Some people have whack-job ideas of "Christian perfection". I'm all for John Wesley, John Owen, William Law, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, so long as you have a foundation in Romans 5, Romans 8, all of Ephesians, all of Galatians, all of I John....um, actually, all of the New Testament. Get your foundation of the gospel of grace well-laid, and then the writings of the dead guys won't mess with your mind.
I wholeheartedly agree with the writer of Hebrews 6, "Let us grow up into maturity, and get beyond just merely having our doctrine straight." (Note: maturity, or "perfection", comes after foundational doctrines are laid.) In Hebrews 6, the writer pleads, "People, let's get on with it."
"Leaving the doctrines of Christ" does not mean leaving them behind. Rather, it means getting on with the program, and building the beautiful edifice. It means putting something on that Christ-foundation. Putting something on that foundation means you and I, being built together as living stones, the result of which will be maturity, i.e. "perfection".
Burning question: what is Christian maturity?
Short answer: right relationships.
Long answer: the law never brought anyone or anything to maturity. Hebrews 7:19. But the New Covenant ("the bringing of a better hope") did. What sort of lifestyle is becoming a New Covenant son or daughter of God?
"Above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness." Col. 3:14
"Whoever says 'I know Him', but keeps not His commandments, is a liar and the truth is not in him. Whoever keeps His word, in him truly is the love of God perfected, and by this we know we are in Him." I John 2: 4,5
Next, I John 3: 23 unlocks all of I John, and once-and-for-all clarifies this thing called Christian perfection:
"This is his commandment: That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. The man who keeps these commandments, dwells in Him, and He in him..."
Love. Right relationships. This is the essence of "perfection". In other words, it separates the men from the boys.
Purposefully Ignorant
I was telling someone not long ago that I have to be the dumbest pastor's wife that ever was. I'm not theologically ignorant. I'm not intellectually sloppy. I took a for-real IQ test last year, and my IQ is equivalent to that of anyone with a Master's degree. So I am not that kind of stupid.
I choose not to sweat the small stuff. Heck, I choose not to sweat some of the big stuff. If anyone comes to me, to fill me in on what "people in the church" are saying, I don't hear them. Sure, I "hear" the person talking, but none of it registers. ("..everybody's talkin' at me, but I don't hear a word they're sayin', only the echoes of my mind...woh woh woh woh woh..." remember the old Harry Nilson song? I sometimes call it the leader's anthem.)
I don't care - not like they want me to care. What it is, is I don't feel the need to know. Typically, that phrase "people in the church" means one or two other naysayers, usually including the person who is attempting to inform me.
(And no, this has not happened recently, at all, whatsoever. So this is a perfectly safe thing to say right now...)
I don't burn up the telephone. Ask my family. I am never on the phone. This has been my habit for twenty years. I don't go from house to house "chatting" with people. Not like that. Tim and I fellowship all the time - not because we are needy or bored or lonely or wishing to "feel out" what someone thinks about church matters, but rather because we genuinely enjoy people. Otherwise, I keep my nose in my own business, and work with my hands so that my family has need of nothing it is in my power to give them.
Last night, we had dinner with a couple in our church, and we didn't discuss a single church-related issue. And this couple are "in the know", they are leaders, and yet we didn't care to talk about some of the huge issues we have recently put behind us as a fellowship. Those issues were not even insinuated. We laughed till we cried when we tried to say all our names backwards (our host's name sounded quite Arabic...or was it French?). We discussed everything from artichokes to theology, and it was all genuine and happy and faith-building.
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss recent events, small minds discuss people. Teeny tiny minds try to say people's names backwards, but that is beside the point.
God always brings my ministry or counseling opportunities to my attention, His way. I do not ever have to seek them out. And heaven knows, I don't need to hear about all the contention. I never know who is thinking about leaving her husband, unless the woman tells me herself. I never know whose nose is bent out of joint, because I am simply not a magnet for that sort of information. I don't draw it to myself. I don't know who is mad at me, because they can try, and they have tried before, to insult me to my face, and I sometimes don't catch on. It goes right over my head. I'm too busy assuming everyone thinks I'm likable and lovable.
And when I do catch on, I've been known to crack up laughing over it. My sense of humor has it's dark side, and yes, I am incorrigible.
Actually, my ignorance is depth, according to the ancient men of faith. Thomas a'Kempis said this:
"My son, in many things it is thy duty to be ignorant, to esteem thyself as dead upon earth, and as one to whom the whole world is crucified. It is thy duty to pass by many things with a deaf ear, and rather to think of those things which belong unto thy peace. It is far more useful to turn away one's eyes from unpleasant things, and to leave everyone to his own opinion, rather than become a slave to someones contentious discourses."
I can have honest discourses all day long - even heated ones. But I've turned a deaf ear to a few discourses in my day, when I saw they were simply contentious. I am no one's slave, and I do not have to listen to it. I have just bowed right out, and said, "I'm done here."
I'd rather iron my underwear or dance to an old James Taylor tune, or discuss soteriology with Timothy over a cold glass of Dr. Pepper.
In my opinion, the greatest minds could do all three at the same time.
I choose not to sweat the small stuff. Heck, I choose not to sweat some of the big stuff. If anyone comes to me, to fill me in on what "people in the church" are saying, I don't hear them. Sure, I "hear" the person talking, but none of it registers. ("..everybody's talkin' at me, but I don't hear a word they're sayin', only the echoes of my mind...woh woh woh woh woh..." remember the old Harry Nilson song? I sometimes call it the leader's anthem.)
I don't care - not like they want me to care. What it is, is I don't feel the need to know. Typically, that phrase "people in the church" means one or two other naysayers, usually including the person who is attempting to inform me.
(And no, this has not happened recently, at all, whatsoever. So this is a perfectly safe thing to say right now...)
I don't burn up the telephone. Ask my family. I am never on the phone. This has been my habit for twenty years. I don't go from house to house "chatting" with people. Not like that. Tim and I fellowship all the time - not because we are needy or bored or lonely or wishing to "feel out" what someone thinks about church matters, but rather because we genuinely enjoy people. Otherwise, I keep my nose in my own business, and work with my hands so that my family has need of nothing it is in my power to give them.
Last night, we had dinner with a couple in our church, and we didn't discuss a single church-related issue. And this couple are "in the know", they are leaders, and yet we didn't care to talk about some of the huge issues we have recently put behind us as a fellowship. Those issues were not even insinuated. We laughed till we cried when we tried to say all our names backwards (our host's name sounded quite Arabic...or was it French?). We discussed everything from artichokes to theology, and it was all genuine and happy and faith-building.
Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss recent events, small minds discuss people. Teeny tiny minds try to say people's names backwards, but that is beside the point.
God always brings my ministry or counseling opportunities to my attention, His way. I do not ever have to seek them out. And heaven knows, I don't need to hear about all the contention. I never know who is thinking about leaving her husband, unless the woman tells me herself. I never know whose nose is bent out of joint, because I am simply not a magnet for that sort of information. I don't draw it to myself. I don't know who is mad at me, because they can try, and they have tried before, to insult me to my face, and I sometimes don't catch on. It goes right over my head. I'm too busy assuming everyone thinks I'm likable and lovable.
And when I do catch on, I've been known to crack up laughing over it. My sense of humor has it's dark side, and yes, I am incorrigible.
Actually, my ignorance is depth, according to the ancient men of faith. Thomas a'Kempis said this:
"My son, in many things it is thy duty to be ignorant, to esteem thyself as dead upon earth, and as one to whom the whole world is crucified. It is thy duty to pass by many things with a deaf ear, and rather to think of those things which belong unto thy peace. It is far more useful to turn away one's eyes from unpleasant things, and to leave everyone to his own opinion, rather than become a slave to someones contentious discourses."
I can have honest discourses all day long - even heated ones. But I've turned a deaf ear to a few discourses in my day, when I saw they were simply contentious. I am no one's slave, and I do not have to listen to it. I have just bowed right out, and said, "I'm done here."
I'd rather iron my underwear or dance to an old James Taylor tune, or discuss soteriology with Timothy over a cold glass of Dr. Pepper.
In my opinion, the greatest minds could do all three at the same time.
Another Summer Gone By...
Well, this week marks the unofficial end of summer. School starts Monday.
Where has the time gone? It does seem like yesterday that I woke up, mid-May, the morning after my daughter's wedding. I said to myself, "Once we get everything cleaned up and put away today, I have the whole summer to rest and recuperate." The weeks stretched out in front of me, rather deliciously.
My life is a dang vapor. I mean, really. The weeks have gone by as though they were two days.
And not only did I not get an opportunity to rest, Tim and I have been tested and tried like never before - physically, relationally, spiritually, you name it! Most pastors would be declaring a year-long sabbatical by now. Not my pastor. He is learning to count it all joy, when he encounters trials of various kinds, and all at the same time. And I do mean trials. Fiery.
The trying of his faith is creating something in him that is mature and complete, lacking nothing. The hard part is that, since he leads and I follow, my faith is also being tried, as gold in the fire. I got no control of him - he is a stark raving gospel preaching madman. What is a girl to do? All I can do is stand and watch him do what he does, support him with my God-given gifts, hitch up my big girl underwear and deal with it.
But you know something weird? Once everything in my life that could be shaken has been, so that what cannot be shaken remains, I lately find that I am strong, and very close to what some might even call "tranquil". Well, as tranquil as a woman with my temperament can get. My whole world has undergone transition, but one thing remains the same: the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can say with utmost integrity that it has not only changed my destiny, it changes my day. On this gospel, I have staked my claim. Here, I have placed my hope. Here, I draw significant, life-fulfilling solace. My friends, this gospel is real.
Some. Things. Simply. Cannot. Be. Shaken.
In the last one week alone, I have watched my oldest son go out sharing the gospel in the streets, prayed with my youngest son as he experienced a fresh move of God in his life, shared Christ myself with a woman in my neighborhood and prayed with her, heard of a man receiving Christ two nights ago, in our downtown Market Square, because a group from our church led him to the Lord; I've received encouragement from as nearby as across town, and as far away as Scotland, I've listened to my mother testify to the power of the grace of God delivering her from a lifetime of condemnation (and she, already a very seasoned, mature saint), I've observed the ministry of my father, as he invests his time and his considerable anointing into my sons, and spent quite a lot of time with my daughters, receiving from them, allowing them to minister to me, and bring the word of the Lord to me!
No wonder the weeks go by so fast. No wonder the enemy is upset.
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. (I Cor. 16)
What a summer. What a God. What favor I have been shown, in Christ Jesus!
Where has the time gone? It does seem like yesterday that I woke up, mid-May, the morning after my daughter's wedding. I said to myself, "Once we get everything cleaned up and put away today, I have the whole summer to rest and recuperate." The weeks stretched out in front of me, rather deliciously.
My life is a dang vapor. I mean, really. The weeks have gone by as though they were two days.
And not only did I not get an opportunity to rest, Tim and I have been tested and tried like never before - physically, relationally, spiritually, you name it! Most pastors would be declaring a year-long sabbatical by now. Not my pastor. He is learning to count it all joy, when he encounters trials of various kinds, and all at the same time. And I do mean trials. Fiery.
The trying of his faith is creating something in him that is mature and complete, lacking nothing. The hard part is that, since he leads and I follow, my faith is also being tried, as gold in the fire. I got no control of him - he is a stark raving gospel preaching madman. What is a girl to do? All I can do is stand and watch him do what he does, support him with my God-given gifts, hitch up my big girl underwear and deal with it.
But you know something weird? Once everything in my life that could be shaken has been, so that what cannot be shaken remains, I lately find that I am strong, and very close to what some might even call "tranquil". Well, as tranquil as a woman with my temperament can get. My whole world has undergone transition, but one thing remains the same: the gospel of Jesus Christ. I can say with utmost integrity that it has not only changed my destiny, it changes my day. On this gospel, I have staked my claim. Here, I have placed my hope. Here, I draw significant, life-fulfilling solace. My friends, this gospel is real.
Some. Things. Simply. Cannot. Be. Shaken.
In the last one week alone, I have watched my oldest son go out sharing the gospel in the streets, prayed with my youngest son as he experienced a fresh move of God in his life, shared Christ myself with a woman in my neighborhood and prayed with her, heard of a man receiving Christ two nights ago, in our downtown Market Square, because a group from our church led him to the Lord; I've received encouragement from as nearby as across town, and as far away as Scotland, I've listened to my mother testify to the power of the grace of God delivering her from a lifetime of condemnation (and she, already a very seasoned, mature saint), I've observed the ministry of my father, as he invests his time and his considerable anointing into my sons, and spent quite a lot of time with my daughters, receiving from them, allowing them to minister to me, and bring the word of the Lord to me!
No wonder the weeks go by so fast. No wonder the enemy is upset.
For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. (I Cor. 16)
What a summer. What a God. What favor I have been shown, in Christ Jesus!
The Beauty of a Life Lived in Community
Women who are cynical are more likely to die of stress-related illness. The gospel of Christ is the only antidote to stress, cynicism, skepticism, and loneliness. A life lived in community, centered on the truth of the Word of God, is the only well lived life.
If I live to the proportion I care about others, and to the degree I am loved...if I am granted years in my life, in proportion to the life in my years, I am going to live to be an old woman.
These came for me today. From a friend. I mean, a bona-fide sister in Christ who loves me for the long haul. She's already been in relationship with me for longer than we can remember, and I've probably offended her deeply and several times over the years.
We love each other.
Talk about blessing my life and my day! Talk about health to my bones! I could never thank her enough, but she has never demanded that I try. This woman loves Jesus, and she loves me, and lives her life as though loving God and loving her sister were one in the same thing.
<Beautiful.
Quotable Quote
“Religion is, ‘I obey, therefore I’m accepted’. The Gospel is, ‘I’m accepted through what Jesus Christ has done for me, therefore I obey’. Religion gives you control, that’s why its so popular…
~Tim Keller
~Tim Keller
We Follow God's Own Fool
"God's Own Fool", by Michael Card
Seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's holy wisdom is foolish to man
He must have seemed out of His mind
Even His family said He was mad
And the priests said a demon's to blame
But, God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane
Chorus
We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well
So come lose your life for a carpenter's son
For a madman who died for a dream
And you'll have the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
Surrender the hunger to say you must know
Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see
Chorus
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well
Seems I've imagined Him all of my life
As the wisest of all of mankind
But if God's holy wisdom is foolish to man
He must have seemed out of His mind
Even His family said He was mad
And the priests said a demon's to blame
But, God in the form of this angry young man
Could not have seemed perfectly sane
Chorus
We in our foolishness thought we were wise
He played the fool and He opened our eyes
We in our weakness believed we were strong
He became helpless to show we were wrong
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well
So come lose your life for a carpenter's son
For a madman who died for a dream
And you'll have the faith His first followers had
And you'll feel the weight of the beam
Surrender the hunger to say you must know
Find the courage to say I believe
For the power of paradox opens your eyes
And blinds those who say they can see
Chorus
So we follow God's own Fool
For only the foolish can tell
Believe the unbelievable, come be a fool as well
Work
For nearly two years, I've been gathering Scripture, quotes, and ideas on the subject of work.
Work. We all have to do it. Ministry is called "the work of the ministry". Each of us is intimately acquainted with whatever our work is, whether preacher or plumber or home maker. A Christian can exhibit a genuine love for his or her work, because Christianity is incredibly down-to-earth...incarnational...and has involved a healthy day's work since the garden of Eden.
Here is just one of the many things I have gleaned and gathered so far. It is a quote by one of my very favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Enjoy!
"It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting an anvil, sawing a beam, white washing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if, being in His grace you do it. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should."
Work. We all have to do it. Ministry is called "the work of the ministry". Each of us is intimately acquainted with whatever our work is, whether preacher or plumber or home maker. A Christian can exhibit a genuine love for his or her work, because Christianity is incredibly down-to-earth...incarnational...and has involved a healthy day's work since the garden of Eden.
Here is just one of the many things I have gleaned and gathered so far. It is a quote by one of my very favorite poets, Gerard Manley Hopkins. Enjoy!
"It is not only prayer that gives God glory, but work. Smiting an anvil, sawing a beam, white washing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if, being in His grace you do it. God is so great that all things give Him glory if you mean that they should."
Summer Afternoon...
A love gift, this past Sunday, from nieceKatie
Sunshine on a stem
The other sunflower patch
You take some whole grain pasta...
Some Roma tomatoes and some basil...
Some olive oil and some parmesan...And you can have dinner in no time flat.
What was it the poet said? Something like, "Summer afternoon...there are no two words more beautiful in the English language." In the waning moments before school begins (I have not looked forward to it!), I've spent my day napping on my porch, with the sound of the pond waterfall relaxing my thoughts into a warm, happy silence. I've picked sunflowers, and enjoyed the advice of an out of state friend, who spoke words encouraging moxie into my spirit.
(Moxie: The ability to face difficulty with spirit and courage. Aggressive energy; initiative. Skill; know-how.)
I've watched goldfinch feeding on my coneflowers, and cooked a delicious, simple dinner, straight out of my garden.
Just when I should, perhaps, be having a string of bad days (neither motherhood nor home schooling nor ministry is never an easy thing) I find myself having strings of good days, like pearls. My soul so boasts in God over it! He does what only He can do.
"I Own That..."
I own it all. I really do. (Please bear with me, it isn't as arrogant as it sounds. I say it that way to get your attention, that's all - this is very Biblical, you'll see if you stick with me...)
If you espouse sovereignty and election...I own that. If you espouse "whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved"....um, that's mine too. I own that. Are you currently enjoying a book by Finney? I won't call it heresy, because though I don't agree with him down the line, still...I own the concept that faith without works is dead. Are you into Edwards or Spurgeon and their fantastic views on New Covenant? I own that. William Law and the importance of certain disciplines? I own that. Grace alone? I own that. It is all mine. Don't let that make you crazy. I didn't come up with any of it, and neither did you. Nor did Paul or Apollos or Peter. Truth belongs God.
Fact is, I own it all, yet am not owned BY any of it. I can shift emphasis or focus at will, or at the clear leading of the Lord to my spirit. I know many other men and women who own it all, I've eaten dinner with some of them recently. Yet these saints are owned BY no one thing, and it is a clear sign of maturity.
I am not even allowed say, "I am of Christ" because of the ring of exclusivity that idea has to it. Christ has chosen to deposit truth into a beautiful diversity of vessels, and I am to receive from them, giving thanks to God for the gift He has placed within them.
I hate moral and ethical sin, because of the deep, generational affect it can have on a human being. I own the fact that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. But when a man or woman is sorry for their sin, and willingly embracing a process of restoration, heeding a consensus of Godly input, I am to walk with them in their process. I am to cover them. I also own the truth of love covering a multitude of sin. I own it all.
Free will? I own that. Election? I own that. Can I lose my salvation? No. Can you? Maybe - I have no choice but to let you answer that. Discipline and training? Own it. Dancing in the freedom that is mine? Own it.
Can I tell you the Biblical definition of carnal? It might surprise you. The definition of carnal is to be owned BY a particular emphasis, to the point that you part company with another believer.
We are making the choice to know nothing in this season but Christ and Him crucified. The gospel will be what we are about till the day we die. Everything we teach, everything we live out in secret in the walls of the Atchley home, will be with an eye towards never....ever....being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We own every aspect of it, bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. Foundational grace is something we will return to, from time to time, as needed.
So I won't take the writings of men and pit them against each other, as though they were plastic army guys in an imaginary war. I won't live as though James and Paul had it out for each other. I won't act as though there were no power in the gospel to completely transform the vilest sinner, nor will I toss out an emphasis on the renewal of the mind, as illustrated in the classic phrase, "a long obedience in one direction."
I own it all. The people of God own it all. Finding common ground is not so difficult for a mature human being, much less a saint.
And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
If you espouse sovereignty and election...I own that. If you espouse "whosoever will call on the name of the Lord shall be saved"....um, that's mine too. I own that. Are you currently enjoying a book by Finney? I won't call it heresy, because though I don't agree with him down the line, still...I own the concept that faith without works is dead. Are you into Edwards or Spurgeon and their fantastic views on New Covenant? I own that. William Law and the importance of certain disciplines? I own that. Grace alone? I own that. It is all mine. Don't let that make you crazy. I didn't come up with any of it, and neither did you. Nor did Paul or Apollos or Peter. Truth belongs God.
Fact is, I own it all, yet am not owned BY any of it. I can shift emphasis or focus at will, or at the clear leading of the Lord to my spirit. I know many other men and women who own it all, I've eaten dinner with some of them recently. Yet these saints are owned BY no one thing, and it is a clear sign of maturity.
I am not even allowed say, "I am of Christ" because of the ring of exclusivity that idea has to it. Christ has chosen to deposit truth into a beautiful diversity of vessels, and I am to receive from them, giving thanks to God for the gift He has placed within them.
I hate moral and ethical sin, because of the deep, generational affect it can have on a human being. I own the fact that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. But when a man or woman is sorry for their sin, and willingly embracing a process of restoration, heeding a consensus of Godly input, I am to walk with them in their process. I am to cover them. I also own the truth of love covering a multitude of sin. I own it all.
Free will? I own that. Election? I own that. Can I lose my salvation? No. Can you? Maybe - I have no choice but to let you answer that. Discipline and training? Own it. Dancing in the freedom that is mine? Own it.
Can I tell you the Biblical definition of carnal? It might surprise you. The definition of carnal is to be owned BY a particular emphasis, to the point that you part company with another believer.
We are making the choice to know nothing in this season but Christ and Him crucified. The gospel will be what we are about till the day we die. Everything we teach, everything we live out in secret in the walls of the Atchley home, will be with an eye towards never....ever....being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We own every aspect of it, bought and paid for by the blood of Christ. Foundational grace is something we will return to, from time to time, as needed.
So I won't take the writings of men and pit them against each other, as though they were plastic army guys in an imaginary war. I won't live as though James and Paul had it out for each other. I won't act as though there were no power in the gospel to completely transform the vilest sinner, nor will I toss out an emphasis on the renewal of the mind, as illustrated in the classic phrase, "a long obedience in one direction."
I own it all. The people of God own it all. Finding common ground is not so difficult for a mature human being, much less a saint.
And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
Snippets of My Life Lived In Community
Pasta, hot dogs, lots of singing, and Mike looking at Scripture on his i-pod Touch, coming up with a message on the fly, I do believe.
Scott's the big guy with no hair and shades. He's a consummate guitar player. You will never meet a man with a more gentle spirit!
Somewhere around 15 college-age kids on my back porch, worshipping the Lord. We had exactly 1 guitar for every 3.75 people.It is ten o'clock at night now. The cicadas are outside my bedroom window, their rhythmic song preparing my mind and body for rest. It has been a non stop weekend, yet my strength feels renewed.
I am one who has lived pretty much my entire life in relationship with people in the body of Christ, but never have I been more thankful than this night. I am grateful for men who take time to encourage and pray for my sons, and the sons of others. Men who are willing to spend and be spent for my daughters and the daughters of others. Men whose paths cross only briefly with Harvest Church, yet we...and they...are marked by the touch of Jesus through one another's earthen vessels.
And some of this sweetness....a portion of this miracle....took place in my own back yard today. The walls and floors of this home still ring with songs, laughter, prayers, and a very, very loud game of Catch Phrase. This home has seen a lotttttttt of the ministry of hospitality over the years, and it feels more of a sacrifice now, sometimes, than ever before. There truly are never enough hours in a day, not even when your kids grow up. But I would not trade this kind of sowing for another.
In the past three days alone, within these very walls, not the walls of any church building, I have overheard my husband, spending nearly an hour sharing the gospel with a neighbor. I have had a college kid from another church show up, literally, on my doorstep asking for pastoral counsel, and I served my husband and he ice water as they sat on my front porch and navigated this kid's difficult questions. I have shared a meal with guests, had two spend the night with us, watched an unsaved young man tremble in the presence of God, and sung songs of worship together with others on two separate occasions!
To be honest, this past weekend has not been too out of the ordinary. Around here, that is pretty much how life goes. Living in community is hard work. The rewards, however, are well worth it.
Keep Up To Date on the Latest!
Over and over, every year for the last 18 years, I am asked the same question when it comes time to register one or more of my children with our home schooling umbrella organization:
Are you up to date with the latest Tennessee laws and regulations regarding home education? Have you read the latest?
The law that was in place ten years ago, is not the same today. Ten years ago, I could not have claimed as a defense some statute that would not be made law yet. I'd have lost my case. We home educators have gained some freedoms, and lost some freedoms. An educator has to stay up to speed on the latest.
King David said this: "Great peace have they which love Thy law, and nothing shall offend them."
Every good theologian will define "law" as the most recent edict issued from the mouth of God. David loved the law of the Lord - law being defined as whatever God has said. In David's day, the word of God in enforcement was Mosaic law. Of course David loved it! It was the word of the Lord...there was no further word!
That law is still perfect, converting the soul. We love it. It stands for all time as an illustration of a perfect God, pointing us dramatically to our need for a Savior. We passionately love how this Old Testament law is and was full of types and shadows of Jesus Christ. All of it written to give us insight into the plan and ways of God, "...written for our admonishment, upon whom the end of the worlds have come."
But "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets,has in these last days spoken to us by His Son..."
The manner in which we relate to God has changed radically. The old has been done away with, the new has come. You cannot make your case according to the old way. There is no more "if, then". There is no more "if you obey the law, then you are blessed". Jesus came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Synonyms for "fulfill" ~ accomplish, achieve, answer, be just the ticket, carry out, comply with, conclude, conform, discharge, do, effect, effectuate, execute, fill, fill the bill, finish, hit the bull's-eye, implement, keep, make it, make the grade, meet, obey, observe, perfect, perform, please, realize, render, satisfy, suffice, suit
It is finished. It has been concluded, down to the last beautiful detail. Over. Done. Complied with and executed, and Christ performed it all. His obedience is the only obedience.
He ushered in what we call the New Testament Age of Grace.
If the man who danced before the Lord in his ephod were alive today, he'd be shouting, "Great peace have they which love Thy New Covenant, and nothing shall offend them!"
Stay educated and up to date on the latest law: the law of love. We will be held entirely accountable to the most recent edict from the throne, found in Scripture.
Ignorance of the law is no excuse.
The Greatest Is
And now abides faith, hope and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.
There are really only three change-agents in the lives of people. Only three abiding motivators, only three forces at work of any effectiveness.
Faith can move mountains. It shall be (or not be) to you according to your faith.
Hope is what enables us to persevere. Michael Card sang it thusly, "Hope is the helmet of each noble soldier, for only a warrior who hopes can be brave. Hope you in the Lord and renew your strength! Soar you up on eagle's wings! Tirelessly run the long race that's set before you - your life's a song the Father sings!"
Oh, but the Lord would say: the greatest of these is loving relationships. "Love" is a moot point, without relationships. Without a person to be kind to, without a person to believe the best in, love is just a word.
Love never fails.
Keeping relationships right is always right.
Love never fails.
Love. Gifts of the Spirit will be done away with, and the law already has been. Love never fails.
There are really only three change-agents in the lives of people. Only three abiding motivators, only three forces at work of any effectiveness.
Faith can move mountains. It shall be (or not be) to you according to your faith.
Hope is what enables us to persevere. Michael Card sang it thusly, "Hope is the helmet of each noble soldier, for only a warrior who hopes can be brave. Hope you in the Lord and renew your strength! Soar you up on eagle's wings! Tirelessly run the long race that's set before you - your life's a song the Father sings!"
Oh, but the Lord would say: the greatest of these is loving relationships. "Love" is a moot point, without relationships. Without a person to be kind to, without a person to believe the best in, love is just a word.
Love never fails.
Keeping relationships right is always right.
Love never fails.
Love. Gifts of the Spirit will be done away with, and the law already has been. Love never fails.
Be Strong
Finally, my sisters and brothers, be being strong in the Lord (be in an ever present state of depending on His strength) and always be operating entirely in the exceeding might of His ability. (Eph. 6:10)
I was talking to a dear one today about the liberating truth of "Christ in me."
Forget about "my personal best". That is limited thinking, fraught with attaining one good thing, at the terrible expense of two better things. When the exceeding might of His ability moves me, a certain level of personal "performance" (for lack of a better word) is attained in perfect peace,and without my hurting the people I live with. Jesus Christ is made unto me a never ending source of wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
And I don't have to wait to feel emotionally whole to depend on His strength, because His strength shows up in my weakness. And I don't have to wait until I feel able, to love others and be about the business of the kingdom of God, because I am complete in Him already.
He'll do His job through me, "as me". Christ loves to express His strength and lovely nature through my rather unique vessel.
I was talking to a dear one today about the liberating truth of "Christ in me."
Forget about "my personal best". That is limited thinking, fraught with attaining one good thing, at the terrible expense of two better things. When the exceeding might of His ability moves me, a certain level of personal "performance" (for lack of a better word) is attained in perfect peace,and without my hurting the people I live with. Jesus Christ is made unto me a never ending source of wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption.
And I don't have to wait to feel emotionally whole to depend on His strength, because His strength shows up in my weakness. And I don't have to wait until I feel able, to love others and be about the business of the kingdom of God, because I am complete in Him already.
He'll do His job through me, "as me". Christ loves to express His strength and lovely nature through my rather unique vessel.
A Cup of Coffee and a Friend
A cup of toffee coffee, and a friend. A soulful, comforting, blessed combination! Kim-from-Texas and I finally met face to face today, after knowing one another for a decade. She is camping with her family, coming through Knoxville to Boston.
We've home schooled children "together", she's got graduates and I've got graduates, and we've both used the same philosophy and methodology to get the job done. That's how we met - on an online home education forum.
But the common ground goes deeper than that. So much deeper.
She's beautiful, intelligent, funny. The best conversationalist you'll ever meet. We rambled over verbal fields of flowers, ranging on every topic from adolescence to Zen. And something about motorcycles. And grace. And church. And Boticelli and the Burning of the Vanities. Um, coffee and coffee gadgetry, too, of course. (After all, her blog IS "Books and Coffee"!) We spoke of BBQ and salsa, antiphonal singing and Ikea furniture. We shared about things light and easy, and things heart-rending.
Typical home schooling mother-conversation.
We plan on lunch, two years from now.
FAITH!
I was talking to my oldest boy yesterday, after church. He was telling me about how he went fishing one night this past week. He went night fishing, so it was dark, and he didn't have a lantern. He cast his hook, and sat down to fish and pray.
Soon, the Lord spoke to him and said, "Reel in. I've given you a fish." He replied, "I can't see the float." The Lord said to him, "Don't be moved by what you see." He then said, "I don't feel a thing on the line...I have not felt a nibble or a tug...nothing!" God said, "Don't be moved by what you feel."
He reeled in his hook, feeling foolish.
On the end of that line, was a small mouth bass.
When a boy's relationship with God is the emphasis, God is so much more able to train a boy than even his parents are. May he respond to the voice of God, more and more! There is always that choice....to turn aside and "see this thing", as did Moses, or to blindly continue walking in your own way.
"Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen."
Two Brags Today
Two blogs yesterday, two brags today. Here is the first brag -a picture I took, just now:
Yesterday, the sliding door on this van fell off. I mean, it just dropped off! I was in a panic.
So...am I bragging because we drive an older model car, with about 250,000 miles on it? That it was side doorless yesterday? No, of course not. Unless the discipline of frugality is something to cheer for.
The "brag" here is that my man (already stressed, with his patience severely tested and tried in many other areas) got out there, scratched his head, and patiently began the long process of taking the whole back quarter panel off the van, and with a hammer and some sockets and other tools I don't know the names of, he pounded this and that back into shape, fabricated a necessary small part, then manhandled the door back into place, put it all back together, and it works better than it ever did.
Not only that! This make and model of van was notorious for losing every stitch of paint on the front hood. Ours somehow survived a long time, but this past year....it did. Oh. It did. The paint suddenly bubbled, blistered, and every square inch of paint flaked off the hood, down to the gray, flat, discolored underside.
Then, last March, the whole van broke down. Price to have the mechanic repair it? Over $300. So we let it sit, while I drove our equally old Previa.
Because we also had a wedding to pay for. Once the wedding was behind us, we also priced "cheap" paint jobs. Price to paint? Cheaply? $400. (That's a good deal, I know.)
My man...my hero...finally had a little time, post-wedding, to crawl under the van. He said the magic words, "Maybe I can fix it." He has managed to keep every other older car we've driven on the road, almost singlehandedly, with only a few trips to the mechanic.
He. Did. It. Price to fix it? $70
Then, he pulled the codes for the color of paint, and he painted it. He. Did. It. Price to paint it? $40 for the paint, another $20 for a few supplies he can use again. It is not a perfect paint job, but for a van as old as this one, it was the frugal, creative, and utterly talented manly thing to do to "do it himself." I am so stinkin' proud of the guy. He can also play the guitar, the drums, he sings like a dream, preaches, pastors, and he builds me whole additions to my house. I'm unsufferably and startlingly in love with him. I love a man who can do way more than one or two things.
Here's the other brag:
See the brunette beauty on the right? That's one of my twin daughters, Sarah. She's the one I spoke of in yesterday's blog. The man on the left? That's her birthday present for 2009. That's Jonathan. Precious man of God, summa cum laude graduate, artist, and her new best friend, other than her twin sister and me.
Goodness and mercy follow me. My life is a trophy of grace, a testimony to what only God can do. These two small "brags" are actually just the harvest....the result...of my Great Foundational Boast: Christ alone. Neither Tim nor Sarah nor I possess a single gift we have not been first given.
Two Blogs Today
Hmmm. Something I nearly never do: type two blogs in a day. But this is irresistable, and I have to share it.
I've been sitting here in my robe, lolling around my own blog this night. My blog is a digital journal of sorts, full of my heart in words and pictures. I marvel at the prophetic nature of a bunch of my posts, and I do not consider myself a "prophetess"!
Get this entry, around New Year's Eve:
"...first of all, a happy and prosperous New Year to my church family - of whom my own dear parents are now, as of one month ago, new members. My life can't get much more blessed and full and complete. I can die a happy woman.Well, I can die happy after we find my other twin daughter a fi - i - ne (hear the southern drawl) man of God.
Of course, her heavenly Father will do the finding. I'm just kidding when I say "we'll have to find him".
I do know this: nothing short of an on-fire, brutally handsome, leader-of-a-man, who is already about the business of the Kingdom of God, who knows exactly what he wants and pursues it, will make that daughter of mine happy. She deserves nothing short of the best...he's out there somewhere! How exciting! Will 2009 be the year? (She's so gonna kill me.)
She's in no hurry; she's fiesty and happy and picky and can afford to be picky. I'm the one who needs to know that I can die happy...just in case. Nobody is guaranteed to be on planet earth, this time next year.
And no one should get married until they find the one whom they can fulfill their divine destiny better WITH that person, than without them. No one should get married until the time is right - when what needs to be done in God's kingdom requires the talents and gifts of BOTH to accomplish. Marriage is so much more than sanctified sex, or a comfortable, expected, and socially acceptable arrangement.
No one should get married until they find the one who can make them laugh; until they find the one who is so very easy to be with. The one who leaves happiness in his or her wake. Few things are more important.
But that's another blog for another day. I'll let this one be about soup and the New Year."
Gentle Reader, I sit here in a heavy, fluffy robe with chill bumps on my arms. I am venturing to say that 2009 is INDEED the year. Aw man, has this been the acceptable year of the Lord, so far, or what?? One daughter married a fiiiiiiiine man of God in May: unbearably handsome, loves my daughter unselfishly and unconditionally, a man soon to have his Master's degree, but more importantly, a man with a pastor's heart and an apostle's call on his life.
And ya'll....my other girl most likely has her man as well, and honey...he too is "all that." Sarah is dating an accomplished artist. Recognized leader in the church he comes from. College graduate. But more importantly, a man with a missions call, and a pastor's heart and a burden for....guess where? Cambodia and China. A man who walks around this house unconsciously singing God's praises, when he visits my daughter. A man who unabashedly pursues and loves my daughter. A man who makes her laugh. No....howl. Well. Laugh really loud and long.
goodgrief, I hope this does not mean I'm gonna die soon!
I've been sitting here in my robe, lolling around my own blog this night. My blog is a digital journal of sorts, full of my heart in words and pictures. I marvel at the prophetic nature of a bunch of my posts, and I do not consider myself a "prophetess"!
Get this entry, around New Year's Eve:
"...first of all, a happy and prosperous New Year to my church family - of whom my own dear parents are now, as of one month ago, new members. My life can't get much more blessed and full and complete. I can die a happy woman.Well, I can die happy after we find my other twin daughter a fi - i - ne (hear the southern drawl) man of God.
Of course, her heavenly Father will do the finding. I'm just kidding when I say "we'll have to find him".
I do know this: nothing short of an on-fire, brutally handsome, leader-of-a-man, who is already about the business of the Kingdom of God, who knows exactly what he wants and pursues it, will make that daughter of mine happy. She deserves nothing short of the best...he's out there somewhere! How exciting! Will 2009 be the year? (She's so gonna kill me.)
She's in no hurry; she's fiesty and happy and picky and can afford to be picky. I'm the one who needs to know that I can die happy...just in case. Nobody is guaranteed to be on planet earth, this time next year.
And no one should get married until they find the one whom they can fulfill their divine destiny better WITH that person, than without them. No one should get married until the time is right - when what needs to be done in God's kingdom requires the talents and gifts of BOTH to accomplish. Marriage is so much more than sanctified sex, or a comfortable, expected, and socially acceptable arrangement.
No one should get married until they find the one who can make them laugh; until they find the one who is so very easy to be with. The one who leaves happiness in his or her wake. Few things are more important.
But that's another blog for another day. I'll let this one be about soup and the New Year."
Gentle Reader, I sit here in a heavy, fluffy robe with chill bumps on my arms. I am venturing to say that 2009 is INDEED the year. Aw man, has this been the acceptable year of the Lord, so far, or what?? One daughter married a fiiiiiiiine man of God in May: unbearably handsome, loves my daughter unselfishly and unconditionally, a man soon to have his Master's degree, but more importantly, a man with a pastor's heart and an apostle's call on his life.
And ya'll....my other girl most likely has her man as well, and honey...he too is "all that." Sarah is dating an accomplished artist. Recognized leader in the church he comes from. College graduate. But more importantly, a man with a missions call, and a pastor's heart and a burden for....guess where? Cambodia and China. A man who walks around this house unconsciously singing God's praises, when he visits my daughter. A man who unabashedly pursues and loves my daughter. A man who makes her laugh. No....howl. Well. Laugh really loud and long.
goodgrief, I hope this does not mean I'm gonna die soon!
New Bowl...
The bowl is a gift from one of my daughters, last week, and then she created the cute arrangement of flowers and vegetables and herbs from our garden.
To me, sunflowers will always speak to me of my girls. In the language of flowers, the sunflower means "I am so proud of you..." . The sunflowers we plant each year always bloom right around their birthday, which is the end of July.
(Sunflowers remind me of my boys, too, but don't tell them that. They would not appreciate it just yet. Too feminine.)
When I get still enough to listen, I hear the Lord singing over my children. My boys, particularly, are a spectacular spectacle of a "work in progress". A work in progress will deeply challenge your patience and optimism, every time. So? So, how in the world can I be patient and optimistic....and even proud of this startlingly, decidedly unfinished construction site? I don't depend on my own resources of patience and faith, wisdom or strength, that's how. When I run out of every bit of all of it, Someone else takes over, who has unlimited supply. Suddenly, when I am weak, He gets to reveal how strong He is.
God will complete the good work He began, even if that means He uses time consuming methods, even if that means He must first wound, and then heal.
A happy father whistles while he works. A supremely mighty, completely confident, and utterly joyful father sings while he works. Since God sings over my children, so do I. All I am doing is joining with Him in what He is already singing...I didn't start the song, He did. Joining Him in what He is doing is the right thing to do. Sing and work. Work and sing. Keep working. Keep singing.
Whether girls, boys, oldest to youngest, in the good times and the bad, promising seasons, and dark days, I hope you find me tightly grasping my sunflowers, seeing the obvious reasons to be proud, and finding a few reasons to be proud when reasons are hard to find...
...and singing. Because we all need to be delighted in.
I'm a Lucky Girl!
See that pretty face? That is my antique book restorer friend (and fellow believer in "amazing grace") from Texas. She also sings and teaches Spanish. See her blog, "Books and Coffee". Look around, when you get there. She is talented, and you will find pictures of her meticulous book restoring work.
We've never met. Ahem. But we've known each other for years.
I get to meet her next week! She is coming through Knoxville, and she and I are going to have....what else....a cup of java together.
Can't wait.
"Here I Stand. I Can Do No Other. God Help Me."
Martin Luther, on trial for grace-through- faith, said this: "Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me."
And in this fishbowl-of-a-life, a life of full time ministry, I declare the same. In Christ alone my hope is found. I cannot look to the works of my hands and say, "You are my gods." (Is. 2: 7,8) Either the gospel is true, Christ is sufficient, and my righteousness is imputed, or nothing is true and we really ARE a gob of random molecules, the product of random chance, with no purpose or rhyme or reason to this string of days we call "life".
My world is small, but it is a watching world. I don't have a national platform, but my home, my life, my church, my street where I live, my blog, and my Facebook are my "housetop", and here I declare, at the top of my lungs, what God has shown me in secret: "His Word cannot return to Him void. That Word became flesh. The law was given, but grace came. The gospel of New Covenant, and only the gospel of New Covenant, is transformative. Grace will accomplish what law never could."
I shout it from my little "housetop", declaring before-the-fact, before the outcome can be seen, that what God has promised, He (not me, not anyone else) is also able to perform...
...and my small world watches.
Ps 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
And in this fishbowl-of-a-life, a life of full time ministry, I declare the same. In Christ alone my hope is found. I cannot look to the works of my hands and say, "You are my gods." (Is. 2: 7,8) Either the gospel is true, Christ is sufficient, and my righteousness is imputed, or nothing is true and we really ARE a gob of random molecules, the product of random chance, with no purpose or rhyme or reason to this string of days we call "life".
My world is small, but it is a watching world. I don't have a national platform, but my home, my life, my church, my street where I live, my blog, and my Facebook are my "housetop", and here I declare, at the top of my lungs, what God has shown me in secret: "His Word cannot return to Him void. That Word became flesh. The law was given, but grace came. The gospel of New Covenant, and only the gospel of New Covenant, is transformative. Grace will accomplish what law never could."
I shout it from my little "housetop", declaring before-the-fact, before the outcome can be seen, that what God has promised, He (not me, not anyone else) is also able to perform...
...and my small world watches.
Ps 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
So What's the Big Deal?
I swear, it is when you think you know that you really don't know. I do not think it is true, that the older you get, the less you think you have a handle on. I think the real truth is that the wiser you get, the less you think you know.
I was practically bottle-fed and burped on the Roman's Road, John 3:16, the Wordless Book, Jacob's Ladder, Onward Christian Soldiers, and the books of the Bible. I had the books of the Bible memorized, Old and New Testaments, well before the third grade. I was born again at six years old, and baptized in the Spirit (a very real "second experience") at eleven years old.
So you can imagine how that, in my adult life, I thought I had knowlege of the gospel of God and manifold grace. Meanwhile, my consistent default mode was lawlawlawlawlaw. What's the big deal about grace? It's a doctrine.
I. Did. Not. Know. Jack.
::she says, laughing::
And I still don't know...not as I will come to know as I grow ever older and hopefully ever wiser. All I know now, is that this gospel of Jesus is all there is to know, and I will be a lifetime understanding it, applying it to my life, and ministering it into the lives of others. Oh, happy calling!
The great hymn writer Isaac Watts said this: "Acquaint yourself with your own ignorance. Impress your mind with a deep and painful sense of the low and imperfect degrees of your present knowledge."
Deep. Painful. A deep and painful sense. Oh, Mr. Watts! Been there, done that recently. I've decided I prefer to stay "down here", though. I want to live my days out in the low posture of a student...only then can I truly teach with bold confidence. And teach I will. I will not be silent. I read today that there are two things the devil will always, always capitalize on: unhealthy solitude and self conscious silence. I do not learn wisdom in a vacuum, I do not gain wisdom by myself, in solitude. I learn it from God, and very often through others.
What He shows me in secret, in that deep and painful place, that I will shout from the housetops, all silence and self absorbed propriety, be gone!
I was practically bottle-fed and burped on the Roman's Road, John 3:16, the Wordless Book, Jacob's Ladder, Onward Christian Soldiers, and the books of the Bible. I had the books of the Bible memorized, Old and New Testaments, well before the third grade. I was born again at six years old, and baptized in the Spirit (a very real "second experience") at eleven years old.
So you can imagine how that, in my adult life, I thought I had knowlege of the gospel of God and manifold grace. Meanwhile, my consistent default mode was lawlawlawlawlaw. What's the big deal about grace? It's a doctrine.
I. Did. Not. Know. Jack.
::she says, laughing::
And I still don't know...not as I will come to know as I grow ever older and hopefully ever wiser. All I know now, is that this gospel of Jesus is all there is to know, and I will be a lifetime understanding it, applying it to my life, and ministering it into the lives of others. Oh, happy calling!
The great hymn writer Isaac Watts said this: "Acquaint yourself with your own ignorance. Impress your mind with a deep and painful sense of the low and imperfect degrees of your present knowledge."
Deep. Painful. A deep and painful sense. Oh, Mr. Watts! Been there, done that recently. I've decided I prefer to stay "down here", though. I want to live my days out in the low posture of a student...only then can I truly teach with bold confidence. And teach I will. I will not be silent. I read today that there are two things the devil will always, always capitalize on: unhealthy solitude and self conscious silence. I do not learn wisdom in a vacuum, I do not gain wisdom by myself, in solitude. I learn it from God, and very often through others.
What He shows me in secret, in that deep and painful place, that I will shout from the housetops, all silence and self absorbed propriety, be gone!
The Beauty of the Gospel
For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (II Cor. 4:6)
Sin is ugly. The gospel is beautiful. The reality of sin does not alter the beauty of the finished work of Christ.
Hear me when I say - I know what I am talking about. For almost sixteen years of pastoral ministry, my husband and I have been exposed to the worst in human nature - you name it, we've had to deal with it directly, everything from adultery to pornography to pedophilia to lying, self righteous pride, and gossip.
And it used to rock my world. I would mourn, for those trapped in sin, as though there were no light in the darkness.
Then, along came deeper revelation into the grace of God. Now, I mourn for those trapped in sin, while believing God that "joy cometh in the morning." Today, I am intimately acquainted with the reality of these words, "Where sin abounds, the grace of God much more abounds."
So do we wink at sin, that grace might abound? God forbid.
Do we wink at the grace of God, so that sin might abate? God forbid, because that won't work anyway. If, in a reaction to some awful sin, I attempt to de-emphasize the unbelievable, unfathomable grace of God, well, that would be utter unbelief and foolishness on my part.
It would be akin to allowing soot, dirt, and ashes to pile up in my fireplace, and then turning out the family room light. Suppose, hours later, I return to the fireplace and turn on the light of revelation, and exclaim, "Look what turning on the light did! It encouraged my fireplace to be more dirty! If I dim these lights, the fireplace will be cleaner."
Nah, the light exposed what was already there...it exposed the reality I was hoping to ignore. The grace of God is no different. It never encourages sin - it rather exposes it as being exceedingly hideous in the light of divine and sacrificial love.
Christ gave his life to justify the sinner....never the sin. "Sin" is not justified, in any way, shape, form, or fashion. But I have been justified, because I have put my trust in the finished work of Christ, because I have cast all my hope onto the grace of God.
The real result of true grace-illumination, is the power of God to clean the fireplace. A well-laid, crackling, happy fire feels far more natural than letting ashes pile up. The light of grace is not a pretext for pretending the toxic mess doesn't really exist, and no spiritually sane person blames the light for all the mess, soot, and ashes. Rather, the light helps you see what damage the dirt has done, and then it helps you take joy in participating with God, as He creates beauty for ashes. You can finally have a good fire.
Grace gives beauty for ashes. It justifies the sinner. It is a fire - the very power of God unto salvation. It is still the gospel of God that by grace I am saved through faith, and nothing else. And, as I have received Christ Jesus, I will continually walk in Him. Sin, in my life or the life of someone exceedingly dear to me, will never....never....diminish the light of God's glory and grace.
Again. I know whereof I speak. I am walking this out in the most painful of ways, in this season of my life. Everything I know about the grace of God is being put to the test, is being walked out, as Jacob limping. I've wrestled this one out, in the dark night of my soul, and God has come away glorified, and His great grace magnified, and I am beautified in vials and vials of the oil of joy, the oil of joy He gives to replace my mourning.
It is well with my soul. The gospel is most beautiful. I can never allow what may be going on in the life of a dear son or a near friend's daughter, or a precious woman's husband, or a precious man's wife....I can never allow any of it to diminish the beauty of grace, or make me run back to law. Rather,this battle, difficult and heartbreaking, will one day bring about sweet victory, as the grace of God teaches everyone who is His, to deny ungodliness.
Lord, let your light shine!
Sin is ugly. The gospel is beautiful. The reality of sin does not alter the beauty of the finished work of Christ.
Hear me when I say - I know what I am talking about. For almost sixteen years of pastoral ministry, my husband and I have been exposed to the worst in human nature - you name it, we've had to deal with it directly, everything from adultery to pornography to pedophilia to lying, self righteous pride, and gossip.
And it used to rock my world. I would mourn, for those trapped in sin, as though there were no light in the darkness.
Then, along came deeper revelation into the grace of God. Now, I mourn for those trapped in sin, while believing God that "joy cometh in the morning." Today, I am intimately acquainted with the reality of these words, "Where sin abounds, the grace of God much more abounds."
So do we wink at sin, that grace might abound? God forbid.
Do we wink at the grace of God, so that sin might abate? God forbid, because that won't work anyway. If, in a reaction to some awful sin, I attempt to de-emphasize the unbelievable, unfathomable grace of God, well, that would be utter unbelief and foolishness on my part.
It would be akin to allowing soot, dirt, and ashes to pile up in my fireplace, and then turning out the family room light. Suppose, hours later, I return to the fireplace and turn on the light of revelation, and exclaim, "Look what turning on the light did! It encouraged my fireplace to be more dirty! If I dim these lights, the fireplace will be cleaner."
Nah, the light exposed what was already there...it exposed the reality I was hoping to ignore. The grace of God is no different. It never encourages sin - it rather exposes it as being exceedingly hideous in the light of divine and sacrificial love.
Christ gave his life to justify the sinner....never the sin. "Sin" is not justified, in any way, shape, form, or fashion. But I have been justified, because I have put my trust in the finished work of Christ, because I have cast all my hope onto the grace of God.
The real result of true grace-illumination, is the power of God to clean the fireplace. A well-laid, crackling, happy fire feels far more natural than letting ashes pile up. The light of grace is not a pretext for pretending the toxic mess doesn't really exist, and no spiritually sane person blames the light for all the mess, soot, and ashes. Rather, the light helps you see what damage the dirt has done, and then it helps you take joy in participating with God, as He creates beauty for ashes. You can finally have a good fire.
Grace gives beauty for ashes. It justifies the sinner. It is a fire - the very power of God unto salvation. It is still the gospel of God that by grace I am saved through faith, and nothing else. And, as I have received Christ Jesus, I will continually walk in Him. Sin, in my life or the life of someone exceedingly dear to me, will never....never....diminish the light of God's glory and grace.
Again. I know whereof I speak. I am walking this out in the most painful of ways, in this season of my life. Everything I know about the grace of God is being put to the test, is being walked out, as Jacob limping. I've wrestled this one out, in the dark night of my soul, and God has come away glorified, and His great grace magnified, and I am beautified in vials and vials of the oil of joy, the oil of joy He gives to replace my mourning.
It is well with my soul. The gospel is most beautiful. I can never allow what may be going on in the life of a dear son or a near friend's daughter, or a precious woman's husband, or a precious man's wife....I can never allow any of it to diminish the beauty of grace, or make me run back to law. Rather,this battle, difficult and heartbreaking, will one day bring about sweet victory, as the grace of God teaches everyone who is His, to deny ungodliness.
Lord, let your light shine!
This N' That, July in My World
Our "baby" practicing his drums. (Note the cleaner in the windowsill. We do make him do his chores.)
part of tonight's dinner ~ tomato and cucumber salad from the garden, in a creamy blend of mayonaisse and sour cream (2 to 1 ratio of mayo to sour cream), with lots of chopped dill.
Told you I'd take you with me, on our trip to the mountains, day before yesterday. This was our brief brush with danger. This bear was as big as the Barbie Jeep! He stood his ground for awhile!
Oh...what a view.
Up through the top-down "Barbie Jeep" (red Geo Tracker)
One of many tiny waterfalls - this one went all the way up the steep ridge.
"Run river, run." (Anyone else, like me, love old Bread songs?)A Walk Through the Garden
A few pictures from the gardens, just this morning. I never "style" my photos, so everything you see is as it is. I want to post pictures of my rosemary and foxglove, but I'm out of time. My beloved and I are planning a trip to the mountains (in the Barbie Jeep) late this afternoon, and I have much to do in the meantime. I'll try to remember to take my camera when we leave, so that I can "bring you along" for the ride - top down. Won't you come? Bring a bit of cash for a snack at Dead Beat Pete's. Maybe bring a hat to avoid what I call "crazy convertible hair"....I never wear a hat, though. I don't mind the windblown look. Nothing more relaxing, in my simple version of the world.
peppers - got 5 coming in, and a bunch of blossoms!
the sunflower patch - nothing blooming yet...
Kentucky Wonder pole beans in the back, and basil in the front. (There's thyme in the middle, but you can't see it.)
Our old, broken chimnea, now a planter. My gardening apron and back brace (ahem) hanging where I always reach for them, each day.
tealights along the back deck...
peppers - got 5 coming in, and a bunch of blossoms!
the sunflower patch - nothing blooming yet...
Kentucky Wonder pole beans in the back, and basil in the front. (There's thyme in the middle, but you can't see it.)
Our old, broken chimnea, now a planter. My gardening apron and back brace (ahem) hanging where I always reach for them, each day. (Told you I don't style my pictures. Don't they look hideous, hanging there?)
Rudbeckia and salvia. I want tons more rudbeckia! Masses of it! Billows of it!
The hydrangea I planted this spring has finally bloomed.
The butterfly garden...
Roma tomatoes
a small variety of patio tomato - we've a total of 32 tomatoes coming in.
Rudbeckia and salvia. I want tons more rudbeckia! Masses of it! Billows of it!
The hydrangea I planted this spring has finally bloomed.
The butterfly garden...
Roma tomatoes
a small variety of patio tomato - we've a total of 32 tomatoes coming in. They'll all ripen at about the same time. Want some?
Of Books, and Words Underlined
excerpt from "Seeking the Face of God" by Gary Thomas...
"...'We do not keep ourselves by our own power', Pascal wrote, (in our own strength), 'we have only the counterbalance of two opposing vices, just as we stay upright between two contrary winds. Take one of these vices away, and' (in our own strength), 'we fall into the other.'
What did Pascal mean by this? A man or woman who works very hard may simply be avoiding the sin of laziness by being filled with selfish ambition or greed. Remove his or her hunger for more money and this person will immediately become as lazy as any of us.
Others might be very disciplined around food. They would be the last persons on earth you would label as gluttons. Yet they are disciplined around food because they want to have a physique that will draw attention to themselves, not because they don't want food to have a hold on their hearts and steal their affection for God. They may be free from gluttony only because they are slaves to vanity.
Do you see how we play vice against vice - using vanity to destroy gluttony, for instance - and are upheld by the struggle of two sins? This is a much different holiness than the ancients' view of a transforming passion that gives birth to virtue. On and on we could go, showing how 90 percent of our virtue is a sham, a vice wearing a coat and tie. That is why Jesus constantly pointed us to the heart..."
Reading this yet again today, I found myself rejoicing over the grace of God. In the gospel, I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. No longer do I have to lean on my own understanding, depend on my own human performance, or compare myself to anyone else. I am certain that I am quite imperfect in the estimation of a friend or spouse or child or employer, but none of those people are God. In the estimation of God, I am fully accepted in the Beloved Son.
The gospel of this radical, divine love, as displayed in the finished work of Jesus, is the transforming passion that gives birth to true virtue....grace alone gives birth to accomplishments of any eternal value. He only is "Maker". I can not make of myself anything resembling true virtue. I have set a trumpet to my mouth in this regard, and intend to use it to make a clear and certain sound...trumpeting New Covenant glory...until I leave this earth for heaven, where I will take it up again for the same reason.
90 percent of "my" virtue is a sham. Thank God for the gift of the righteousness of God through Christ.
"...'We do not keep ourselves by our own power', Pascal wrote, (in our own strength), 'we have only the counterbalance of two opposing vices, just as we stay upright between two contrary winds. Take one of these vices away, and' (in our own strength), 'we fall into the other.'
What did Pascal mean by this? A man or woman who works very hard may simply be avoiding the sin of laziness by being filled with selfish ambition or greed. Remove his or her hunger for more money and this person will immediately become as lazy as any of us.
Others might be very disciplined around food. They would be the last persons on earth you would label as gluttons. Yet they are disciplined around food because they want to have a physique that will draw attention to themselves, not because they don't want food to have a hold on their hearts and steal their affection for God. They may be free from gluttony only because they are slaves to vanity.
Do you see how we play vice against vice - using vanity to destroy gluttony, for instance - and are upheld by the struggle of two sins? This is a much different holiness than the ancients' view of a transforming passion that gives birth to virtue. On and on we could go, showing how 90 percent of our virtue is a sham, a vice wearing a coat and tie. That is why Jesus constantly pointed us to the heart..."
Reading this yet again today, I found myself rejoicing over the grace of God. In the gospel, I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. No longer do I have to lean on my own understanding, depend on my own human performance, or compare myself to anyone else. I am certain that I am quite imperfect in the estimation of a friend or spouse or child or employer, but none of those people are God. In the estimation of God, I am fully accepted in the Beloved Son.
The gospel of this radical, divine love, as displayed in the finished work of Jesus, is the transforming passion that gives birth to true virtue....grace alone gives birth to accomplishments of any eternal value. He only is "Maker". I can not make of myself anything resembling true virtue. I have set a trumpet to my mouth in this regard, and intend to use it to make a clear and certain sound...trumpeting New Covenant glory...until I leave this earth for heaven, where I will take it up again for the same reason.
90 percent of "my" virtue is a sham. Thank God for the gift of the righteousness of God through Christ.
Powerful Hymn
My latest, most favorite song. I cannot hear this without tears. Oh, the riches of His glorious grace!
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea,
A great high Priest whose Name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me,
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there, the risen Lamb,
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace.
One with Himself, I cannot die,
My soul is purchased by His blood.
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God!
One with Himself, I cannot die,
My soul is purchased by His blood.
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God!
Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea,
A great high Priest whose Name is Love,
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart,
No tongue can bid me thence depart.
When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end to all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free,
For God, the Just, is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me,
To look on Him and pardon me.
Behold Him there, the risen Lamb,
My perfect, spotless righteousness,
The great unchangeable I AM,
The King of glory and of grace.
One with Himself, I cannot die,
My soul is purchased by His blood.
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God!
One with Himself, I cannot die,
My soul is purchased by His blood.
My life is hid with Christ on high,
With Christ, my Savior and my God!
Can We Articulate It?
Grace. There is a "grace speak" that can only come after long acquaintence with the gospel of Christ. For example, I can hear a phrase in Spanish and I can make those sounds ,while not understanding a word I am saying. But those who speak the language can tell the difference.
On the other hand, if I immerse myself in Spanish culture....ah, that is entirely different. Fluency in the language comes. I can begin to pick up on inflection, nuance, and cadence.
There was a time in my life when I could make grace-sounds. After all...I had heard about grace, through some messages here and there in my short life. "By grace I am saved through faith, and that not of myself. It is the gift of God."
I had to have been not more than ten years old when I memorized that Bible verse. Therefore, as a grown woman, I thought I understood grace, and could speak about grace...what was there not to understand? I'd heard the "song" enough times before, I felt sure I could sing it.
Here is how I may have sounded:
On the other hand, if I immerse myself in Spanish culture....ah, that is entirely different. Fluency in the language comes. I can begin to pick up on inflection, nuance, and cadence.
There was a time in my life when I could make grace-sounds. After all...I had heard about grace, through some messages here and there in my short life. "By grace I am saved through faith, and that not of myself. It is the gift of God."
I had to have been not more than ten years old when I memorized that Bible verse. Therefore, as a grown woman, I thought I understood grace, and could speak about grace...what was there not to understand? I'd heard the "song" enough times before, I felt sure I could sing it.
Here is how I may have sounded:
English sounds, in a way, but no real words, and obviously no understanding. Likewise, I used to make grace- sounds...I could speak gospel syllables...but with no immersion in the truth, there was no clarity, no real personal impact beyond my own assurance of heaven, and behavioral modification.
Gentle reader, I am no Mariah Carey, but let me tell you. Today ~ I can sing the wonderous love of Jesus. I can sing His mercy and His grace. My language is effortless, passionate, and clear. I've been immersed in the gospel of Jesus - grace besotted, fluent and confident in all Christ has done...and consequently the old dialect of law, which distorts the language of grace whenever you try to mix them together, that old dialect of law has nearly disappeared altogether.
I speak native grace.
Now, when I speak about grace, the words and the phrases and the stories I tell all reveal immersion in the concept. I'm living it, not just repeating sermons I may have heard about it. Not just parroting doctrine. Not just singing songs that have no passionate and personal meaning to me.
No more "Ken leeeeeeee tulibu dibu douchoo."
Hallelujah-wahoojah!
Summer Breeze, Makes Me Feel Fine...
...the sun shines, a now-and-again breeze blows, as butterflies make their unpredictable trek across my back yard. Here in the 'burbs, we have "yards", and I couldn't be more proud or content with that reality. Come sit awhile at my table, under the shade of the umbrella, opened to its full width, sheltering you and I - you look like you could use a cold drink.
Settle back, and accept the heat and even the humidity. There is comfort in accepting some things exactly as they are. Relax into it, don't fight it, don't dislike it, because it just "is". You are in my back yard with me, at June's end, here in the luscious, luminous, languid South.
As soon as you begin to unwind, you'll start hearing all the tranquil layers of sound that surround us...the soft strains of a worship song carried by the outdoor speaker...my son and his friends playing in the pool in our neighbor's back yard....deep voices, laughter and splashing...birds singing...the breeze that makes the branches of the huge oak tree breathe, whisper, and do ballet...you will hear the windchimes. No one sound overpowers another; it all blends into a soft, watercolor sound-palette, no harsh edges.
I'm taking painting classes this summer, and with each new lesson, I am more and more in love with words. See, my mind is always making cross-applications. I'm the type of person who can watch an infomercial, and be smacked side-ways with a revelation into the ekklasia (the community of the called-out ones).
Words are my first love, in terms of art-form. I love their every nuance, cadence, and shade of color. I am compelled to trick-out my days with words, accessorizing my experiences, maximizing the joy. In more than one way, I am defined by the words I use.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks....words. Words spoken aloud, words spoken silently, they both equally will express and reveal what I truly believe, and what I believe will ultimately define who I am. A good woman, out of the good treasure of her heart, will speak good words. The things she says, even inside her head, will be good. Thus, the things that come out of her mouth will be good.
That Greek word for "treasure" (found in Matthew 12) is....well, you won't believe what it is. I just learned this today. That Greek word is....thesauros. Does that not just knock you out? Is that not crazy-delightful? Yup, we get our English word "thesaurus" from this Greek word, found in Matthew 12.
My heart is a treasury of words. As the Psalmist said, "my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."
I'll be quiet now. Sorry. I got carried away. I need to take my youngest son to work, now, but you just sit and relax. Make yourself at home - my back yard is your back yard...there is nothing better than summer in the south.
Settle back, and accept the heat and even the humidity. There is comfort in accepting some things exactly as they are. Relax into it, don't fight it, don't dislike it, because it just "is". You are in my back yard with me, at June's end, here in the luscious, luminous, languid South.
As soon as you begin to unwind, you'll start hearing all the tranquil layers of sound that surround us...the soft strains of a worship song carried by the outdoor speaker...my son and his friends playing in the pool in our neighbor's back yard....deep voices, laughter and splashing...birds singing...the breeze that makes the branches of the huge oak tree breathe, whisper, and do ballet...you will hear the windchimes. No one sound overpowers another; it all blends into a soft, watercolor sound-palette, no harsh edges.
I'm taking painting classes this summer, and with each new lesson, I am more and more in love with words. See, my mind is always making cross-applications. I'm the type of person who can watch an infomercial, and be smacked side-ways with a revelation into the ekklasia (the community of the called-out ones).
Words are my first love, in terms of art-form. I love their every nuance, cadence, and shade of color. I am compelled to trick-out my days with words, accessorizing my experiences, maximizing the joy. In more than one way, I am defined by the words I use.
Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks....words. Words spoken aloud, words spoken silently, they both equally will express and reveal what I truly believe, and what I believe will ultimately define who I am. A good woman, out of the good treasure of her heart, will speak good words. The things she says, even inside her head, will be good. Thus, the things that come out of her mouth will be good.
That Greek word for "treasure" (found in Matthew 12) is....well, you won't believe what it is. I just learned this today. That Greek word is....thesauros. Does that not just knock you out? Is that not crazy-delightful? Yup, we get our English word "thesaurus" from this Greek word, found in Matthew 12.
My heart is a treasury of words. As the Psalmist said, "my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."
I'll be quiet now. Sorry. I got carried away. I need to take my youngest son to work, now, but you just sit and relax. Make yourself at home - my back yard is your back yard...there is nothing better than summer in the south.
And a Very Happy Blog-Birthday to Me!
my very first picture, on my very first blog, last year. it took me forever to figure out how to do it! opening the door of my heart to the world was an unforgettable experience.
One year ago, this month, I plunged into the blog world. You can't quite call me "cutting edge" can you? I was a late comer to the blog scene, but that is just fine with me because I have a life to live, otherwise there ain't nothin' to blog about. I had been limping along for years with a used and always crashing laptop, and busy with life in general.
Last year, on Father's Day, Tim secretly got ME a new laptop. That was "his" 2008 Father's Day present. He's like that....and yes, I am blessed to be the most cherished wife in the world. Don't think I don't know. I am profoundly grateful every single day. I couldn't help but think about my husband, my laptop, and the birthday of my blog this past Sunday - Father's Day 2009.
I'll never forget clicking the icon "create blog". I'll never forget saying my first words. It felt like (timidly) opening the door to the world, and inviting them in for June peaches and pound cake.
And you came. You visited me! You like me! (How lame is it, to say that? I can't help it...) Lydia, Jamie, Ursula, Joel, Caryn, Chris and Christine, Dan, Jul, Ann, Donna Jean, Kim, Robyn - and so many more, along with my church family (who have indulged my passion for the computer keyboard, and borne with my need to write above and beyond the call of duty or friendship).
I have shared my passions, my home, my church, my children, a son's high school graduation, a daughter's wedding, birthdays and anniversaries, my heart and my thoughts and even a few of my secrets in this place, over the last twelve months. Blogging has been one of the sweeter blessings of my life, this past year. I am looking forward to my second year of seeing the world through the eyes of a writer - and more than that, through the eyes of a blogger. I hope I have been as gracious a guest on all of your blogs as you have been on mine.
Time is precious. Your time is most precious of all. I count it a joy and a privilege that you would spend even a minute or two with me here. Please come back and say hello when you can.
A toast: to blogging. Ain't it fun?
Collateral Repair
We've all heard the term "collateral damage". The term is defined as "inadvertent destruction." Often, collateral damages are the unintended consequence of war.
Months ago, my pastor-husband began teaching on grace in a way he has never taught it before. He's taught it before, he's counseled people in and inTO the grace of God for years, but very suddenly of late, he has latched onto the doctrines of grace, and began trumpeting and teaching them from the pulpit as if everything depended on God's people getting it. He has not let up for weeks and weeks and weeks. It has been work.
My hero.
And it has been a war of sorts. Only...this war has had much collateral repair. There has been many an instance of collateral healing - both physically (in small ways, so far) and emotionally.
Just today, after our time of corporate worship, a dear friend and sister in the faith came to me and shared in detail about a huge emotional healing that has taken place in her life....one that she wasn't actively seeking. In fact, she pretty much woke up, and realized she has been healed from a deep emotional wound she has carried for two decades.
No one "taught to" her issue. No seminars. No list of "steps to emotional healing". No one telling her to grow up and get on with it. (She's tried that before.) She told me that it has been the emphasis on the grace of God that has brought this amazing collateral healing into her life. This is her analysis, not mine. I witness with it mightily in the Spirit.
Inadvertent, life altering blessing. Collateral repair.
Keep preaching it, beloved pastor-husband of mine! Happy Father's Day. Our God is on the move.
Months ago, my pastor-husband began teaching on grace in a way he has never taught it before. He's taught it before, he's counseled people in and inTO the grace of God for years, but very suddenly of late, he has latched onto the doctrines of grace, and began trumpeting and teaching them from the pulpit as if everything depended on God's people getting it. He has not let up for weeks and weeks and weeks. It has been work.
My hero.
And it has been a war of sorts. Only...this war has had much collateral repair. There has been many an instance of collateral healing - both physically (in small ways, so far) and emotionally.
Just today, after our time of corporate worship, a dear friend and sister in the faith came to me and shared in detail about a huge emotional healing that has taken place in her life....one that she wasn't actively seeking. In fact, she pretty much woke up, and realized she has been healed from a deep emotional wound she has carried for two decades.
No one "taught to" her issue. No seminars. No list of "steps to emotional healing". No one telling her to grow up and get on with it. (She's tried that before.) She told me that it has been the emphasis on the grace of God that has brought this amazing collateral healing into her life. This is her analysis, not mine. I witness with it mightily in the Spirit.
Inadvertent, life altering blessing. Collateral repair.
Keep preaching it, beloved pastor-husband of mine! Happy Father's Day. Our God is on the move.
Grace
Grace is the unmerited smile of God. If glory is the dance of humans with God, grace is the ballroom – wide and free because there is much room. Grace is not a tiny little dance with thin music and stingy steps. This dance is large and free. It never constricts us. It is never set to measure how wrong the dancer or how foolish his elation. Grace saves with celestial music and redeems us, never pointing out to us the end we might have had, if we had not chosen Christ as our life partner. ~Calvin Miller
Stolen Snapshot
Stolen from Kelly's Blog, "Conformed To His Image" (see blogroll to the left...).
(L-R) Amy, me, Kelly, Lisa, Megan, Rhonda, Sarah, Angela, and our nurseLinda kneeling. Hannah took the picture, so she's not in this one.
I saw the best fanny -pack. Fanny- pack, not fanny. Ahem. Far be it from me, typically, to ever want or wear a fanny-pack. Even at forty-something, I am still slightly conscious of my "cool". I, who hiked without one, discovered they are the best things for a semi-long hike. I saw one with TWO waterbottles, one on each side, and the usual compartment in the middle. It looked very outdoorsy...sporty...I could work a fanny pack like that. I could make it look like the coolest fanny pack ever, and all middle aged women everywhere, who have previously avoided fanny packs as much as they have avoided "mom jeans", would want one.
I just might actually have to walk into a Gander Mountain store, and get one. I, who only darken the doors of the girly places like Ann Taylor - unfortunately to covet, never to actually shop - may actually search out a cool fanny pack. Someone please stop me, though, if you see me trying on the back packs with the weird-y ski poles.
A Saturday Spent With Friends
Ingredients for a Perfect Day ~
Take a moss covered tree, a 6 mile hike, with lots of time for conversation...
Add a gorgeous, tumbling river, the sound of which gets into your soul, bringing deep restoration....
Toss in ten women, each with an acute sense of humor, along with the prospect of LUNCH - stir vigorously...
The culmination of The Perfect Day. (By this time, we were absolutely starving.) See the river in the background? And the dollar bills on the wall? We signed our own dollar bill, and added it to the collection.
Harvest Women. Nothin' and no one in this world like 'em. They will fill you with shock and awe, make you laugh, and bless you so big you can't even begin to understand the lifestyle until you've lived it.
I love you girls! I wish each and every one of you could have come.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)