Isaiah's Flower

Yes, I am aware that I'm posting pictures of small flowers for the past few days in a row.  Partly this is because, like most people, I'm eager for all that Spring has to offer.  

This tiny bloom, however, has an additional appeal for me.  It's pushed its way up through the mess left by our construction project late last fall, to defiantly be beautiful and vibrant and small, all at the same time.  It doesn't care that there's not a fully developed, carefully orchestrated landscape to welcome it.  No self-consciousness or sense of inadequacy makes it stay hiding in the dirt.  Doesn't matter that it's so small and growing randomly in the middle of nothing.  It's just doing what it was created to do; push up and out of the dark space and open its petals to the light.

Call me the crazy lady who talks to practically unseeable flowers, but I'm so impressed I stop to encourage it.  Way to go, you brave thing you!  

I think I know how it feels.  Maybe a lot of us do.  Sometimes it's like this, us doing our thing so bravely and beautifully, yet maybe looking, maybe feeling all ridiculous and random, and no one even sees it.  It's an Isaiah flower.

"But I said, 'I have laboured in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing.'  Yet what is due me is in the LORD's hand, and my reward is with my God."  Isaiah 49:4

I feel like that last part is what makes it stretch and push upwards.  'I don't care.  I'm blooming here anyways.'

And so, on this Tuesday of Holy Week, I am encouraged and prompted.

Encouraged to faithfully continue in all that's before me, doing what I've been created to do, regardless of how obvious or how obscure the results might be.  God knows.  He knows.

Prompted to make sure to let other small and randomly beautiful efforts don't go unnoticed.  To let others doing their brave thing know they are seen.  To look for the defiant goodness in unlikely places, and stop to say something, take a picture even.  

The person who hands me my drink through the drive-through window so early in the morning.

The parent staying calm while their kid melts down in the store.

The cars who actually stop at the flashing lights so I can cross.

The school custodian keeping the floors clean through a muddy spring.

The tech people and others behind the scenes of almost any gathering or meeting.

The guy who rides the back of the garbage truck and takes all the trash away.

The nurse who answers the call bell for the thousandth time.

The cashier cheerfully ringing through the groceries putting up with the old guy's corny jokes (not that I know any old guys who tell corny jokes to grocery story cashiers or anything).

The teacher who goes the extra mile with that one kid.

Thank you.  Great job.  Looking good.  Way to go!  I see you.  So does God.

Keep doing you so fabulously!!

It matters.

It does.

The Needed Spaces of Holy Week

I am grateful this morning for a lighter list as I head into the week.  I purposely deferred all the non-urgent things to 'after Easter' so as to leave space to more slowly be in the moments of all we Christians will observe over the next several days.  It's ironic how easily we can become so pressed to the edges of ourselves at times when what our souls really need is time and space to receive what the Spirit is offering in the rituals.

Or maybe that's just me.  Maybe it's an occupational hazard around certain holidays.

Yesterday, in our morning worship, we sang the words from Hillsong's "So Will I."

God of creation

You chased down my heart

Through all of my failure and pride

On a hill You created

The Light of the World

Abandoned in darkness to die

And as You speak

A hundred billion failures disappear

Where You lost your life so I could find it here...

And I find I can't sing it all the way through, ambushed as I am once again by the fierce grace of it.

A badly needed reminder.

And so I find myself stepping carefully into this particular Monday.  

It's a sober thing we contemplate.

Whatever the week has in store for you, 

I pray you will be able to find the space 

to be reminded again of how truly valuable you are.

How Grows the Garden

Despite winter's desperate attempts to discourage us, today we are taking some intentional steps towards beautifying the yard.

We have our work cut out for us.

The aftermath of the construction basically trashed the rest of the yard.  Against our hopes of salvaging some of what had been there before, we are now starting from scratch.  Like, really scratchy scratch.

It's helping to think of it as a blank canvass.  Something we can create together over these next months of the growing season.  And since there's absolutely nothing growing in the spaces right now, we get to start at the very beginning.  

We will have some friends come by this afternoon who are really good at this kind of thing.  Especially the part about choosing what will thrive here more naturally.  We'll be talking about ground coverings that don't need mowing, shrubs that like the kind of dirt we've got, and the best placement of a fruit tree.

We can decide what kind of shape it will all take, mapping out the pathways to the shed that's coming, and the fire pit area.  Ken and I will get a space of our own at the back, leading up to the shed that's already there.

I for one am looking forward to bringing some colour into this space.  I know we have to wait until there's no more risk of frost, but even putting some potted plants on the porch is going to make a big difference.

In all of this, I am grateful for the patience our son has with the process, and his willingness to let it all happen incrementally, as all satisfying garden spaces do.  He keeps reminded me, just by his own easy approach, to enjoy the creativity of it, the unfolding of it, even as we imagine the outcomes.

It makes me wonder if that's not actually the way God gardens me.

Be Still

"Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and said to the waves, 'Quiet! Be still!' Then the wind died down and it was completely calm." Mark 4:39

With Spring back peddling again this morning (-7 and "flurious" here in Kitchener so far today), I thought I'd remind myself, and anyone else out there who needs it, that warmer summer days are coming.

Right about now I really start to miss my kayak. Sigh.

Never mind. I have an unusually clear Tuesday ahead of me, and am hoping to make the best of it, all snug and hunkered down with a happy plethora of tasks competing for my attention. And even though today I am in the city on a workday, it's not so unlike looking out over the bow across glass-flat waters first thing in the morning on my meditative way around the island.

In these days of "flurious" uncertainty on so many fronts, let's stay focused on the work that's before us, and keep reminding each other of the simple goodness of life. We do have agency. How we contribute really matters. We're in this together. And we know Who we have with us in the boat.

Wishing you a flat-water Tuesday.

Mindful Moments

 

Pausing this Monday morning to just let things be slow.  After an abundant and somewhat demanding weekend, I am grateful for this era in my life where this kind of flexibility is possible.  And also conscious of what else is on tap that requires my time sensitive attention for the rest of this week.  Never mind.  I'll get to that in due time.

Right now I'm remembering the tenderness of this moment when I captured a uniquely-shaped cloud in the midst of a time of discouragement.  I had just asked God if He thought I had it in me to continue something I was finding overwhelming, convinced I had mistaken His guidance in leading me to the task before me that seemed so daunting at the time.  Then this.  

There's more.  I captured the image.  Then, wanting to send it to the ones in the thick of things with me, to encourage them, I find a message from them, delivered just the moment before....likely while I was taking this picture.  They had a message from me, a surprising turn in events and the offer of resources for a particular part of the work that had seemed so daunting for all of us.  A direct and specific answer to our direct and specific prayers.

The collision of all those things in a matter of moments, and considering the distance and time differences, seemed highly improbable.  I mean, what are the chances?  

I was reminded of this over the weekend while in a space of meditation and worship.  And then I was mindful of two precious matters happening right now that feel threatened by the economic uncertainty of our time and my own inadequacies to resolve them.  And then Jesus' teaching about not worrying about resources, where it comes from to clothe and feed us (or the sweet children He's given us to care for)....(Matthew 6:25-34).

So no striving today.  I receive the being part of my humanity (a human being not a human doing).  I pull back and sink down and cease, leaning into trust instead.  Seeing what God has in mind for this moment.  

Sometimes You Just Gotta Let the Day Unfold

Weather and politics.  It's our two favourite topics right now up here in Canada, and they are both top stories in the news today.

The weather, because winter is apparently coming back for another tantrum, this time throwing in all the nasty it can muster in a 12 hour period of time.  After last weekend's damaging ice, we Ontarians wait to see how much more disruption might be on the way.

Politics, because...well.  More tantrums.  More nasty.  More potential disruption.  At least that's what I surmise from the news I receive.  And we're all 'bracing' for what it could mean.  For today.  For the long haul.

I'm not a meteorologist.  I'm not a politician.  So what do I know.

Except that the weather forecasts often as not can't tell us exactly how it will be.  And the op eds or Finance Ministers or anyone else who's really in the thick of things don't completely know either.  Might be not so bad.  Might be worse.

Do I cancel some plans where I was going out today?  I'll wait and see.

Do I get in a fret for all that's possibly coming down the pipe economically?  I'll wait and see.  

I'm pausing here, because when I started this post I honestly didn't think it was going to be about much more than just a quick comment on the weather.  And ironically, that's helping make the point I've ended up making here.  You just never know where things are going.

Just one more comment before I head off to other things.  The sentiment in the picture above.  It's sweet, but too tidy for me.  I have it hanging just to the left of my desk, and I need the reminder for sure.  A girlfriend and I bought two of these a very long time ago, one for her and one for me, when we were both going through something big and scary.  It was meant as a reminder to pray for and that we were being prayed for by each other.

But prayer does not guarantee an unraveled day, not really.  The day might unravel in ways unexpected and difficult.  It just might.  I think what's more important is how prayer keeps my heart from fraying into chaotic threads of anxiety, or retaliation, or despair.  

So I'll be praying as this particular day unfolds.    

April's Wisdom

 

Although I don't mind an obvious joke on April Fools' Day, I'm so not into the pranking thing. So have fun, be kind, stay safe and it's all good.

I do love this reminder from the Bible's collection of wise sayings called "Proverbs." Especially in these times of -- what respectfully seems to me -- widespread, harsh foolishness.

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
bind them around your neck,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Then you will win favour and a good name
in the sight of God and people.

"Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to Him
and He will make your paths straight."
Proverbs 3:3-6

Some sunny thoughts for the first day of the month.
And also...
Is it really April already?