Whatever He Says

This Labour Day was as hot and sultry as high summer. But a row of yellow school buses,  shiny and clean, with  numbers prominently displayed on their front windows; stood on a nearby parking lot; their seats waiting to welcome a whole new season's batch of young students. They signaled the reality that no summer lasts forever. In the shade of a magnolia tree, I sat on our small north easterly deck, listening to the chatter of leaves in the soft breeze, and smiling at the irony that Labour Day, being a holiday, gave me permission to do nothing at all.  This morning I did it--nothing, that is. I simply leaned back into my bright blue resin Adirondack  chair and thought for a while, as the cars on the nearby highway zoomed by as in another world. For me, this Labour Day is the first in 41 years that doesn't precede a paid work day. I have the freedom to choose how I spend my time and haven't stopped thanking God for that privilege several times each day. The pa...

Mum often told me about the night that I was born. The tale had all the elements of a great story, with drama, tension, conflict: and since I was the happy ending, of course I loved it. I also liked the part about my being born exactly at midnight and Mum having the choice between May 31st or June 1st for my birthday. She chose June 1st. Maybe that's where it all began, my fuzzy relationship with time. I've often thought that I must have been born 5 minutes late because ever since I can remember, my internal clock seemed that much behind. Left to my natural bent, even though I think that I am planning to be on time, inevitably, like clockwork, I have rolled up to church, meetings, lunch dates with friends; for life; 5 minutes late. Consistently. And exactly. I am not proud of this bad habit but I used to rationalize that if punctuality is a continuum, then 5 minutes late is not horrible. I owned the trait as though it was part of me, like a cat whose whiskers had been trimm...

Here it is, the 13th day of the new year already--almost half way through the first month. I have many friends that are firm about not making New Year's Resolutions and I respect their point of view that there is nothing magical about January 1st and that most people break their resolutions by January 10th. Myself I do enjoy the days between Christmas and New Years as thinking and praying time, and starting the new year with a set of goals to press towards in the year ahead. This year I am going slower in thinking everything through though. It occurred to me that if I want to make changes, then making them one at a time is saner than trying to start several new habits or projects all at once. I have made a determined, and successful (so far) effort, to get to bed at 10.00 most nights. I have naturally woken up earlier--often getting up by 4.30, and what a blessing that has been! At last I have that unrushed time I struggled to find consistently until now; just to read, pray and lis...

Mark 2:21-22 (New International Version) 2 1"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. 22And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins." What are my "new wine skins?" I wonder. I pray for the answer. It is almost 4 weeks since God stopped me in my tracks--and his timing was significant. In the three weeks that lay head of me then, I had, I thought, a significant role to play in several areas of my life. But it was as if God chose exactly that time to say to me, "You think that you are so needed and that your world can't proceed without you? Well, dear daughter, lie back (I had no choice in this part) and observe." I am grateful that I am still here and that I have this second chance to live a new life--my "new wine." ...

Proverbs 16:3 (New International Version) 3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed " If you keep doing what you've been doing, you'll keep getting what you've been getting." It was Sunday night and as I anticipated seriously starting back to work in the morning, I knew that it was crunch time. It had been a restful week since Christmas--a week in which I began to adopt new patterns. The week had been like a booster rocket to my determination to get enough sleep, embrace the gift of Sabbath and guard a Sacred Hour. But on Monday morning I would hit the ground running, and I knew that unless I was deliberate in shaking up my normal patterns, I would be sunk. I had a sudden flash of inspiration. "If I don't do anything differently, nothing different is going to happen." OK, OK. I never claimed to be a genius. Maybe it was Sunday morning's sermon at church that got me thinking about all of this. It was from Luke 5:36-38 and ...

Philippians 1:9 (New International Version) 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, This morning I spent some time reflecting--and even praying--about the year gone by and the year ahead. And I discovered that in doing so, it was a lot of my own wishes that crept into the picture and I truly didn't give God a lot of room to speak into my life. I do remember whispering, as I prayed, "There are no sacred cows, God," but I don't think it really got from my head to my heart, because as I picked up my pen, I wrote too easily and with too many assumptions about what is good and right and God's will in my life. I found though, that as I stayed with God, that I began to get a different idea on what it truly means to pray this kind of prayer. I realize that I tend to start each year as if with my toe on the starting line in a race; waiting for the sound of the pistol to send me running toward my many goals. But w...

Philippians 3:10-12 (New International Version) 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. As I crossed the borderland from night to day, from sleep to waking, the sound of the wind greeted my consciousness: blowing around the house; buffeting it, wind fingers prying at tiny gaps to rattle doors, rushing around the still sleeping village and the dark snow covered fields. Later in the morning, I talked to my brother Robert, in England, and he told me that there too, it was a very windy day. I felt then as if it must be the same wind rushing around that tiny village and that the world was very small after all. I love the wind. When I'm in, the sound of the wind outside onl...

Romans 1:21 (New International Version) 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Romans 12:2 (New International Version) 2Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. As I drove home from church on Sunday, listening to CBC radio, a young woman was talking about reducing our "carbon footprint" in the world. This of course was referring to the toxic waste we humans leave behind us. But I got to thinking, not about footprints, but fingerprints. I often think of the fingerprints we leave on people's lives. Have I left behind something as simple as a warm smile; a kind word of encouragement? Or have I left an atmosphere polluted by negativity? It is a powerful thing to realize that we have a choice. ...

Psalm 44:3 (New International Version) 3 It was not by their sword that they won the land, nor did their arm bring them victory; it was your right hand, your arm, and the light of your face, for you loved them. As Frances and I continued our conversation on Saturday, about the pressure I felt at the thought of adding Christmas decorating to my "to do" list--she shared a profound insight; "The God that shows us the path, will also show us the pace at which we are to walk." Any runner has to pace himself if he wants to make the finish line. In life there are times when in a burst of focused energy we sprint forward for a period of time, but then we need to drop back to regain energy and strength so that we are ready for the next burst of energy we need to expend. At these times it may look as if we are dropping behind others in the race--but we are running the race with others, not competing against them. In this race our eyes should be on the One waiting for us at th...

Luke 6:35-36 (New International Version) 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Sometimes God's direction is inconvenient and difficult--but impossible to ignore. I mean I really love all that I read in God's Word about loving one another--until someone does something that is unfair, rude or unjust. That's when my own ideas of justice take over. There's something wrong with that--like saying I'm a vegetarian then having a juicy steak for dinner. In Soul Survivor, a book by Philip Yancey, there is a chapter on Mahatma Ghandi, who was a Hindu. He admired Jesus and often quoted from the Sermon on the Mount. Once when the missionary E. Stanley Jones met with Ghandi he asked him, "Mr. Ghandi, though you quote the words of Christ often, why i...

Philippians 4:13 (New International Version) 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Colossians 1:29 (New International Version) 29 To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. I'm so close--I can almost taste the freedom! Over the past three weeks I've been steadily working on the "clutter epicentre" in our home--our loft room. The room, which has two skylights and a sloping ceiling under the roof, is reached by stepping up three steps from our landing. It contains a comfortable day-bed, desk, dresser and a large, pine bookcase that contains five shelves of my most cherished books. Piles of clutter also "reside and hide" in this room and have kept company with Christmas decorations that sat in a pile on the floor for four months before I put them away. I'm just realizing that my mother-in-law will read this and know what a terrible housekeeper I am--but perhaps she will add me to the lis...