Natural Theology

I'm a 'commune with Him through nature' kind of girl.  Something that's been a bit challenging the past few years in the place we've been living----so I'm drinking it up here in NZ!

 HOPE

Amazing double rainbow taken through my windshield.  

 PEACE

View from the reserve a few minutes walk from where we're staying.

TRUST--spring always comes!

One very early rose in the midst of the brown in front of our house.

Making Me

Make me broken

So I can be healed

‘Cause I’m so calloused

And now I can’t feel

I want to run to You

With heart wide open

Make me broken

Make empty

So I can be filled

‘Cause I’m still holding

Onto my will

And I’m completed

When you are with me

Make me empty

Make me lonely

So I can be Yours

‘Til I want no one

More than You, Lord

‘Cause in the darkness

I know You will hold me

Make me lonely

‘Til You are my one desire

‘Til You are my one true love

‘Til You are my breath, my everything

L0rd, please keep making me

                                                   -Sidewalk Prophets

I can't get this song out of my head.  It's what pops out lately whenever I start to randomly sing.  It's a catchy  tune but when I stop to think about the words I get a bit nervous!  This really is the cry of my heart, but lately I'm feeling a bit weary and kind of sore.  I'm not sure I want more 'making' for a while.

Last Saturday was a beautiful, almost spring day in NZ so Steve and Adam mowed the lawn and pulled weeds at Steve's sister's holiday home where we're staying. Adam stumbled up the stairs the next morning moaning and groaning whenever he moved.  He's still sore today.  Since he's one of those perpetual motion nine-year olds I was surprised, but I guess he used muscles that he hadn't for a while.  

Sore muscles.  They're a good thing because they make you stronger.  Sore hearts/spirits?  I guess they make you stronger too.  And that in the long run is good.

"Til You are my breath, everything.........."

"The LOrd is my shepherd, I have all that I need." Ps.23:1 (NLT)

Click to listen to the above song.

Aaron goes back to boarding school tomorrow.  It's been a very sweet time of getting days of the six of us together in New Zealand! Yesterday we went to our favorite hang out place as a family before Hannah had to go help lead a camp this weekend.

The Hard Stuff

Quite a few people that I love are going through really awful, shattering, life altering stuff: sickness, death, divorce, watching grown children make bad decisions, depression, a spouse in jail, bankruptcy.  And that's just people in the USA and NZ.  Heartbreaking.

When people are sharing sometimes the best thing to do is just listen and love.  But while I can't solve their problems I want to encourage them as well.

In the middle of the struggle it's hard to see the light at the end.  It's hard to see beauty through the shadows and pain.  It's hard to imagine that something good can come from the ashes.

Steve was reminding our family the other day about how the Good News was originally spread. It was through persecution when the people scattered because they were forced to leave Jerusalem and through the blood of martyrs.  Sometimes terrible things, while still terrible, aren't only what they seem. And He still looks after us through it all.

"Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, G0d's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before G0d. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for G0d is worked into something good."

                                                       -  Rom. 8:26-28 (the Message)

But what can we do in the middle of the struggle when we can't see the end?  There's no easy answer but here are a few things I've jotted down when my own road has been rough and I've found solace in His Word:

1.  WAIT and TRUST -  "But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength, they will soar high on the wings like eagles.  They will run and not grow weary.  They will walk and not faint."  -Is. 40:31   "I would have despaired unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.  Wait for the LORD ; Be strong and let your heart take courage ; Yes, wait for the LORD."  -Ps. 27:13-14

2. HIDE in Him - "G0d is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble"  -PS.46:1  "Do not be afraid , for I have called you by name; you are mine."  -Is. 43:1  "See, I have written your name in the palms of my hands."  -Is. 49:16a  

3. Find PEACE- "Can all of your worries add a single moment to your life?" -Matt. 6:27  "Why are you afraid?  Do you still have no faith?" -Mark 4:40 (After J3sus calmed the storm)  "For he will order his angels to protect you wherever you go.  They will hold you up with their hands so you won't even hurt your foot on a stone."  -Ps. 91:11-12

 "Rehearsing your troubles only results in experiencing them many times."  -Sarah Young

4. Rely on His STRENGTH- "But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I willboast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Chr1st's power may rest in me." -2 Cor.12:9  "Look to the L0rd and his strength; seek his face always." -Ps. 105:4

5.  Guard your THOUGHTS- "So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death.  But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace." -Rom. 8:6

"In the process, I've come to believe that G0d will never waste our pain-----but I can." -Glynnis Whitver

6. FOLLOW Him- "I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.  These are the things I will do:  I will not forsake them" -Is. 42:16

"I was documenting the storm going on right now and suddenly realized that there are beautiful things happening all around us all the time, if we would just open up our eyes and see them ."

-quote and photograph by my friend Katherine Murray Williamson

Imagine the smile on His face as we enjoy the things that He has made for us!  Especially when they are moments of beauty in the middle of a storm........

Refreshment

Rolling river G0d

Little stones are smooth

Only once the water passes through

so, I am a stone

Rough and grainy still

Trying to reconcile this river's chill

But when I close my eyes

And feel You rushing by

I know that time brings change

And change takes time

And when the sunset comes

My pray-er would be this one

That You might pick me up

And notice that I am

Just a little smoother in Your hand

Sometimes raging wild

Sometimes swollen high

Never have I known this river dry

The deepest part of You

Is where I want to stay

And feel the sharpest edges wash away

                            -(River G0d by Nichole Nordeman)

I've been given a gift recently-----some time for CONTEMPLATION.  I've been living in a very 'Martha' situation for the last few years, but I'm a 'Mary' at heart.  (In fact, Mary's my middle name!)  I'm realizing that to be who I've been created to be and to operate better in the things that are actually my strongest gifts, I'm going to have to do better about finding time to truly sit at His feet.

You'd think I'd know living in a place that consistently takes me past my own strength that the only way to survive is by drawing from His well.  It never runs dry.  Unlike mine!  But now I'm finding myself really thirsty..........

I keep expecting to notice one day that I'm filled up but I'm finding that the more that I 'drink' the more thirsty I am.   I haven't been writing much here in recent weeks, but my personal journal is packed full of stuff that might spill over to this page eventually.

We live in the era of the quick fix.  Things happen so fast and we expect immediate results.  But things that are worthwhile take time.  It's a slow 'river' that washes away those edges and makes us smooth!

"This journey (contemplation) may take us away from the 'wholeness' we seem to have at the moment.  It may drag to the surface of consciousness many things which shatter our illusions of wholeness.  This journey may radically challenge our lifestyle and identity. Wilderness territory lies between Egypt and the Promised Land.  


At the heart of contemplation is the loving submission of our will, in naked fai.th, to the loving G0d revealed in Chr1st.  That is costly.  And in the process of building our 'wholeness' His way, not ours, the G0d to whom we lovingly surrender, will send us to love the suffering world one way or another as 'holy' members of his 'holy' people.  


Chr1st1an contemplation is primarily about holiness in this world, not wholeness. Nevertheless, in the fullness of time, wholeness will be one of it's fruits, whether in this life or the Age to come........But the authenticity of our wholeness is always tested by whether we go on to minister to others to seek their wholeness."
(by Peter Stuart, the Refresh Journal)

Yup, contemplation is worthwhile!

Why worry?

I Worried

by Mary Oliver

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers

flow in the right direction, will the earth turn

as it was taught, and if not how shall

I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,

can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows

can do it and I am, well,

hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,

am I going to get rheumatism,

lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.

And gave it up. And took my old body

and went out into the morning,

and sang.

I got this poem recently from a friend and thought it was awesome. It aptly shows the futility of worry in our lives.  Yet how often do we do just that, worry................

We may not realized that it's worry but just a nagging unsettledness in our chest.  Issues that we spend too much time rehearsing and rehashing in our minds to find an answer for.  Fears that creep in slowly until they become a 'normal' part of our thought processes.

Yesterday I read one of my favorite passages and was reminded not to worry and how practically to accomplish that:

"Always be full of joy in the L0rd.  I say it again-rejoice! 

(If we're full of worry, anxiety, stress, tension, fears, etc, there is no room to be full of Him at the center of our being!)

Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do.  Remember the L0rd is coming soon.

Don't worry about anything; instead, pra-y about everything. Tell G0d what you need and thank him for all he has done.  Then you will experience G0d's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand.

(HOW to work out all the yucky stuff I've mentioned above.)

His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Chr1st J3sus.

And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable.  Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise."         Phil. 4: 4-8

(How to STAY in that peaceful place!)

 A few photos of family time in NZ so far...........