What defines "home"?
Is it where you stuff is?
Is it where you can relax and just be?
It is comfort? Or people? Or circumstances?
It seems to be a place and a feeling. And some places that you live do not feel like home and some do eventually and some do automatically? So what are the defining factors? Does it have to do with the state of your soul and how settled it is time to be? Or a sense of belonging that is reliant on external factors? Or is it a rest within ones own soul, when being present is possible and delighted in, when rest is had? There seems to be something about it that is sought after and yet undefinable. A sense of peace or calling which keeps us in a spot and attaches our heart to it.
My lovely house in the great city of Madison is home right now. And I like it.
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Sunday 20 September 2009
In the beginning.....
" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Genesis 1:1-2
Whoa. Today this is blowing me away. The anticipation. Like the best thing ever is about to happen. There is darkness and chaos and power. Whoa. It makes my stomach get butterflies, like a present that you can't wait to rip open or a movie or book where the next part is coming and the suspense is so great. Or like climbing up a large incline on a roller coaster, you know that it is going to be a wild ride. As the train clicks up and up the incline, the steepness increasing, the car going slower and slower as it climbs and the pause at the top, right before you head over. This is it. It's coming and it's great. Something to be caught up in and swept away forever.
There is chaotic vastness and God is hovering. Creation is going to happen. Wow. It is so good and so hard to sit at the top of that incline when the train is about to go over. Just as reading these two verses really want to catapult you into the rest. Cause God speaks and the vastness is formed into light, and life and us. And we are then reflectors of the light and life and participate in the amazingness that is creation. Whoa.
I am going to hang out in verses one and two for a bit and be in awe. Whoa. What a powerful and amazing God. And we are a part of it. Wow indeed.
Whoa. Today this is blowing me away. The anticipation. Like the best thing ever is about to happen. There is darkness and chaos and power. Whoa. It makes my stomach get butterflies, like a present that you can't wait to rip open or a movie or book where the next part is coming and the suspense is so great. Or like climbing up a large incline on a roller coaster, you know that it is going to be a wild ride. As the train clicks up and up the incline, the steepness increasing, the car going slower and slower as it climbs and the pause at the top, right before you head over. This is it. It's coming and it's great. Something to be caught up in and swept away forever.
There is chaotic vastness and God is hovering. Creation is going to happen. Wow. It is so good and so hard to sit at the top of that incline when the train is about to go over. Just as reading these two verses really want to catapult you into the rest. Cause God speaks and the vastness is formed into light, and life and us. And we are then reflectors of the light and life and participate in the amazingness that is creation. Whoa.
I am going to hang out in verses one and two for a bit and be in awe. Whoa. What a powerful and amazing God. And we are a part of it. Wow indeed.
Thursday 17 September 2009
My $22 coffee
I broke my french press coffee maker. While washing it, it decided to fall over in the sink and the 10 inches between being upright and on it's side was enough of a fall to break it. Grrr... Then trying to fix the situation as quickly as possible, I went to Target to buy a new one. But they did not have the $20 option, only the $40, so I did not want to get it. That meant buying coffee at the coffee shop for a few days as I checked other stores who only had the expensive one too. One morning, I went to get my coffee, and after searching the house unsuccessfully for change for the meter, chanced parking for the three minutes it takes to get the coffee.
There was a man standing by the wall when I went in and when I came out. After I came back to the car and found the $20 ticket on it, he told me that the parking guy was right across the street when I went in. Why didn't he tell me that before? I then told him that I had tried to find change and he said that I should have just asked him. Yes I should have. Why didn't I?
Now I have a french press that also have some rubber and plastic around the sides so hopefully the glass will not break this time. But add up the $20 ticket, the $25 french press and all of the coffees in the meantime, and I lost money on the deal.
There was a man standing by the wall when I went in and when I came out. After I came back to the car and found the $20 ticket on it, he told me that the parking guy was right across the street when I went in. Why didn't he tell me that before? I then told him that I had tried to find change and he said that I should have just asked him. Yes I should have. Why didn't I?
Now I have a french press that also have some rubber and plastic around the sides so hopefully the glass will not break this time. But add up the $20 ticket, the $25 french press and all of the coffees in the meantime, and I lost money on the deal.
Thursday 3 September 2009
Prayer
What does it mean to be a people of prayer? What does it mean to have prayer as a defining characteristic in a community? What does it mean for that community to be birthed out of prayer?
I love the idea, the concept, the passionate life that is lived when every moment is a prayer, where all of life is worship to God. How much time do we spend though talking about prayer, about worship, or about community vs. the time that we spend living it?
Prayer as breathing. Breathing God in and breathing out in to life, to the everyday, the people that you meet and the ones that you know. Prayer is so inclusive too. There are not lines of who is in and who is out, like there can be in a standard community, where there are usually rings of inclusion and levels of commitment.
Life as prayer, connecting to God, being with him. And as you live out of that place, the things in life take on importance in the proper proportions. Things that really do not matter, don't. And the things that break God's heart, (those things that we can ignore if we get distracted enough) work there way in to our hearts too, softening and tweaking and re-aligning til our hearts break at those things too. And the things that are joyful, are full of goodness and joy again too.
I met a man at work yesterday who told me that life was to short and that as his age, life could be over at any point. Life is too short to not have a personality he said. He was a character for sure and had great wisdom too. Just being ourselves and having that personality that is distinctly yours is so freeing to you and the people around too. And it frees you up to care about the other people around you too. Because, if you are comfortable in your own skin, others are comfortable to relax in their skin too. How great would it be to be a person who people are free around.
I love the idea, the concept, the passionate life that is lived when every moment is a prayer, where all of life is worship to God. How much time do we spend though talking about prayer, about worship, or about community vs. the time that we spend living it?
Prayer as breathing. Breathing God in and breathing out in to life, to the everyday, the people that you meet and the ones that you know. Prayer is so inclusive too. There are not lines of who is in and who is out, like there can be in a standard community, where there are usually rings of inclusion and levels of commitment.
Life as prayer, connecting to God, being with him. And as you live out of that place, the things in life take on importance in the proper proportions. Things that really do not matter, don't. And the things that break God's heart, (those things that we can ignore if we get distracted enough) work there way in to our hearts too, softening and tweaking and re-aligning til our hearts break at those things too. And the things that are joyful, are full of goodness and joy again too.
I met a man at work yesterday who told me that life was to short and that as his age, life could be over at any point. Life is too short to not have a personality he said. He was a character for sure and had great wisdom too. Just being ourselves and having that personality that is distinctly yours is so freeing to you and the people around too. And it frees you up to care about the other people around you too. Because, if you are comfortable in your own skin, others are comfortable to relax in their skin too. How great would it be to be a person who people are free around.
Wednesday 2 September 2009
What to say today
Today is a day off and one of the first ones I have had that has not had big moving in type projects that I should be doing. (not that I did them on the other days off but they were there.) The bathroom has been scrubbed, the kitchen unpacked, the dining room chairs covered, and pictures hung. Hooray. It is so nice to get to move in and make a space home. And I love where we are living. It is good and a lot different to live with one person only instead of the many that I am used to. There other day I got asked if I lived in a different community house. Sure I do. By "community house" though, I think there definition assumes more than two people.
It is a nice sunny day today and I am going to go for a run. Oh the joys of running. The not having to do anything else, the tiredness, the endorphins, the feeling of fit-ness.
The other day I went to a custard shop and didn't have cash and there was a sign that they could not charge a card with anything less than $7. Hmmmm. So the guy asked what I wanted. "Nothing I guess." So he asked what I wanted again and gave me a dish of vanilla custard telling me to pay next time. What a nice interaction and help.
How often are people willing to be put out of place or inconvenienced to help someone else? Not like my custard is a good example of a dire situation, but I sure we can think of enough situations where the help of other people is needed. How willing are the other people? More or less willing if they are strangers to the one who needs help? Probably more willing if it is either a quick help, where the inconvenience is only for a moment, or a major emergency which conscience would not let go. And is help something that should be asked for or freely given?
I like the opening of doors for other people and picking up things that people have dropped. Those are really easy things and make people smile. And I like the interaction with a stranger where there is a smile and maybe a couple of words and you're on your way again.
But what about the times when people really need help? And we are busy and distracted by our own lives. Are we noticing? Are we taking any time to care about the situation, or just moving on by?
I think it depends on the situation and the people involved cause there are plenty of stories of heroics and kind words, and many where there is just need. So which story are we going to be a part of today?
It is a nice sunny day today and I am going to go for a run. Oh the joys of running. The not having to do anything else, the tiredness, the endorphins, the feeling of fit-ness.
The other day I went to a custard shop and didn't have cash and there was a sign that they could not charge a card with anything less than $7. Hmmmm. So the guy asked what I wanted. "Nothing I guess." So he asked what I wanted again and gave me a dish of vanilla custard telling me to pay next time. What a nice interaction and help.
How often are people willing to be put out of place or inconvenienced to help someone else? Not like my custard is a good example of a dire situation, but I sure we can think of enough situations where the help of other people is needed. How willing are the other people? More or less willing if they are strangers to the one who needs help? Probably more willing if it is either a quick help, where the inconvenience is only for a moment, or a major emergency which conscience would not let go. And is help something that should be asked for or freely given?
I like the opening of doors for other people and picking up things that people have dropped. Those are really easy things and make people smile. And I like the interaction with a stranger where there is a smile and maybe a couple of words and you're on your way again.
But what about the times when people really need help? And we are busy and distracted by our own lives. Are we noticing? Are we taking any time to care about the situation, or just moving on by?
I think it depends on the situation and the people involved cause there are plenty of stories of heroics and kind words, and many where there is just need. So which story are we going to be a part of today?
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