Day 4 - Facing God Today

The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.

This prayer of Moses summons Israel to experience the healing glory of gazing into the face of God. What the Bible is telling us is that God’s face is turned toward us with divine delight in who we are, and we are invited to turn our faces toward God to find grace and peace.

McKnight goes on from here to talk about the intimacy of our face-to-face relationships and how important they are to us.  Those who mean the most to us are those who we encounter and know face-to-face.  Family and friends who we can be most comfortable with - who really know us and love us anyway. :) 

This is the kind of relationship that God wants to give to us - one that is face-to-face.  When we are able to look into the face of God, full of assurance and confidence that He loves us completely and without finding fault, then His grace and peace will be real to us.

Day 3 - Loving Others

Disclaimer:  You'll notice my next 3 posts are all on the same day...  I promise I didn't fall off the wagon that quickly!  I was out of town all weekend with a bunch of crazy teenagers and had no wi-fi and quite literally, no time... so I'm catching up today.  :) 

This lesson on Loving Others focused on the parable of the Good Samaritan.  Here are my two favorite quotes...

A scribe asked Jesus how to gain eternal life. Jesus, ever the good teacher, asked him what the Torah teaches. After proving to Jesus that he understood the Jesus Creed, that the two central commands of God’s Torah were to love God and love others, that scribe asked Jesus another question. This time, though, the scribe revealed that he was not yet ready for the revolutionary nature of the Jesus Creed he had so glibly coughed up. He asked Jesus, probably with a little sniff of snobbery, “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). Jesus answered with the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37). That clever parable revealed that the real question was not “Who is my neighbor?”—a question that permits one to create boundary lines—but “To whom should I be neighborly?”

This tendency of ours to create 'boundaries' walls us in to our own comfortable world and we start to label those outside of our walls and stereotype them according to those labels... rich, poor, black, white, mexican, homeless, disabled, handicapped, crazy, gay, straight, christian, athiest, muslim,  and on and on....  McKnight says that Jesus was challenging the attitude of the Jews at the time who only treated Jews as their 'neighbors.'  They were, and we are, great at taking care of their own, but Jesus calls us to take down the boundaries and love ALL of our neighbors. 

Neighbor-love, as Jesus teaches it and practices it, crosses those boundaries because it responds to needs, not labels. Two of the biggest challenges of living the Jesus Creed are these: learning to see and hear the needs of the one who happens to be my neighbor and learning to discern when and how to respond.

Day 2 - Loving God

So I have committed Mark 12:29-31 to memory and have recited it several times throughout the day today...  I like having that on my heart and mind. :)

Today's reading focused on loving God.  My favorite "one-liner" from today was this:

"To love God means to yearn for, to pray for, and work for what glorifies God and what puts God in God's place in your life."

I like the idea of putting God in God's place in my life. :)

And then there was this thought:

"David Gill writes of two kinds of love:  table-love, which is the love of fellowship and commnuion, and cross-love, which is the love seen in sacrifice and devotion.  We might add that we findv this first kind of love, table-love, through his second kind of love, cross-love.  We could say that we find delightful communion with God by giving ourselves to God just as we find delighttful communion with a friend or lover by giving ourselves to the other.  Jesus calls us to the cross-love of God by giving to God our heart, soul, mind, and strength - and on the other side, we find table-love with God."

I think, perhaps, I know this 'cross-love' that Gill speaks of... but it is the 'table-love' that still feels elusive to me and that I so desire.  Perhaps that means that there is still more of the 'cross-love' that I need to learn and to practice and then one day I may find myself more fully on the other side in the 'delightful communion' of table-love with my friend Jesus.
 

40 Days Living the Jesus Creed

In a rather last minute move (I decided to do this yesterday!), I decided I wanted to do something for Lent this year.  I've never done anything before - never thought much about it, really.  But I saw a link to this book by Scott McKnight and thought it would be good.  I decided that I would read each day's devotional and post something from what I've read each day.  I know Lent is usually a season of giving up something to help focus more on Jesus and his sacrifice for us, but I somehow felt the need to take something on that I hope will help me to intentionally draw near to Jesus in this time.  Of course, I also find that in doing the reading and blogging, I'm also giving up some of my creature comforts to take the time to do this, and that's a good thing. :)   (Like right now, I'm already being sorely tested, having just walked in the door at 9:30 from a very long day.  Mostly I just want to eat my ice cream and go collapse in bed. ha)

So, the focus of today's reading was on the Shema. (in the form that Jesus told us to remember it):

"Hear, O Israel:  the Lord our God, the Lord is one;  you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength."  The second is this, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."  There is no other commandment greater than these.

McKnight is urging everying to commit this to memory and repeat it as often as you think of it throughout the day...  "To remind ourselves, in a sacred rhythm, that our central tasks are to love God and to love others."   And I love what he says just after this and it is my takeaway from today...  "It is one thing to do what seems to be right or good and just;  it is another thing to love God and to love others - all day long with every ounce of our being."

This is the shift I find myself needing right now - not just trying to do good, but learning to love God and others with every ounce of my being - there's not much room for self in that equation.  So challenging. 

A Day

It's been almost a year since I started working part-time.  It's only 15 to 20 hours a week, and I really enjoy my job, but I do realize that it has given me a much greater appreciation for my days off and for time to myself.

I was doing some reading and looking back through some old journals this morning and realizing how much time I had at one time... boy did I spend a lot of time writing...  don't do much of that these days. 

I almost took a trip up to Green Mountain, but since it looked like the mountain was totally covered in fog (clouds?) and that it might rain at any minute, I decided not to.   But it's kind-of a bummer because that's my go-to place when I have a lot on my mind.

But I did make myself go out for a run and that felt really good... and I realized something.  I've been trying to get back into running lately and I've developed a new attitude towards it.  About this time 4 years ago, I had decided to train for a 10K.  So I trained for it, very meticulously, ran it, completed it, and was happy about it.  Of course, that's also when my hip started bothering me... and it's been a fight to run consistently since then.  I would find myself setting another goal for a run, strapping on my GPS watch, getting my running music ready, and heading out the door with a certain pace in mind...  and spend the whole run either mad at myself because I wasn't running as fast as I used to, or frustrated because my hip was hurting (probably because I was pushing myself too much.) 

Well, this last couple of weeks as I've headed out to run, I've purposely left the GPS watch behind so I have NO idea how fast I'm running or how long I've been out.  (I kinda know how far I've gone because I run pretty much the same routes all the time. ha)  My music has switched from the heart-pounding pace-setting running playlist on my ipod to, at least for today, some much more soulful, classical music by Michael W. Smith that I just love.  And I just went out.... and ran.  Slowly, peacefully... just enjoying how it felt.  And when it was time to head for home, I even ran up and down another street because I just wasn't ready to be done yet.  :) 

So, honestly, I may pay for it all later and have to pull out the ice pack and Advil for my hip, but it's all good for now. 

And it helped me clear my head some and feel better.  (Maybe that was the endorphins!)  :)

And I was reminded of something that I saw on FaceBook a few days ago and meant to say something about:

This struck a nerve with me.  It made me realize that when I lose touch with the creative side of myself, I lose touch with my soul.  And really, I don't think of myself as a very creative person, but there's some kind of creativity in all of us, I believe.  I love music perhaps the most... like today when I was running.  No words are necessary...  just a melody can reach my heart in a way that honestly, I don't have words to express. (Michael W. Smith - "The Tribute") But then there are other songs where the words do help...  one that I listened to this morning reminded me that sometimes when I struggle to find words in prayer, a song can express all that my heart needs to say.  (Michael W. Smith "Lord Have Mercy")   I really miss singing with our 'group' at church that has slowly disbanded over the last year. That has created a big void in my life that I'd like to find a way to fill...

I do sing in the shower sometimes...  I have danced (badly!) to the radio...  (actually, full disclosure, my latest dancing adventure was to an exercise video called Bollywood Belly Dancing and yes, it's as hysterical as it sounds... especially if you picture me doing it. hahaha....)  I LOVE stories - all kinds of stories - I think it's probably the only way to get to know others and really understand them.  And I have written some poems... very rarely... and they probably weren't very good, but they were always heartfelt.  My latest thought, after taking Anna and her friends to paint at Spirited Art, is that I'd like to give that a try...  I've never even been able to draw a decent stick figure, but they promise you can overcome even that.  We'll see...  

But when he said, "practicing an art, no matter how well or how badly, is a way to make your soul grow," something inside of me just went...YES.   And I need that...  especially in times that are a bit soul-withering.  I need it even more.

I suppose that writing this blog is one of my creative outlets...  maybe it's what is replacing the journaling to some degree.  Whatever the case, it's good for my soul.  :)

Oh, and since pictures are another kind of creative expression, and since I didn't get to go up to Green Mountain today, I looked back through a few pictures and thought I'd share this one - truly one of my most favorite places:

 

From here I guess my day will move back into the 'things that need to get done' mode....laundry, dinner, vacuuming, bills, etc.  But some days require you to pause for a little while and catch your breath... this was one of those days.

 

Sweet Sixteen, part 2

I think when I last left the Sweet Sixteen story, I was waiting on a call from the garage about the tires being put on Anna's car.  Just as I was about to give up hope, Jack called to let me know the car was ready.  (whew!)  So my dad and I set out to pick it up - thankfully it was ready to go, didn't cost too much, and I made it to pick up Anna from school on time!  The day was starting to look up.  :)

So I picked up Anna and her friend Lena from school in the pouring rain.  They ran and jumped in the car and didn't have time to notice that anything was different.  ha.  But I told her about the tires and when we got to the DMV, she saw them and the new "Life is Good" spare tire cover and decals on the back of the car and really liked all of it.   Later that night, after Jack got home from work, he was able to put the side step rails on and I finished a couple more decals on the back and finally, it was all done. 

So, I guess we had planned to have this great car makeover "reveal" and it was all going to be this great surprise, but it ended up being kind-of a gradual thing that happened through the day.  Oh well, the good news is that by the end of the day, it all got done and she was happy.  :)   Actually, I have to tell this one thing cause I think it's funny.  I had this anchor decal to put on her back window and it was the last decal I put on.  I was having trouble deciding exactly where to put it to line up with everything and I rushed myself a bit cause it was getting late.  And it ended up being a bit crooked.  I was hoping I might get away with it - that she wouldn't notice.  Yeah, right.   (Really, I knew she would notice - ha.)  Anyways, she came out to the garage after everything was done.  She walked around the car and looked at everything.  She stopped at the back, looking at the new decals.  And then I could tell... she was looking at the anchor.  She told us how much she liked everthing, then hesitated... and I just said, "I know, the anchor is crooked."  She laughed and said, "Yeah, no big deal."  :)

It hasn't happened yet, but we'll be fixing the anchor soon...  ha.

Here's some before and after pictures... they're not too great because they are in the garage, but it was pouring outside!!

 

Before Side-rails

 

After Side-rails

 

Before Tire Cover

 

 Before Back Window

 

After Back Tire Cover and Window

 

So that's the car makeover....  some day it will be warm and sunny enough outside to wash and clean it up and really take some decent pictures... and maybe even get the anchor taken care of... 

 

I think I also mentioned that the DMV was the best part of the day.  I'm here to tell you that the best time of the day to go to the Huntsville DMV is right after school.  No lie.  I've heard horror stories of camping out EARLY in the morning only to end up waiting 2 hours in line, etc.  We walked in at 3:30, we were the 2nd people in line.  We spent 5 minutes filling out paperwork.  Went straight back up to the desk.  At this point, things were really easy because Anna had taken Driver's Ed, so all she had to do was turn in a certificate, take a picture, and get her liscense.  yay! I think we were out by 4:00.  :)  So, the most stressful part of all of this ended up being trying to make sure she got a driver's liscense photo that she could be proud of for the next few years!! haha.  And here was the result:  (It turned out good!!)

 

 

She didn't get to drive to gym that night because the weather was so bad, so that was kind-of a bummer, but all in all, the day turned out pretty good. 

 

We had a fun birthday party over the weekend with some of her friends from school - I'll put pictures of that up in my next post. 

 

So finally, Happy Sweet Sixteen to my beautiful, sweet Anna!  



Story, Interrupted...

I realize that it's been a couple of days since I started Anna's "Sweet Sixteen" story and I still haven't finished it yet.  Some of that has to do with lack of time...  but right now it seems, for some reason, that Blogspot is having trouble with uploading pictures from your computer's hardrive.  This is really frustrating and I've tried a couple of workarounds that aren't working.  :(  And since most of my follow-up story is one that I intended to tell with pictures, it's a little hard to do right now! 

So I will say, for now, that the day continued to have more twists and turns, but by the NEXT day, everything finally got worked out.  And when the picture-uploading thing gets straightened out, I will finish my story.  :)

I will say this -- Would you believe that the easiest and probably best part of the day came when we went to the DMV to get Anna's license?  You don't hear too many people being able to say that -- ever...  haha. 

More later...