Whatever He Says

By Belinda This is my sabbath day's journey--a summer sabbath day's journey. Come along and share it with me! At worship practice I noticed that Frances had her beloved Daily Light. "I haven't read it yet this morning," I said, "Was it good?" And as the words left my lips I thought, "How silly! It is always good." Frances immediately turned to the page for today and shared the verses that she felt led to share during the worship service. And here is my dear friend Frances. The friend who is rich buttercream icing. And if you wonder why I call her that, you can read about it in a previous post, The Very Busy Day . In the break between worship practice and the service, I chatted with Max, who was sitting in the pew waiting for church to begin. Max played his mouth organ for years as part of the worship team, but now, at 90, he doesn't always have the strength to make it up the steps to the platform. We could always depend on ...

By Belinda A golden smile in the form of a crescent moon; hung in a deep night blue sky,  as I drove north to visit a friend in the hospital. I had left behind the debris of a perfect day in my kitchen. One load of dishes were swooshing in the dishwasher while the next load piled the counter. I left behind a house that looked well used. There were crumbs on the floor and a pair of sponge giant feet abandoned in the den; enough disarray to signal life. As the tires covered kilometres my mind recounted moments of a day passed well. Morning communion with a beloved church family. Return to a home filled with tantalizing aromas of a meal almost ready. A family gathered around two tables--twelve of us. Tales of our recent travels shared with ready ears eager to hear every detail. Then a ritual request from two youngest grandchildren: "Omie, can we have some bubbles?" And two bowls of dish soap bubbles, keep two children happy for more than an hour. They laugh a...

By Belinda I passed these signs on a walk last week. The one on the ground says, "Maximum 50 Begins." It looks as though someone uprooted it and planted the new sign beside it saying, "Maximum 40." When I posted it on my photo blog last week and asked for ideas for captions, a blog friend suggested, "Slowing down." It seemed a perfect caption and analogy for my current goal in life! Yesterday I had a vacation day at home and mid morning, after putting on some laundry and putting away the dishes from cell group the night before, I found a portion of leftover apple crumble in the fridge, warmed it up in the microwave, poured a steaming cup of black coffee and took them both into the next room where I planned to read, reflect and pray for a while. There had been a snow fall during the night and the light of the sun shining dazzlingly in a clear blue sky, reflected from the snow into the room so brightly that I adjusted the horizontal blinds to a more gentle ...

Psalm 23 (Amplified Bible) Psalm 23 A Psalm of David. 1THE LORD is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack. 2He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters. 3He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him--not for my earning it, but] for His name's sake. 4Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me. 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my [brimming] cup runs over. 6Surely (or only) goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place. Pastor Dave announced his text: Psalm 23; but as he read, his voice...

By Belinda Isn't it funny how when God is on the move in an area of a person's life, everything seems to connect and reinforce the work in some way? My seemingly endless quest to declutter our house has been ongoing for weeks, but I have been relentless. And out of chaos, a beautiful order is emerging...and space... The space brings with it restfulness and tranquility. There is room for people to move around; space to get things out and use and put away again, because they all have a place where they belong that is neat and orderly; not cluttered. Nearly everything in our house now has a purpose or value. It is earning its keep in some way in our lives; not just "taking up space." I have been steadily giving away stuff that no longer has a purpose to me, and delighting in seeing someone else pick it up; knowing that they will enjoy using it for a season in their lives. A couple of weeks ago at our work leadership conference (the one which was the genesis of the Great ...

I give up! My brain is mushier than a bowl of overcooked spaghetti and I am soooo tired I can barely think straight. I hate not writing but I just can't string two coherent thoughts together tonight. I started my day with a funeral mass for a collegue in another agency. I was gone for the morning, and then the spaghetti supper was next. We fed spaghetti, meatballs, sauce and caesar salad to what felt like the 5000. So many contributions from so many people made it an amazing evening, but now I am seriously out of steam and hopelessly tired. We had fun, we were profoundly moved be the presentation after supper and we raised a heartening amount of money to help people in Armenia and the Ukraine. God bless the people who said, "Sign me up to help again next year." Next year? First I think I will sink into the gift of Sabbath.

I drove through sunshine in a day no longer deep in winter; which bore the hidden promise of the spring-soon-coming. Spring waiting, deep in drab brown fields and bare branched trees; the Jack in the Box spring that soon will burst in green bud and birdsong and creeping things. I drove to church and sat among the people. I sat among the people and I sang. I stood and raised my hands to heaven in surrender and in praise. I worshipped him with heart and soul and mind. At home a pork roast filled the house with fragrance. And the long pine table decked in cranberry cloth lay waiting; waiting for family to gather all around it. And soon enough, three generations filled the places. And a child gave thanks in stumbling words for church and food and said "Amen." And dishes passed from hand to hand. Plates filled with mashed potatoes, corn and broccoli and peas. What bounty. And then the bargaining. "How many more bites?" "One each of mashed potatoes corn and meat!...

I want to offer him A virgin heart each morning A blank page On which the Master's hand May write a loving lesson A love note I want to lay it down A sacrificial offering A pure heart And yet I come to him With heart already cluttered A half heart I want to live for him In action as in discourse A true life To really put him first And give to him unflinching A whole heart This poem birthed itself this morning as I was thinking about the fact that a whole month has gone by since I began my quest to develop three key habits: A daily Sacred Hour A good night's sleep each night A weekly Sabbath--celebrating it as a day of true rest Results? Well, not perfection, I am afraid, but I'm not giving up. My daily Sacred Hour has sometimes been a Sacred Half Hour, but I have had many whole hours and it has been so good. The hour goes by so fast, and I love to have unhurried time with God. I do struggle to get to bed on time, being by nature more of a night owl, but I am trying, because...

I continue to learn as I work on incorporating new habits into my life. It isn't that I can never extend myself, or make a supreme effort when it is called for. That has been called for this week at work, but when I wrote on Thursday evening about not being asleep at my post anymore, I talked myself out of starting a big task at 10.30 p.m. and instead went to bed. I was rested for the next day. The day was busy but highly productive and then I chilled out with Paul by watching a movie until 8.30. I remembered then that because it was Friday, Meg was writing the blog post for Saturday. That was a wonderful thing to enjoy--a blog Sabbath. I did do a couple of hours of work on some deadline driven tasks. What difference running on a full tank makes. I am so used to running on empty, through sheer grit, will and determination but I have long struggled with a tendency to fall asleep easily at meetings. I am also a master of procrastination before getting on with a big task that is waiti...

Yesterday was the first "Sabbath Eve" of 2009 and really, my first go at this new rhythm of life that I want to incorporate. Saying that sounds funny because, after all, I have been going to church every Sunday for the past 40 years or so. But going to church does not make Sabbath. I went into the weekend with my usual mental To Do list, knowing that what didn't get done on Saturday was not getting done this weekend. Yikes! This added a new dimension to Saturday. I found myself prioritizing and getting on with things a bit quicker than my normal sluggish pace. :) It wasn't that I felt pressured or driven, but there was sorting as I went through the day: "This can wait until next week--this needs to get done today." It felt like different and good; as though there was a boundary, or border, at the end of my week. I tend to have a distorted sense of time and think of it as flexible and fluid, so a limit was a good thing. As I anticipated the coming Sabbath, I ...

Driving to work this morning was a delight. The day was lovely; a kindness bestowed upon the Back to Work World that made it much easier to venture out into the day and to the office. I passed fields that glistened with a coating of shiny ice that covered the powdery snow and reflected back the faintest delicate pink light, caught from the morning sky. In the evening I drove back from Newmarket, where I had gone after work, and the day hadn't waned in it's efforts to dazzle. The sunset sky was deepest turquoise fading to salmon pink on the horizon. On either side of the road, the silhouetted tree branches brushed the sky softly and I imagined that I was driving through the middle of a giant fur coat. Before work, I read more of Mark's gospel; chapter 2, which contains the account (verses 23-28) of Jesus scandalizing the Pharisees by picking heads of grain on the Sabbath. The final verses say this: Mark 2:27-28 (New International Version) 27 Then he said to them, "The...