Merle's Musings: Rise to Win

By Jimmy Manser

More than a motivating and authentic story, it's an invitation to observe, listen, and connect the dots to form a deeper understanding for navigating your own story. Manser invites readers to punctuate their lives with grit, fortitude, and unquestionable belief that we all have a divine spirit within us that calls us to evoke the heart's light of goodness and service. To be unshakable witnesses in conquering adversity, running the race as beacons of hope, purpose, and promise.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 22, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667884882

Book preview

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Copyright © 2023 by Jimmy Manser

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,

distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying,

recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior permission

of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews

and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

For permission requests, write to the author, addressed Attention Permissions

at [e-mail]

Ordering Information:

For details, contact [e-mail]

print ISBN: 978-1-66788-487-5

ebook ISBN: 978-1-66788-488-2

Printed in the United States of America on SFI Certified paper.

First Edition

Dedicated to

Mom & Dad

Contents

FOREWORD

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

1. ARE WE THERE YET?

2. WEALTH OF THE HOLY WELL

3. DREAM

4. DIVINELY DESIGNED

5. GOD’S RAINBOW CONNECTION

6. PERPETUAL GRATITUDE

7. A RIVER FINDS ITS WAY

8. FREEDOM’S JUST ANOTHER WORD

9. ARRIVAL IN A NEW PLACE

10. WHY THE SUN RISES EVERY MORNING

11. DARE TO LIVE THROUGH BROKENNESS

12. GROW THE HEART’S LIGHT

13. LOVE OF THE THIRD KIND

14. BROKEN TO SERVE

15. THAT’S MY MOMMA

16. THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

17. FOLLOW THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS

18. SIMPLE SMILE

19. DEFERENCE BOW

20. EMBRACE EVERTHING WITH LOVE AND GRATITUDE

21. CRAVING CONNECTION

22. HERE AND NOW

23. SMILE IN THE MESSY MUDDLE OF STRUGGLE

24. CONFESSION TO REIMAGINE A WOMAN

25. WHO AM I?

26. RUN FROM FEAR OR STAND IN LOVE?

27. SUZI’S RELEASE LESSON

28. GRACE GOT ME

29. SANTA MUSING

30. GIFTS THAT JINGLE

31. FEBRUARY LOVE

32. EMBRACE A SPIRITUAL PATH

33. FIND ME THERE

34. TWILIGHT MIRACLE

35. PRAYER

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD

Six years ago, I met Jimmy at a prophetic class I was teaching at a church in Roseburg, Oregon. Little did I know at the time, I was speaking with a future author. I was recently contacted by Jimmy and asked to write a foreword for this book. Jimmy sent me some of his material for review. I was refreshed and encouraged to read his content.

Jimmy did something with this book that stands out in a world filled with a rapid succession of impersonal memes or jolting interpretations of reality. He tells us stories about his life and life itself. Jimmy invites us to slow down and engage the world around us in the most beautiful and elegant form of interaction—by loving and serving people.

If you love stories of goodness, this book will bless you. Stories like the ones shared by Jimmy bring us hope. It is a rare gift to be a storyteller of goodness. Jimmy does it well.

Garris Elkins

Author, Mentor, Teacher

www.garriselkins.com

PREFACE

LovesIntention transforms power for good, to all it touches; richly cultivated through crisis, yielding virtues of love and hope, forgiveness, and redemption; with generosity of service to others. I’m a survivor of a life-changing motorcycle accident at age twenty-six and life-threatening stage 4 cancer at forty-four. God gave me the vision for the website LovesIntention to chart a passage to heal my broken places through volunteer service in the community. Victory over adversity is intentional. My faith is rooted in a benevolent God, who walks beside and lives within me, guiding me to release His goodness and light in all circumstances.

When mortal life comes near its end, what distills to the top? Accumulated wealth, life experiences, prestige, and possessions, or generous acts of service to benefit others? As inspired by the apostle Paul in I Corinthians Chapter 13, verse 13: And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

Within every person is a God-given spirit, yearning to exercise charity. We were made through God’s love for us. With an intentional practice of goodwill and service, our spiritual lives resonate with passion and purpose. We experience the giving and receiving of love. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time, we will reap if we do not grow weary (Galatians 6:9).

Through nearly three years of posting on LovesIntention, I’ve compiled most of the website’s blogs into a book; Merle’s Musings—Rise to Win. The original blogs have been edited for the book, but are in the same chronological order as when published on LovesIntention. While the blogs are the bulk of the book, I’ve added a few writings that are not. Also, the expansive Introduction and Acknowledgments chronicle my personal journey over the past three years. May my book be a blessing, inspiring your LovesIntention’s light to radiate upon everyone you touch.

Best wishes and abundant love,

Jimmy Manser

INTRODUCTION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Divorce is a dark, lonely, and unforgiving place. Once the divorce court process unfolds, dominos fall, escalation of fear threatens survival, hope becomes elusive, and a person’s light rapidly dims. My marriage of thirty-eight years had ended. Fading nearly to black.

The rumblings of no-fault divorce included the crumbling of my retirement plan, split monthly pension, and a slow-motion wreck of real estate holdings. My carefully planned and hard-earned thirty-three-year federal retirement fund (valued at a million dollars) was crushed by broken marital vows and left me emotionally bankrupt as well. I felt a damp grip approaching but lost the will to care. Soon to be unhoused, I made plans to give away most of my possessions and pursue minimalism. To lighten the material load, I built a bonfire in the backyard fire pit. I gazed dispassionately into the ascending flames as scrapbooks and reams of past paper histories were incinerated. What remained of my personal property was a 2005 Honda Element with a custom-made raised platform bed in the rear with built-in drawers for clothes and supplies. I was prepared to leave my rural home of thirteen years, perched on Red Hill, overlooking the Umpqua Valley with the Cascade Mountains in view.

Whether fate or divinity’s intervention, Halie Loren’s music of light danced into my depressed orbit. Halie is an award-winning American and international jazz/pop singer and writer. When she’s not touring North America with her band, Halie lives with her family and cats in Eugene, Oregon. She’s been featured on numerous internet platforms like YouTube and Spotify. My first connection with Halie’s music was A Woman’s Way, while I randomly searched YouTube for a vibrant music video featuring a woman dressed in a black dress for a friend dressing for New Years. My connection to Halie’s rich, silky smooth musical vibe was mesmerizing while also healing. Shortly after, I pursued Halie’s concerts throughout Oregon for several years. Her music and friendship had a butterfly effect on me. She was a buoy of hope in the turbulent seas I was navigating through.

With the affection of an adopted sister, I offered Celestial Diva as Halie’s nickname. She seemed to like it. After Halie’s performance at the Wildish Theater on May 19, 2017, our mutual admiration was sealed forever in the spontaneity of the above photograph taken by the event’s publicist. No doubt, my favorite picture of all time.

For my sixty-ninth birthday on July 10, 2019, Halie invited me for a private breakfast at a Eugene coffee shop. Just sister Halie and me; best birthday gift ever, I would remark with a grin. While Halie had no clue that I was recently unhoused, she was aware of my planned cross-country trip to visit family and friends. Halie’s generous spirit of friendship and prized music had elevated me to a good place.

Marc Conlyn, Tommy Blair, and I sat together at lunch every day throughout high school. Best friends. There wasn’t any envy of my All-American handsomeness and athletic abilities, as Marc and Tommy scored their achievements on the honor roll. Any rivalry among the tribe was my pursuit of becoming more of an astute scholar like they were. Tommy and Marc’s classmate clan was cohesive through literary prowess, and I aspired to earn the clan’s respect. Despite the bonds formed in high school and summer memories, subsequent college choices in distant cities and chosen careers eventually separated us. Decades passed, and our contact faded through the course of time.

When struggling to find a path forward through my divorce, I reached out to Marc and Tommy to rekindle our friendship. Best friends can find a way back, right? The reconnection was instantaneous and emotionally infused with the intensity of