The Pot Calling The Kettle.. A Little Advice Given In Front Of A Mirror
Here’s the most important thing to focus on, from what i’ve learnt.
Don’t fuss about what you will spend your time Doing. That can only lead you to the world’s way of doing things. Concentrate on who you will spend your time Being.
Who you will be is “Like Christ”. What does being Like Christ look like in your current surroundings? That will tell you what you need to do.
Facing New Challenges And Dreams For What Could Be
“I want to jump over the moon,” the little cow said.
“You’re crazy,” the other cows said.
“Maybe,” said the little cow. “Sometimes I think so, too.” Then she leaned in close and whispered with a sly grin, “But what if I actually pulled it off?”
Read it here…
I want to be the cow that dreams, “what if?”
Maggi Has A Gift For Pulling Extraordinary Quotes
How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. What we do with this hour, and that one, is what we are doing. A schedule defends from chaos and whim. It is a net for catching days. It is a scaffolding on which a worker can stand and labor with both hands at sections of time. A schedule is a mock-up of reason and order–willed, faked, and so brought into being; it is a peace and a haven set into the wreck of time; it is a lifeboat on which you find yourself, decades later, still living….
Annie Dillard The Writing Life, 32-33
A Different Take On Words Between Lovers
Lover
My love you are beautiful,
Like six oxen you charge through the fields.
Come to me my darling,
Leap like a frog over the walls surrounding my house.
Beloved
Oh gorgeous man, you are like a bat to me –
Your wings flap like flapping things.
Your stomach is like a tummy
Ever so lovely.
Been And Seen
The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God
by Brent Curtis, John Eldredge
I’m trying to be reinspired by this book, because I know that it ought to be connecting with parts of me that need the encouragement. There are passages here so soft that it’s like a caress of words on my skin.
Proverbs 27, with particular reference to v.5
“Better is open rebuke than hidden love.”
Following a sermon on Discerning the Will of God. There are some things that maybe ought to be uncovered in my life.. that would bring peace to troubled things.
Mary George of Allnorthover
by Lavinia Greenlaw
I’m still reading this, but the novel itself is an interesting little fossick through intriguing characters. It just opens itself and begs, keep up.
More Than You Know: A Novel
by Beth Gutcheon
I didn’t like this so much.. the movement between passages of time seemed stilted and too unconnected, but then reading a ghost story on a rainy night, when all the house lights were reminding my of Hitchcock.. probably not a great idea.
Raising Helen
I’ve been meaning to go and see this. It’s candyfloss by way of it’s presentation.. but here is a list of things that interested me about this little piece of pop culture…
1. Joan Cusack as the Supermom, looked over for the guardianship of the orphaned kids.
2. Portrayal of a modern day Lutheran pastor, a “sexy man of God”.
3. Portrayal of a relationship between said pastor and non-Lutheran Kate Hudson.
4. The concept of inherited motherhood.. no gags and gimics.. born out of tragedy, what would the postmodern, any family goes take be.. surprisingly.. very traditional.. no get up and get over it..
So I went, and it had moments of clarity into sibling rivalry, motherhood snobbery (come on, we all know people who look down at us childless ones, and think, you can’t know what this is about.)
Shrek 2 : The Sequel
Saw this as well…
Five For Counting
It’s five days til I leave with 47 others to Fiji on a missions trip. Lots to do, and lots of thinking to be had. I am looking forward to spending some hours with my journal over there, knowing that processing all I am consuming with my ears and ears and spidey-sense will be critical to the success of this.
Things I Am Worried About:
Coping with what I see and what I am faced with at home, and somehow keeping all those emotions in balance. I am very tired right now, more consistently tired than I have been in a long time, and so this is of some concern. I’m not keen on getting sick either, but that’s okay. I’m also concerned about the inevitable challenge that this will be to my 1st world lifestyle and surrounding culture. I’m not looking forward to being absent from my friends.. I wish that there was going to be someone that I love intimately on this trip, to share it with, to support and be supported by.
Things I Am Looking Forward To:
Genuinely missing my loved ones, wanting to share the experience with them. The sense of comradeship with my fellow Windsorites in Vanuatu. I’m looking forward to being away from this life for a little while, although I am painfully aware that you can’t escape your life by taking it somewhere else. I’m looking forward to clarity from the Father.
Challenges That Stay Behind.. And Journey With Me
Ongoing decisions about next year remain, and questions of direction, calling, passion, challenge and creativity. I have been learning a lot about myself and my strengths and so I am at a place of wanting to use those things and strengthen what is strong.
But I’m also at a crossroads with those things, because some of them seem very 1st world, western Christianity and there is a lot of possibility for comfortability..
Questions I Need Help In Answering
Does God want me to focus on what I enjoy, or to focus on areas of need?
What are the defining lines between what is acceptable practice for a middle-upper class mainstream western church and what it not?
To what extent should we live shoulder to shoulder with our 3rd world brothers and sisters..?
Is ‘simple lifestyle’ enough? Is anything enough?
Challenging Conversations We’ve Been Having
On Saturday night, lots of discussion about Identity, Individualism, Feminism and Unity in Marriage.
Talking about the biblical idea of one flesh, two becoming one. I’m fighting against this idea of people maintaining their individual identity post-marriage. This may rub some people up the wrong way.. in fact I know a number of unmarried people who are irked by it.. But more and more, I am convinced that beyond marriage (or leading up to marriage) individual goals and dreams are replaced by the goals and dreams of the unit.. in of itself, no crime, but there seems to be an expectation that the individual goals should be upheld within the unified flesh.. One flesh divided upon itself can’t seem to work.
We then were talking about how this idea of the prized individual affects the specific community that we live in.. an unwillingness to let go of ‘dignity’, to be awkward even amongst friends. A vicious little circle.. Feminism fits into this idea of the prized individual within marriage.
Identity as an Individual, or Identity as part of a communal unit or brotherhood, was also central to this discussion.. of course based on some deeper questions of Identity in Christ and what that means… which ties nicely to my ‘self-advice’ earlier…
A Christ-like Identity which finds Joy not malice in choosing and determining actions based on the needs/desires/actions of the community.. but I’m sure that there is more to that as well.
Just thoughts, looking for clarification.
I wish that I knew how to do this, or live this way, or more importantly to live this way with others, in the context of my immediate surroundings.
Tash McGill 