Saturday Scraps

I have to be honest, I'm more anxious to get on in the stimulating discussion previously posted but you know me, I come up with these things and it being only the second Saturday, I shall delight in reflecting! To hear about my inspiration for Saturday Scraps go here.

• Got worried about my brother- Some of you saw my post to ask for prayer for my brother and I posted update on comments but I'll let you know here that he is better. It's very hard for my mom, and me for that matter to have him so far away but the ministry ranch he lives at is so perfect for his somewhat independent life that he wants, that it's just the best arrangement. The scary thing about his situation is that his body will start to shut down as he gets older. Living years on meds for his cerebral palsy will start to show up in different ways in his health as he grows older.

• On Monday, my good friend and I took our sons and her new baby to Monteray Bay Aquarium. We had a blast. It was good to be with our boys. She had invited us since our older kids had been at camp in the summer and she had passes but when we tried to go then, her toddler got sick (she has 5 kids) so this was the fulfillment of a raincheck trip. Look for more pics to come!
• Princess had her first game (and Lilo wanted to grace the picture, which she does of course, and btw we call this her "Where's Waldo Goes To Prison" shirt...lol..:)! She did not get to play but hey, she was there. Her grade is kind of the back up team. I just thought she looked so cute in her uniform which I had to tweak for the blog, sorry. OH, and on that note, the kids will be going back to their code names from my other blog SFE that is closed now. There are new followers here and I'm excited they come by but I think it's time to go incognito:)
• The storms hitting our California dry lifestyles was thrilling but a little scary. It was an adventure not having a car and navigating rides and walking in it at times to school and once to work. As I was walking I contemplated how wimpy I was. I was pleased in a way that Superkid was home sick for two days so we could enjoy the storms together. He had a fever all day on Wednesday and lay on the couch watching movies and staring out at the storms.
• God is challenging me this week. Challenging me to dig deeper, be wiser, and more than anything to be humble. I sometimes get frustrated with my own personality that wants to shout things from the rooftop when they are impressed upon me and I have to slow down and be mindful that the very way I go about these things could take the glory AWAY from God or mess up the message entirely. Human communication is difficult to navigate well. The journey in these lands always swells my heart like nothing else, it is sheer delight and happiness, and yes an emotional experience to dive into the ways of my Heavenly Father and His intentions for his created ones. This song swells my heart and comes to mind often:

Side Note:
Did you know that Newsboys is loosing their lead singer Peter Furler and they are replacing him with Michael Tait from DC Talk!? Its a little strange since I've been a fan since I was a kid and all ready had a hard time when they lost their OTHER lead singer John James. He, John, had a great calling to preach and I'm sure Peter has a good reason too but I don't know if Newsboys will be the same after this. I love Michael and his independent stuff has been great too but I'm just finding it an odd match. Well, it's "In The Hands Of God" as they would say:)

• New Blog! Nope, not from me...don't sweat. :) My best friend growing up (I say growing up but I mean mainly in my final high school years which were homeschooling) was a guy (so I actually consider him my brother in heart) and he married a beautiful, talented, and interesting lady named Erin. Erin has a new blog called Epicurean Travels and it's about their family's tradition of picking countries and cooking something new from there. It's going to be really fun to follow I think. I love foreign food so much though so it's right up my alley.



• I went in to Superkid's class again yesterday to help give the end of the week assessments. I was just so tickled by this I had to share. I call the students back to a table with me, and they read thier sight words for the week and their pheonitic words. This week they had some contractions and the new concept of the e at the end making the vowel say it's name. So, with each child I reminded them of these helping hints before they read thier six words or so to me. With one child I said "now here you are going to have the e that.....?" and said child so charmingly and unknowingly responded: "makes the i say your name." OH>>>>LOL! NO! I didn't laugh out loud! But I did inside, and then I tried to fight off the song starting to play in my head "Say my name, say my name...." :)

Does God Work For Our Happiness? Christian Hedonism Part 1

Sometimes I feel that we get in these modes as believers where we know the ropes and the rules and we just want to keep pressing on as we know it instead of being challenged to learn new things. I don't fit well in those circles because I have AMAZING joy in learning crazy new things about God. Things that hurt my brain to talk and think about. Things that I've not heard discussed yet in Christian circles. Things that people like Lewis and Piper blow my brain with and challenge me that THERE IS EVEN MORE! OH HOW I LOVE THAT ABOUT GOD! In fact it is the very essence of my discussion here, the very seeking for these pleasures from God, desiring Him, wanting more. To be totally content in Him and yet desire more is the foundation of happiness in Him and from Him.

I want to ask some questions. I want to enter a theological gym of sorts and do some stretches and some painful muscle building. I invite you to enter with me, and to challenge me in any way. I invite discussion and humble hearts who long to banter about the issues of our very existence. Doesn't that sound exciting!? Well, it does to me and you came by my blog so ...here we go:)

What is happiness?

What is joy?

Are they the same?

Is happiness even important to Christians?

Does God long for us to be happy?

Does he long for us to be joyful?

What do they mean?

Is our happiness on God's priority list?

What does the world define as "happy"?

Is it wrong to want to be happy?

Is it a right or a God given desire?

How has sin tainted this desire like it has so many others?

These are the things I want to talk about. This will take a while, and yes, I'm a wife and mother of three children and I work a small job for 2 hours a day. So, I'm not in a hurry to get through this. I WILL get through it though because I feel it is vital to the Christian walk. I think it's something we are missing.

Want to know where to start to get going? Go to http://www.desiringgod.org/ and read about Christian Hedonism. Or, pick up the book "Desiring God" by John Piper.

What inspired this?

I read a lovely Christian woman state that "we think we deserve happiness" and "our happiness is not God's focus and it is not the meaning of life". Although I completely understand where she was coming from and the validity of her statements (and trust me, they ARE valid and true in the sense she intended them), my soul cringes when we say these things. The reason is not because she is wrong but because there is SO MUCH MORE that IS important on the issue of happiness and unfortunately we as Christians stop at this and don't go on into the rest of it. We get this, as stated above, and we get the concept of joy. Those spiritual muscles are stretched and built and we think we are done. We are not. In between there is a whole element that is glorious about God. It comes down to understanding what he has instilled in us when he made us. It comes down to understanding definitions and where they are wrong.

I tell you, I know God wants us to be happy and I think we have thrown the baby out with the bathwater when we shun this word entirely. I will talk about why and how. I will be bold enough to say that God's whole plan was and is for our happiness. Joy, yes, but even happiness. We have to be willing to erase cliche thoughts and go back to the drawing board of EVERYTHING having to do with why we are here and how He is redeeming us back to himself. Like said, it's a lot but believe me when I say, your joy will be made full if you journey with me. It will be embellished in a way you never knew. I'm not the most knowledgeable on these things though so I'm just hoping to inspire and get you started. Seek the word, we will here. Read Lewis, we will be quoting his thoughts for sure, and please, please read John Piper. God has given this man a great gift of deeper thinking into the scripture that continually challenges me and makes God bigger in my thinking than He ever was before.

I'll start you off with this poem to ponder. I look forward to the journey.

When God at first made man,

Having a glass of blessings standing by,

Let us (said he) pour on him all we can:

Let the world's riches, which dispersed lie,

Contract into a span.

So strength first made a way;

Then beauty flowed, then wisdom, honour, pleasure:

When almost all was out, God made a stay,

Perceiving that alone of all his treasure,

Rest in the bottom lay.

For if I should (said he)

Bestow this jewel also on my creature,

He would adore my gifts instead of me,

And rest in Nature, not the God of Nature:

So both should losers be.

Yet let him keep the rest,

But keep them with repining restlessness;

Let him be rich and weary, that at least,

If goodness lead him not, yet weariness

May toss him to my breast.

George Herbert

Prayer For My Brother

Many of you know my brother. He was having seizures one after the other the other day and they took him to the hospital. They checked and his med levels were low. They got him back on track and sent him home. Then he got the flu with bad vomiting. If you follow that through you know that having cerebral palsy and seizing and vomiting all together can be a dangerous situation. My mom is trying to trust God for his safety and healing right now as the Christian ranch he lives on is too far away for her to just hop in the car and go. He has been having a rough time and not wanting to bug his staff in the middle of the night when he gets sick. He's had to clean up his own mess and try to remake his bed and everything because he did not want to wake them. They told him today to make sure and let them know, so I'm hoping he will do that.
Pray God keeps him safely through this bad sickness and that his body levels out. Thank you.

Thankful Thursday: Shelter

It's Thursday and I'm thankful for shelter! There are many reasons. I've been pondering on the people of Haiti and their great loss of shelter, on our storms and the two new leaks in my house that remind me how much the rest of it keeps out, and on the shelter of God's almighty hand.

So many are left without shelter now. So many like Job have had everything stripped away from them. John Piper posted a poem he wrote in his pondering on Haiti:

Jesus in Haiti
After the Earthquake

Do you consider safety, or your health,
A sign from me?
I am not awed by might, nor struck by wealth,
Or poverty.

O, I am struck! And crushed. Buried, I wince,
And dying, pray,
A sympathetic Priest in Port-au-Prince,
Even today.

But there, in those United States the boot
Is on my face.
“Saul, Saul,” I ask, “Why do you persecute
And not embrace?”

Your King, I lift my arms to you in peace
And patient grief;
And summon now to Haiti enemies
For my relief.

I find that a very powerful poem. "why do you persecute and not embrace?" is so striking to some who have responded so arrogantly in the Christian media. I'm thankful for other Christian leading men who have risen to show a more Christlike attitude. The last line is the most powerful however "and summon now to Haiti enemies for my relief". It's amazing that God will use those who don't know him even when we who sometimes do not rise to the occasion. It's incredibly convicting. May we not put our boot to the very face of Jesus by not helping the helpless.

Yes, our house has a few more leaks. We will need to do some serious patching once the weather dries but last time I found a leak I just freaked out and felt so discontent with my home. This time I was immediately thankful for how safe and dry we WERE inside here! I've been impressed with the blessing of shelter, and warmth, of dry blankets and warm food. There is so much to be thankful for. Yet I also have to remember to hold even all that I have with an open hand.

Above all, oh, I'm so thankful for the shelter of God's provision of himself. Not really just what he gives me to take care of me, shower love on me, or meet my needs, but the very provision of himself, of the revelation of my need for Him and the solution of His Son to provide it.

"But let all who take refuge in you be glad,

Let them ever sing for joy;

And may you shelter them;

That those who love you may exult in you."
Psalm 5:11

The reason I'm thankful for it is because it is the one thing that cannot be taken away. This of course parallels my thoughts reading Job as I shared in the previous post. God sheltering us means one thing and one thing only. It is not defined by his provision here on earth, though He may give it. It does not mean continued health here on earth, though He may give it. It is not wrapped up in funds for our next need, though He may give it. It is fully and completely the gift of Himself, which is the shelter or the resting place that perfectly fits the one thing we really truly and only need. Love for God breeds joy, unstopped and untainted by the lack for anything else. That is a basis for continued thanks in my soul.

So, I pray for those without shelter, be they in California in the storms, or in Haiti. I pray the Lord will provide their needs and send His people out to help them. I pray even more that men will find the shelter of their souls in these times of loss AND in the times of plenty. The shelter that cannot be taken, and the shelter from eternity past, and our portion forever.