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Faith Life

The Glass Is Full

The creature is incapable of knowing anything except what God gives to it from day to day. If it knew beforehand what God intends for it, it would never be at peace. ~Catherine of Genoa

I wake up thirsty. My spirit, dry and gasping claws the air, croaking barely-formed thoughts of love-lack and dread. I dress in the burden of the day ahead and the unfinished tasks of yesterday. The day begins with a glass half-empty.

I often wish to be re-made, to be the one who leaps from the covers, throws open the blinds and bellows a greeting to a startled world. When the glass is half-full, only positive possibilities hang at attention, ready to be donned with chin up, straight back buoyancy.

Instead, I mutter to the kitchen, pour a steaming mug and take a breath. If I listen, if I allow myself the life-giving pause, I hear these words,

 “The Glass is Full…

Every morning your glass is filled to the brim. When problems clamor it is not because I was stingy. When others prosper, they were not given more than you. Every day your glass is full.

Full of what?

  • Enough love, with no supplement needed.
  • Enough power, so you can come to me weak.
  • Enough forgiveness so you can fearlessly face your darkness.
  • Enough joy so happiness need not be the goal.

But you turn from my love for the sake of human acceptance, you deplete yourself trying to prove you are me, you spin your delusions to avoid seeing the truth, you search the world over for what I’ve already poured.

My child, all the grace, wisdom and provision you need, is already there. The glass is always full. But it comes one overflowing cupful at a time–enough for each day–so you will learn to drink from me.”

So I sit with my coffee, one hand on my dog’s warm back. I close my eyes and let my glass be filled.

Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC

Do you see the glass as full? Is God really enough?

Photograph of Butchart Gardens, Victoria, BC by Ted Martinson

 

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Faith

Sabbath Quiet: Faithful In Every Change

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another. ~Anatole France

Clouds

In Every Change, Faithful

Be still, my soul! The Lord is on thy side; bear patiently the cross of grief or pain; leave to thy God to order and provide; in every change He faithful will remain.

Be still, my soul! Thy best, thy heavenly Friend through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul! Thy God doth undertake to guide the future as He has the past. Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; all now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul! The waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul! The hour is hastening on when we shall be forever with the Lord. When disappointment, grief and fear are gone, sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored.

Be still, my soul! When change and tears are past, all safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

~Katharina Von Schlegel (1697-1768) Translated into English by Jane Borthwick (1813-1897)

 Photograph of skies over Northern California before an unexpected, violent summer storm.

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Culture Faith Life

Making Every Word Count

A word is dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day. ~Emily Dickinson

scrabble words

Words. They are as essential as blood and bone to human life. But they damn and damage as well.

Blessing and nourishment, ruin and desolation, words are both remedy and weapon.

Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing (Proverbs 12:18).

Words kill…and beautifully heal.

Do you ever wonder if vitriol is now our favorite past-time? Clicking between news channels, reading Internet comment threads–even (especially?) when the topic is religion–opinions collide in a never ending cage fight for the entertainment of the crowd.

But deleting all offense can produce a kind of pious pablum. Does spreading verbal cool whip, a lot of nice-nothing over everything make it any better?

Jesus reminds us: On the day of judgement people will give account for every careless word they speak (Matthew 12:36). 

The Greek can also be translated useless.

At the end of all things, our words will be held up to the light and judged by the ripples. Vicious rants haunt for generations, meaningless chatter masks deadly malaise, yet entire nations are transformed by a few well-spoken phrases.

Life-giving words are God’s well-worn tools, and he entrusts them to our clumsy efforts.

Making Every Word Count

When I boldly speak, I later second-guess every syllable. When I determine to be quiet, my voice takes on a babbling life of its own. How do I know in the moment whether to be outspoken, subtle or silent?  Is this your struggle too?

A proposal: Before speaking, or pushing send, or posting a comment, ask the divine editor to red-circle your motive. Is it…

  • to encourage or to score a point?
  • to seek another’s highest good, or your own self-interest?
  • to draw others to the light or to sneer into their darkness?

What questions would you add? What has helped you know what to say in the moment? 

 

 

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Culture Faith Life

Beauty In Ugly Places

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. ~John Muir

sarah's painting

Sarah took up a brush one day and coaxed her fingers to paint the beauty her eyes had noticed. Look to the right to view the lovely result.

Another friend, in response to a difficult  move, has listed in her journal,  “Five Places To Find Beauty Here,” and walks through an unfamiliar landscape choosing to look when she longs to lament.

Fellow blogger Rebecca posted about cultivating hope as she would a tiny garden, learning to find the unexpected beauty where, at first glance, there seems to be none. You can read Rebecca’s blogpost here.

They are beauty’s advocates.

A life time ago I was a music teacher. Then, as now, in the face of brutal budget cuts and indifferent parents, teachers of  the Fine Arts clung together for support. We argued for a child’s need to wrestle with Beethoven, to stand with pride before a clay pot well-shaped, a haiku carefully crafted. Good music, art, and literature remind us we are not machines, nor animals bound to brute instinct and mere survival.

Beauty teaches us to look beyond the obvious, to train our hearts to hope.

Beauty In Ugly Places

Ultimately, the desire for beauty beneath ugly’s smear is a hunger for God, and for a world finally made right. (Revelation 21-22) We are not, the world is not yet what it was designed to be, but there are signs of what is coming. By tending our tiny gardens, by cultivating beautiful, grace-filled, justice-serving, art-making, people-embracing lives we become for others the hint of a new dawn.

But not if we only have eyes for the ugly.

How does your life point to beauty? Where has ugliness blinded you?

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Faith

Sabbath Quiet: Walking With Grief

He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. ~Revelation 21

Tahoe sunset

Walking With Grief

Do not hurry as you walk with grief; it does not help the journey.

Walk slowly, pausing often: do not hurry as you walk with grief.

 Be not disturbed by memories that come unbidden. Swiftly forgive; and let Christ speak for you unspoken words. Unfinished conversation will be resolved in Him.

Be not disturbed.

Be gentle with the one who walks with grief. If it is you, be gentle with yourself. Swiftly forgive; walk slowly, pausing often.

Take time, be gentle as you walk with grief.

Come Now

Come now live in us. Let us stay in You, since if we be all in You, we cannot be far from one another, though some may be in heaven and some upon earth.

George MacDonald, Scottish pastor and poet (1824-1905)

View from Lochhaven, Lake Tahoe, California

Lord, have mercy on all who weep today in Aurora, Colorado

 

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Faith Life

To See Or Not To See

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

eye closed

When cataract surgery was first introduced, the stories of dozens of people–those blinded from birth now suddenly able to see–were preserved.

In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard shares the poignant results: many of the newly-sighted were so dazzled by color, space and variety; so disturbed by the enormity and confusion of what they saw, they preferred to keep their eyes shut.

The world seemed less oppressive. Life was more manageable and easier to navigate in the dark.

I’m told that when an infant turns her face away, avoiding  eye contact, this is a sign she is overstimulated. To turn her chin, to force her to look at you, is to disrespect her boundaries. The human response to what overwhelms is to choose not to see.

Learning to see

Jesus reminds us that “the eye is the lamp of the body.” Our eyes won’t automatically see. Our brains have to tell them what to notice.

So too, our hearts won’t automatically admit what is true. Our minds must will to notice. Unfortunately, we learn early the deadly dance of avoidance.

Annie Dillard’s prescription for dull-eyed vision is to say aloud what she encounters, to put into words and so train her mind to notice. This, poets, preachers and pray-ers have always known. To let in the light, to see what is really true, you must

  • think it, speak it, write it, sing it, 
  • shout it, whisper it, journal it, share it, 
  • draw it, paint it, sculpt it, scribble it, 
  • pray it until you learn it by heart,

and then listen for it to be spoken back to you.

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

What are you refusing to see?

Image credit:dhiking on flickr
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Faith Life

The Gift of Wonder Annie Dillard Style

I wake expectant, hoping to see a new thing. ~Annie Dillard

butterfly

Creation performs its extraordinary dance whether or not we choose to attend.

Too often I live in my head, chasing and worrying over ideas like a dog with its chewed-up tail.

I miss so much.

Years ago I flew to Germany for my brother’s wedding, with Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek as my companion. Few write like Dillard, though many try to imitate. Her words shook me awake. I walked through that European visit alert and alive to to every sensible nuance.

As we chased the sunset on the return journey, I stared for hours at what appeared to be enormous trenches cut into the arctic landscape, and looming shadows over a continent. Who was making those shadows? My brain never made sense of what I saw, but I watched,  unblinking, for the entire flight.

The gift of wonder

“Vision is a deliberate gift,” Dillard notes. I think of the two meanings of the word.

  • Gift: a grace, an ability to strive for.
  • Gift: a favor, an offering.

When eyes are open, ears paused to listen, our noses lifted to the breeze, our tongues savoring a taste; when we choose to gently touch, we gift our Maker, we applaud his wonders.

Pause for a moment and pay attention. Without over-thinking, what do your five senses report? A moment ago I walked out my back door and

  • saw a dragonfly darting importantly among the flowers,
  • heard the soft purr of a hummingbird in flight,
  • felt the hot sun on my cheek,
  • sniffed the subtle scent of grass,
  • tasted the fresh coffee I’d poured in my cup,

And offered it all back for God’s approval.

Stop a moment and tell us what you notice.

 

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Sabbath Quiet: Fear Not, I Am With You

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear! It soothes his sorrows, heals his wounds, and drives away his fear. ~John Newton

Sacramento River

How firm a foundation, you saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent Word! What more can he say than to you he has said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled?

What has he said? Fear Not!

“Fear not, I am with you; O be not dismayed, for I am your God and will still give you aid; I’ll strengthen you, help you, and cause you to stand, upheld by my gracious omnipotent hand.

When through the deep waters I call you to go, the rivers of sorrow shall not overflow, for I will be with you in trouble to bless, and sanctify to you your deepest distress.

When through fiery trials your pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be your supply; the flame shall not hurt you; I only design your dross to consume and your gold to refine.

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose I will not, I will not desert to its foes; that soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no never, no never forsake!”

Based on Isaiah 43:1-5, John Rippon’s Selection of Hymns, 1787

Photograph of the Sacramento River, Redding, California

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Faith Life

Obedience Over the Long Haul

I do not pray for success, I ask for faithfulness. ~Mother Teresa

path of obedience

The title of the book has stuck with me far longer than its content. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, by Eugene Peterson, has winked at me from the bookshelves on more than one discouraging occasion.

The phrase is a quote from Friedrich Nietzschewho understood at least this about life: Faith is not an easy sprint to a stone’s-throw finish line.

The ideal of a quick, never questioning obedience leaves little wiggle room for human frailty. Who of us has not quit? Who can really go the distance with undoubting certainty and a never-failing “yes”? Not me. Too many times to count I have

  • stopped praying long before the answer came,
  • emphatically answered “no” when it was clear what God was asking,
  • given up on people, on my self, on the world.

A Parable of Obedience

Tucked among Jesus’ urgent last appeals to his wayward people is a parable of two sons. The father asks each son to work in the vineyard for the day. One answers, “I will not!” but later changes his mind and obeys. The other immediately responds, “Sure, Dad,” but never does go. Jesus asks, “Which of the two did the will of the father?”

Our response to the inspiration of the moment; or whether or not we felt like obeying his voice, is not what matters in the end.  Years, or decades later, the proof of obedience will be obvious: Did we do what he asked us to do?

Not many of us will be remembered as heroic sprinters, most of us will limp much of the way. But may we all be remembered for the tight grip we had on the one obedient Son who can get us across the line.

Matthew 21:28-32, Philippians 1:6

What have you learned about the marathon of faith?

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Faith Life

Perseverance And A Fish Story

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. ~ Winston Churchill

fish on a dockBefore I finish typing the word perseverance, I smell the pine trees, hear the lapping of waves against a rocky shore, and I’m a kid swallowing lake water once more.

Half-way through the camper swim test, required if I wanted to take a boat out on the lake or learn to water-ski, I decided to quit. I knew I could make it, but I was tired, and immediate relief was at hand.

As the lifeguard offered me the long pole and guided me to the dock, I told a lie so blatant I remember it today. “A fish hit me in the stomach.” From his incredulous expression I concluded my fibbing skills were weak.

That decision to give up has haunted me all these years, and I’m not sure why. Maybe because my choice was so senseless–a few moments of effort weighed against a week’s worth of opportunities. Maybe a quitter was not who I wanted to be.

Perseverance as obedience

Years later, Eugene Peterson’s book, A Long Obedience in the Same Directionfell into my hands. A commentary on the Psalms of Ascents (Psalms 120-134), ancient songs chanted on the long, uphill pathways to Jerusalem, the title of the book rings true.

It is difficult to stay the course when immediate escape is at hand. I need the reminder: Most of what matters takes a long time to reach.

Biblical perseverance is not simply treading water, or toughing out the hard stuff. It means pointing your life in God’s direction and letting him make sense of the obstacles along the way.

And trusting him to carry you through.

Are you tempted to give up? It’s been too long, the problem is too deep, and your muscles are weary? Read Psalms 120-134, and take heart.



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