Sunshine and Blue Skies

We awoke to the sun streaming in the Velux window – although our clock radio kicks on at 6 am, the sun starts streaming in at this time of year earlier than that. The birds were tweeting their little hearts out and it felt like spring.

Well. Looked like spring. There remains a cold edge to the wind and the temps hover in single digits still. 

However, as I walked Dusty I noticed up ahead, the sky was a maelstrom of grey, stormy clouds, mixing and twisting in the wind. But behind me was a clear blue sky, and as I watched, the wind which I so dislike began sweeping the clouds onwards and away, making way for the blue sky to follow.

Scripture likens the Holy Spirit to the Wind. I must remember that when I grumble about the wind...

An initiative in which we are involved had a meeting yesterday, and for the second time there was an angry exchange of aggressive words over disputable points. Something has to be done to pour oil on these turbulent waters before this initiative can be successfully birthed, not least because most of us involved call ourselves Christians.

Jesus talks again and again about the unity of the Holy Spirit, of believers living in harmony and being of one mind. Paul, too, addresses disharmony in the cities to which he addresses his letters. Strong opinions, strongly expressed, raise hackles sometimes. As my mother taught me, it isn’t always what you say, but the way that you say it. We’re all entitled to our opinions, but we also have a duty to respect those of others. 

So back to the churning cloudy sky scudding away before the blue. I felt so encouraged by that this morning, as I considered this group of people. It caused me to renew my prayers for unity and harmony, and of being of one mind as we seek to do something for our community. 

People are watching to see if Christians do things differently. By God’s grace, and with his help, we do.

Elder

Ground elder, that is.

A pernicious weed which is gradually claiming my entire flower border. It sends strong white roots in all directions, which then pop up as a new plant before it, too, sends out new roots. It creeps up walls, getting a ‘foothold’ wherever there might be a dabble of dirt. 

You may have seen them growing wild, putting up flower stems at some point in the summer months. I’m on a mission to eradicate them from my flowers, but I think it may be Mission Impossible. The trouble is, the strong root penetrates more viscous roots and then pops a plant out, so that they are all so intertwined that in order to remove the weed, I risk killing the plant or flower as well.

Jesus told a parable about this situation. He said to leave the weeds until the harvest is coming in, lest the plants be killed as well. Of course he was speaking about people, not plants or weeds at all. 

People who live his Life, and people who live a lie. Those bearing fruit, and those which are barren.

I understand the dangers, and don’t want to decimate the many plants which are just beginning to grow after a dormant winter. Neither do I want a crop of ground elder.

That’s why my mission is impossible. I will never succeed in pulling out every single elder plant, because I’m loathe to kill some of my better established flowers. 

I’m so glad that Jesus’ mission was not impossible; that he is the perfect one to save each and every one of us. And that he doesn’t take chances of uprooting a fruitful life, just to dig out a very annoying weed.

He can wait.

Sugar Soap

The bedroom ceiling looked fine to me, even after a couple of decades of neglect. Still white. 

But actually, now it has been washed with sugar soap and rinsed, it looks brilliant white. Almost too good to bother painting again – though we will as we are renewing the wallpaper and everything else in there.

It makes me think, though, how perceptions and standards can be skewed. I look at something I’ve done, perhaps, and think it’s pretty good, but actually it could be better. I think it’s easy to look at life as a Christian, too, and be a bit complacent. Easy to tick off the good things I’ve done or nice things people have said and think that’s good enough.

But Paul says, basically, never to take your eye off the ball. Focus on Jesus and keep running the race. Don’t be distracted; don’t think the race is over until it is. 

It takes discipline and resolve. Sometimes we need to pull out and shower – get rid of the world’s dirt and dust that sticks as we go through it. Sometimes we need to be refreshed – we can’t run forever without topping up with Jesus’ life-giving water. And then we need to get out there again and continue with the race. 

Not because we have to. Not out of duty. Out of love for Jesus. Knowing that as we run his race, we’re running with him. 

Running beside him reveals the need I have for more sugar soap. The contrast is pretty noticeable. But he is gentle and loving and ready to forgive. 

Yippee.

Keep focused

Every time I open up my blog or email account, I get an advertising band across the bottom with a gyrating torso showing the difference between a flat and a fat tummy, and how to achieve the most attractive results. I am a little paranoid of malicious attacks on my computer and am quick to close it down. But it annoys me.

Similarly, so often now when I go to make an on-line purchase, before my next chosen page opens I am shunted off to an on-line marketing questionnaire and promised if I answer a couple of simple questions, I’m in with a chance to win a new I-pad/phone. Again, with irritation I close the thing down, this time not so much agitated that I’m under malicious attack but that my privacy is being invaded and compromised.

It’s really hard to stay focused when so many interruptions conspire against it. One of my main reasons for resisting the temptation to open a Facebook account is that I will find my time compromised because I become distracted. Maybe that says more about me and my weakness than about any external interruption.

I don’t think I am unique though, and I believe that in this noisy, busy world, it takes determination and concentration to remain focused.

There’s a Christian song from a couple of decades ago with the lines, ‘Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.’ 

Good, healthy advice.

St Paul advises that we fix our eyes on Jesus, who loves us, who prays for us, who longs for us to just slip aside into a lay-by and sit with him. It takes determination and self-discipline and practice to do this. 

I have been blessed by the benefits of doing it, yet even knowing that, I am still easily distracted. Sometimes I think the distractions may originate from a malicious source seeking to subvert my highest, but perhaps weak, desires to glorify God. But most of the time I think the distractions are simply there for their own purposes – to sell me something, or get me to sign up for something.

This is the day the Lord has made – rainy and windy as it is. I am deciding right now, before 9 am, to rejoice and be glad in it, to spend time focusing on Jesus and listening to hear that still small voice, to notice his loving presence in my life. To remain focused, undistracted.

How about you?

Stepping stones

It’s my birthday today, and I’ve just been thinking of all those that have gone before – birthdays, I mean! It would be lovely to have a list of what I did on my birthday every year, kind of like a ladder. 

I would love to have my memory jogged to recall in better detail those beautifully decorated doll cakes my mother made on the alternate years when we had parties. I’d love to cast my eye down the list of names of friends and family with whom I celebrated, and remember.

I remember a few clearly. The early teen year when my friend Linda and I, whose birthdays were one day apart, thought we were gathering with a group of girlfriends to go ice skating, only to be ‘kidnapped’ by my mother and others and taken to the Camp Fire Girls day camp where we camped overnight, cooking dinner over an open fire and sleeping in pup tents. Memorable and fun.

My 21^st was spent in Stirling where I was an exchange student for a year. Three friends and I ate dinner in a Chinese restaurant together – it felt a little dull and anticlimactic. 

On my 40^th, we had a party and danced to the sounds of the 60s, which was wonderful.

Today I will celebrate with one son and his wife coming up for the weekend, and we shall all go to another son and his wife’s new home tomorrow for lunch. I’m also meeting my sister in law for a coffee and scone, and was out for dinner last night with close friends. It’s amazing to be made to feel special.

Every year, April 12^th is a stepping stone through my life towards its climax. I’m thinking of Jacob’s ladder, the story in the Bible where Jacob has a dream of a ladder joining earth to heaven, with angels going up and down on it. When he awakens he exclaims, ‘God was in this place and I didn’t know.’ Then he builds an altar there and worships.

God has been with me on every step through my life, and sometimes I didn’t notice. Jesus was criticised by the more serious religious types for spending too much time eating and drinking – at parties. Celebrations are God’s specialty, and I like to think that as I get closer to the top of my ladder, I am approaching my eternal home where there is plenty of singing and dancing, and everybody is special. 

So today, as I intersperse various jobs that need doing with moments of sharing and making new memories, I will reflect on those steps that went before – the ones I can recall. I will delight as I open cards and receive good wishes from loved ones near and far. And I will be awe-struck that despite the billions of people alive now and who have gone before, God made me unique, a one-off, and to him I am special. 

As are you.