FROM: Banbury, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom
ABOUT ME: Living the highs and lows of life in the adventurous pursuit of God Himself and of who I'm meant to be as the Bride of Christ.
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Tuesday, March 31, 2009,4:32 p.m.
SUPER POWER DISAPPOINTMENT
We had a power outage at the school this afternoon.
(Wind storm....)
I had 34 Grade 8's in class when it happened.
("Yikes" is the correct response to insert here.)
They screamed.
(Repeatedly.)
Though the lights actually flickered a few times and then did shut off, they came back on a couple of minutes later. I was telling the kids that I actually thought it would be fun if the lights really did go off when - immediately upon my using the word "off" - they actually did go off again! So then I told the kids how much fun it would be if someone came into the class and told us all we could go home..... We looked around for someone to come in, but no luck there. It was, however, totally worth a shot in case I had super powers or something.
It turns out I do not.
Shame.
(Wind storm....)
I had 34 Grade 8's in class when it happened.
("Yikes" is the correct response to insert here.)
They screamed.
(Repeatedly.)
Though the lights actually flickered a few times and then did shut off, they came back on a couple of minutes later. I was telling the kids that I actually thought it would be fun if the lights really did go off when - immediately upon my using the word "off" - they actually did go off again! So then I told the kids how much fun it would be if someone came into the class and told us all we could go home..... We looked around for someone to come in, but no luck there. It was, however, totally worth a shot in case I had super powers or something.
It turns out I do not.
Shame.
Monday, March 30, 2009,6:27 p.m.
BELOVED
I have another new favourite. This one is thanks to one of my kids (yay, Michelle!) - and the whole album ("Over and Underneath") is great. Check it out HERE.
Love of my life, look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
Give me your life, lust and the lies
The past you're afraid I might see
You've been running away from me
You're my beloved, lover I'm yours
Death shall not part us; it's you I died for
For better or worse, forever we'll be
Our love it unites us; it binds you to me
It's a mystery
Love of my life, look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
I'm the giver of life, I'll clothe you in white
My immaculate bride you will be
Oh, come running home to me
Well you've been a mistress, my wife
Chasing lovers it won't satisfy
Won't you let me make you my bride
You will drink of my lips
And you'll taste new life
'Cause you're my beloved....
Love of my life, look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
Give me your life, lust and the lies
The past you're afraid I might see
You've been running away from me
You're my beloved, lover I'm yours
Death shall not part us; it's you I died for
For better or worse, forever we'll be
Our love it unites us; it binds you to me
It's a mystery
Love of my life, look deep in my eyes
There you will find what you need
I'm the giver of life, I'll clothe you in white
My immaculate bride you will be
Oh, come running home to me
Well you've been a mistress, my wife
Chasing lovers it won't satisfy
Won't you let me make you my bride
You will drink of my lips
And you'll taste new life
'Cause you're my beloved....
Thursday, March 26, 2009,6:24 p.m.
LIGHTENING QUICK ANSWER TO PRAYER
Cool story yesterday at work.....
Yesterday was Chapel day. That means I'm in Chapel services (leading worship) all day. Best day of the week. For that day, we have to haul out all the sound equipment, drum kit, instruments, etc., that we need for the day - nothing gets stored in the Chapel itself. And because of that, my keys are usually sitting on one of the equipment bins in case one of my students needs to get into the sound cupboard or my office. That's the spot from which I grab them at the end of the day when everything's been put away and everyone's gone.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday, after everyone left, I went to grab my keys and they weren't there. So I looked everywhere for them - and found them nowhere. I am not one to lose my keys. Ever. So I quickly began to pray, and probably even more quickly began to get worried. I eventually routed through the entire sound cupboard, the equipment bins, and even phoned a student who often carries my keys around in his pocket (though he has never taken them home). He didn't have them. They seemed to be totally gone.
So at this point I was walking around the school with a seriously concerned look on my face, since I had run out of ideas of where to look. I went to chat with my Music Department colleague to borrow his keys to lock up, and he said he would pray.
I'm not kidding, I don't even think that my hand had left his office doorknob as I was leaving before I thought, "I should check to see if they're sitting on the keyboard trolley." And there they were. There is no reason whatsoever that they should have been there. I have no idea how they got there. But I wondered if my colleague had even had time to say amen before God answered his prayer, and therefore also mine.
God is good - He is faithful and true. He cares about the small things, and about our being free, even free from worry.
Yesterday was Chapel day. That means I'm in Chapel services (leading worship) all day. Best day of the week. For that day, we have to haul out all the sound equipment, drum kit, instruments, etc., that we need for the day - nothing gets stored in the Chapel itself. And because of that, my keys are usually sitting on one of the equipment bins in case one of my students needs to get into the sound cupboard or my office. That's the spot from which I grab them at the end of the day when everything's been put away and everyone's gone.
Until yesterday.
Yesterday, after everyone left, I went to grab my keys and they weren't there. So I looked everywhere for them - and found them nowhere. I am not one to lose my keys. Ever. So I quickly began to pray, and probably even more quickly began to get worried. I eventually routed through the entire sound cupboard, the equipment bins, and even phoned a student who often carries my keys around in his pocket (though he has never taken them home). He didn't have them. They seemed to be totally gone.
So at this point I was walking around the school with a seriously concerned look on my face, since I had run out of ideas of where to look. I went to chat with my Music Department colleague to borrow his keys to lock up, and he said he would pray.
I'm not kidding, I don't even think that my hand had left his office doorknob as I was leaving before I thought, "I should check to see if they're sitting on the keyboard trolley." And there they were. There is no reason whatsoever that they should have been there. I have no idea how they got there. But I wondered if my colleague had even had time to say amen before God answered his prayer, and therefore also mine.
God is good - He is faithful and true. He cares about the small things, and about our being free, even free from worry.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. (Philippians 4:6)
Monday, March 23, 2009,5:47 p.m.
MY ROMANCE
I'm totally stuck on this song lately: My Romance by Rick Pino (sung below by Jesus Culture and can be found on the We Cry Out album). The lyrics say this:
Look at the way the flowers bloom for You
They want to show You their beauty
Running waters dance
You and I romance
And unto You be all the glory
And unto You be all the glory
(repeat)
Angels dance around You
The earth it sings about You
Open up the heavens, Lord
Let Your kingdom come to earth
My praises all surround You
My soul can't dance without You
Open up the heavens, Lord
Let Your kingdom come to earth
Look at the way the flowers bloom for You
They want to show You their beauty
Running waters dance
You and I romance
And unto You be all the glory
And unto You be all the glory
(repeat)
Angels dance around You
The earth it sings about You
Open up the heavens, Lord
Let Your kingdom come to earth
My praises all surround You
My soul can't dance without You
Open up the heavens, Lord
Let Your kingdom come to earth
Let His praises flow.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009,1:36 p.m.
EVERYTHING HE HAS MADE IS GLORIOUS - EVEN US
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
You make everything glorious
And I am Yours
What does that make me?
- David Crowder Band
This song - "You Make Everything Glorious" - just got me thinking about the fact that God does make everything glorious. Granted, we are created and then live in a broken world, at least for a time. But the very idea that God created us to be glorious, to live in fullness, is a beautiful thought.
The thought that always comes immediately after is the reality that the enemy and our broken world - our flesh - have stolen so much of that glory that it is almost unrecognizable at times. The enemy has lied to us. He has set traps and pits for us to fall into and become wounded and broken. We ourselves have lifted our hands and spirits against each other so often. Both make me angry. I am angry that I have to fight so hard for the wholeness and glory that God designed for my life to experience and share. It makes me angry that almost every person I meet is not only unaware of their own being made glorious but they actually believe the exact opposite - that they are not.
The concept of being fallen, broken and trapped always gives rise in me to a deeper understanding of mercy and the need for grace. It also offers a recognition of the injustice that this world offers to us and stirs up my anger against the enemy and his tactics. I want to be free of his lies. I want my friends and family to be free. I want my students and my colleagues to be free. I am looking forward to the day that the enemy is repaid for all his works here on earth.
Until that day, know that you are made to be glorious. God sees you as glorious. He offers you freedom and life. He categorically proclaims your worth. Stand firm against the slavery of the enemy's lies.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let
yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
(Galatians 5:1)
Sunday, March 15, 2009,3:26 p.m.
WALKING IN YOUR GIFTS TO GLORIFY GOD
I like to read. I like to read novels. I read lots of other things as well, but I can really lose myself in a novel, my favourite author of all time being Agatha Christie. My favourite genre being the mystery. (You can see how those two go together.)
One of the other types of novels that I love to read are the classics. Books that we have all heard of but, outside of what we studied in English classes in school, have probably never read. I love the style of writing, I love the purity of themes. And I really love learning where certain things in our culture have come from. For instance, when we call someone a "faithful Dobbin", how many people know that it comes from a character in Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray? (And now that you're all saying, "Who ever says "faithful Dobbin"?!?" I'll go back to the fact that I read a lot and so read things like that in more contemporary books. Plus I think my grandmothers said a lot of things like that....)
Anyway, point made - I like to read. I also like to re-read things I have read and enjoyed before. Which is why I recently picked up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Yes, it's a children's book. It's still a classic, and if you like random things, this book is for you. But what I found so cool in the middle of the book was a letter written by Lewis Carroll in 1876 to the children who were reading his book. It comes at the end of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and says this:
Dear Child,
Do you know that delicious dreamy feeling when one first wakes on a summer morning, with the twitter of birds in the air, and the fresh breeze coming in at the open window--when, lying lazily with eyes half shut, one sees as in a dream green boughs waving, or waters rippling in a golden light? It is a pleasure very near to sadness, bringing tears to one's eyes like a beautiful picture or poem. And is not that a Mother's gentle hand that undraws your curtains, and a Mother's sweet voice that summons you to rise? To rise and forget, in the bright sunlight, the ugly dreams that frightened you so when all was dark--to rise and enjoy another happy day, first kneeling to thank that unseen Friend, who sends you the beautiful sun?
Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as "Alice"? And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all, except in church and on a Sunday: but I think--nay, I am sure--that some children will read this gently and lovingly, and in the spirit in which I have written it.
For I do not believe God means us thus to divide life into two halves--to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him on a week-day. Do you think He cares to see only kneeling figures, and to hear only tones of prayer--and that He does not also love to see the lambs leaping in the sunlight, and to hear the merry voices of the children, as they roll among the hay? Surely their innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the "dim religious light" of some solemn cathedral?
And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when my turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows.
This Easter sun will rise on you, dear child, feeling your "life in every limb," and eager to rush out into the fresh morning air--and many an Easter-day will come and go, before it finds you feeble and gray-headed, creeping wearily out to bask once more in the sunlight--but it is good, even now, to think sometimes of that great morning when the "Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."
Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this--when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters--when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day--and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!
One of the other types of novels that I love to read are the classics. Books that we have all heard of but, outside of what we studied in English classes in school, have probably never read. I love the style of writing, I love the purity of themes. And I really love learning where certain things in our culture have come from. For instance, when we call someone a "faithful Dobbin", how many people know that it comes from a character in Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray? (And now that you're all saying, "Who ever says "faithful Dobbin"?!?" I'll go back to the fact that I read a lot and so read things like that in more contemporary books. Plus I think my grandmothers said a lot of things like that....)
Anyway, point made - I like to read. I also like to re-read things I have read and enjoyed before. Which is why I recently picked up Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. Yes, it's a children's book. It's still a classic, and if you like random things, this book is for you. But what I found so cool in the middle of the book was a letter written by Lewis Carroll in 1876 to the children who were reading his book. It comes at the end of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and says this:
An Easter Greeting
to
Every Child Who Loves
Alice
Dear Child,
Please to fancy, if you can, that you are reading a real letter, from a real friend whom you have seen, and whose voice you can seem to yourself to hear wishing you, as I do now with all my heart, a happy Easter.
Do you know that delicious dreamy feeling when one first wakes on a summer morning, with the twitter of birds in the air, and the fresh breeze coming in at the open window--when, lying lazily with eyes half shut, one sees as in a dream green boughs waving, or waters rippling in a golden light? It is a pleasure very near to sadness, bringing tears to one's eyes like a beautiful picture or poem. And is not that a Mother's gentle hand that undraws your curtains, and a Mother's sweet voice that summons you to rise? To rise and forget, in the bright sunlight, the ugly dreams that frightened you so when all was dark--to rise and enjoy another happy day, first kneeling to thank that unseen Friend, who sends you the beautiful sun?
Are these strange words from a writer of such tales as "Alice"? And is this a strange letter to find in a book of nonsense? It may be so. Some perhaps may blame me for thus mixing together things grave and gay; others may smile and think it odd that any one should speak of solemn things at all, except in church and on a Sunday: but I think--nay, I am sure--that some children will read this gently and lovingly, and in the spirit in which I have written it.
For I do not believe God means us thus to divide life into two halves--to wear a grave face on Sunday, and to think it out-of-place to even so much as mention Him on a week-day. Do you think He cares to see only kneeling figures, and to hear only tones of prayer--and that He does not also love to see the lambs leaping in the sunlight, and to hear the merry voices of the children, as they roll among the hay? Surely their innocent laughter is as sweet in His ears as the grandest anthem that ever rolled up from the "dim religious light" of some solemn cathedral?
And if I have written anything to add to those stores of innocent and healthy amusement that are laid up in books for the children I love so well, it is surely something I may hope to look back upon without shame and sorrow (as how much of life must then be recalled!) when my turn comes to walk through the valley of shadows.
This Easter sun will rise on you, dear child, feeling your "life in every limb," and eager to rush out into the fresh morning air--and many an Easter-day will come and go, before it finds you feeble and gray-headed, creeping wearily out to bask once more in the sunlight--but it is good, even now, to think sometimes of that great morning when the "Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in his wings."
Surely your gladness need not be the less for the thought that you will one day see a brighter dawn than this--when lovelier sights will meet your eyes than any waving trees or rippling waters--when angel-hands shall undraw your curtains, and sweeter tones than ever loving Mother breathed shall wake you to a new and glorious day--and when all the sadness, and the sin, that darkened life on this little earth, shall be forgotten like the dreams of a night that is past!
Easter, 1876
Maybe you've checked out of this blog already because it seems too long. But if you haven't, what struck me the most in reading this letter was Lewis Carroll's witness. Here he was, a writer of children's books - and strange ones, at that - and taking the golden opportunity that he had as a popular writer to speak to each child who picked up his book to read. He does not mince words, he does not try to 'soften' the message to make it less 'offensive'. It is there, plain and simple. And added to his faithfulness, I can't help but think of the faithfulness of the publishers. In this day and age it would not matter if you were bold; the opportunity to publish the above letter with a popular book would be to assure failure with the entire publication.
Yes, Lewis Carroll lived well over a hundred years ago, in a culture that was more Christianized. But though his culture probably made it slightly easier for him to take his opportunity, it was still he who saw the opportunity in the first place and took it.
No matter where we are in life or what we do, we should be allowing God to open doors for us to be His witnesses, to spread His gospel and to touch lives for His sake. Ministry does not have to be a full-time, paid position - not in the least. And there is not large and small amount of ministry, if one is faithful to grasp whatever God puts in front of him. Whatever your gifts, whatever your job, whatever God has called you to and wherever He has allowed your feet to walk - remain faithful to the big picture: the call to glorify God and to spread His fame throughout His earth.
Yes, Lewis Carroll lived well over a hundred years ago, in a culture that was more Christianized. But though his culture probably made it slightly easier for him to take his opportunity, it was still he who saw the opportunity in the first place and took it.
No matter where we are in life or what we do, we should be allowing God to open doors for us to be His witnesses, to spread His gospel and to touch lives for His sake. Ministry does not have to be a full-time, paid position - not in the least. And there is not large and small amount of ministry, if one is faithful to grasp whatever God puts in front of him. Whatever your gifts, whatever your job, whatever God has called you to and wherever He has allowed your feet to walk - remain faithful to the big picture: the call to glorify God and to spread His fame throughout His earth.