Dorothy & The Wizard

Poor Dorothy.

There she is, standing in pain, with her hopes dashed. Toto is yapping at this unfortunate turn of events.

She now sees that that the mysterious, wish-fulfilling, sacred Wizard is just a little man guiding a big machine. She is seeing the underbelly of it all, and her heart has fallen.

Dorothy has a choice to make in the moment. Four options leap to her mind:

She can run to help the little man.
Sensing her shared community in the broken human family with the little man, with compassion (and even appreciation) filling her heart, she can help both him and her become something neither of them could ever be without each other. She can be a Catalyst From Within.

She can simply stand there.
Disoriented by her awakening, and conflicted over whether her compassion should call her inward to help or her anger should call her out and away from the mess, she chooses neither. She can be a Watcher On The Border.

She can leave.
Realizing she never should have trusted any part of the Wizard’s story, she can simply run away and leave the Wiz to himself, never to visit again. She can be a Forgoer Of The Story.

She can leave for a time.
Astounded by the lack of substance in the outward form, yet realizing a strange and powerful attraction to the story the Wizard represents, she can seem to all to be leaving. However, she just needs some time — she’s still in the gravitational pull of the story represented; she’s just cutting a wide arc for the moment.

She needs time to see the Wiz as the world sees him, and time to catch a fresh vision for herself of what the Wizard represents. She can be a Reformer Of The Wizard/Reteller Of The Story.

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Sheltering Mercy: Prayers Inspired by the Psalms

Sheltering Mercy, along with its companion volume, Endless Grace, helps us rediscover the rich treasures of the Psalms—through free-verse prayer renderings of their poems and hymns—as a guide to personal devotion and meditation.

The church has always used the Psalms as part of its prayer life, and they have inspired countless other prayers. This book contains 75 prayers drawn from Psalms 1-75, providing lyrical sketches of what authors Ryan Smith and Dan Wilt have seen, heard, and felt while sojourning in the Psalms. Each prayer is a response to the Psalms written in harmony with Scripture. These prayers help us quiet our hearts before God and welcome us into a safe place amid the storms of life.

This artful, poetic, and classic devotional book features compelling custom illustrations and foil-stamped hardcover binding, offering a fresh way to reflect on and pray the Psalms.