This made me think about pentecost in an entirely new way

"Babel was about everyone speaking one official imperial language. Pentecost is about the borderless God who speaks in every language."

— Brian Zahnd (@BrianZahnd) May 22, 2013

Something that made me think

“God is not a belief-system.
Jesus is not a religion.
Christianity is not a check-list.
Church is not an address.
The Bible is not a book of doctrines.
Community is not a meeting.
Grace has no exceptions.
Ministry is not a program.
Art is not carnal.
Women are not inferior.
Our humanity is not the enemy.
Sinner is not our identity.
Love is not a theory.
Peace is not a circumstance.
Science is not secular.
Sex is not filthy.
Life is not a warm-up for Heaven
The world is not without hope.
There is no “us” and “them.”
Tattoos are not evil.
Loving the earth is not satanic.
Seeing the divine in all things is not heretical.
Self-actualization is not self-worship.
Feelings are not dangerous and unreliable.
The mind is not infallible.”

Jim Palmer, Notes From (over) The Edge

First Sunday in Advent

These words from the advent devotional at Following the Star stood out to me this morning.

"Perhaps peace in our world begins with peace in our own lives. We each have places of unrest, and perhaps if we work for peace here, inside our lives, we might be able to know more of God’s peace in the world."

It reminds me of the Sara Groves song "Peace Peace"

Peace, peace, it's hard to find
Trouble comes like wrecking ball
To your peace of mind
And all that worry you can't leave behind you

All your hopes and fears
All your hopes and fears, oh
All your hopes and fears
Are met in Him tonight

Peace, peace, it's hard to find
Doubt comes like a tiny voice that's so unkind
And all your fears
They conspire to unwind you

And all your hopes and fears
All your hopes and fears, oh
All your hopes and fears
Are met in Him

And in your dark street shines
An everlasting light
And all your hopes and fears
Are met in Him tonight

And all your hopes and fears
All your hopes and fears, oh
All your hopes and fears
Are met in Him tonight

Peace, peace
Peace, peace
Peace, peace

Image found here.

Peace is definitely something most of us need to find in the midst of our much to busy and stressful lives.  I think advent is the perfect time to focus on peace and connecting with God.  Haley from Carrots for Michaelmas wrote a beautiful post about the importance of the liturgical year and the gift that it gives each of us "to make his life our own."  She explains it beautifully and made me think about my view of advent and the liturgical year.

What a nice reminder

Image found here

"God created us in such a way that although we do have strengths, we also have weaknesses and we need His help."    
-from Hearing from God Each Morning by Joyce Meyer

I started a new Bible reading plan a few days ago and I'm always amazed at what is pointed out to me by reading the Bible in new and different ways.  I use a program called YouVersion that is available online or on my ipad.  It offers a bunch of Bible reading plans and allows you to choose from a bunch of different versions.  I really like it because it allows me to check things off and see my progress (which I absolutely love!) and because it's so easy to explore new reading plans or different versions of the Bible.

Relationships

At church yesterday, we talked about the importance of relationships.  In our adult education class, we talked about how the church is all about relationships.  And in service, the sermon was about the building of the temple and the importance of the church as a group of people, not as a building.  Both of those discussions rang so true to me.  My church (Orchard Park Presbyterian) has been going through a time of transition.  We have an interim minister that many people have had problems with whose contract was just renewed through February.  We have three services that have lower attendance than I've seen in years.  We have some problems like any other church.

And the thing is, I've grown up in this church.  Besides my family, it has been the major constant in my life.  We started going to Orchard Park when we moved to Indiana and have been going there ever since.  I cannot explain all of the ways that this church has affected me.

It is at this church that I explored and questioned and strengthened my faith.  

It is at this church that I formed friendships that have lasted more than any other friendships I have had. These are the friends that I know I will always be there for me.

It is at this church that I was "adopted" by Al and Anne Porteous who knew that we had no family in the area and took it upon themselves to fulfill that role for us.  

It is as this church that I was introduced to the camp where my family has spent so much time together and my sister chose to get married.  

It is at this church that I learned the meaning and value of mission work.  

It is at this church that I was told that my mother made it through her heart surgery (and for that I will be forever grateful to Jim Noble.)

I know that the church has some problems, but I have a hard time looking past them sometimes and I think other people in the church do too.  It seems as though most of our problems would disappear if we could just remember what was said today, that the church is about relationships.  Relationships with God and relationships with people.  

And so, because I am frustrated and disappointed and don't know what else to do about everything that is happening at church, I'm going to do just that.  I'm going to focus on my relationship with God and my relationships with people.  I'm going to pray about the problems.  I'm going to pray for the people.  Instead of complaining or criticizing, I'm going to pray and remember that God has a plan for our church, even if we don't understand it right now.

Prompt 4

Wonder.  How did you cultivate a sense of wonder this year?

The way that I've kept wonder in my life is by thinking about God's timing.  With all of the challenging things that happened this year, there have been definite times when I was able to see what God was doing - or if not to at least trust that He knows what He's doing.

The main example of this?  My grandma moved from her condo into a retirement community this year.  I had helped with the move, but had not gone to see her on my own until the last day of school.  We had decided that I would come over and we would spend the afternoon together and have dinner together.

I spent the afternoon with her - teaching her how to use her DVD player so she could watch The King's Speech later that night and even having a conversation with Andrew on speakerphone -  and then we went out to dinner together.  We talked about her life growing up, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet which we'd both read, and a whole bunch of other things.  Then I took her home, gave her a hug, and told her I loved her.  She passed away the next day.

The sense of wonder in that comes from the fact that God had to know what he was doing in terms of timing.  Obviously I'm sad that my grandma is no longer with us, but I'm so amazingly grateful that I got to spend her last full day with her.

A thought to start off the week

Image from here

Peace

Andrew lost his job yesterday.  It was completely unexpected.  Obviously, it has changed things.


But I figure we have two options.  Option one is to be upset about it, to blame the company for not having any loyalty to its employees (even after three years), and to dwell on it.  Option two is to realize that there's nothing either of us can do to change it, to be grateful for the support we have around us, and to view this as an opportunity for Andrew to find a job that he actually enjoys.


So even though things around me are changing and uncertain, I am doing my best to be calm about it.  Even if I don't always feel calm, because I have a hard time with things being out of my control and because I hate seeing Andrew discouraged, I think that acting calm about it will help Andrew and I eventually be at peace with this.


(I definitely think there are things that God puts in our path at particular moments.  One of those is the song Peace Peace by Sara Groves.  I had never heard the song until earlier this week when we started rehearsing for the Christmas Eve service at church.  I definitely think that I was supposed to hear it this week to help me be at peace with what has happened.)

Peace Peace

by Sara Groves

Peace, peace, it's hard to find

Trouble comes like wrecking ball

To you peace of mind

And all that worry you can't leave behind you

All your hopes and fears

All your hopes and fears, oh

All your hopes and fears

Are met in Him tonight

Peace, peace, it's hard to find

Doubt comes like a tiny voice that's so unkind

And all your fears they conspire

To unwind you

All your hopes and fears

All your hopes and fears, oh

All your hopes and fears

Are met in Him

And in your dark street shines 

An everlasting light

And all your hopes and fears

Are met in Him tonight

And all your hopes and fears

All your hopes and fears, oh

All your hopes and fears

Are met in Him tonight

Peace, peace

Peace, peace

Peace, peace

Prompt 11: 11 Things

What are 11 things your life doesn't need in 2011?  How will you go about eliminating them?  How will getting rid of these 11 things change your life?

1. Depression/anxiety - I will remember to take time for myself.  I will talk to Andrew about how I'm feeling and remember that the way I'm feeling is not necessarily the way things are.
2. Weight - I need to seriously commit to my health in 2011.  I am tired of feeling unhappy with my weight and with my body.  I will continue the personal training with Andrew and remember that I'm happier when I work out on a consistent basis.
3. Dehydration - I do not drink a lot of water unless I make the conscious effort to drink a lot of water, which means that I'm dehydrated most of the time.  I need to remember that I feel better when I've been drinking water and I'm not dehydrated.
4. Wasting time - I need to think about how I'm spending my time and make a conscious effort to spend it the way I want to.  This means limiting the time I spend watching TV or reading blogs and making time for things like talking to Andrew, playing with Schmoo, working out, and reading books.  I need to remember that when I'm not thinking about how I spend my time, I usually end up wasting it.
5. Responsibility for things that aren't in my control - As Andrew said to me today, I need to stop taking responsibility for things that aren't in my control.  So I can't take responsibility for other people's thoughts or actions.  I can only be responsible for myself and remember that that's enough.
6. Lack of sleep - I know this is ironic considering that I'm writing this post at 12:11 at night, but I have a tendency to not get enough sleep and then to feel guilty when I need to catch up on sleep.  Today I took a long nap and it was wonderful.  When i woke up, I felt stressed and more motivated to do the things that I wanted to get done today.  I need to remember that taking time to sleep is not a waste of time.
7. Negativity - I have a tendency to think very negatively about things sometimes.  I've found that if I make a conscious effort to think positively about something than I will usually feel better about it.  So I need to remember that the way I think about things affects the way I feel about them.
8. Anti-social tendencies - I already posted about my anti-social tendencies when I feel stressed.  I need to remember that I enjoy being around people, even if I don't think that I will and to simply go be social!
9. Being too hard on myself - I am always way to hard on myself, mostly because I have really high expectations for myself and for those around me.  I need to remember that I'm not perfect and that that's okay.
10. Being too hard on Andrew - I am also too hard on Andrew because he's the one I spend most of my time with.  I also need to remember that Andrew's not perfect and that that's okay.  If he was, I wouldn't love him as much as I do!
11. Disconnection from God - I need to remember that it's important for me to feel connected to God.  I often let things get in the way of my relationship with him, especially some of the things that I've listed above, and I need to remember that that's the most important thing in my life and I need to treasure it above everything else.