Yesterday I drove out to what is affectionately known in our family as “the farmhouse,” to spend the majority of my vacation there. The Farmhouse is my parents’ summer place, and a place where our family gathers to spend time together for holidays.
As my brother and I drove out there, I was thinking about the idea of ‘home.’ I was thinking how I was leaving my home in Brampton to drive to a place that I consider home in Madoc. Then I thought of my parents’ house in Belleville and how that is also home. Maybe home is where ever I am surrounded by people that I love, by family. Maybe home isn’t so much a physical place or a certain address. Maybe home is more a state of being. I like that idea.
There is a lyric in a Larry Norman song that goes “this world is not my home, I’m just passin’ through…” The point Norman is making is that we were made for eternity, not for this finite world. His home, then, is Heaven – a place of eternal relationship with a loving God. I believe that Heaven is our real home. Our ultimate home.
But I also believe that Heaven is as much a state of being as any other home, rather than a destination or a specific address. Heaven begins here and now, as we seek to live in relationship with the Living God through Jesus.
Still, I am glad to be blessed with more than one home in this world, while I am passing through.
I’m on vacation. I am so glad to have a whole month of time off. Time to rest, relax, connect with friends and family. The first few days have been great.
I shared good food with good friends at lunch and at dinner on Sunday. Last night I went to the movies with a couple of girlfriends. We saw Snow White and the Huntsman. Good movie…not perfect, but good. Today, I spent the day with my three favorite children at the zoo in Peterborough. Watching them get excited by the small things in life (like a really good playground, a big slide, a small train, and a splash pad) reminded me that life is at its best when we live simply and joyfully.
I’ve been taking a bit of a break from blogging, recently. A number of people have asked why, and the reason is pretty simple. Ministry is a tough gig (a beautiful one, but very emotionally taxing). A coupe of times a year I hit a wall…I just can’t focus the way I’d like to, my energy level takes a nose dive, and I find myself going through the motions. Fortunately, this tends to happen just before I am about to take a break. And in the past couple of weeks, I’ve definitely been living in the ‘hit a wall’ zone.
When that happens, I’ve learned that the best thing I can do is continue to put one foot in front of the other and power-through until the break comes. In order to do that, I often take ‘unnecessary’ things off my plate – if it doesn’t HAVE to happen, it’s not going to happen. For the past couple of weeks, blogging fell into that category.
At the same time, I love my little blog. I love the discipline of writing regularly. I like the way it makes me reflect on what has happened in my day or week. I like the conversations I have with folks who take the time to read the blog. I like the chance to connect life events with my faith.
So I knew I would return to blogging after a bit of a break, and I decided that my next blog-project would be a travelogue or vacation-logue. Often vacation times pass too quickly, and there is little to remember them by. So this summer, I plan on taking the time to write about and reflect upon my vacation experiences as they are happening.
Today, I find I am simply thankful for time with friends. Life can get busy, but the last couple of days have been a great reminder to never be too busy for time with the precious people God has brought into my life.
Just to start things off right, here a few pics from our day at the zoo!
Nate coming off the “Big Slide” at the zoo. For a few moments there, I thought we might never see the rest of the zoo, with the way the boys were enamored with this slide!
Aly and Michelle on the see-saws. Aly was laughing the entire time!
Cam on the see-saw that he was sharing with Mommy and Aly. He was laughing at Aly’s laughter. 🙂
Nate at the splash pad. It took him no time at all to get full-on SOAKED. Cam danced around the edges for a long time before going in and getting wet.
Even Aly got in on the splash pad fun. I had this picture up on Twitter and FB from Instragram earlier and I was trying to not repeat photos on the blog – but this one was just too good to pass up. Love her smile!
This morning I received an email from Catalyst – the leadership conference I attended last October. It was an awesome two days of ‘drinking from the firehose’ as different church and business leaders poured their wisdom into 6000 gathered church leaders. So it is perhaps no surprise that I smile every time I see a Catalyst email in my inbox.
This one came with a video promo for this year’s Catalyst even in Atlanta in October. I purchased my ticket within days of arriving back home last year.
I have watched the video at least four times today. Each time I have been reminded of the lessons learned and the experiences had at last year’s event. I am so excited to get to go again this year. Check out the video, and I’m sure you will understand my excitement. By the way – the band whose song is featured in the vid is called Seryn and they opened last year’s event. You can see them in this clip – look for the dude with the long red beard and the chick with blond dreads playing the violin!
I haven’t felt much like writing this past week. As a church, St. A’s is about to enter an exciting new phase. But the problem with that is that we are ABOUT to enter that new phase. Right now, it’s kind of a lot of ‘hurry up and wait.’
I have a friend going through that on a much more personal level as she waits for test results which will determine the course of her life over the next several months.
It occurs to me that waiting is the worst. Really. I say all the time: I can deal with anything once it’s on the table. But I will just about lose my mind waiting for it to be PUT ON the table.
A friend reminded me today of the promise found in 1 Peter 5:7:
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
It’s wonderful advice, and I’d stake my life on the truth of this Scripture. But man, it is hard for me to actually DO. I know better. I KNOW better than to spend my time in worry. I know God’s got my back. He’s proved it to me over and over. And yet…
And yet, I find myself worrying and trying to solve problems that haven’t even fully arisen yet. In a strange way – I am thankful for that. Because it reminds me how desperately I need a Savior. And the wonderful, overwhelming, beautiful, transformational truth is that God has already provided one.
My favorite singer/songewriter is a fellow preacher’s-kid by the name of Andrew Peterson. His songs about faith with their insightful lyrics, soft acoustic style and passion for Jesus, have informed my faith for the past decade.
I have never met the man, but I think of him as a friend. One who has chided and goaded and lead me to a deeper understanding of my faith and of the human condition in general. He has made me laugh, brought a tear to my eye, and sung what I wanted to say better than I could say it.
So I am excitedly looking forward to the release of his new studio album, Light for the Lost Boy, at the end of August. I was delighted to sign into FaceBook this morning and find that his record company has allowed him to share the cover art for the new album.
The art is by Katie Moore who has done album artwork for Ingrid Michaelson and Starfield, among others. I find the art for Andrew’s new album haunting and beautiful:
I want to go on that walk with that lost boy and his lantern. I want to breathe deep and take in the woods that surround us, feeling secure by the light of the lantern.
Most of all, I want to hear the songs that inspired this cover. August 28th cannot come fast enough.
In my last post I mentioned that I would be leading OMEGA contemporary worship at my church on Sunday. I did that. And in my sermon I used a Joss Whedon quote from an episode of the TV show, Angel.
Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It’s harsh and cruel.
That’s why there’s us. Champions.
It doesn’t matter where we come from, what we’ve done or suffered,
or even if we make a difference.
We live as though the world were as it should be,
to show it what it can be.
–Angel, “Deep Down” Season 4, Episode 1
Now I hate to quote my own sermons (feels a little too much like tooting my own horn, or patting myself on the back or something), but I have to admit, I’ve been wandering around for the past few days muttering to myself: “to show it what it can be…”
I am fascinated by the idea that, as Christians, we are called to live differently. To live as if the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be. This is, I believe, why my church’s foodbank doesn’t put any restrictions on its clients. If you show up, we will give you food. We don’t ask how many foodbanks you’ve been to in the month, when you were last here, how much of an income you have or how many mouths you have to feed. We just give away what we’ve got. Because the world SHOULD be a place where only those who are honestly in need, show up for a hand out. We live as though the world is as it should be. We do this because we believe that world CAN be a place where people are honest.
I think this idea has power. That perhaps a whole bunch of people who live as if the world were as it should be, can actually move it towards what it can be. That somehow, by the Holy Spirit at work in us and through us, just by living the way Jesus calls us to live, we can have an impact on the world we live in.
I believe that. I believe that strongly enough that I have given my life to doing all I can to live that way and to inspire others to live that way.
Give it a try this week. May you find ways to live as though the world were as it should be, to show it what it can be.
Tomorrow I am preaching at our monthly contemporary service. It’s a small and informal service, and I kind of love that about it. Usually preachers stand in a pulpit or on a platform and preach TO or AT an audience. There’s not a lot of give-and-take in your average sermon… Although, most preachers will tell you have the conversations they have after the service/during the week with congregants; and the best preachers will allow those conversations to come out in future sermons and to influence the direction of what they are preaching.
But in our OMEGA contemporary service, after I finish preaching, I sit down and I look at those who have gathered and I say to them: “So, what do you think?” And then we just chat, for whatever amount of time it takes.
Its’ a pretty cool and unusual experience for a preacher to get to have a conversation about what they are preaching. And I have to say that there is a richness to it. It is a beautiful thing to sit with the people of God and listen as we struggle to express our faith together. That happens sometimes in small groups, in Bible Studies and in workshops. But it doesn’t often happen in corporate worship…at least, not in the church where I serve.
I like to think of this as more akin to what Jesus did – having conversations with the 12 disciples and with individuals from the larger community who crossed his path. I love the relation-ality of what Jesus did in ministry. So often he is having a conversation at the dinner table with friends. Sometimes he’s teaching as he and his friends move (read: walk) from one ministry point to another. In the life of Jesus, conversation is a way of teaching, a way of preaching and it happens naturally.
So I am excited to get to preach the OMEGA service tomorrow. And if you have a moment and prayer to spare, pray that God uses me and my words to touch the hearts of those who have gathered.
Yeah, really. I’m blogging about the weather. What else do you talk about when you have nothing to talk about?
Actually, I’m writing about the weather because in my little corner of Ontario, we’ve had this unbelievable stretch of sunny days. I can’t remember the last time it rained. In fact, even on the days that weren’t perfectly sunny, there’s been no precipitation. On the one hand, I love that because it makes it super-easy to get out for a walk with the puppy. There’s no prep (her raincoat, my raincoat, rainboots) needed and there’s no clean up afterwards (muddy paws, wet belly to wipe…I AM talking about the dog, people!).
On the other hand, there IS such a thing as too much of a good thing. After a time, the ground becomes hard, the plants suffer, there is danger of fires. I have friends who have been praying for rain because they were not able to get into their church camp due to forest fires.
A day of rain probably means I’ll have to forgo my beloved summer clothes (really, I adore tank tops and shorts and flip flops…I am, apparently, a minimalist when it comes to clothing). It probably means I’ll have to remember to bring Koski’s rain jacket down from my bedroom before our morning walk. It probably means I won’t be eating dinner out on the front porch with my friends in Oshawa tomorrow evening. I could look at it as a bad thing.
But a day of rain means other things, too. It means I will be cozy in my car as I drive to Oshawa (I love driving in the rain). It means that the forests will be less likely to catch fire. It means that the flower and trees will flourish.
Most situations are just like this: they have their good points and their bad points. You could look on them as a blessing or a curse. You could see the positive or the negative in them.
I think God calls us to see the blessing rather than the curse. When we focus on the negative, we rob ourselves (and those around us) of joy. And we are called to live joyfully.
I love that old saying “Life is not about avoiding the storm, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.” And that is just what I plan to do tomorrow!
I’ve been struggling with my fitness routine lately. I’ve had some bad binge days when it comes to food and some malaise when it comes to exercising. But tonite I fought my way through the second bootcamp class of the week, and I am pleased with how I feel. I am pleased that I worked hard today – at exercise, at eating well and at my vocation.
Some days are bad. Some days are really hard. The trick, I think, is to not allow those days to be overwhelming. To not allow them to be the end of the story. Bad days definitely come, but so do good days. So do days when it is easy to work hard and live up to the goals you’ve set for yourself.
I saw this on pinterest this evening and it made me smile:
I admit, I am not usually thinking of Jesus during my workout. I’m usually thinking of oxygen and the need for more of it. But I like this picture. I believe the words written here.
And when the bad days come, I need to remember this. Because in this statement of purpose, I find hope. And all that is needed to change a bad day into a good day is hope rightly placed.
A friend posted this on Facebook today, and I just had to steal it:
I am convinced that if the people of Jesus’ time spoke in our vernacular, they would have called him weird and random. Sometimes he answered the questions he was asked, but a lot of the time he went in a totally different direction. A lot of the time he used story and metaphor to get at the thing behind the thing he was being asked about. A lot of the time he chose to do what didn’t make sense to others and to teach lessons that went against the grain of society.
I like that about Jesus. Whenever I read the biographies of his life (aka Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), I feel like we’re seeing a real person. Not one who presents himself in a way that will be most palatable to those around him. I struggle with this sometimes. I am a people pleaser, though I think God is slowly curing me of that tendency. I could learn something from Jesus’ ability to just be who he was.
And who he was, was so very wonderful. The Son of God, the Word that was spoken at creation, the lamb who laid down his life for our sin, the love of God in flesh and blood.
So my friends, be weird, be random, be who you are. Because God made you and you are loved just as you are.
Rebekah's World 