a God who loves

A God who makes every single snowflake unique and beautiful, loves me.


And all the wonderful people I worshiped with at church today.
And the ones who sing off-key.
And the ones who annoy me.


And the person who cuts me off in traffic.
And the person who has 15 items in the line for twelve items or less.
And the person who gives my car a massive door ding.


And the person who hurts a child.
And the person who sells dope.
And the person who kills.

If God's love doesn't blow you away - I don't know what will.

weekends

This past weekend, hubby and I attended a leadership training seminar for The Truth Project. The weekend before, I took my family to Chicago so that I could be the photographer for my cousin K's wedding and so the girls could see UP again.


The church was a tiny 130 year-old church down by Wrigley Field. The building and windows were beautiful.


I had thought during the reception that the wedding and reception reminded me of my own. Later that weekend, both my husband and my father said it was like our wedding too. I think the smallness, the simplicity, and the relaxed atmosphere is what made it feel so familiar.


I've been very busy working on photos from the wedding and I still have many to work on but these of their 'bicycle built for two' are far and away my favorites.

time spent pulling weeds is time well spent....

Yesterday I pulled weeds. We were in Florida at the worst time for my garden this year. It rained and it was hot for the two weeks I was gone and the weeds took over the garden. Pulling weeds got me to thinking (what else is there to do when pulling weeds, pulling weeds is pretty mindless really).

Sin has often been compared to weeds and our lives are often compared to a harvest field and the Bible frequently reminds us that we are to produce fruit. That is the difference between weeds and good plants. Weeds don’t produce any sort of beneficial fruit, they seldom produce the beautiful blossoms that are treasured in flower gardens, and if they do flower they are often invasive and out of control.

Consequently, gardeners don’t like weeds and don’t want them in a garden that is intended to grow beneficial food or beautiful flowers. So gardeners spend hours on their hands and knees pulling weeds out from among the fruitful or flowering plants. But a good gardener knows that while the weed may be gone from the surface of the soil, it isn’t necessarily gone. If the gardener doesn’t go to the root of the problem, the weed will grow back, just like sin.

We can remove the visible signs of sin from our lives and feel wonderful and suddenly one day we look at our life and realize that we’ve fallen into the same sin again and wonder why it is so hard to get rid of sin. It is because sin has roots.

While gardeners universally dislike weeds, it is ignorant to think that all weeds should be removed or treated the same way. Also, it is good to remember that some weeds are harder to remove than others. See how much like sin a weed is?

Some weeds like dandelions grow with a taproot. The taproot is a long strong root that goes deeply into the ground and brings up the nutrients it needs to survive from the deep. If the gardener wants to eradicate the plant, he must get the entire root out. If he doesn’t remove the entire root the remaining piece will send up a new plant and continue to flourish. So a gardener must dig deep to get every bit of the root out.

Some sins are like that. The root is deeply embedded in our lives. They reach all the way to the center of our soul so to speak and if we want to get rid of the sin we have to get every scrap of the root out of the soul. While it is hard to dig that deeply into our lives to eradicate a deeply rooted sin – the result is rewarding. If the root is completely gone so is the sin.

Some grassy weeds have spreading root systems that run along under the surface of the earth allowing the weed to pop up again several inches or even feet away. Again the gardener must pull out all the roots. If any roots remain the weed will send up a plant and flourish. However, rather than digging down to get all the root, the gardener needs to follow the root below the surface and if it breaks, he must find it again and continue to remove it.

Some sins are like these weeds with invasive root systems. The sin may not be deep but it doesn’t exist in just one part of our life. It might have started out as a small lie but as the lie grows so does the underground root system supporting it. To eradicate the sin, every little bit of that lie in all the parts of your life that have a root of it in them must be examined and the roots removed.

Still it is tempting to just cut the weed off at the ground – because after all if you can’t see the weeds the garden looks great. However, it is very unwise. The longer those roots stay in the ground the more they spread and you have to keep cutting them off to keep the garden looking good. Every new growing season will bring more weeds spreading underground and choking out the flowers and the vegetables. Eventually, you won’t be able to hide the weeds that are killing your garden. Sounds a lot like secret sins.

A lazy gardener might be tempted to let the weeds grow. Foolish man. The weeds can then go to seed and spread even more rapidly through the garden. I won’t even begin to tell you all the ways seeds spread and how hard it is to kill a seed. If the weeds in the garden are left to go to seed, it takes drastic measures to clean the soil. Often gardeners resort to harsh chemicals to kill everything so that they can start fresh. Can you imagine the agony you introduce to your life if you let sin go so out of control?

The parable of the sower and the seed was about the spreading of the gospel but the images of what weeds can do is a good reminder to the believer to tend to his own weeds lest the faith and fruit in his life be choked out.

rambling

I just finished Laura Ingalls Wilder: Farm Journalist. Some of it was fascinating and some of it was boring. It shed a lot of light on the character of the woman. These quotes are particularly insightful and very relevant today.

"Tho we do not have the advantages of travel, we stay-at-homes may acquire a culture of the heart which is almost impossible in the rush and roar of cities."(November 20, 1919)

"Why should we need extra time in which to enjoy ourselves? If we expect to enjoy our life we will have to learn to be joyful in all of it, not just at stated intervals, when we can get time or when we have nothing else to do." (January 5, 1920)

"To simplify our lives as much as possible, to overcome that feeling of haste by remembering that there are just as many hours in the day as ever, and that there is time enough for the things that matter if it is rightly used.

Then, having done the most we may here, when we reach the limit of time we will sail over the horizon rim to new beauties and greater understanding." (January 1, 1924).



Last weekend, one of Light's school friends had her birthday at Eveland Farms (the place we go for pumpkins every year). It was a pleasant day and me and the girls (siblings were welcome) had a nice time.




My apologies to my dear friends here in blogland. I am trying to focus on the essentials and as much as I love the world out here on the computer. Reality is more important.



It was very springish when we visited the farm. Everything that was male from pigs to donkeys and from horses to turkeys and even the peacock shared their glorious (or not so glorious) masculinity with the world.

The Liberty of Obedience - Elisabeth Elliot

The Scripture means two things by the expression, "the world." First, and most simply, it means all that is temporal. Second, and by implication it means all those who are occupied solely with the temporal. The first category comprises things; the second, people.

...

All inanimate objects are worldly. They will pass away.

...

Things are not incompatible with Christ. They are all 'worldly,' in the simplest sense - they are for this world. They are not sinful for this reasons. Only human beings my be sinful, or 'worldly' in the most precise interpretation of that world.

It is not what goes into the man that defiles him. It is what comes out. It is our use of things that determine their effect on us. It is our response to events, not the events themselves, that shapes us.

...

We have said that all things are worldly, that the Scripture does not therefore call them sinful. We refer to inanimate objects. We do have some lists, however, in Colossians and James of worldly things that are condemned. Let us be very careful to note that these are not material things - they are characteristics of people, that is, they are specific sins. We are to put to death these worldly (or 'earthly') things, since we have been raised from the dead with Christ Himself, and we no longer have any business with immorality, impurity, evil desire, covetousness, anger, malice, slander, foul talk, lying....These spring from a desire for 'things' that the world can provide, such as acclaim and status. God's wisdom, on the other hand,is characterized by purity, peace, gentleness, approachability, tolerance, kindly actions, impartiality, sincerity.

of mirrors, telescopes, and God

For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 1 Corinthians 13:12

There are two main types of telescopes, reflectors and refractors.

Refracting telescopes focus the light through a lens that bends the light and directs it to a focal point for viewing. One primary problem with refracting scopes is that the bending of light can cause the images to be unclear if the lens is not well calibrated.

Reflecting telescopes gather light with a mirror, reflecting it before directing it to the eyepiece. The more light the mirror can grab the better the astronomer is able to see what they are trying to observe.

Why I Am Going To Expound On Mirrors And Telescopes

Jesus said: “"I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." John 8:12


As sinners, we live in darkness and so we need to grab all the light we can get. Fortunately, God made that easy. IF we abide in God through prayer and study of His Word we will be immersed in the light that can only be found in the Word made flesh.


It is amazing how often I forget how easy it is to fill my life with light. I forget to spend time in the Word or neglect my prayers and soon I stumble in the dark.

John Herschel, astronomer and son of the brilliant William Herschel, once observed “In the midst of so much darkness, we ought to open our eyes as wide as possible to any glimpse of light, and utilize whatever twilight may be accorded us, to make out, though but indistinctly, the forms that surround us.” (177)

Reflecting the Light

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it. Edith Wharton


But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:18

But this is not so easy as it sounds. The history of mirror making is long and for hundreds and thousands of years, people have put up with imperfect images of what they look like. Today, we are more fortunate. We live in a world where beautiful, useful, and even precision mirrors exist.

Pendergrast, author of Mirror Mirror describes looking into the mirror of a giant telescope “they could gaze directly down into the mirror where the stars swam—pollen in a celestial fishpond.” (245)

Imagine seeing the heavens reflected in such glory. Imagine reflecting God so beautifully.


The telescope at the Palomar mountain observatory is a reflector. For decades, it was the premier telescope in the world, in fact, one astrophysicist suggested that people didn’t think another mirror of that quality was possible and seemed to believe that the 200 inch mirror that is the heart of the telescope was ‘produced by wizards and elves and set down on this earth.” (293)

The feeling that there was something almost mystical in the production of the Palomar mountain mirror is not surprising. It took 11 years of polishing to create the mirror, which many astronomers considered perfect. During the process 10,000 pounds of glass were removed including the top two inches of surface so that the imperfections of "scar tissue" were removed.

When considering the work it took to make the nearly perfect mirror for Palomar mountain, one learns a lesson. We have ready access to the light, but often learning how to reflect it is grueling and painful.

In Isaiah, when God talks of restoring Israel He says “And I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take away all thy tin.” The removal of dross means be submitted to the fire and having the impurities removed.


We cannot properly reflect the glory of God until the impurities are removed and how sad our life would be if we are unwilling to be purified so that we can be used to reflect God’s glory. Tennyson writes “How dull it is to pause, to make an end, / to rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use."

I AM an instrument for His use; perhaps to bear burdens, as of pain, sorrow, or shame; perhaps to convey messages, writing, speaking, conversing; perhaps simply to reflect light, showing His mind in the commonest of all daily rounds. In only one way can I truly do anything of these; in the way of inner harmony with Him, and peace and joy in Him. Moule

At the end of the book Mirror Mirror Pendergrast writes, “Mirrors should inspire terror, wonder, and comprehension.” Obviously, Pendergrast finds mirrors awesome. So too, we should find God awesome.



Pendergrast, Mark. Mirror Mirror: A History of the Human Love Affair with Reflection. Basic Books. New York. 2003. ISBN 0-465-05470-6

one criteria

I've been busily collecting information and arguments.

I realized today that there is only one criteria for this decision or any other decision.

Is it God's will?

I have to remember that if it is His will for the upcoming season - it will not necessarily be His will in the following season.

The problem with being human is I want to make a decision that creates a long-term plan that I can walk in for the next ten years.

God doesn't work that way.

I can't help wondering what this world would be like if we all decided to agree with God and only did His will. I imagine we wouldn't recognize this planet.

I suppose that is what the second coming is all about.

vulnerability

Last week while on our walk, the girls found this baby mouse. We had tremendous storms the night before and I imagine that this baby probably fell off Mama’s back and wasn’t noticed during her panic. My first response was to tell the girls not to touch him. Rats and mice do carry diseases, right? Then, since I am every bit as curious as my girls I squatted down to take a closer look.


Sometimes, he would curl up in a fetal position, sometimes he would stretch, and often he would scratch. He didn’t seem to know that he was vulnerable. He had no idea that he was laying on rock, a stone’s throw from swiftly running water, under a railroad trestle. As I watched him stretch and scratch and grimace I thought how much like a human infant he was – his Mama would have thought he was adorable if she had the intellectual abilities that humans have. (And so I tried to take pictures of him that a Mama mouse would love to hang on her den wall).


I thought I would like to try to help him. However, I realized that to a creature as small as he was we would be terrifyingly immense, assuming the poor creature could even comprehend us. I also realized that I wouldn’t have the faintest idea how to help the poor creature. Somehow, I began to see a lot of our relationship with God in the poor creature’s oblivious vulnerability.


If God had peers, I am sure they would wonder why He wastes his time on such ugly, blind, weak creatures as us. And if we could truly comprehend Him we would be terrified. Yet He knows how to help us. He cradles us gently, comforts us, teaches us about our vulnerability and then tells us we are safe. And we know we are safe because God, took the time to love and care for ugly, blind, weak creatures. He showed us what we are but then tells us its okay, I will help you and care for you, if you will simply ask.

leaving a mark

Marks. There are many sorts of marks made on life by us and by us by life. Some are eloquent writings by the hands of those gifted by God, some are beautiful paintings by masterful hands, still others are notes that drop out of the inspired soul to cheer us all. Others are mud pies for the dog, scribbles on scraps of papers that must be cherished, tangled threads that someone tells you is a scarf. And don’t forget the scars, the burns, and the breaks.

Soft and vulnerable as we are, we will not exit life unmarked. Yet soft and vulnerable as we are, we all want to leave our mark. My children do – they make drawings, yes they do draw real pictures. But sometimes, I ask what is it? And I am told in an off-handed remark “Oh, just a scribble.” The fear of leaving life unremarked seems inherit in that statement.

Don’t you too find yourself doing things gratuitously, with the hope that someone will notice or that somehow what you did will last; that you will have left your mark?

What if we put our lives in God’s hands and let Him shape us and mark us? And once there, what if we let Him guide our markings = what if we took ourselves out of the equation and let it be His words, His art, His music? I bet it would hurt. We are soft and we have allowed ourselves to be marked by things we should not have ventured near. We are vulnerable and we are not what we ought to be. He would have to pound out all the marks and reshape us. It would hurt. It would be beautiful.

a gift of great value

On certain days, I am moving along nicely. Doing the things that ought to be done. Doing things that are nice to do. Doing. And then I suddenly hit a hollow spot; it is as if I pushed through the invisible bubble that is the edge of a black hole’s event horizon. I am suddenly suspended in a place where I float in a certain knowledge that it is all meaningless. It is an ugly place because I am stuck on that horizon sucked in that awful suspension of time and meaning with not the strength to resist its gravity.

My reaction is to push. To push into a manic mode of moving – doing – activity – trying to withdraw emotionally from that edge. I am not pleasant to live with me when stuck on that even horizon because I am directionless and preoccupied. My focus gone; I don’t sit still. And that is when the existentialist reality seems plausible. I am just a rat running circles on a wheel in that empty cage – it means little unless I want it too.

Do you see the before and after theme? Summed up in one word: doing. My life defines doing as the activity of pushing against rest, which can be interpreted a movement against the simplest state of being. I am not much into being – my strength is in doing.

I am glad the Bible isn’t all about being. I might find myself on the other side of the door so busy doing that I never hear the knock that invites me to be His. I am glad He invites, even commands us into the work of doing His will. But sometimes I am so busy doing the right things; the things that ought to be done that I forget to sit as His feet like Mary to listen and to be.

Mary offered Him a gift of great value – she broke that bottle of perfume and she anointed Him. Is there any anointing in my doing? I am sitting at His feet? Am I listening? Today our minister talked of what our gifts of great value might be. In some things he said, I found a bit of myself but I am not sure. Perhaps, like Mary, I need to spend more time at His feet listening. Perhaps after I’ve filled myself with Him, I will discover what my gift of great value will be.

darkness and light

I am putting this out there without even thinking it through because it struck me as fascinating. This afternoon around lunch the girls were getting their 'weekend television allotment (we do not allow them tv during the week). They were watching 'Toy Story 2." C made much of the bright sun in the space. (Her comment makes little sense if you haven't seen the beginning of the movie where there is a Buzz Lightyear video game being played. However, I wanted to credit her as the source of this enlightenment (ahahaha).)

For some reason, her comment struck me and I realized that when we see images of the sun from/in space we see a ball of light surrounded by darkness. The wattage of the sun has no impact in the vastness of darkness that is space. The light of the sun must hit something or be approached closely (relative to the hugeness of space) in order for the light to be realized.

I suppose faith works that way. Our faith doesn't matter unless we live it in a way that it's light hits something or more importantly - someone. It is especially important since we aren't the source (what a pitifully weak even non-existent source we would be) but rather we are the reflection of or the lens through which something more powerful than a million of our suns is given this world

What is most fascinating is the vastness of space. It is boggling to consider the light of something with as much wattage of the sun being lost. I wonder if we would act differently if we saw sin that way?

Fascinating isn't it? Consider that God could light it all if He chose to. Yet He asks us to walk out with our little flashlights pointing the way to others. Saying "See how dark it is out here in sin? Follow me and I will show the source of light." Do you think He wants us to appreciate what He is saving us from?

learning

My oldest C is five. She knows her phonics very, very well. She knows the sounds of all letters inculding both the long and short sounds of vowels. She understands silent e. She understands blends. She knows which vowel is audible when she sees two together. She can't read. It isn't a huge thing to me except that I do remember feeling a bit stupid when I was young. The second issue is that early reading is exceedingly important to the in-laws. Try as I might I succumb to their kind of pressure. The reason C knows her phonics is due to the Leap Frog Phonics videos which my MIL insisted on. We've had them for a year. I have to admit they are very good. K knows most of her primary letter sounds now.

The upshot of this is that while my MIL was here we got some 'whole language' reading videos. I sat down on Tuesday and watched them with the girls wondering if something would click for C. It didn't until I held up a book that used the word baby on the cover and stopped the video at the word baby (which she was already beginning to recognize) and pointed to the word on the book and asked her what it was. I saw something dawn on her face.

I find it amazing that all the reading I've done with her over the past five years, the fact that she loves to write words and notes if we spell things out for her, and her strong 'factual' knowledge of phonics hasn't gotten her to this point and yet in some way, it didn't entirely surprise me.

So, yesterday, I did some research on whole language and found a bit that intrigued me. It said that children who were global learners had a hard time learning to read with phonics and often succeeded with whole language. There was a teeny definition of 'global learners' that intrigued me. It sounded like C.

Hubby and I have already decided that C thinks like my Dad and I. We wondered how we would help teachers understand her. Suddenly, I realized I found the key. It was ironic because I had tried to research learning styles and had not come across global learning - and now suddenly, I found it.

And, while I am relieved to know that I can help Charis through this. I am also relieved to understand why learning worked the way it did for me. I must confess that over the years, my Father and I have talked about it and my Dad is very much more global than I am. I am a bit more flexible and having been gifted with his mother's memory and therefore was able to do okay with the factual stuff even though (as I have often told my husband) the factual details don't often matter to me.

So at the chance that some of you might fit into the fifteen percent of the population who thinks in this way (and find this a novel piece of news and not old hat) - here are some excerpts I've clipped from here and there that particularly resonate with my father and I and made my analytical sequential husband laugh in recognition.

Global learners tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly "getting it."
Global learners may be able to solve complex problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.
Global learners may miss a few trees, but they know a good forest when they see one! They organize by clustering information into wholes with broad, sweeping strokes. Global learners focus on the larger ideas leaving the details to others. To many, global thinkers can appear disorganized because of their disregard for and/or impatience with minutiae and their willingness to jump between ideas in random ways. Global learners tend to bend rules—including schedules and deadlines—to fit what they see as a greater purpose. Such spontaneity can lead to creativity—or chaos.

Global learners tend to learn in large jumps, absorbing material almost randomly without seeing connections, and then suddenly "getting it."

Global learners may be able to solve complex problems quickly or put things together in novel ways once they have grasped the big picture, but they may have difficulty explaining how they did it.

community

Today at Bible study, the question was asked when do you most often hear God. There was a chorus of the usual response of quiet time and prayer. I can honestly say that is not when I generally have the things in my life fit together and click in a way that I know is God speaking to me. I hear God when my mindset is right and it is usually when I am doing something routine and letting my mind go where it wants rather than directing it down the usual avenues of planning or worrying. He speaks in those times when I am focused on the task at hand and on doing what I am doing and not thinking about the next thing. Then my mind has room for Him to bang the thoughts into shape so that all the stuff He has been feeding me comes together. Sometimes he gives me the whole story and sometimes only part but it is always light - light when it clicks on because I let Him flip the switch on what He has been doing.

So what has this to do with community? Only that today, I cleared the drive. It is one of my favorite 'quiet' things to do. Somehow, when I clear the drive, I find myself absorbed in the rhythm of the activity and soon stop traveling down the well-worn paths and find myself wandering. And my mind started collecting some thoughts on community from here and here and here mixed in with other random observations, comments and snippets read that I can't even identify at the moment. (BTW reading the three blog posts I linked to are very worthwhile - take the time - they are good).

And so my mind wandered around thoughts of community - virtual and real. Secular and the church. I thought about my own personal sense of disconnect in the world and how I feel more connected to many people in this virtual land I visit. In part, I know that my feeling of connectedness is because I feel my interests and thought patterns connect more easily with certain people I meet out there than anyone I find around here.

Then I considered the 'old-fashioned' simple community that is lamented by so many in this world and suddenly something clicked. That old fashioned community existed because of a commonality's of life and interests. People generally lived in proximity and in smaller towns and villages compared to the way most people live today. But more importantly, somehow their interests ran in the same direction. And they knew everything about you - who your family was, where you went to school, how well you did in school. I know that today people resent being known in that way but...I am not sure how to say this so that it makes sense but I think the reason local communities feel as if they fail and virtual communities seem to thrive has to do with the individualism of this world.

Could it be that the idea of individualism has so pervaded even the lives of Christians that we feel an overwhelming need to build our community with like-minded 'individuals' rather than with the people who share the same space with us. My virtual friends tend to help me feel that I am not so much an alien as I think I am. But whose fault is that? Did I press too hard for my own 'identity' at the cost of the community that shaped me?

Of course, we move constantly too. I am no longer anywhere close in proximity to the geographical community that nurtured me as a child. But is not that movement of our nation from place to place born from a desire to find something that meets your perceived needs rather than 'blooming' where you are planted? We have no roots because we are rugged individuals too busy to put down roots or grow moss or find out the truth about where we are at...

God hasn't given me the whole story on this one yet and I am not sure I should have written about it so soon - only the click and the subsequent light almost knocked me over. Suddenly that dark corner over there seemed more approachable - the cockroaches scattered and I felt that maybe I understood something.

That said.

I believe in internet communities. I really do. I have dear friends who I talk to on the phone with and exchange gifts with. They are real. And you know those who knock this community forget about the letter writers of the past - people who had pen pals - and the habit of many to write letters and journals daily and for substantial amounts of time. It is a new world and this is the place where certain communities are moving too.

Do these communities conflict? No. I don't think so. I think that the local community is essential. I know so - every Sunday when I sing and look around my church and see people whose lives have touched mine - even in small ways. Maybe they don't have an interest in photography, or poetry, or books or such stuff...but they thought to ask about my MIL or they wanted to know about my husband's eye. Or they just visited about the little inconsequentials that make up daily life. I feel like they are my family and that someday - in heaven I will have the time to get to know them all and the image of Christ they show to me and the world.

I think that those of us in this world who connect across large amounts of space, culture, and time have an essential community - one that reminds the world and ourselves that we are all the same in the end - we all have imprinted on us the stamp of our Creator. We need to know people outside of our local community in order to see this and to know this is a small world and that He holds it all in His hands.

This post wanders - it doesn't conclude - much like my life.

Get over it. :)

prisms

Jesus is light. Agreed?

Light is generally perceived as white although there are many colors of light.

I often pray that I could be transparent so that God can be seen through me. I don't want my ego or some form of false humility to get in the way. (Of course, these thoughts only win out in my 'purest' moments which are rare).

Sin and the fact that I am not whole - smudges my glass over with the fingerprints of self. The light shining through me will never shine through the murkiness of me perfectly.

I am only part of God's image just as you are. Only through the totality of the Body can the Church can even come close to the full spectrum of light that is Christ. So perhaps we can imagine our unique talents and gifts as angles in the prism - we are here to spread certain colors of light so that when we unite with the body and are perfected in Christ - the Church becomes a beacon shining on the hill.

unfinished business

I read a lot about people's unfinished objects or UFO's. And yesterday, I found one of mine. I don't have many - I try to avoid that situation. I have lots of materials for objects I've never started but few incomplete ones that are abandoned or forgotten (at least I think I remember them). I was aggravated. I like things in neat tidy packages - done and organized.

Life doesn't work that way. I'm a WIP, she's a WIP wouldn't you like to be a WIP too? We are all works in progress...and I guess if we were done life would be very, very boring.

traveling

How often do you fly against icy winds - precariously balanced on thin ice? Living on the edge?


How often do you stand questioning a doorway that seems to lead nowhere?


How often does the trail lead to places barred against you?


How often do you rest your head on a stone and sleep beneath a broken roof - open to the heavens?

your light has come upon you

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you.
For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.
Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. Isaiah 60:1-3 and 5

May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
In his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more. Psalm 72: 3-7

I have no deep meditative thoughts on these verses. I only want to share the gladness the blessings give me. There is a richness in them that fills my soul with that deep joy that actually makes me want to sit and enjoy them rather than run off and shout and yell or otherwise do something about them. I am not good at sitting still - so the pleasure is immense. I want to enjoy the 'abundance of the sea' today.

The wildness of the sea and the mast of the ship in this painting by Albert Bierstadt (The Shore of the Turquoise Sea) highlights to me that seeking those gifts for ourselves is asking to be shipwrecked. We can only enjoy them when we allow God to gift them to us.

in the middle of God's will

Our New Year's service on Sunday was more beautiful than our Christmas Eve Service the previous Sunday. To share a sanctuary with the body of Christ - people whose love and desire to do God's will in the New Year is almost tangible - can only fill one's soul with joy and good will.

During corporate prayer, the elder who prayed asked God that we "be in the middle of His will for not to be in the middle of His will is to sin."

It is a prayer that I often whisper in various subtle versions because part of me wants it but part of me is scared of it. In the end though, when I look at what I truly and deeply want to change in my life it is the desire to be 'in God's will" and to love "God with all my heart, soul, strength, and mind and love my neighbor as myself."

They go hand in hand, I think.

More love to Thee, O Christ, more love to Thee!
Hear Thou the prayer I make on bended knee.
This is my earnest plea: More love, O Christ, to Thee;
More love to Thee, more love to Thee!

living wholly

I think that 'living wholly' might be the same as balance. But I like it better. Balance implies dropping things and adding things until the scales even out. I want to live my life as wholly me and wholly God's - God made me a passionate person with a variety of interests - so it is up to me to use my gifts in a way that is a completion of who I am. I don't think I have the right to discard them. The things I drop should be things that aren't of me to begin with things added on from the outside that aren't part of what God made me. If so, living wholly would be about entering more fully into my relationship with Christ...it sounds simple...I doubt if it is.

Do you live wholly?

why I love photography

Beauty deprived of its proper foils and adjuncts ceases to be enjoyed as beauty, just as light deprived of all shadows ceases to be enjoyed as light. John Ruskin