Evergreen

Question:  What do you call a tree that doesn't lose its leaves in winter?

Answer: "A pine..... a..... pineapple..... no.... a.... ummmm.... oh yeah, I know! A PALM tree!"

The Hero, aged 6

A Little Less Talk

photo by bewinca

and a lot more action.  Okay, so it’s a lame line from a country song… but it really does represent a great truth.  It’s something I’ve been trying to teach my kids of late.  That if they would shush up, hunker down, stay focused and follow through things would run smoothly for the most part and we wouldn’t have so much drama. 

I heard myself saying something to that affect not long ago and had to take a step back and listen.  To myself.  Yeah… it was a classic case of “practice what you preach there, girl”. 

So just in *case* anyone’s wondering where I’ve gotten to… I’m here.  Just talking less and doing more.  Lots of fascinating things tumbling around in my head and heart that I may or may not reveal sooner or later but not necessarily sooner than later :)

A Pilgrim’s Progress

photo by halocyn

“Pride is a persistent problem for people who strive for spiritual growth.

Once in a while I go on a diet.  At those times, if I am in a restaurant, watching people eat, I find certain thoughts involuntarily running through my mind.  How can people eat like that?  How can they treat their bodies that way?  don’t they know that junk is lethal?  Have they no discipline, no self-restraint?  Are these the ones, then, of whom Paul wrote, “their end is destruction; their god is the belly?”

I get these thoughts even though- or perhaps more precisely, because- these people are eating the same things I ate yesterday before my diet began and will be eating again next week after I have given it up.

Here is the problem.  When I try to do something good, I am intensely aware of it.  And I tend to be aware of other people who aren’t putting forth the same effort.  Then I tend to think they should : I start to compare my effort with their sloth.  The result is pride, comparison, judgmentalism, and a lack of love. 

One of the hardest things in the world is to stop being the prodigal son without turning into the elder brother.”

John Ortberg; “Appropriate Smallness"

Ouch.  I asked for it.  And I got it.  “Show me the root of this inner struggle, Lord… what am I *really* wrestling with here?”  BOING.  Ask and you shall receive.  The problem?  Pride.  The worst kind of pride, for there are many… mine is the sneaky kind.  The kind cloaked in false humility and self aggrandizement.  You know, the kind that is proud of being humble… ouch.  Yeah… all the symptoms are there, there’s no denial of this diagnosis.  But where do I go from here? 

“So how can humility be pursued….?  The ministry of bearing with one another is more than simply tolerating difficult people.  It is also learning to hear God speak through them.  It is learning to be “for” them.  It is learning that the difficult person I have most to deal with is ME. 

This means that a part of the ministry to which I am called is to free people- repeatedly if necessary- from the little mental prisons to which I confine them.  It may be a person who criticizes me, whether justly or unjustly, lovingly or spitefully.  It may be the most difficult kind of person of all- one in whom I see the same struggles that rage inside me.

Bearing with them does not require becoming best friends, but means learning to wish them well, releasing our right to hurt them back, coming to experience our common standing before the cross.

It turns out that the life we have always wanted- when our wants are purified and true- is a life of humility.”

John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted.

I feel rather  like Pilgrim. I’ve just discovered this bulky burden on my back.  With trembling fingers I’m reaching for the buckles that have held this pack in place for God only knows how long.  I’m laying it down in pursuit of the life I’ve always wanted.   Trading it in.  Extra baggage for appropriate smallness. After all, I've always wanted to be small =) Here's my chance.   

Reach.

photo by eyebiz 

(This is a cross post from Prairie Passages.  Please feel free to join us there as we seek to touch His garment each day through the words He has left us).

"He had healed many; insomuch that they pressed against Him to try to touch Him." Mark 3:10

...The picture of the people thronging here about Christ, pressing upon Him, each one eagerly struggling to touch Him, is very graphic and vivid. A touch was enough. All that touched Him were made whole. Life and health flowed into the diseased bodies where the trembling fingers came in contact with the Healer, even with His garments. So a touch is enough always.

Anyone who regularly touches Christ is healed. But we must be sure to touch Him. It is not enough to be in the crowd that gathers about Him. Only those are healed whose faith truly brings them in contact with Him. It is not enough to be in the congregation that worships. One sitting or bowing next to us may receive a great blessing while we receive none at all. It is because he reaches out his hand of faith and touches Christ, while we, as close to Christ as he is, do not put our hand out to touch Him, and therefore receive no blessing."

Excerpt from Come Ye Apart by J.R. Miller

Reach, my friends. Keep reaching. I am blessed every time I see you touch the hem of His garment.

Praise the Lamb

photo by raichlinger

You are my

sacrifice

My lamb

I lay on the altar

So that I

may have life

Your blood

is my way to the Father.

 

photo by littleman

So I offer up my life

It’s all that I have to give

I confess that I have sinned.

Praise the Lamb

Praise the Lamb

Praise the Lamb

Who was slain.

 

photo by Nota

Almighty God

beheld in flesh

Your body

Murdered and buried.

Rising up

Overcoming death

Our burdens

You lifted and carried

 photo by kianee

So I offer up my life

It’s all that I have to give

and confess that I have sinned

Praise the Lamb

Praise the Lamb

Praise the Lamb.

 

photo by lindamac

With one sacrifice

You have  forever made perfect

those

who are being made holy

we’re being made holy

we’re being made holy.

Music and Lyrics by Alli Rogers

 

“The Lord has prepared a sacrifice; He has made holy His invited guests.” Zephaniah 1:7

Praise The Lamb!