing “interesting” moment until she returned today.

How quickly I forgot He loves me when the mess of the year’s problems seemed insurmountable. The little finch’s appearance as I walked into the office caught my attention. God reminded me to hope. He knew I struggled in my exhaustion to look at his many provisions for my family, so he made his promise clear through my little feathered illustration.

Are you soured by circumstances? Cynical about the knowledge that God is good because all you see and feel is bad? Do you frantically scramble to fix whatever is wrong in your life? Come to the window with me. Look at a little bird whose only thought today was to serve her master in a big way.

May I be a little bird for you. Tapping on your heart to remind God sees and values you, and he is very much in the midst of your loneliness, your despair, and your prayers.

Love Always,

Karisa

Suicide Strike

Posted February 14, 2019 | Karisa Moore

Suicide snapped my soul,
Stripped bare flesh with
its strike. Shook out the fruits
of my labor.

Amid the screaming storm
of unnatural consequence, I became a
stump of misaligned
purpose. Expectations of motherhood
decomposed as the sun flowered once more,
and my neighbors shuddred off
memory of the horrific night, reaching
their branches to nurturing light, stronger.

Still, you watered my shocked roots in the daily habit
of your nurture. And my broken soul drank
in your presence as you walked amid your
mighty oaks. I begin to feel the tickling pleasure,
of sap-feeding life into what I thought dead. And
around my trunk sprung hundreds of tiny seedlings.
My broken body cradled new life.

Podcast posts every Monday at 10 am.

Devotionals post every Tuesday at 7 pm.

Poetry posts every Thursday at 7 pm.

Life and Death aren’t Kept Secret

Posted November 27, 2018 | Karisa Moore

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23 ESV).

(Originally Shared October 2014)

Fall is my favorite season, and as I hiked through the woods, I was reminded of why. It isn’t just the fall colors or the cool nip in the air that revive and remind me of the divine. It is that even in death, life is given.

Take this log for example. It is brimming with life! Fall reminds me that death is not the end of God’s story. There are millions of possibilities that lay hidden beneath the surface ready to burst forth and display his provision and splendor.

Some of us feel like an empty shell, dead inside, nothing could possibly grow from us.Â I declare to you with complete confidence that there are a million seeds of life planted inside you ready to spring forth! I once thought that I was without purpose, but I see clearly that life is in every cell of my being! I want to give that life to you.

This season is one of hidden possibility. But God’s promises are true. They are observable, and repeat I’m nature and the testimony of many the world tossed out as dead. Trust God’s provision for your life and let him reveal the life growing inside of you.

Love you dearly!

Karisa

Devotionals are posted at 7pm every Tuesday.

Gospel of Spring (Haiku)

Posted March 19, 2018 | Karisa Moore

Souls bubbling up,

gushing with undeserved love.

—the gospel of Spring.

Thursday Trails: Stepping Outside of Depression

Posted October 6, 2016 | Karisa Moore

I love hiking the trails out our local nature parks. I don’t think, I don’t worry, and I don’t plot and plan. I am a child, with a camera and my God becomes bigger than my depression, insomnia and grief. Time stands still as I breath more deeply and gain new perspective.

Comment about some of your favorite parks or trails. How does nature expand your faith and shrink your depression?