Well this is me sharing...although you may not want to follow suit - I thought you would want a chance to admire our fine work. Although I can't take much of the credit Gabe and Eliana did most of the original artwork. :)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Crafting Genius
So I thought I would inspire you all with my crafting genius. The holiday season is when crafters come out of the closet and paste their beautiful creations around their homes and share them with friends and family.
Well this is me sharing...although you may not want to follow suit - I thought you would want a chance to admire our fine work. Although I can't take much of the credit Gabe and Eliana did most of the original artwork. :)
Well this is me sharing...although you may not want to follow suit - I thought you would want a chance to admire our fine work. Although I can't take much of the credit Gabe and Eliana did most of the original artwork. :)
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Morning Devotional...
Well after my long absence from blogging I am apparently making my comeback with a rather personal reflection but it is God's work that I know that He is working out in more than just my life. So welcome to my morning devotional. Tomorrow morning I will be sharing this at the staff meeting at my school - I covet your prayers in this.
I don't now about you but there are seasons in life, or perhaps it is just a fact of life, that is full of sorrow as well as joy. I so loved Linda's reminder last week about counting our blessings and keeping our eyes on God's goodness and faithfulness in the big and small things. With that very premise in mind I wanted to take a peak at a slightly different angle of this - being able to see God's goodness and faithfulness even in the midst of our own pain and suffering.
Obviously in our communities right now we feel the weight of sin - the overwhelming sorrow of loss and I know in a much less dramatic circumstances I have sometimes found myself equally disillusioned by what I have perceived was a lack of God's goodness. I have been reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Anne Voskamp and I wanted to share the quotes that struck me so profoundly that I felt that gut wrenching guilt because I knew her honest voice was echoing the voice in my heart.
Ann relates the beginning of her journey of living a life of thanksgiving by sharing her honest feelings about trusting God - even as a Christian
"Is this the toxic air of the world, this atmosphere we inhale, burning into our lungs, this -No, God? No, God, we won't take what You give. No, God, Your plans are a gutted bleeding mess and I didn't sign up for this and You really thought I'd go for this? No, God, this is ugly and this is a mess and can't you get anything right and just haul all this pain out of here and I'll take it from here, thanks. And God? Thanks for nothing. Isn't this the human inheritance, the legacy of the Garden?
I wake and put the feet to the plank floors, and I believe the Serpent's hissing lie, the repeating refrain of his campaign through the ages: God isn't good. It's the cornerstone of his movement. That God withholds good from His children, that God does not genuinely, fully, love us."
For me this lie has whispered in the back of my mind. Through the past couple years I have especially felt myself giving way before this lie. A Good, Sovereign, God who does nothing, while I watch those close to me loose husbands and children - mothers and fathers. While I watch personal injustices go unaccounted for - the widow taken advantage of, the fatherless cast aside. I have felt my heart scream as Anne screams. I just never had the courage to say it aloud. I felt as if I was one before the firing line and the suffering continually hit closer and closer to home. I was afraid if I spoke out against the one with gun the wound would be more than I could bear. But I continued to read...and God continued to speak to my scared broken heart and bring more revelation.
Again I rob another's words that so adequately capture the hope in it all.
"If the rent in the canvas of our life backdrop, the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness, might actually become places to see.
To See through to God.
That which tears open our souls, those holes that splatter our sight, may actually become the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to the heart-aching beauty beyond. To Him. To the God whom we endlessly crave."
When we can step back from ourselves, like Linda reminded us last week, we can catch a glimpse of an Eternal God. Who sees the grand tapestry and not the tangled thread. When I step back and take a moment to recognize who I am accusing - I am appropriately reminded "Who am I?" Who am I to know the mind and plans of Almighty God.
So what then?
Even as lately as this past Sunday I was reminded that I need to hold up my shield of faith to protect my heart and mind from the lies of the enemy and that I need to soak myself in the truth of God's word and in who He says he is. To remember that His grace is sufficient, that He loves with an everlasting love, that He is Good, That He is God. In the midst of chaos and sadness - injustice and sorrow. He is still God and He still wants to open our eyes to His goodness.
I don't now about you but there are seasons in life, or perhaps it is just a fact of life, that is full of sorrow as well as joy. I so loved Linda's reminder last week about counting our blessings and keeping our eyes on God's goodness and faithfulness in the big and small things. With that very premise in mind I wanted to take a peak at a slightly different angle of this - being able to see God's goodness and faithfulness even in the midst of our own pain and suffering.
Obviously in our communities right now we feel the weight of sin - the overwhelming sorrow of loss and I know in a much less dramatic circumstances I have sometimes found myself equally disillusioned by what I have perceived was a lack of God's goodness. I have been reading "One Thousand Gifts" by Anne Voskamp and I wanted to share the quotes that struck me so profoundly that I felt that gut wrenching guilt because I knew her honest voice was echoing the voice in my heart.
Ann relates the beginning of her journey of living a life of thanksgiving by sharing her honest feelings about trusting God - even as a Christian
"Is this the toxic air of the world, this atmosphere we inhale, burning into our lungs, this -No, God? No, God, we won't take what You give. No, God, Your plans are a gutted bleeding mess and I didn't sign up for this and You really thought I'd go for this? No, God, this is ugly and this is a mess and can't you get anything right and just haul all this pain out of here and I'll take it from here, thanks. And God? Thanks for nothing. Isn't this the human inheritance, the legacy of the Garden?
I wake and put the feet to the plank floors, and I believe the Serpent's hissing lie, the repeating refrain of his campaign through the ages: God isn't good. It's the cornerstone of his movement. That God withholds good from His children, that God does not genuinely, fully, love us."
For me this lie has whispered in the back of my mind. Through the past couple years I have especially felt myself giving way before this lie. A Good, Sovereign, God who does nothing, while I watch those close to me loose husbands and children - mothers and fathers. While I watch personal injustices go unaccounted for - the widow taken advantage of, the fatherless cast aside. I have felt my heart scream as Anne screams. I just never had the courage to say it aloud. I felt as if I was one before the firing line and the suffering continually hit closer and closer to home. I was afraid if I spoke out against the one with gun the wound would be more than I could bear. But I continued to read...and God continued to speak to my scared broken heart and bring more revelation.
Again I rob another's words that so adequately capture the hope in it all.
"If the rent in the canvas of our life backdrop, the losses that puncture our world, our own emptiness, might actually become places to see.
To See through to God.
That which tears open our souls, those holes that splatter our sight, may actually become the thin, open places to see through the mess of this place to the heart-aching beauty beyond. To Him. To the God whom we endlessly crave."
When we can step back from ourselves, like Linda reminded us last week, we can catch a glimpse of an Eternal God. Who sees the grand tapestry and not the tangled thread. When I step back and take a moment to recognize who I am accusing - I am appropriately reminded "Who am I?" Who am I to know the mind and plans of Almighty God.
So what then?
Even as lately as this past Sunday I was reminded that I need to hold up my shield of faith to protect my heart and mind from the lies of the enemy and that I need to soak myself in the truth of God's word and in who He says he is. To remember that His grace is sufficient, that He loves with an everlasting love, that He is Good, That He is God. In the midst of chaos and sadness - injustice and sorrow. He is still God and He still wants to open our eyes to His goodness.
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