Just wondering

Just wondering what it would be like to blog again and what my purpose and motivation might be in doing so. Also, just wondering if anyone ever still checks this site! I obviously wasn't.... :)

providence revisited

Back to the year-long learning theme of God's sovereignty and providence.....

"The primary purpose is for us to become so convinced of ...[the sovereignty, love, and wisdom of God]...that we appropriate them in our daily circumstances, that we learn to trust God in the midst of our pain, whatever form it may take" (19).

"God's providence is His constant care for and His absolute rule over all His creation for His own glory and the good of His people" (23).

Jerry Bridges' Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2008).

New book, new post :-)

New school year, new book, new post - how exciting! :)

I recently purchased Jerry Bridges' Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2008). A foundational premise is that so often it is easier to obey God than to trust Him, especially amidst difficult situations, but that trust is just as essential and God-glorifying. I appreciate the call to examine our hearts and to again look at the wisdom and the sovereignty of God in various spheres of Creation, based on the Word.

Speaking to the reason why it is sometimes hard to trust through difficult times:

"Obeying God is worked out within well-defined boundaries of God's revealed will. Trusting God is worked out in an arena that has no boundaries. We do not know the extent, the duration, or the frequency of the painful, adverse circumstances in which we must frequently trust God. We are always coping with the unknown.

"Yet it is just as important to trust God as it is to obey Him....In order to trust God, we must always view our adverse circumstances through the eyes of faith, not of sense....It is only from the Scriptures, applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit, that we receive the grace to trust God in adversity" (16).

May we obey AND trust our great God and Father!

don't waste it!

"Regret and worry are two incredible wastes of your imagination."
~ Paraphrase of Mrs. B's wisdom (from a Dutch saying?!)

Of course, there are also Biblical commands not to worry and to leave things to the Lord.
All the same, I found this quotation striking. Our imagination and brainpower are drained by fruitless regret over things that we can't change and worry over things that are yet to come.

Needless to say, we need to live careful, thoughtful, reflective lives, but most often the worry and regret distract from the present; too often they invite opportunity for doubt, self-pity, anxiety, etc.

So how are you using your imagination these days (especially you teacher-folk starting school again!)

Summer

TIME and ownership

Last one from C.S. Lewis. Hopefully you've either gleaned enough to be challenged or are motivated to put The Screwtape Letters on your reading list! :)

Time.
We know it is limited.
And not our own.
Do we use it that way?
I found this passage totally convicting!

You must therefore zealously guard in his mind the curious assumption 'My time is my own.' Let him have the feeling that he starts each day as the lawful possessor of twenty-four hours....The assumption which you want him to go on making is so absurd that, if once it is questioned, even we cannot find a shred of argument in its defence. The man can neither make, nor retain, one moment of time; it all comes to him by pure gift; he might as well regard the sun and moon as his chattels (112).

The "advice" from the senior devil was to make the human angry whenever something "interrupted" his plan for how he would use his time. Angry that someone stopped him for guidance. Angry that there was an unexpected visitor.

When we remember that time is not our own, and that this life is so fleeting, it surely puts time in a whole different light!

the need for change

Continuing to share from this brilliant piece of work by Lewis (The Screwtape Letters), below is a section referring to the desire for incessant change. The "devils" are discussing how they think they can exploit this idea to cause dissatisfaction and to draw people away from asking if things are righteous, prudent, possible, necessary....

Only by our incessant efforts is the demand for infinite, or unrhythmical, change kept up. This demand is valuable in various ways.

In the first place it diminishes pleasure while increasing desire. The pleasure of novelty is by its very nature more subject than any other to the law of diminishing returns.

And continued novelty costs money, so that the desire for it spells avarice or unhappiness or both.

And again, the more rapacious this desire, the sooner it must eat up all the innocent sources of pleasure and pass on to those the Enemy forbids (137, emphasis mine).

Variety is good and, of course, not in itself sinful. Our Lord has created such a bountiful Earth with such incredible, imaginative sources of diversity and creativity. But when pure novelty and change is sought for its own pleasure, we should stop and think.

humility

"Before destruction a man’s heart is haughty, but humility comes before honor." Proverbs 18:12 (ESV)

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves." Philippians 2:3 (ESV)

Humility is one of those interesting "virtues." Often people strive to be humble and end up feeling proud of how humble they are. Or, on the contrary, their humility becomes a sense of self-loathing. Neither is Biblical.

True humility, of course, comes from looking to Christ. By understanding His perfection, we recognize the gravity of our sin and the consequences of it. Yet, by looking at Christ, we see the incredible love our LORD has for us - so great that He sends Jesus to atone for our sin.

In my journey through Lewis' The Screwtape Letters (which I have long since devoured but will continue to share with you), I came across an interesting passage where the "senior demon" is talking to his "young nephew demon" about this issue.

"The Enemy wants to bring the man to a state of mind in which he could design the best cathedral in the world, and know it to be the best, and rejoice in the fact, without being any more (or less) or otherwise glad at having done it than he would be if it had been done by another. The Enemy wants him, in the end, to be so free from any bias in his own favour that he can rejoice in his own talents as frankly and gratefully as in his neighbour's talents - or in a sunrise, an elephant, or a waterfall. He wants each man, in the long run, to be able to recognise all creatures (even himself) as glorious and excellent things. He wants to kill their animal self-love as soon as possible; but it is His long-term policy, I fear, to restore to them a new kind of self-love - a charity and gratitude for all selves, including their own...." (Lewis, 71).

To be rejoicing in something as much if someone else does it excellently as if I had done it myself.
Wow - that is going to take work, and prayer.

But when we recognize that this world is not all there is (something that has been on my mind a lot lately), that makes perfect sense.

not ordinary

Washing dishes.
Practicing the piano.
Making dinner.
Going for a long bike ride.

Yes, these were some recent activities.
Some could call them mundane activities - just "the ordinary," right?

That is the mentality we need to fight, especially as Christians. I just started C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters (1942, HarperCollins: NY), a "conversation" between a senior and junior devil. (See here to read the first chapter on line). In chapter one, the senior devil is recommending ways for the junior devil to tempt a new Christian:

...they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things (4, bold mine).

Isn't it so true that we are sometimes led to believe what we do from day to day is mundane?
The ordinary.
The unimportant.
Our eyes become glazed with the here and now and we lose sight of the big purpose and the role the small things have in that big purpose.

What is our attitude as we do the routine things?
With what is our mind occupied as we accomplish those tasks?
Do we see the many pleasures and delights in each of those situations, or the things that can remind us of characteristics of our loving Heavenly Father?

It may seem silly, but take washing dishes for example.

I can be grateful for the convenience of water that comes to my fingertips;
I can reflect on stewardship issues;
I can marvel at how the soap removes the grease and the chemistry behind that;
I can take delight in seeing dirty made clean, and think of my own sins being removed;
I can enjoy the feeling of the warm water;
I can use that time to pray or to recite Scripture, etc.

This of course is a very personalized list and by no means an endless list. The possibilities are endless. I'm not saying to hyper-spiritualize everything we do, but I am saying we should not become disillusioned with the things that seem "regular."

That robs joy!

Be challenged:
see the beauty,
enjoy the sounds,
cherish the fellowship,
commune with your Maker.

Do not allow Satan to convince God's people that this world is boring, or that our faith is boring, or that God is boring.

sharing resources

School is out.
Or at least my teaching of it.
Summer school is in - for me! :)
I love learning!

I also love sharing resources with fellow sojourners. Lydia Brownback's blog has consistently been a great encouragement to me, so I share it with you.

Enjoy!

worthy investment

I continue to marvel at the joy that comes from investing in others. We were definitely created to live in community, to care for one another, and to corporately enter God's throne of mercy. However, often the risk involved in relationships in scary. Alongside the joy is pain. Disappointment. Hurt. Even anger.
Yet still, we are called - command! - to love one another. It is good and right and true.

C.S. Lewis speaks to this as well.

Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, airless-it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.

C.S. Lewis. The Inspirational Writings of C.S. Lewis. New York: Inspirational Press, 1994, 278.

new post needed

Yes, I definitely need to write a new post soon.
And a "heart" post.

For the meantime, suffice it to say that it never continues to amaze me how the Lord works.
It is such a blessing to look back on the events recorded in Scripture and the events in my simple life to see his hand leading in such clear, unmistakeable, God-centered ways.

May He again be praised.

release

I have held many things in my hands and lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.
-- Martin Luther

funny friday

I really should make a quotation book for all the hilarious things students say. I feel like I don't capture those moments often enough. In any given day, there are a multitude!

Here are a few from today. Remember I teach high school!

"Are cashews peaunuts?" (Said in all sweet sincerity).

"I don't want to touch that bug. It might 'get' me!"

"Miss S-------, you should paint your toenails. They are
nasty!"

(That was the funniest one today. No shame...!)

more signs of spring

signs of spring

sick of sin

Sometimes I just get so sick of sin,
both in my own life and in the lives of those around me.

I get tired of giving in to variations of the same temptations over and over again.
I become weary of fighting against the thoughts, the looks, the words, etc. that seem to come so naturally when I least expect them.
My longing is to be like Jesus, to be perfect as we are called to be, but it is so evident that I am not. And it is frustrating and humbling.

I live in the knowledge of grace. I truly do. But sometimes it seems that "song" is abused and used as an excuse, so I am cautious there.
We do need to struggle and wrestle and fight.
And ultimately, release. Submit. Give up our burden and yoke for the one that is easier and lighter.

And again, it is grace that shines through.
Boundless grace.
Matchless forgiveness.
Unsurpassed love.

"If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
1 John 1:8-9

...just remembering...

the balance in "vocation"

"If any that fear God shall complain that, although they have a calling, yet it is a hard and laborious one, which takes up too much of their time which they would gladly employ in other and better work, I answer that it is likely that the wisdom of Providence foresaw this to be the most suitable and proper employment for you; and if you had more ease and rest, you might have more temptations than now you have....Do not be slothful and idle in your vocations....And yet do not be so intent upon your particular callings as to make them interfere with your general calling. Beware that you do not lose your God in the crowd and hurry of earthly business" (Flavel, The Mystery of Providence, 77-79, emphasis mine).

Recently I was reminded of the children's song, "The Wedding Banquet," which is a song version of Matthew 22 (see here). This song shares how sometimes it is the ordinary things of life that keep people from the wedding feast (ie the Kingdom of God). Flavel's exposition on calling and vocation again reminded me of this fact. May we walk and work carefully, purposefully and watchfully.

contentment

More Flavel.
Not easy.
But Biblical.

"Do not show the least discontent at the lot and portion Providence carves out for you. O that you would be well pleased and satisfied with all its appointments" (88).

May we have the grace to be content. And full of joy.