Month: May 2021

Refresh

A long time ago, when I was a young adult, I visited my family in Africa. The day after I arrived we loaded in my cousin’s car and drove to Botswana. It was nearing the end of their dry season. Botswana is mostly Kalahari Desert. Dry and brown with some faded green shrubs. The long yellow grasses growing from the dark red soil.

We drove over a high and long bridge. Where I live a bridge like that would be crossing a substantial river, and that was what I expected to see. As we drove over the bridge, I looked down to see river bed. The sandy river bed, cracked and dry. No water in sight.

I asked my Cousin why the bridge was so high if no water was running under it. He informed me that there isn’t any water now, but when the rain comes it can come all at once. In southern Botswana they only get a little over a foot of rain in a year during their wet season. But some years it comes in a shorter period. The bridge is built for those years, to withstand the force of the overflowing rivers.

The image of the dry desert being flooded by life giving water is a powerful recollection. Although the rain can be destructive in its force, it will leave the land refreshed and renewed in its wake.

Seasons of renewal come. Usually after long periods of drought and turmoil, but they do come.

Job 38: 25-27 Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no one lives, an uninhabited desert,
to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

Voice

He spoke and there was light. He spoke and the world began. The Great voice had purpose and a plan. The Word was with him. The Word is separate but the same. The Word put His will second. He made Himself subservient to God.

Have you ever said something and wondered, “Where did that come from?” It happens a lot in anger. We speak in anger. We speak without thought. The words seem to have a life of their own, a will of their own. Regret is the reward for such haste.

Is the problem our words? No.

The problem comes from not showing deference to Him in our speech. We are better when we control our words and don’t let them fly from our mouths without purpose. Our voice matters. What we say and how we say it can create or destroy. It takes focus, purpose, and practice to harness our voice.

In speaking, we are echoing the creator. Using our voice is a divine act. We need to remember this connection and honour God through our voices.

Psalm 141: 3 Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Mother’s day

We need ideals. We need something to aim at. Of course having down-to-earth and encouraging relationships is important too, but we need something to look at, something to follow. Like a star guiding a sailor home to port. A guiding light in the dark.

Happy Mother’s Day to my own mother and to all the women who have guided me through the darkness of life. You are more precious than rubies to me.

Proverbs 31: 10-31
A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.
She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Keeping a record

My youngest often asks me to rate her and her siblings at various tasks. “Mom, who is the best at doing the dishes?” or “Mom, am I better at this than the other kids?” I think it’s her way of differentiating herself, of finding her own identity as the last in the family. There are things that she is good at doing and I don’t mind praising her when she does something well.

The other night she asked me one of these comparison questions and I replied, “I don’t want to keep score. I don’t want to be compiling a list of things that each of you do well and poorly. I just want to recognize when you do something well and that’s it.”

She understood what I was saying and figured it made sense.

Of course after we had the conversation a scripture came to mind, a small verse, but so on the mark that it rang in my mind.

I Corinthians 13: 5 It [love] does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking,
it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

The old passes

We see it everywhere, it’s all around us and it’s so ever present that we expect it. We never doubt that it will happen. The seasons; they come like clock work every year. They vary in their expression but the change is inevitable. As a Canadian I often vainly hope that this is the year that winter won’t arrive, but it always does. If we’re lucky it’s mild and short-lived, but come it does.

As I clear away the dead from the winter, I discover the new growth underneath. Brave little starts pushing their way through the dirt. The difficulty of shedding the old and starting the new. All things must pass. Everything will die. But new growth comes, as sure as the seasons.

I believe deeply we as a culture are in a transition between the passing of winter and the burgeoning of spring. The dead needs to be shed and the new growth encouraged and safeguarded. Believe in new beginnings and nurture all that is good.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:
The old has gone, the new is here!

An old memory

Sometimes it is hard to think of things to write. I’ve set a fairly high bar (for me), in trying to write at least 5 times a week. As I said another time, sometimes I fail. Even when I don’t post, I have likely spent quite a while searching for ideas, reading and listening. I also have other pieces I am working on writing, with the eye to maybe publishing one day.

While looking for materials for another writing project I came across this video. The history of our best loved hymns is a fascinating subject. Worth delving into if you like that sort of thing.

Story behind the hymn – Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus – YouTube

The wonder of creation

I love to sing. Music speaks to me. It’s so natural and so easy and perhaps primal. It feels like the kind of skill that is basic to our humanity. The love of music is at once universal and yet personal.

I watched a video about the music theory behind a powerful key change in a song. I was awestruck by the science and math behind it. The understanding of what is happening both physically and psychologically when powerful music is presented. It was spell binding. The depth and complexity of what is happening belies the simplicity of the actual act. The science behind tone, our hearing process, our feeling centres, how sound waves reverberate and how harmonies are produced is fascinating.

I feel the same way when I hear an explanation of how birds fly. A bird never asks or wonders, a bird just flies. But there is a genius behind the whole process. Yet for a bird it is simple enough, it is constant and never changes. Every day the bird flies and gets the same result. It is an act of such complexity and yet we can explain it through the language of mathematics.

Behind the natural world and our human experience appears to be a network of design. Like a great web of hidden rebar that holds our world together. A web so purposeful and predictable that only the mind of a great Creator could have built it.

When I listen to explanations like the ones I listed above, I feel like the curtain is pulled back a little. I feel as though I’ve scratched a bit of the frost from the window and I can see beyond it, just for a second or two.

The amazing nature of creation is astounding. The deeper we dig the more order and purpose we find.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror;
then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully,
even as I am fully known.

The great gardener

Spring is here. Always later in Calgary than almost everywhere else. I spent some time yesterday and today digging in my garden. Doing a bit of clean up and weeding. Working around the new growth, trying to not disrupt the perennials that are trying to peak their way above the ground.

Weeding the garden beds, raking, and thinking about what fertilizer I might need this year. What I can plant and where I should plant it. I love gardening. Time I can take for myself, by myself.

The decisions I make now dictate what will grow in my garden over the summer months. I won’t have grapes at harvest time, because I’m not planting them. I can only harvest what I plant. Weather, conditions and the vagaries of nature will impact the success of my harvest but I decide what to plant.

It’s the same in my life, there are many things I can’t control, illness, economics, the government, the list could go on. I can however, decide who I will walk with through the trials of life. I can decide whose guidance and commandment I will let influence my decisions. I can’t control the weather, but I can choose the gardener.

Isaiah 58: 11 The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a
sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.