It was my birthday on Sunday!! Again! I celebrated with a picnic in my big backyard, inviting a wonderful assortment of family & friends, old and young, those known long and those more recently acquainted . Of course the guest of honor was Jesus and I made sure to ask Him to be there. He was, flowing like oil and wine, bringing joy and life.
We prayed, we sang, we ate and tasted of God's richest gifts. Relationships, friendships, love and laughter, food and fellowship in the grand outdoor cathederal. A frosty, overcast spring morning finally thawed into a warm afternoon when a few rays of sun broke through and we were able to enjoy our time together on the back patio. Children running and laughing. Teenagers huddled together on the trampoline, a group roasting marshmallows around the fire, and others on lawn chairs enjoying the tasty fare.
It brings me such joy to bring people together, to have celebrations in and around my home, to see people discovering each other and enjoying community. So that was my gift...Jesus moving in us and amongst us. The saved and the not yet saved, mingling together so that we could "taste and see that the Lord is GOOD!".
Flowers, gifts, cards and hugs...friends serving selflessly to make sure my party was a success. I am so very well loved. My precious parents & family members arriving and seeking me out to shower me with love. My amazing and dearly loved friends surrounding me and reminding me of how rich I am. So undeserving, yet well loved, nonetheless. So much grace...
A celebration of life. A celebration of Jesus... family, love, community, laughter... We choose to carve out times to celebrate as we journey along on this uncertain road leading to a sure and certain place. Oh the great joy of that knowledge.
Thank you Jesus. I welcome change & I welcome Your plans for this year. I want to bring You pleasure. I want to be Your friend and to learn to walk with you and not just try to live for you. Big aspirations but I have a very big God living inside little me. All things are possible, you said, so I am asking and looking forward to receiving.
Oh to be, a friend of God...
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Low Ebb
Kinda funny....I haven't done a post in ever so long so I thought it was time to re-enter the blogger's world. However, upon trying to locate my blog, I was unable to do so. I had to look on my friend's site to find the reference to mine! Then when i tried to enter I discovered that I had forgotten the password. My goodness. So now I have a new password.
I was just wanting to explain that my life has felt like it's been on low ebb these past weeks. Perhaps these past months, when I come to think of it. Maybe even longer! I'm so glad that I don't have to perform for God or I'd be in big trouble. There's so little energy most days to do even the simplest things. But He Loves me!
And thus I continue to swim in oceans of grace. Ever so grateful.
God gave a wonderful time of respite during our trip to Hawaii and YWAM in February. It was more than I could have hoped for. Incredibly rich in beauty, relationships, teaching and worship. I am amazed when I think of how deeply I drank of the Lord's goodness and kindness during that time. I felt so loved, so connected and so hopeful. Old friendships were rekindled and new ones started. The Father reminded me again and again that I need not worry, just rest and trust and wait on Him.
So I returned home with my head held high and great expectation in my heart. I found great encouragement in the fact that this year on the Jewish calendar is somehow translated into the year of a new life cycle. I welcome that with all my heart!! I am ready for new beginnings and am eager to see what the Lord has in store. I'm needing something to pull me forward and to give me motivation...
There has been change in the wind for some time for me, but it hasn't yet been revealed what it will look like.
Letting go of this latest stage of mothering "children" has been exceedingly painful. I am so glad that Patrice is still at home with me, but I have mostly found in her an excellent friend, an equal in many ways and an emerging adult. So I must brace myself for her upcoming 6 week school trip to Mexico and ultimately for her moving on in God's paths where she will no longer be physically so close to me.
So perhaps grieving has had something to do with the "low ebb" I have felt, even though it's a normal, healthy letting go.
I'm so thankful for my students at the school who give me a reason to get up and get going every morning! It's been fun and hugely fulfilling to watch the lights go on in these ones who previously found reading to be their Mount Everest. What a gift to spend time with them and to watch them labour so diligently and then start to READ!! What a lovely miracle to behold and to be a part of.
And so I continue on. To wait on God to fill up my tank, to bring resolution to those places in my life that are feeling unfinished, and praying that He will "restore to me the joy of my salvation". (Psalm 51)
It doesn't feel very clear, but I know He holds my future and my today. So I humbly wait. Unable to be a superstar of any sort. But I know that I carry presence of the Living God within this broken humble frame. And that is enough. May I bring pleasure to His heart.
I was just wanting to explain that my life has felt like it's been on low ebb these past weeks. Perhaps these past months, when I come to think of it. Maybe even longer! I'm so glad that I don't have to perform for God or I'd be in big trouble. There's so little energy most days to do even the simplest things. But He Loves me!
And thus I continue to swim in oceans of grace. Ever so grateful.
God gave a wonderful time of respite during our trip to Hawaii and YWAM in February. It was more than I could have hoped for. Incredibly rich in beauty, relationships, teaching and worship. I am amazed when I think of how deeply I drank of the Lord's goodness and kindness during that time. I felt so loved, so connected and so hopeful. Old friendships were rekindled and new ones started. The Father reminded me again and again that I need not worry, just rest and trust and wait on Him.
So I returned home with my head held high and great expectation in my heart. I found great encouragement in the fact that this year on the Jewish calendar is somehow translated into the year of a new life cycle. I welcome that with all my heart!! I am ready for new beginnings and am eager to see what the Lord has in store. I'm needing something to pull me forward and to give me motivation...
There has been change in the wind for some time for me, but it hasn't yet been revealed what it will look like.
Letting go of this latest stage of mothering "children" has been exceedingly painful. I am so glad that Patrice is still at home with me, but I have mostly found in her an excellent friend, an equal in many ways and an emerging adult. So I must brace myself for her upcoming 6 week school trip to Mexico and ultimately for her moving on in God's paths where she will no longer be physically so close to me.
So perhaps grieving has had something to do with the "low ebb" I have felt, even though it's a normal, healthy letting go.
I'm so thankful for my students at the school who give me a reason to get up and get going every morning! It's been fun and hugely fulfilling to watch the lights go on in these ones who previously found reading to be their Mount Everest. What a gift to spend time with them and to watch them labour so diligently and then start to READ!! What a lovely miracle to behold and to be a part of.
And so I continue on. To wait on God to fill up my tank, to bring resolution to those places in my life that are feeling unfinished, and praying that He will "restore to me the joy of my salvation". (Psalm 51)
It doesn't feel very clear, but I know He holds my future and my today. So I humbly wait. Unable to be a superstar of any sort. But I know that I carry presence of the Living God within this broken humble frame. And that is enough. May I bring pleasure to His heart.
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