Quality Family Time

Though I’m only to boast in the Lord, allow me this one moment to boast in my sweet family that was given me from the Lord! My blogger sister, Lauren, has featured two blog posts recently about some family visits. Beloveds, I wanted to catch you up on what I’ve been doing lately (did I forget about my blog for a month?), as well as introduce you to Lauren’s splendid blog if you haven’t seen it yet (my sister’s so talented and she’s my favorite).

Read about our Sister Summer Camp activities in March!

And check out our Cruise Adventure this past week!

This Itch

Context: He has just eaten a delicious gourd.

“As he let the empty gourd fall from his hand and was about to pluck a second one, it came into his head that he was now neither hungry nor thirsty. And yet to repeat a pleasure so intense and almost so spiritual seemed an obvious thing to do. His reason, or what we commonly take to be reason in our own world, was all in favour of tasting this miracle again; the childlike innocence of fruit, the labours he had undergone, the uncertainty of the future, all seemed to commend the action. Yet something seemed opposed to this “reason.” It is difficult to suppose that this opposition came from desire, for what desire would turn from so much deliciousness? But for whatever cause, it appeared to him better not to taste again. Perhaps the experience had been so complete that repetition would be vulgarity–like asking to hear the same symphony twice in a day….”

“…He had always disliked the people who encored a favourite air in the opera–”That just spoils it” had been his comment. But this now appeared to him as a principle of far wider application and deeper moment. This itch to have things over again, as if life were a film that could be unrolled twice or even made to work backwards…was it possibly the root of all evil? No: of course the love of money was called that. But money itself–perhaps one valued it chiefly as a defense against chance, a security for being able to have things over again, a means of arresting the unrolling of the film.”

-Perelandra, C.S. Lewis

Disco, Meet the Disco, He’s a Yabadabadoo Bird

So parakeets are the thing right now in our house. But the disagreement currently comes down to is this video real or fake? I SO want it to be real!! I believe in Disco’s voice! Some of my favorite phrases of his are: “Never shake a baby bird.” “Shattered shattered.” “What did Mamma say?” Watch the whole thing because it just keeps getting better.

Hellooooo Summertime!

Finals are done!!!

Time for a little happy dance.

And celebration!

Then, when I start to think about summer…

We Ask Very Little of Him

I’m thankful on this Saturday morn for the reminder to go to my friend. Charles Spurgeon shares this in his devotional Morning and Evening:

“It is strange how little we use the spiritual blessings God gives us. But even stranger is how little we make use of God. Although he is “our own God,” we ask very little of Him.

How seldom we ask His counsel. How often we go about our business without seeking His guidance! How constantly we strive in our troubles to carry our burdens instead of casting them on the Lord, instead of asking Him to sustain us.

This is not because we may not, for the Lord seems to say, “I am yours, come and make use of me. Come freely to my store, and the more often you come the more welcome you are.” It is our own fault if we do not utilize the riches of our God.

Since you have such a friend and He invites you, take from Him every day…Let me urge you to make use of God. Make use of Him in prayer. Go to Him often because He is your God. Do not fail to use this privilege. Fly to Him. Tell Him your needs.

If some dark providence has clouded you, use God as a sun, and if a strong enemy is attacking, find in Jehovah a shield (Psalm 84:11). He is both a sun and a shield to His people. If you have lost your way in the mazes of life, use Him as a guide. He promises, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye” (Psalm 32:8).”

Your Rest is Found In God

Thanks to my brother, Mark, who shared this sermon with me. It has revolutionized my view of Sabbath. You may ask, how do we actually do Sabbath in 2013? Here are creative suggestions on all you CAN and SHOULD do during your Sabbath rest (including eating a ton!) Now I’m implementing a celebratory Sabbath weekly, and finding that I’m “getting my soul back.”

Test Them Feelings and Emotions

Miss Teenage America 1972 Mary Fitzpatrick & first runnerup, Mary A. Grabavoy.

Feelings and emotions! We all have them. I must stress I am not bashing feelings and emotions at all! They are truly a gift from God, and are part of what makes us human. They are amazing- euphoria, love, compassion. They can also be informative and life-saving- fear when a child runs into the street, anger at victimization. Especially with the tragic bombing at the Boston Marathon this week, we’ve all (rightly) had grievous feelings.

This text means a lot to me in the context of my own journey with feelings sometimes leading me astray. I’ll never forget my “revelation” at L’Abri: just because I feel something, doesn’t mean I need to indulge in the feelings (listening to sad music, going on long, sombre walks). God crafted me, particularly, to lean a bit more into my feelings. But emotions need to be tested according to truth, just as our intellect needs to be tested. And Truth being Scripture, the Word of God, as revealed to us by the Holy Spirit.

This quote is from Running Scared. I’m slowly working my way through this book. Not because of the content, rather because I want to savor it! It’s like a piece of chocolate lava cake that you never want to end, so you keep eating small slivers off it to make it last longer. I appreciate Ed Welch’s description of how this “testing” plays out for the Christian:

“We tend to judge God’s words by our own feelings and sensory observations. If we feel orphaned, we believe we are orphaned. If we feel a sense of impending doom, the worst will in fact happen. If we are told that God reigns, but everything seems to be in chaos, we twist God’s revelation about himself to fit our understanding of the data. Scripture, however, reveals the things we can’t see with the naked eye, and God’s self-revelation is a higher authority than our feelings. When our feelings conflict with God’s communication, we must side with God’s interpretation. Any other decision puts us above God, which we already know isn’t true because fear reminds us of our own puniness. We certainly are not gods!”

Bam. That was a yummy sliver of chocolate lava.

Hear it Anew

Time to read this and pray over it and speak it to my God. Until I start singing.

Psalm 121: A song of ascents.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

Occasionally One or Two

Last Sunday, City Church featured this photo paired with the following quote on the cover of our bulletin. I’m not sure if the artist, Jeremy Mangan, was referring to the church community when he painted this, but it couldn’t seem more spot on. I found myself thinking about this painting several times this week, so up on the blog it goes!! What a powerful picture of the invisible reality of the Church in process.

The story’s in the title: “Occasionally One or Two Get Out, But They Never Go Far.”

“In friendship…we think we have chosen our peers. In reality a few years’ difference in the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of one university instead of another…the accident of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting–any of these chances might have kept us apart. But, for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking no chances. A secret master of ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,” can truly say to every group of Christian friends, “Ye have not chosen one another but I have chosen you for one another.” The friendship is not a reward for our discriminating and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each of us the beauties of others.”

-C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

(linking up at sewmanyways and morganharpernichols)

A Window Into My Westminster World

My friend at Westminster recently created his own tumblr called “Calvin Would Be Proud.” I wanted to share it with you, beloveds, to give you a slice of my life here at Westminster Theological Seminary. I, myself, don’t get everything he says, but many of the counseling ones ring true to me. And his most recent post, see below, nailed it. I am definitely weird!