40 Days 40 Minutes Day 2 : It's Apostible

This morning it wasn't difficult to herd myself over to the table to begin day two of the 40 day 40 minute challenge. My roommate left for work, I jumped into the shower to freshen up my body and my mind, went into the kitchen, dispensed some French roast from the Keurig and sat down at the kitchen table to begin. I had been praying for a bit when I remembered I hadn't set the timer on the nuke box. Now I had a dilemma. Get up and set the timer or stay and keep going with some uninterrupted worship?

It isn't that I want to be legalistic about this endeavor that made me get up and set the timer, it's that I know myself too well. Close enough is good enough is too often my mentality. I could see myself whittling down that 40 minutes to less than a minute in just a couple of days, maybe a week. It was the right decision for me.

I found myself asking God some things today that I hadn't realized bug me. Spring is here in Kentucky and I look forward to several events that mark its arrival. I love walking out in my yard and seeing the bright yellow dandelions. I live in a meadow so my 'lawn' is not the coiffed and manicured lawn coveted in California. I don't care for the dandelion allergy but visually, they are stunning. I also have wild violets that grow between the blades of bluegrass. Tiny and mistakenly fragile looking, I joyfully anticipate them each year. Today as I prayed I heard birds singing, smelled the lilacs that are blooming and found myself asking God if it was OK for me to love being here as much as I do. Am I sinfully attached?

I confessed to Him that I have no real concept of heaven. I know the circumstances in this world can be dark and horrible but His creation is absolutely stunning. There are so many things I want to see. The northern lights are at the top of my list. But- is it OK for me not to be ready to leave this place? I can think of many reasons to want to check out, but they are all people related. Is it possible to cultivate a true longing for heaven, to want to be with Christ and at the same time be enamored with this world? Not things of this world but the world itself? Is it possible to teach me to long for heaven without making my life a series of trials and heartache? I am not asking for exemption from them, Lord knows I have had a few. I do know that they bring me closer to Him and deepen my faith. Is it possible to long for heaven without them?

Today I read Ephesians and Philippians aloud. I don't know why I am reading aloud, it just seems like a good idea. I was having one of those days where my words tumble together or out of order and spoonerisms occur. The harder I tried to read the words correctly, the more I sounded like I was doing an impression of Jody Foster in the movie Nell. "Apostible" is my favorite new word creation. I said it over and over. It cracked me up- though I now fear singing "Nothing is Apostible when you put your trust in God. " I hope God gets as good a laugh at me when I do this as I do. My friend, James, had me read some books aloud for him and listened to them while out riding his bicycle. He told me he laughed so hard at some of my 'trouth moubles" he nearly crashed... some of those were intentional but I confess, there were many that weren't. I used to worry that I was developing Alzheimer's or something but I know now that it's a clear sign I need to inject myself with B-12. When I get all muddled and fuzzy like that the results are often fun but I am grateful to know that with some B-12 I can return to my "nearly normal" state.

Day two ended with me ignoring the timer beeping at me. It's way OK with me to go over my time budget, but I cannot allow myself to go under. I got up refreshed, happy and headed for the bathroom to get some B-12 in me, singing as I went "Nothing is Apostible when you put your trust in God" then morphed into "to dream the Apostible dream" and ended with "It's Apostible, tell the sun to leave the sky it's just Apostible!" I don't expect all the days to be this easy, or fun. I am glad today was.

Isaiah 65:17-18

17 "For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.

18 "But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem {for} rejoicing, and her people {for} gladness.

2 Peter 3:13

13 But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.

(NAS)

Fear Down, Hope and Peace to Go!

Last night I had the honor and privilege to present some information to the women of my church. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love and appreciate them. The seminar I did was on fear. God is clever and He had me present the information to them because I needed it. It's not that I don't want to study things for my own benefit and growth, but whenever I do a topical study to teach it, I see how badly I needed it and how much more I have to repent of than I realized. Sometimes you don't know what you don't know. That's a topic I want to return to in another post. I want to talk about the ladies for a moment. They are an incredibly loving group of women. Women who seek God and are teachable. They have gone out of their way to include me and love on me, which speaks volumes of their characters because I am not all that lovable. I am not being self-deprecating here. I am a mix of endearing and maddening qualities like anyone else. What I am telling you is ...

Super Church a song for the Emergent-sy

In the early 70s I was in a youth choir at my church. Our youth pastor was a musician and his way of connecting with us as a group was through the choir and music. Somehow there was an affiliation between him and The Continental Singers, New Hope and Jeremiah People. He was worked with Moishe Rosen of Jews for Jesus too, I think. Are any of these names familiar to you? Though I remember the church fondly I was a profoundly lost and troubled young woman during my years there. That and time have muddled the memories quite a bit. Today I was digging through some old paperwork and one of the books to the musical we did. It's Getting Late For the Great Planet Earth, a folk rock oratorio by Cam Floria. Yes, that's right. Cam Floria put Hal Lindsey to music. There's a lot to laugh about and some to groan about but as I was looking through the songs and remembering, I found this little ditty and I only wish I could sing it for you. Just remember that this is circa 1972 and even th...

Links on FAS/FASD info and some quick thoughts

I had some thoughts today about how to help parents who have children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FAS FASD). I am reading an article in the Journal of Biblical Counseling that points out the similarities in counseling and parenting. This particular volume has several articles focusing on family relationships, especially that of parent and child. The titles include : Helping the Parents of an Angry Child; Angry Teens; Counseling the Adopted Child; and Helping the Grieving Child or Teenager. ( Journal of Biblical Counseling Winter 2007 Vol. 25 Number 1) I haven't completed my studies in the journal and so I cannot begin to write a proper synthesis of the various issues addressed, all of which I think may be helpful to parents of FAS or FASD children. But then, these topics aren't exclusive to FAS and FASD children. I was blessed with raising some wonderful children in a unique set of circumstances. My sister died leaving behind 5 terrific kids...

rambling rosemarie

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