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LT has excerpts from a CBS article on American Evangelicals: it makes me cringe! Brian McClearn offers an alternative on Sojourners.
Bottom line: we have a unique opportunity to see the impact and fallout of a change in age (Modern to Post Modern). It certainly makes for dynamic times! I'm starting to recognize and enjoy the priviledge of this time in history.
Things are a bit off-centre here today. Darryl is cramming to finish his book summaries before he leaves for Boston and so my time of single-parenting arrived somewhat ahead of schedule!
Christina, working on my computer, came across my Lent Calendar 2003 and asked, "Lent! What do we need that for?"
Her question startled me. Admittedly, Lent is not something we have discussed at length or practiced as a family. Our house has not, nor is likely in the next few weeks to, become a haven of tranquility suitable for sustained spiritual reflection. Nor have we stopped eating certain foods. In her experience, Lent is something practiced by some of her friends who attend different churches and yet are believers in Jesus. To her mind, Lent is, at best, not essential to faith in Jesus Christ and, at worst, confusing and irrelevant.
It is amazing how quickly we learn boundaries: both the necessary and the unnecessary! It is also amazing how rigidly we enforce the boundaries we have learned.
Time for a review of history and thinking about what Lent could mean for us today.
Issue 7 of "Relevant" arrived today (technically it's Darryl's subscription!). The following from Garry Geer really resonated with me (probably resonated with my "mommy" nerve too).
While I mow our lawn with the push mower, my 5-year-old boy often comes out and joins me. He likes to stand in front of me and grip the mower handle as I push. He proudly insists he is helping. He actually does very little, and I even have to slow down to make sure he's not hurt if he falls. I don't need him to mow my lawn. It will be accomplished whether he tags along or not. But he wants to be with me. He wants to do what his father is doing. He wants to be in on accomplishing the tasks his father believes are important. His service is a precious and vital form of fellowship with me. Is there any difference with our Father? He supplies us with the opportunity, the desire and the ability to accomplish His will. He guides our fumbling hands, removes the true burden from our shoulders and sees that we do not hurt ourselves. In our audacity, we return to Him, claiming that we deserve special favor for our "service". Let it be enough for us to say that we were able to spend time with our Father.
I would not have done well today had it not been for the assistance of my housekeeper! Late last week I was thinking: "Do we really need her to come back? We're doing fairly well." Darryl was adamant: she's coming on Monday. Sunday evening brought to light a situation that, apart from support on Monday, would have overwhelmed and discouraged me terribly. In fact, it could easily have sent me in a negative emotional direction.
I am thankful!
I was reflecting earlier tonight about how my children function better within positive structure and consistency - it provides the security in which they are able to flourish.
A certain amount of this need carries over into adult life. Some would argue that thought and yet, as LT comments, similar patterns emerge amongst those who consider themselves to be rebels, emergents, etc.
Even apart from the church, examination of world history reveals a basic human need to create structure and consistency. "NO structure" will be temporary at best and devasting at worst.
The best example of positive structure and consistency that I have observed had a look, at times, of chaos. Individual freedom to move, do, create, work within established perimeters. The "perimeters" were simple: do your work (but do it where you are best able and most want to do it); don't leave without a buddy to ensure that you return safely; treat others with respect; a consistent signal to establish the need to stop, look and listen.
Rethinking my world through this lens right now.
Great Eugene Peterson quote over on Soul gardeners, "The Sabbath is a stop sign on the street of days. Stop what you are doing and look around, see what is going on. And listen. What is going on? God, mostly. God creating; God saving; God providing; God blessing; God speaking."
Stop, Look, Listen - by the age of 18 months I began to teach our children to do those same things before they stepped past our front sidewalk. Interesting that God encourages us to regularly do the same. More preschool learning happening here!!
Enjoyed sabbath with my family, LT, and Bene this past week. Missing the company a bit now.
For more on Sabbath, check out a new series on DashHouse.
The fourth day with our houseguest, LT, is coming to a close. It has been a wonderful time of chatting, questions, teasing and consumption of Tim Hortons donuts.
We took a wonderful adventure, all 5 of us in the vibe, to visit with Bene. Darryl captured a couple of photos. A surprise overnight made the trip really neat! Thanks Bene et al for a wonderfully, fantastic time!
I am compelled to inform you that LT has abandonned his first priority of visiting! It has left me in position of self-defense and I watch as my children now come scrambling to their mother's defense. With only two days to go I am confident that I can hold my own ground and the children will not suffer any longterm psychological damage. However, I have to wonder if LT does not wish to be invited back to our home or, having met both of us, does LT find himself more secure in his relationship with me than he does with Darryl? Of course, there is still the possibility that he swings both ways!
Perhaps some of you who better know LT might give me some thoughts on this conundrum!
The "Adventure" continues!!
I enjoy the precious moments when I get a glimpse of God at work in the lifestory of another. The following update from a friend of mine is one of those moments:
As for my walk with God, well that is long tale. I have found that at 25 when you are told that your wife has cancer you have two ways to react - Anger and Fight or Pain and Surrender. I never even had the urge to fight. I remember lying on the living room floor with tears pouring down my face being a completely broken man. At that point I surrendered total control of my life to God (As if I ever had really had control of it!). That is the way we accepted everything with her illness. We never asked "why?" we only asked "What would You have us do with this?" Even when she died in my arms 5 and half years later, I surrendered her to her heavenly Father. My testimony is not one great salvation. In fact my salvation was nothing exciting. My true testimony is one of continued caring and guidance of God in my life. Everyday I am in awe of God's hand, his control over simple decisions that in retrospect have brought forth profound changes. When we selected a house in West Virginia, I had no idea that a year after her death, I would meet and eventually marry the woman who lived 4 doors away; I now know that God had us there for a reason. I think that God just laughs at me when I finally look back and see His hand on me and I remain in awe and wonder.
Yesterday I received an email apology from someone I have not had contact with for many years. The humility of his words, his honesty and request for forgivenss, left me humbled. In my heart I had to admit that there was a time when I took opportunities to put him down - I too needed forgiveness.
Stillness is the moment of quiet that we allow for respect and reflection. Stillness is that holy pause when the greatest of truths leave their indelible marks on our hearts and minds and souls. Expressions of humility, brokenness, contrition, they are all followed by stillness. We try, at times in vain, to absorb the power of the truth that we have heard and seen.
God is in the Stillness. Repeatedly He reaffirms this truth. It comes as no surprise to me, then, that my meditation today from Exodus 14 was titled "Stillness". Like the Israelites I am often surprised by the circumstances God allows and chooses to use. I often think: "This was not what we wanted. This was not a better life for us in the Promised Land." It seems impossible for there to be any solution. God replies "Be still." His deliverance follows my stillness.
Sometimes, as a person who has known periods of great depression, it feels as though I am the one broken, humiliated, contrite; the stillness comes to those around me. But this time was different. This time my humility came in the stillness: God is continuing His redemptive work in the life of a now-distant friend and I need to be reconciled in Christ to all that God has accomplished.
What follows? Rivers of healing and lovingkindness flooded my heart. Washed away are the wrongs of hurtful things said and done. The love of Christ makes all things new. God is in the business of reconciling all things to his holiness - even those things we long ago abandonned.
An email: in the midst of my journey God is in the stillness.
My house hasn't been this clean since we moved in! In the last 3 days we've had 2 housekeepers here for a total of 13 hours - we're talking serious cleaning here not that "Dash Clean" routine that moves what is undesirable to unseen places!! I think we are coming close to eliminating the last of the dust, cobwebs, grease and mold. We hired the second one today to come on a bi-weekly basis. Not only that, today we bought a dishwasher and it will be installed on Thursday!! It's crazy. (We still have 3 inches of ice on the drive way so from the exterior you can still find us. Next year I'm gonna put a board at the end of the drive and use the garden house to fill in the bumps so we can skate on it!! I digress.)
So anyway, want to know some "unrelated" news that accompanies this miraculous transformation of our small domain? Turns out that my husband has a buddy that's coming to stay with us for six days here in TO - on Thursday no less (see dishwasher installation date above)! Yep, some guy he 'knows' from the internet. Don't get me wrong now. By his own accounts this guy sounds alright http://www.theheresy.com/editor.cfm but I have to say that he has friends who post photos that suggest otherwise.
Questions: Are we such complete slobs that two housekeepers and a new dishwasher are required to bring us to a socially acceptable level of cleanliness? Was my husband simply trying to make life easier for himself by reducing his required contribution to the upkeep of our home? Did my husband hire 2 housekeepers and buy a dishwasher to support, encourage and in every way make life easier for the love of his life, the delight of his heart and the bearer of his two beautiful children? Or was all of this done for an online, unknown, yet to be confirmed as okay, guy?
You be the judge. Let me know your thoughts!
