Teachers and Gentle Songs

"Let my teaching fall on you like rain;
let my speech settle like dew.
Let my words fall like rain on tender grass,
like gentle showers on young plants."
Deuteronomy 32:2

We are back in the city today, glad for a very successful cottage opening with incredible weather and very minimal plumbing prayers needed. Our crew was energetic, and together we got way more done than Ken and I ever could have by ourselves in an overnight trip.

I'm not even sad to be back a day early. This way we miss the traffic and still have a day to look after normal domestics and just take a break from this whole house-for-sale thing. We asked for no showings today, and it seems like everyone needs a long holiday weekend anyways.

I did want to share this capture though, from yesterday morning. It's of a very small wild strawberry plant just to the side of the cottage under the clothesline.

I hope you can see the drops of dew on both the petals and on the lower leaves. Gotta love it when my subpar phone camera can deliver something like this. Totally by accident. I did nothing special.

So clean. So simple. So gentle.

Moses wanted his instruction through song to be like this. That's what Deuteronomy chapter 32 is; a song meant to instruct. Very ancient near eastern, this, learning through song. Something we all respond to, I think.

And two things come to mind for me here.

One is that the song itself is all about God's faithfulness to His people, even in the face of their outright rebellion. Ironically, some of the words in the song sound anything but gentle. Until you read it all the way through and see how God brings it around to protecting His ultimate plans and purposes for them/us, in spite of.

The second thought on this though is simply how Moses describes his hopes for how his teaching, his words, will fall on the ears of his hearers.

I was good for my Gramma's heart over the weekend to watch Ken teach two of our now teenage grandkids how to hook up the cottage plumbing. As you may have picked up from previous posts and my mention of 'plumbing prayers' above, this is not always a smooth opening task. It can be quite tedious, even when everything does actually work the way you want it to.

Yet, Ken was so good with them, naming each component, explaining the physics of it, and giving them the tools in hand so they could actually torque things and bang things and make it happen themselves. He stayed calm and encouraging throughout the whole process. And when it all came together and we had water in all the taps, he gave them all the credit.

No songs were sung during the plumbing hook up experience, except in my heart maybe. Still, I think Moses inspired it.

Personally, I am glad for the teachers in my life who have been like this for me, especially when I was a 'young plant.'
And personally, right now, as someone who does a fair bit of teaching (and writing) myself, I so want to be this.

Back to the cottage and berries and such.
The blueberry bushes are loaded with potential right now.
We'll see how the season goes.
And, who knows? Maybe we'll get a share of some strawberries too.

Happy Holiday Monday everyone!

Abundance and Blueberries and Wild Glory

Now this looks promising!

Yes, I do realize that between now and perhaps the start of July all the conditions need to stay favourable.  But right at the moment it sure looks good for a lot of blueberries this summer.  

There's just a lot more little flowers-turning-to-berries happening in and around our cottage than we usually see by this time.  Way more.  And it makes me eager to see what the season will bring.  Especially since we have an expert pie maker in the family.  And it's not Gramma.  (Right Zachary?)

We're here to open, and just overnight.  The tasks are many but happy, since they all signal the start of the season.  And even this year, when so much about the months ahead is uncertain, it's been so good to leave some of that stress behind in the city and just be present in the kinds of cottage moments where you notice how many blueberry flowers there are.  

As I bend low to capture this picture, I hear one of Paul's more wild benedictions in my head, as if blessing the blueberries.  But I know it's about way more than the blueberries.

 "Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more 

than all we ask or imagine, 

according to His power that is at work within us, 

to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus

throughout all generations

for ever and ever.

Amen"

Ephesians 3:20-21

Glory and glory for this incredible Sunday morning.

As Solid as the Canadian Shield

As Matthew remembers it, Jesus did a lot of talking on a mountain one day. Some suggest that these are the sayings we can be most certain should be 'in red' in our Bibles. We even have a name for this collection. We call it The Sermon on the Mount.

At the end of all the words and stories about who is blessed, being salt and light, how love fulfills the law, and all manner of attitudes and oaths and love for enemies, he finished it off with this.

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against the house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock."
Matthew 7:24-27

I think we sometimes do a disservice to ourselves by claiming this text as a failsafe promise for anyone who simply calls themselves a Christian. It's true; in other places God Himself is called the Rock (eg. Isaiah 26:3-4).

But here Jesus is asking for listening ears and an active response. Like, actually doing what He's talking about. That's the wisdom that's compared to a rock-solid foundation in a storm.

Pause for slight change of topic.

We're headed to the cottage for season opening this weekend.
Yay and hurray!!!
And.
This is always a work-related trip, and usually short, so if I get out in the kayak even once that will be bonus.

Still, there's always a spiritual reconnection for me, and for all of us, when we get there, and do the ritual of planting our bare feet on the rock for the first time.

"House built on a rock" pretty much describes every cottage in the area. The Canadian Shield dominates the landscape. And you can bet every structure up there has weathered its fair share of Georgian Bay storms.

I will remember this as I take off my shoes and feel the wisdom of what's underneath me. And while I don't want to overstate anything, because, really we're overwhelmingly blessed and safe and well cared for, this current journey into the whole world of real estate has at times had its fair share of unsettling days. Showings, and entertaining offers, and late night decision-making conversations will do that to you.

One of 'these words of Mine' that comes just before Jesus sums it up with the house on the rock parable is particularly compelling right now.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of your by worrying ad a single hour to your life?"
Matthew 6:25-27

So here's to a worry-free cottage opening.
Except for the plumbing.
I have only realistic expectations about the plumbing.
True fact: I do my most brazen, charismatic praying about cottage plumbing. But never mind.

No concrete (see what I did there?) news about house yet.
We'll be sure to let you know.

Happy long weekend everyone!!

Random Thursday

And it's here!

The new day.
Full of possibilities.

Random Thursday.
Not so random Spirit,
leads on paths of righteousness
for the sake of His Name.

Yahweh.

You are God and I am not.
And what a good arrangement that is.

That Servant Thing

 

If you have a bit of push back happening in your brain for this one, I won't blame you. My post-modern, Canadian, white-entitlement, self-advocacy psyche has a hard time wrapping itself around this particular parable.

Jesus is speaking directly to His Disciples. The ones who had chosen to follow Him full time. The ones who were hanging around Him to learn how to be like Him. Those Disciples.

"Suppose one of you has a servant plowing or looking after the sheep.

Will he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, 'Come along now and sit down to eat'?

Won't he rather say, 'Prepare my super, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink'?

Will he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do?

So also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, "We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"

Luke 17:7-10

So, just to make space for us to actually contemplate this a little, this is only one side of what the Bible has to say about what it's like to serve God. [Hint: Hebrews 6:10 is shaping up to be the launching point of tomorrow's musings.]

And we also have to remember the first century context here and the fuller scope of what it meant to be part of a household, even if you were a servant.

Still. This is kind of jarring. That kind of humility, that approach to work and life and being told what to do, is counterintuitive in a culture fixated on self actualization.

And yet, we do accept the term 'serving God.' And likely most of us, who would identify with the Disciples in terms of our desire to follow Jesus and be like Him, would be fine with calling ourselves a servant of God.

So then, what's expected of us?

Someone said that you can only measure the integrity of your 'servant's heart' by how you respond when you are being treated like one.

To be clear, we're not talking about passively receiving abuse. That's a totally different topic altogether.
And, as I said, there is a balance point in Scripture, in terms of how we are to treat one another, and how God regards us.

But still.

This passage has been printed off and posted in my office at various times over the years of ministry. There've been times I needed the reminder, to be honest. Because it goes against the grain of my need to be seen as important.

Yes, I wrote that out loud.
Spirit, don't stop Your work in me.

And this sign pictured (which is right now in that black hole called "in storage" because the house stager said "nothing religious") was a gift as I stepped aside from the full time pastor's role, from someone who knew me well.

I'm looking forward to deciding where it will hang in our new home.

What's Happening When Nothing's Happening

 

One of Jesus' lesser known parables, found only in Mark's gospel, is The Parable of the Growing Seed.

"The is what the kingdom of God is like.

"A man scatters seed on the ground.
Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up,
the seed sprouts and grows,
but he does not understands how it happens.

"All by itself the soil produces grain --
first the stalk, then the head,
then the full kernel in the head.
As soon as the grain is ripe,
he puts the sickle to it,
because the harvest has come."
Mark 4:26

Sow*Weed*Water*Wait

It's a small metallic sign that was likely meant for the garden, but I have it above my desk in my office. I need the reminder here more than anywhere else. Although, outside, all the spring flowers are also a good prompt.

Just like the farmer, there's only so much I'm supposed to do. The rest is up to the created order and the plans of a Creator who knows what He's doing.

I'm really good at the first part of this. Sowing, weeding, watering. All the prep and planning and productivity that I believe will bring all the things I want to see happen in my "garden."

It's the waiting that I find so difficult. There's stuff to do at the beginning, like planting, and stuff to do at the end, like harvesting. Then, in this mysterious middle, I find myself tempted to forfeit faith for fussing.

But I'm pretty sure Jesus wanted us to know that there's an awful lot happening even when it looks like nothing's happening. Even when we are 'stuck' in a place of waiting it out.

The truly beautiful thing for me in all of this is, that even in the waiting, God doesn't leave me hanging. Yesterday, during Communion, the line from the song we were singing - Broken Vessels (by Hillsong) - could not have prompted a more vivid picture.

"I can see the love in Your eyes."

And as if Jesus was gently taking my hands in His, inviting me to trace the scars in His palm with my finger, and saying, "Would Someone who loves you this much not come through for you?"

Holding my breath for a moment.

And exhale.

Moving means waiting on big things.
Some things are taking longer that I had hoped they would.
And I do "not understand how it happens."
But I do know a Saviour Who loves me.

And that much love I can trust.

Whatever you might be waiting on right now,
I pray for you loving encounters of reassurance and grace.

Who knows?
Maybe this week will bring some results.

Signs of the Times and Tethering Trust

That's five for five this work week, out for a morning walk. Glad to be on the other side of whatever that nasty head and sinus thing was, and to be breathing in deeply the first fresh air of the day.

Noticed this sign at the edge of one of the fields, and just had to include it in my theme for this week.

What catches my attention, obviously, is the part where it has to let us all know that "THIS IS NOT CANNABIS."

I laughed out loud!

Friends, never in all my widest 1970's high school student imaginations would I ever have thought that one day I'd be walking past a field that some might mistake for an open grow of pot! And that a sign distinguishing between hemp and cannabis might be necessary since cannabis was now actually, unbelievably a legal thing to grow. Back then, some of my fellow students would have thought it was a pipe dream, pun intended.

The pivot of thinking and attitude and even values concerning marijuana (notice how we don't even call it that anymore?) between then and now could not be more dramatically swung.

I will not be commenting this morning, or any time, on my own opinions about legalization of certain substances. That's because I do not in any way have an unbiased, or even remotely cognitive position on the matter. Just a full-blown, historical, circumstantial, and emotional gut reaction that disqualifies me from any reasonable debate. So, not going there.

But what strikes me today is the dramatic change of it. The contrast I'm painting between my teen years and now. How completely and diametrically opposed it seems to me, and how do I navigate that much change in my world?

I'm adapting to a lot of change right now. Even in these pre-move months, because of having the house show-ready at all times, my toothbrush isn't even where I normally keep it. It's surprising how the little things catch you like that. When I moved from my office at the church to setting up here at the house, it was paper clips.

But of course it's not just the little things. It's the big changes, and how fast they happen and how much all at once. And how much they affect the day to day living out of life, and our ways of relating to one another, and how we pay our bills, and how we worship, and what language is or is not offensive, and where we lay our heads.

Change is good. There's no growth without change. And looking back, some of the most wretched, unwanted changes of my life turned out to be exactly what I needed and at just the right time, and I wouldn't go back to the way it was.

Still. I find an ironic correlation between my ability to navigate change, -- big or small, gradual or sucker-punch, -- and the strength of my tether to what does not.

"You will keep in perfect peace
those whose minds are steadfast,
because they trust in You.
Trust in the LORD forever,
for the LORD, the LORD Himself,
is the Rock eternal."
Isaiah 26:4

"Shalom, shalom" is how it reads in Hebrew.
Perfect peace, undisturbed by fields of hemp or hidden toothbrushes.

Or even by the changes ahead I can see coming but still are not clear to me.

The Rock eternal, oh yes.
Trust tethers me.

Is it Friday already?
That went fast.
Happy weekend everyone.
And for whatever changes you might navigating I hope you find your tether.
And your toothbrush.