I have only time for a quickie post before heading back to the kitchen. My house is so clean, even the ceilings have been washed due mostly to an attempt to clean the dust above the fan and finding that the ceiling was a whole new color forcing me, actually, to do the whole thing. Yesterday I made THREE pans of lasagna in prep for Christmas day, and now I just have some tail end baking and last minute house arranging to do. I should be able to enjoy tomorrow with a Mary and not a Martha heart. I'm looking forward to going to Christmas Eve service tonight so my heart will be prepared as well as my house!
Trans-Siberian Orchestra & Lara Parent
Last night we went to the performance at Van Andel. I enjoyed it so much more than I thought I would. The first part was especially nice with the story and many traditional, though rev'd up Christmas hymns. The second part was also good, but I love stories and music, and the combination in the first half was a winner for me.
I got a bit distracted by the violinist with her sleek black leggings and boot combo with about 4 inch heels. She ran to and fro across the stage with her black and pink violin and contorted her body into positions I never could do, all the while playing her violin. She reminded me of Lara Parent on coffee. Yes, I could see Lara running around the stage, flipping her hair around, but instead of a violin, she would have books in her hands. I can just imagine Lara screaming to the crowd - read, read, read, while the flames leaped up and the lights flashed and she pulled children from the audience and gave them books of all kinds. I really think it could be done. What would you call a concert about books, and igniting passion for reading? The Bodacious Book Tour? The Radical Reading Rocker? Kudos to Lara this Christmas for doing ths every day with the kids at East K8. Check out their work and find some good book picks at The Happy Reader.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Learning to Trust
This week I've been drowning in numbers. Ugh! I get to a point where I could just scream. I'm really not a numbers person - come on, I'm a reading person. I'm a social person. But numbers . . . wish I could do without them.
It's like trust in a way. I'm not naturally a trusting person. I'm a person who likes to know what life is bringing at them, not just today, but tomorrow and the day after that too. Some years are perfect for a person like me, there's a nice flow to family life, financial life, spiritual life. But, I have to say, most years are a little too bumpy for me. I actually, could very easily learn to do without them. However, if I could really learn to relax and lean into Jesus during those bumpy years, well, I think it would make all the difference don't you? Today's Christ of Christmas prayer was to "learn the art of walking by faith, even when it seems Your promises are delayed. Make trust the appetizer to every feast of Your abundance." Wouldn't my life look different if I could learn this art?
I think when I do learn to do this, (and, I must confess, those bumpy years do push me into learning faith), then maybe I will look as though I am wearing that "glistening garment of God" all around me and that the smile of God will shine through me on the companions God puts in my path every day. Instead of seeing "Grizzly Barb", maybe they will see a wholly different person. I am hopeful that Grizzly Barb doesn't show herself very often, but I know she is always lurking in the background!!
It's like trust in a way. I'm not naturally a trusting person. I'm a person who likes to know what life is bringing at them, not just today, but tomorrow and the day after that too. Some years are perfect for a person like me, there's a nice flow to family life, financial life, spiritual life. But, I have to say, most years are a little too bumpy for me. I actually, could very easily learn to do without them. However, if I could really learn to relax and lean into Jesus during those bumpy years, well, I think it would make all the difference don't you? Today's Christ of Christmas prayer was to "learn the art of walking by faith, even when it seems Your promises are delayed. Make trust the appetizer to every feast of Your abundance." Wouldn't my life look different if I could learn this art?
I think when I do learn to do this, (and, I must confess, those bumpy years do push me into learning faith), then maybe I will look as though I am wearing that "glistening garment of God" all around me and that the smile of God will shine through me on the companions God puts in my path every day. Instead of seeing "Grizzly Barb", maybe they will see a wholly different person. I am hopeful that Grizzly Barb doesn't show herself very often, but I know she is always lurking in the background!!
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Random Thoughts
My brain is on a ramble, jumping from one thought to the next so don't expect this post to have much flow, or maybe even sense!
On Remodeling
Why do we do this to ourselves anyway. It's our turn for Christmas so my husband decided we needed to paint the bath. This made me somewhat crabby, cuz that really means you are down to 1 bathroom for at least a week, if not longer. One shower and 3 people disrupts my routine, and really, I am not a person who does well with disrupted routines. However, I agreed, and then we just went crazy. Now we have painted walls (one a burnt orange color), new floor, new toilet (It can flush a whole bucket of golf balls - amazing), new sink/faucets, new lights. A new tub was not in our budget, otherwise we would have that too. I have vowed to never paint again - what a pain (literally and figuratively). Since my husband did the floor, that led to free time for me to watch . . .
The Lord of the Rings
I really love this movie (I'd love it even if Viggo Mortenson wasn't in it). Although I had to watch in spurts (had to check up on that flooring), I still found plenty to ponder and enjoy. One thought that struck me was about the dwarf. It just popped into my head that the disciple Peter must have been like the dwarf - carried away by passion and fealty (isn't that a good word - one of the meanings is intense fidelity, which means the quality or state of being faithful) to fight for the cause, in this case saving middle earth. Then I was struck by "middle earth", okay if you think of heaven as being above, and hell as being below - hey, we're IN middle earth! I think of Peter's impulse to fight for Jesus and how he cut off the soldier's ear - to me, that's like the dwarf. Then I thought of the dwarf telling Lord Aragorn to "toss him" during the seige, and I thought, isn't that sort of like what being a Christian is about. In a sense when we believe in God, we have to say "toss me" and trust Him to use us where we land. We land in the fray of life, and really we are fighting to show the light that is Him in us, and, isn't it just hard sometimes, which leads to . . .
Christmas
Ahhh, now is the season of Advent, the time to celebrate the real light coming into this dark world. We only have to look a short ways to see that the darkness enroaches all around us. I have this wonderful devotion book for Advent by Calvin Miller: The Christ of Christmas. On day 1 (yesterday), he reminded us that we, like John, have been born to bear witness to that Light. Now is our time to point to Jesus and say "Jesus is the light of the world". I love that Miller reminds us that we cannot coerce people to to accept this truth, he says "God will never hold us accountable for being ineffective in pointing the way, but He will hold us accountable for our cowardly silences." Ouch!
Today, the meditation was on the glory we behold in Christ "the light of grace and truth". He says "Glory is the glistening garment of God--a garment that He is all too eager to throw around us, to welcome us into His everlasting light." He says "grace is the unmerited smile of God. If glory is our dance with God, grace is the ballroom--wide and free . . . not a tiny little dance with thin music and stingy steps . . . it is set to the open steps of elation. Grace saves with celestial music and redeems us, with Christ as our life partner." Then he reminds us that Jesus is truth "the mortar that binds grace and glory together . . . Jesus is never out of love with those for whom he died." What great words to start the day with!!
On Remodeling
Why do we do this to ourselves anyway. It's our turn for Christmas so my husband decided we needed to paint the bath. This made me somewhat crabby, cuz that really means you are down to 1 bathroom for at least a week, if not longer. One shower and 3 people disrupts my routine, and really, I am not a person who does well with disrupted routines. However, I agreed, and then we just went crazy. Now we have painted walls (one a burnt orange color), new floor, new toilet (It can flush a whole bucket of golf balls - amazing), new sink/faucets, new lights. A new tub was not in our budget, otherwise we would have that too. I have vowed to never paint again - what a pain (literally and figuratively). Since my husband did the floor, that led to free time for me to watch . . .
The Lord of the Rings
I really love this movie (I'd love it even if Viggo Mortenson wasn't in it). Although I had to watch in spurts (had to check up on that flooring), I still found plenty to ponder and enjoy. One thought that struck me was about the dwarf. It just popped into my head that the disciple Peter must have been like the dwarf - carried away by passion and fealty (isn't that a good word - one of the meanings is intense fidelity, which means the quality or state of being faithful) to fight for the cause, in this case saving middle earth. Then I was struck by "middle earth", okay if you think of heaven as being above, and hell as being below - hey, we're IN middle earth! I think of Peter's impulse to fight for Jesus and how he cut off the soldier's ear - to me, that's like the dwarf. Then I thought of the dwarf telling Lord Aragorn to "toss him" during the seige, and I thought, isn't that sort of like what being a Christian is about. In a sense when we believe in God, we have to say "toss me" and trust Him to use us where we land. We land in the fray of life, and really we are fighting to show the light that is Him in us, and, isn't it just hard sometimes, which leads to . . .
Christmas
Ahhh, now is the season of Advent, the time to celebrate the real light coming into this dark world. We only have to look a short ways to see that the darkness enroaches all around us. I have this wonderful devotion book for Advent by Calvin Miller: The Christ of Christmas. On day 1 (yesterday), he reminded us that we, like John, have been born to bear witness to that Light. Now is our time to point to Jesus and say "Jesus is the light of the world". I love that Miller reminds us that we cannot coerce people to to accept this truth, he says "God will never hold us accountable for being ineffective in pointing the way, but He will hold us accountable for our cowardly silences." Ouch!
Today, the meditation was on the glory we behold in Christ "the light of grace and truth". He says "Glory is the glistening garment of God--a garment that He is all too eager to throw around us, to welcome us into His everlasting light." He says "grace is the unmerited smile of God. If glory is our dance with God, grace is the ballroom--wide and free . . . not a tiny little dance with thin music and stingy steps . . . it is set to the open steps of elation. Grace saves with celestial music and redeems us, with Christ as our life partner." Then he reminds us that Jesus is truth "the mortar that binds grace and glory together . . . Jesus is never out of love with those for whom he died." What great words to start the day with!!
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