itsawonderfilledlife

Archive for 2019

Blessings

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #blessings on March 21, 2019| 2 Comments »

The approach of significant events (birthdays, anniversaries) makes one reflective, contemplative.

As I approach (at fright train speed) such a significant life event, I have been pondering not just my years lived, with all the accompanying successes and failures, but also where I hope to go from here.

I recently read the words of Solomon’s Benediction (1 Kings 8:54-66), and found great inspiration in his blessing of Israel.

⁵⁴Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. ⁵⁵And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, ⁵⁶“Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. ⁵⁷The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, ⁵⁸that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. ⁵⁹Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people (Israel), as each day requires, ⁶⁰that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. ⁶¹Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”

Solomon’s blessing made me think about blessings, beyond the sometimes pithy #blessed. As one looks at a life lived, in process and to come it is truly impossible to respond with anything other than,

I have been blessed
I am blessed
I know I will be blessed

Solomon had just experienced the blessing of God, hands outstretched to receive. Then he stood, and took what God gave him, and shared it. asking for God to give to them what they need for each day, for the cause of Christ, which is the reaching and changing of hearts towards the Lord God.

This is our life’s calling … yesterday, today and tomorrow.

This prayer, written in or before 1506, by hands not known, is the spirit of my prayer today:

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A Break from the Everyday

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #abreakfromtheeveryday, #lent on March 19, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Whether it is a vacation, a weekend or a snow day, we all need (physically, mentally and spiritually) periodic breaks from the everyday of life.

At some point in my life I remember a slogan, whose origins I do not remember (and could not find in my web search):

a break from the everyday

I love my life, my job, the routines and rhythms of my days … that is what gets me up and keeps the hamster on the wheel.

But …

it is the times of break from the everyday routines that are the fuel for the everyday.

I experience, what I like to call my undiagnosed ADHD, as soon as a break begins. It is a struggle to sleep (though exhausted) and a struggle to sit still. I am like a child at Christmas … not wanting to waste a precious second of this gift of time (usually refinishing a new ‘treasure’). Eventually sleep does come and a book or puzzle does get pulled out … and I breath.

The season of Lent is a similar break. Perhaps the break is from a habit or pleasure, perhaps it is the addition of prayer, or fasting, or both.

Lent culminates in the remembering of Christ’s final week … the entrance to Jerusalem, the final supper, betrayal, night in Gethsemane, arrest, trial, torture, crucifixion, death, and rising again.

It is his rising again that gives us breath, that makes our everyday hope-filled. It is in his rising that gives us a break from the emptiness of routine without hope of renewal … renewal that lasts an eternity.

Sabbath Poem V,
Wendell Berry

Six days of work are spent To make a Sunday quiet
That Sabbath may return.
It comes in unconcern;
We cannot earn or buy it. Suppose rest is not sent
Or comes and goes unknown, The light, unseen, unshown. Suppose the day begins

In wrath at circumstance,
Or anger at one’s friends
In vain self-innocence
False to the very light, Breaking the sun in half,
Or anger at oneself
Whose controverting will Would have the sun stand still. The world is lost in loss

Of patience; the old curse Returns, and is made worse As newly justified.
In hopeless fret and fuss, In rage at worldly plight Creation is defied,

All order is unpropped,
All light and singing stopped.

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Sanctuary

Posted in Faith, WONDER, tagged #freedomofreligion, #sanctuary on March 17, 2019| Leave a Comment »

The news of the murder of forty-nine Muslim worshippers, in their sanctuary, makes the hearts of all worshippers break … for we all know the vulnerability of associating with a belief.

The fact that these people were attacked in their place of worship, their sanctuary, makes it seem an even greater violation on humanity and of hatred.

A sanctuary is a safe place, a place where those who feel they may be persecuted or harmed may go to be protected from the world and it’s laws (separation of church and state in a very practical way). I cannot hear the word sanctuary without hearing Quasimodo declaring it in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

For blood to be shed in a sanctuary is a particularly devastating and cruel violence.

In January, bombs were detonated at a Catholic church in Jolo, Philippines, killing twenty-three. Last fall almost a dozen Jewish worshippers were killed at their Pittsburgh synagogue. An article at www.nbcnews.com documents numerous such killings over the past decade.

Sanctuary is not just a place, it is also a state of being … one that is birthed in our faith, one that is borne out of shalom, a peace that passes understanding.

The freedom of a sanctuary, freedom of religion is a precious gift. Our faith ought to be a place of sanctuary … our sanctuaries places of worship to the one in whom we have put our faith.

Freedom of religion is a gift that we have in many, but not all, places in the world. Even where we have been given that gift, it can still be violated.

So, what do we do about such hatred, such violation, such violence? We go to our sanctuaries, we pray, we worship … we take advantage of this freedom that we have. And we remember those who are hurting, those whose lives have been turned upside-down by such horrors.

We pray for them, we pray for us.

“Worshipers never leave church…
we carry our sanctuary with us wherever we go.”
Aiden Wilson Tozer

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Time(s) Change

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #change, #timeschange on March 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

This week the Pacific Northwest is living in future … waking an hour earlier than our inner, habitual clocks are accustomed. By this point in week one of Daylight Savings Time our excitement for the longer, lighter evenings has past, as has our vitality.

This annual ritual, and the exhaustion that follows it, reminds me of other times when we move forward into the future, with excitement, then the reality of change gets us down.

I remember one of our kids, so excitedly counting down until they could finally start kindergarten. The day they had waited for finally arrived and they couldn’t wait … until it was time to step into the class without mom or dad. An inner struggle occurred as they looked forward, into the kindergarten experience they had dreamed of, yet looking into the eyes of the pair whose presence brought security. Eventually they stepped over the threshold, with not even a glance back.

I remember the excitement of moving … until I had packed a hundred boxes, and the house barely even looked like I had started. It didn’t seem worth it! After the packing, then the many days of unpacking in the new house, after the boxes were finally out of our new home … the pains of the process to get moved faded as we nested into our new home.

“For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
it will surely come; it will not delay.”
Habakkuk 2:3

Soon, the uncertainty and fatigue of change will pass, and we will be sitting on our decks, at the lake, on a boat, at the beach staring off at the sunset, marvelling at how light it still is at such a late hour … vitality not only returned, but reborn.

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If I Were to Write a Proverb

Posted in life, WONDER, tagged #ifiweretowriteaproverb on March 12, 2019| Leave a Comment »

If I were to write a proverb it would be,

Two things are guaranteed to make one unhappy :
expectation and comparison.

For our expectations can place a heavy weight of performance on ourselves and others, and comparison is always between what we know and what we think we know.

Those of us who tend towards perfectionism, struggle especially with these practices, always wanting better, always seeing what we want in the lives of those around us.

Though high expectations can motivate us to reach for the stars, they can also become unwritten ‘rules’, enslaving us in our pursuits. Though high expectations, placed on others, can sometimes be good (when our expectations are for service we pay for, fair treatment from others) they can also isolate us from those who love us, sincerely yet imperfectly.

Though comparison can sometimes open our eyes to new and different ways of doing things, more often it is used like school students, peeking at the mark their peers got on a test, mentally positioning themselves (ourselves) above or below them in value.

When God had announced to Abraham and Sarah that they would finally become parents (at a most … unnatural … age for this to occur, he asked of them (Genesis 18:14):

“is anything too hard for the Lord?”

In God we can place our expectations and he will not just meet, but exceed them. There is no other to compare to him. He is beyond human comparison.

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Interrelated Equality

Posted in Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #equality, #interrelatedequality on March 10, 2019| Leave a Comment »

My upbringing has never allowed me to see that my being female is anything but equal to my spouse, my male siblings, peers, co-workers or members of my community.

Whether it was my place in my family, workplace or the plan of God, I have never believed (or been led to believe) that I am anything but equal to men.

I know this is not always the case, for all women.

I know of and know well, women who have felt manipulated, abused, undervalued and kicked to the floor (literally and figuratively) by male counterparts.

And I will simply never get it, never understand how any individual could believe that they have that right.

Men and women have been interdependent of one another since our creation in the garden. Men need women, women need men. This interdependence is a most powerful example of the concept of yin and yang, comparable to the ‘a time to’ verses of Ecclesiastes 3.

In the Ancient History Encyclopedia, the definition of Yin and Yang is that “all things exist as inseparable and contradictory opposites.”ides come in to shore, then move back out to the oceans.

Women and men are different, yet equal. Their interdependence is the force which should pull them together, for mutual, societal benefit.

For men who view women as a substandard creation is antithetical to the narrative of the Bible, to God’s intended plan.

It was through Mary, a young woman, who God first shared his plan of delivery of his son to our world, through she, herself. It was to a woman, Mary Magdalene, who Jesus first revealed himself for after rising from the grave. The roles they played were complimentary and significant to the story of the life of Christ.

Never once does Jesus hurt, abuse, demean or mock a woman. Never once does he turn his back on the needs of a woman. As a matter of fact, it was when a woman was behind him, who (Mark 5:24-34) had been bleeding for twelve years, that, through just the touch of his cloak, she was healed.

He treated woman with the same love, care and tenderness that he did men. He is our model and we all (men and women alike) must ensure that we are following his example.

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Sacrifices for Better

Posted in canada, tagged #balanceforbetter, #sacrificesforbetter on March 8, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Happy International Women’s Day!

I love being a woman, been raised by an amazing woman, have raised a couple of women, work with and for a number of women.

I do believe that if we can find our strength, our confidence and our comfortability in our own skin, we can do just about anything we set our minds to.

The theme of International Women’s Day this year is #BalanceforBetter. On the IWD website it says, of balance:

“We notice its absence and celebrate its presence.”

The idea of this theme is, perhaps, a bit more applicable to women in developed, as opposed to developing countries, where women’s struggles are, perhaps, more foundational. It applies to “gender-balance in business, government, media, wealth, sports coverage, etc.”

I am old enough to have seen changes in our world, regarding this desired balance. I remember when leaders in all areas of society were men. Women have worked hard to achieve positions of leadership and visibility.

I am young enough to have not known what it was to be persecuted for my gender (other than once … and that was by another woman … but that is a story for another day). Over twenty years ago I worked as a Drafstman for a well-established Engineering company. It wasn’t until recent years that I realized I was their only (and first) woman hired in that position. I just knew that I was thrilled to have gotten a job there.

For me (and I know that there are other narratives out there that tell a very different story), being a woman has never hindered me, my goals, my future. I know that part of that has to do with who I am, how I interpret events in my life. I also know that I am blessed, benefitting every day, from the women who went before me, paving the way of balance for myself.

Recently, while assisting a high school student on an assignment, I was introduced to Pink Teas. In the early 1900s, as women, in Canada, were striving for the freedom to vote (and, first, to be recognized as ‘persons’) they found that through organizing these ‘Pink teas’ … women-only events, complete with lace doilies and finger foods … more women were able (allowed) to attend, and the events would not be interrupted by opponents.

These events, and the work of the Famous Five (Emily Murphy, Irene Marryat Parlby, Nellie Mooney McClung, Louise Crummy McKinney and Henrietta Muir Edwards) resulted in England’s Privy Council declaring that, indeed, women are persons. Lord Sankey declaring “The exclusion of women from all public offices is a relic of days more barbarous than ours.”

Balance is better, better for all people. And balance is best achieved when the door is opened to us all to achieve our place in business, government and society by our merits, our hard work, our giftedness.

Perhaps, in Canada today, our greatest example of female leadership is a woman who has spoken up and stepped down from a position of power, out of personal integrity, out of knowing that her position (provided for out of balance) is not as important as truth.

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In Earth and Sky and Sea

Posted in Nature/Creation, WONDER, tagged #inearthandskyandsea, Worship on March 5, 2019| Leave a Comment »

There is no greater sanctuary than to stand on soil, under the firmament, with nothing in view, nothing that one can hear, or smell, touch or taste, but that which God created.

It is there, in the midst of God’s creation that worship has nothing to do with professional, rock star ‘esque musicians and worship leaders … for the creation itself call us, our souls, to worship without hesitation, without hindrance.

Maybe it is the realization of the truth of Psalm 19:1-4:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.”

It is as though something within us is in touch with the created world around us … we do share the same Creator. It is when we are within that which he spoke into place that our innate need to worship bubbles up from within us, and we just have to worship, to praise, to give thanks.

“But ask the animals, and they will teach you,
    or the birds in the sky, and they will tell you;
or speak to the earth, and it will teach you,
    or let the fish in the sea inform you.
Which of all these does not know
    that the hand of the Lord has done this?
¹⁰In his hand is the life of every creature
    and the breath of all mankind.”
Job 12:7-10

And if we don’t worship the Creator?

Well, the rest of Creation, from the mountains and hills, to the trees of the field and the birds in the the trees will worship, will cry out the song to the Creator.

“You will go out in joy
    and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
    will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
    will clap their hands.”
Isaiah 55:12

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God Hates …

Posted in Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #godhates, #mythoughtsarenotgodsthoughts on March 3, 2019| Leave a Comment »

In typical human arrogance, we Christians often think we have things all figured out … particularly when it comes to God. Obviously Christians, followers of Christ, should know and understand God better than those who do not, but sometimes (often?) we inflict our human understanding onto the mind of God.

Usually this happens when we look at sin … not our sin, but the sins committed by others.

I expect that because, in human/worldly avenues, we tend to prioritize or pyramid things in life, we do the same when it comes to how we understand the heart of God.

So, when it comes to sin, we also prioritize or put them in a pyramid of seriousness … and we think that God does too.

But, “Gods ways are not our ways” (Isaiah 55:8), his perspectives on the sins he hates might just surprise most of us (myself included, as I was reminded of these verses, just last week).

So, what does God hate?

According to Proverbs 6:16-19:

“There are six things the Lord hates,
seven that are detestable to him:

haughty eyes,
a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
a heart that devises wicked schemes,
feet that are quick to rush into evil,
a false witness who pours out lies
and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.”

Hum … not quite the sins that preoccupy church discussions, are they? I cannot remember the last time I heard of a Christian organization worried about rampant lying, or haughty eyes.

Though I never doubt that there is a God, I love to be reminded that I am not him …

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8-9

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The Waiting has Purpose

Posted in Walking with God, WONDER, tagged #hope, #thewaitinghaspurpose on February 28, 2019| Leave a Comment »

When you are seeking … for something, anything.

When your ear wants to hear … but the sound is not yet there.

When your eyes are searching the horizon … but nothing appears.

When your heart just knows … knows that there is a message coming, that there is reason why the hair is standing on the back of your neck.

When your soul is … restless.

The experience that something visceral, felt deep within is about to happen.

I learned of a song I hadn’t heard, and sought out it’s story … for every song, every piece of art, every created thing has a story … behind it, within in, for the creator as well as the admirer.

Though the lyrics of the song do not contain these words, this scripture from Lamentations 3:28-30 (Message) was mentioned in the writer’s description of it’s formation:

“When life is heavy and hard to take,
    go off by yourself. Enter the silence.
Bow in prayer. Don’t ask questions:
    Wait for hope to appear.
Don’t run from trouble. Take it full-face.
    The “worst” is never the worst.”

Within a few short lines, such depth, such good advice, encouragement.

When life is heavy, we often go after advice and help through people, books, podcasts. Yet, this encouragement to enter the silence, to join with God in his silence and not ask why? when? don’t keep searching for answers, but just …

wait.

wait for hope

to appear.

He’s reminding us that he will answer, he will be there … he is there. We just need to bow in prayer, rest in him, wait for the hope that is only available through him.

The waiting has purpose.
The purpose is always hope,
if we wait with him.

Then that final reminder, “the worst is never the worst.”

Hope resides in the reminder that today’s worst is never the worst. Our heavenly father knows the worst, he gave his son up to save us from the worst. Our hope is in him.

The same week that I was seeking, listening, looking and my soul was restless, the same week that this song came to my ears, that that sunrise brightened my view, a friend lovingly shared a message about hope (coincidence? I think not).

If hope is what you are looking for from every fibre of your being, or if you are just restless … check out Hope is too Heavy Sometimes, by Abby Norman.

“I do not believe that we are meant to hope alone. Hope is often a burden best shared.” Abby Norman

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