We are packing up and preparing for our journey. More than ever, I am identifying with folks that we read about in scripture who literally dropped everything and followed. Not only that, but the people of God in the Old Testament were so often being re-located from one place to another. The scriptures are packed with the journey language.
Here is a little bit of it from Psalm 25 (Message): "Lead me down the path of truth. You are my Savior, aren't you?...God is fair and just; He corrects the misdirected, Send them in the right direction. He gives the rejects a hand, and leads them step by step...If I keep my eyes on God, I won't trip over my own feet."
For some reason, God is not letting us see the journey's end....nor the middle even! Yet, however frustrating that reality may be, God holds our hand and leads us one step at a time. This is the truth that I am leaning into.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
We are going where we're going
We sent a lot of invitations to our farewell party. Most folks only responded "where are you going?" They didn't even say whether or not they would attend our party.
Though we have a few promising prospects regarding jobs, it is not at all in concrete. We know that we will be leaving Kansas City in the middle of May and for a while we will be traveling.
Our first adventure will be aboard MEGA Bus. We will visit our brother-sister-in-law and kids in Kentucky. The bus trip will take us through Missouri, into Illinois, stop briefly in Chicago then all the way through Indiana and land us in Louisville, KY.
We are going to be living by faith in a real way. We really are going where we are going and we'll get there when we get there. We are on a journey....a sojourn....on an adventure. We have only the hope of a future home calling and we know that we are always at home in God's love. Here is one of my favorite prayers by Henri Nouwen that says it best: "Dear God, I do not know where you are leading me. I do not even know what my next day, my next week or my next year will look like. As I try to keep my hands open, I trust that you will put your hands in mine and bring me home. Thank you God for your love. Thank you. Amen."
I will be writing my travel-blog here, so watch out!
Emptying Out Pockets
Nowadays when I empty out my pockets after working in a garden center all day, I find all sorts of strange things. I remember that Will, my husband, used to complain about plant clippings filling my pockets. "Do you have to collect all these dead flowers in your pockets....don't they have garbage cans at that store."
Yes there are garbage cans at most stores. I have learned to carry a bag around with me when I prune and dead-head plants. Hence, my pockets are less cluttered and green when I go home at night.
This last Sunday, we heard a sermon challenging us to stop collecting. It was such a fitting message for us right now.
We are packing up everything in our house. As embarrassing as it may be, I have to admit that we have fallen into the sin of "pack-rattedness." It is so difficult to sort through all the stuff that has such emotional attachments. It is hard to empty drawers and find cards and letters from beloved friends whom are staying behind here in Kansas City while we journey to our next destination.
Among the things that I empty from my pockets every evening are sticky notes of paper with scripture on them. I carry these texts around with me as a form of meditating while I work. I read, remember, ponder these all day long. It's a tangible way for me to stay attached to the only thing that I am not in danger of losing....God's presence!
Here are a few of my most recent favorites: Isaiah 41:13 "For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand; it is I who say to you 'Do not fear, I will help you."
Psalm 126:5-6 "May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go our weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joying, carrying their sheaves."
Psalm 33:18-19 "Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear hem, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine."
Psalm 34:3-4 (message) "God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fear. Look at Him, give him your warmest smile, never hide your feelings from Him.
Psalm 42 (bits and pieces from the Message) "These are the things I go over and over, emptying out the pockets of my life. I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, Leading them all, eager to arrive and worship.....(yet look at me now!) Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God-soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God."
Yes there are garbage cans at most stores. I have learned to carry a bag around with me when I prune and dead-head plants. Hence, my pockets are less cluttered and green when I go home at night.
This last Sunday, we heard a sermon challenging us to stop collecting. It was such a fitting message for us right now.
We are packing up everything in our house. As embarrassing as it may be, I have to admit that we have fallen into the sin of "pack-rattedness." It is so difficult to sort through all the stuff that has such emotional attachments. It is hard to empty drawers and find cards and letters from beloved friends whom are staying behind here in Kansas City while we journey to our next destination.
Among the things that I empty from my pockets every evening are sticky notes of paper with scripture on them. I carry these texts around with me as a form of meditating while I work. I read, remember, ponder these all day long. It's a tangible way for me to stay attached to the only thing that I am not in danger of losing....God's presence!
Here are a few of my most recent favorites: Isaiah 41:13 "For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand; it is I who say to you 'Do not fear, I will help you."
Psalm 126:5-6 "May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy. Those who go our weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joying, carrying their sheaves."
Psalm 33:18-19 "Truly the eye of the Lord is on those who fear hem, on those who hope in his steadfast love, to deliver their soul from death, and to keep them alive in famine."
Psalm 34:3-4 (message) "God met me more than halfway, he freed me from my anxious fear. Look at Him, give him your warmest smile, never hide your feelings from Him.
Psalm 42 (bits and pieces from the Message) "These are the things I go over and over, emptying out the pockets of my life. I was always at the head of the worshiping crowd, right out in front, Leading them all, eager to arrive and worship.....(yet look at me now!) Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God-soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's my God."
Friday, April 06, 2007
Good Friday
Over the last two months, I have been working part time as a vendor in the Garden Department at Lowe's Home Improvement warehouse. This last week was my first week working full-time at this job. As you may well know, I am a flower child and I love to dig in the dirt. What else could I even want than to dead head flowers, unload racks of beautiful blooming begonia (geraniums, gerbera daisies, hydrangea, etc), and organize the place to look it's very best.
The flip side of this job is not at all pleasant. It also so much parallels with my vocation as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus. I must witness death. As I have mentioned before on this blog, this last year has been one of a lot of death.
I wheeled a whole cart of beautifully bloomed out but dying impatiens into the store yesterday. The truck that brought them to our store was heated and as the carts were taken off the truck and put in very cold, almost freezing (the high temperature yesterday in KC was 41) garden center. Needless to say, these sweet little babies did not do that transition. They immediately looked distressed. I said to Phil, one of my bosses, "should we just put this whole rack back in the place where dead flowers go to die?" Phil said, "no, let's leave them here, maybe they will perk up. We will see what they look like tomorrow." So I replied, "You're going to give them 24 hours and then put them to death on good friday?"
For all of us witnessing the death of a loved one...especially one who is so beautiful and excellent, especially one who did nothing to deserve such pain and agony, Good Friday is both wonderful and scandalous. We know grief. But there is one man who lived such a beautiful life and died such a horrific death that all of history has been changed. Jesus is that man. Right after his death, his followers saw his life and death reflected in these words from Isaiah 53:3, "He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom others hid their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account."
Now, this is good friday. It is good partly because when we look into the eyes of that one who suffered and died, we know that all of us have to die. We know that no one escapes death. Not one of us can escape grief. When we grieve, we are connected in a special way to this man of sorrow and grief.
The flip side of this job is not at all pleasant. It also so much parallels with my vocation as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus. I must witness death. As I have mentioned before on this blog, this last year has been one of a lot of death.
I wheeled a whole cart of beautifully bloomed out but dying impatiens into the store yesterday. The truck that brought them to our store was heated and as the carts were taken off the truck and put in very cold, almost freezing (the high temperature yesterday in KC was 41) garden center. Needless to say, these sweet little babies did not do that transition. They immediately looked distressed. I said to Phil, one of my bosses, "should we just put this whole rack back in the place where dead flowers go to die?" Phil said, "no, let's leave them here, maybe they will perk up. We will see what they look like tomorrow." So I replied, "You're going to give them 24 hours and then put them to death on good friday?"
For all of us witnessing the death of a loved one...especially one who is so beautiful and excellent, especially one who did nothing to deserve such pain and agony, Good Friday is both wonderful and scandalous. We know grief. But there is one man who lived such a beautiful life and died such a horrific death that all of history has been changed. Jesus is that man. Right after his death, his followers saw his life and death reflected in these words from Isaiah 53:3, "He was despised and rejected by others; a man of suffering and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom others hid their faces he was despised, and we held him of no account."
Now, this is good friday. It is good partly because when we look into the eyes of that one who suffered and died, we know that all of us have to die. We know that no one escapes death. Not one of us can escape grief. When we grieve, we are connected in a special way to this man of sorrow and grief.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)