COMMENTS: awaken@Sonrisen.com
A Special Letter from Robert...
Portals to Heaven is taking a temporary turn during the month of August.For one thing, you no longer have to click the picture to take you to Sonrisen.com because PORTALS TO HEAVEN will now appear below in the form of "Just This Morning" - a kissing cousin to PORTALS.The nature of the change in format is that it will be shorter for a short season - most probably during the month of August as I take some time to prepare for some interesting writing projects. (Stay tuned!)From time to time, a more familiar “Portals to Heaven” will probably appear as well. You can also access any Portals you've missed by simply going to Sonrisen.com and breeze through the archives. This will only come into your morning email as EVENING EDITION will take a break.(I hope to morph "Just This Morning" into its own Facebook Page link to make it easier for you to share.)Again, let me know what you think.
July 30, 2018
Why God Goes Silent
PHOTO: The move to the back porch made all of the difference in the world.
I sat on the porch as the first bird started his song. However, the noise of the traffic got so strong I was having a hard time hearing the birds. I moved to the back porch and all I could hear were the birds. The traffic had become distant. Sometimes we have to make a change from whatever is masking God’s voice. Are there any changes, even small tweaks, to your lifestyle that might make God’s voice clearer?
July 31, 2018
Toad The Line
PHOTO: When the squeeze is on.
A toad stared up at me from next to the kitty bowl on my kitchen floor. I guess I’ll never know how he got there. He had a clump of cat hair attached to his webbed feet that was making it difficult to hop. To his consternation, I picked him up and removed the hair piece by piece. It took a bit and so he desperately attempted to escape. But my persistence in helping him overtook his ability to resist. Sometimes, God has to squeeze us to show how much He wants to heal us. Got anything sticking to you?
August 1, 2018
The Weight of the Wait
PHOTO: The contrast between the left and right side was dramatic.
The dry weather gave me a four-week hiatus from mowing the lawn. But it didn't stop the grass from looking like a wild dune links golf course. It took everything in my power to let it look like some of the cast members in "Hair." With my patience wearing thin, God let a woman exercise her prerogative. That "she" would be Mother Nature who began to change her mind and bless us with a few weeks of rain. With the lawn scraggly and long but beginning to look green again, I exercised my tractor and it couldn't look any better. What has you just itching to act when you know you must wait?
August 2, 2018
Insidious!
PHOTO: Intertwined!
I kept watching this vine grown right into our screened porch. It started to block the view of the sparkles on The Hudson River. Every day, I’d tell myself to cut it before it got out of hand and every day I would scurry off to work and tackle other chores and forget about it. The other day a big, fat inchworm ate half a leaf at one sitting. OK, God! I get the hint. I finally went out there early this morning and realized it was so intertwined with the rhododendron that it was almost impossible to distinguish the two. It felt like vengeance when I cut it. It felt freeing to see again. But I had to ask, “What are the things that get so close to my heart that it feels too familiar and they are really death and are blocking my view of God?
August 3, 2018
Savor THIS Season
PHOTO: A scene exclusively reserved for summer.
For those who adore summer or the exceptionally subjective “good weather,” they notice there are some things that simply can’t happen at any other time of year in the same way that they do in July or August. But life’s seasons aren’t always about the climate. Is there anything in your life that won’t ever happen again or, at least, not for another season? It’s time to savor and give thanks.