THIS WEEK’S QUESTIONS AND MY ANSWERS ARE BELOW BUT YOU CAN CLICK THE LINK ABOVE TO SEE HOW ALL OF THE SUBSCRIBERS ANSWERED.
Do you have a favourite movie you never tire of watching? I really love the Lord of the Rings movies and I think I could watch them over and over if I had the time.
2. Do you have a favourite song or special song as a couple? I love music of all kinds. To name my favourite is really hard. I am a big fan of David Phelps.
I also really like Dimash. Here is a link to his song OLIMPICO.
3. How do you relax in the evenings? Lately I have been relaxing by gardening and spending time in extra prayer.
4.Do you celebrate special birthdays or anniversaries? Our family is what I would call celebrationally challenged. We don’t celebrate most things to the extent I would like to. I am trying to change that.
GRATITUDE: I am grateful for the beautiful weather this week and the lengthening days in which to do extra gardening.
I remember the first time I felt like an adult. I was thirty-five. I was married and had three teen-agers, but it was the first time I actually felt like I had moved from childhood into adulthood. I couldn’t find a rhyme or reason for why my mindset suddenly changed back then. Honestly, until I suddenly felt like an adult I didn’t know I didn’t feel like an adult. For the most part I was acting like and adult. I was paying bills. I owned a house. I was working hard. But not until I was thirty-five did I realize I had the position of an adult… the authority of an adult. It was the first time I felt like I was ready to take on life. The first time I felt like I could take on life and life didn’t just have to happen to me.
Something is changing again. It is just as strange and unexpected this time as it was when I was thirty five. This time I am moving from adulthood into feelings of being an elder.
Maybe it is my mother’s passing, maybe it is that I am entering my fourth year as a lead pastor, maybe it’s that all my grandchildren are now talking and the last of them is potty training, maybe it’s that the children of the children I had in nursery Sunday School are now getting ready to graduate, maybe it’s a lot of things, but I am beginning to feel old. I am feeling these days like an elder.
I guess I am one. There is more snow on the chimney now than soot. I feel it in my bones. I feel it in my energy level. I feel it like a new power in my soul. There is weakness in it…and strength.
I am feeling my age in ways I was told to expect (but refused to accept). I can’t seem to do what I once did as easily as I once did it. I feel weaker, but I also feel a new kind of strength, an assurance, a wisdom, a grace I have not had before that makes me feel that I can do just about anything. I just have to begin learning how to do it differently and maybe a little more slowly.
So how about it? What advice would you give to this new old guy?
Well even here in the frozen North we are finally into the full throes of Spring. The nights are still cool, but the days are getting warmer. The air is now filled with the smell of lilac and lily of the valley which I have in my garden in abundance.
The dandelions and the daffodils have all but gone by.
But the paper whites are now in full bloom. I am getting ready to make my next Spring arrangement for the dining table from some of these and a bit of Japanese Knot Weed.
And the battle against the brush has now begun. I mowed the whole lawn yesterday and my clipper and weed whacker batteries are charging as we speak.
You know its Spring when the festivals begin! My son and daughter-in-law treated me to my first ever Filippino Boodle Fight, a traditional feast and party. The food is served on banana leaves. It is tradition to stand around the table and just pick food off the table and eat as you fellowship, but in honor of their American guests table settings were provided.
My grandson danced all night long. Here he is with his Mom.
This year our church has been given direction from God that we are to fast and pray that we would be prepared. We have been given a congregational sentence that comes through the many prophetic words which have been spoken to us over the last year or so. That sentence says: “Prepare! Prepare! Prepare! Prepare you Spirit (come out of the decay of your strongholds). Prepare your Souls(Prepare to practice and feel compassion). Prepare your facility (your structures, infrastructures and plans). Prepare for the storm (Pray for action plan, Pray for a spirit of perseverance). Prepare your witness (know your gifts, earn the right to speak, build your relationships with those outside the church, build your example). Prepare your hope and faith (think hope, speak hope, act in hope). Prepare your love (love each other, love the people in your towns, love those who disagree with you, love through the doors that open).“
I am breaking these seven prepare statements into 21 weekly devotionals. This is week 16.
Prepare your hope and faith( think hope, speak hope, act in hope).
Hope is not a wish. It is a confident assurance in a certain future. It is big picture thinking. Our hope is not in this present age. Our hope is not in this present kingdom. Our hope is not in this present culture. Our hope is in the sure and certain future Jesus has promised us.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.JOHN 3:16,17
the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare.[a]
11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming.[b] That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
14 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. 15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen. 2 PETER 3: 10-18
To think hope means to contemplate the coming of this future kingdom. It means to put away thoughts that get us stuck in this present time of trouble and turmoil.
Well it has been a weeks folks. Lots has gone on and let’s just say I am glad to be coming the end of it and I am glad to be coming to SHARE MY WORLD for a bit of fun easy writing work. You can avail yourself of all the world sharers by clicking the capitalized link.
Now, here are this week’s questions and my answers.
1. Have you ever lied about your age? No. I never felt the need. Age has never really mattered to me and most of the things that required a “certain age” to do them I never did anyway. 2. Is there any time in your life you would like to relive? I think I would like to relive my young adulthood but only if I got to take the knowledge I have now back with me. 3. Do you own any antiques? My whole house is an antique.Built just at the turn of the last century The Vicarage has really begun to feel its age.
My family has lived here for the last forty five years and before that it was a parsonage for another local church and before that it was owned for years by one of the town’s photographers. Most everything in the house belonged to my parents or my grandparents before them…. So yes antiques are sort of the norm around here.
4. Would you like to know some of the history of places you’ve visited? I love history! I generally look to see if I can find at least a few historical facts of the places I visit.And I love to visit historical places.Here are a few of the places I have been.
Each of these photos has a story of my life attached to it and has a history all its own that has nothing to do with me.
Now for my Gratitude:
As we come to the Day of Pentecost (which is tomorrow). I am grateful that I serve a God of power who loves me and has my best interest at heart.
When I thought about it yesterday I thought this statement was only about the need to stop being busy and the need to slow down life.
Tonight I walked into the church feeling tired from the day and my friend Jody, who was practicing the keyboard asked me how my day had been…. My first reaction and what I said to him was, ” It was busy!”
I immediately felt guilty not because I thought it was untrue but because I thought I should think differently about today because of yesterday’s meditation. I am realizing it is going to take more than a “hot minute” to turn that ship around, because of what “I’m busy” really says.
I think that part of the issue is that “busy” has become a placeholder and shield to hide what I really think about the day. It’s easy and non committal to say “busy”. Everyone can agree with that and nod their head and still not understand one iota of how a person is doing. We’ve been taught to like it that way.
What I should have said instead was “brutal”….”difficult”….”gut-wrenching”… or “It made me want to cry”.
Sometimes when I say “I’m busy” what I really mean is “productive”….”Exciting”…”a battle I won but which exhausted me.”
I am beginning to see that “I’m busy” means nothing, says nothing. Everyone is busy and no one wants to talk about what is making us that way because that would cause us to take down the walls that we have built between ourselves and expose ourselves to a level of discomfort our society has taught us we need in order to protect ourselves.
Our church is doing this thing we call “DOING LIFE TOGETHER”. I am beginning to realize that there are catch phrases I use in my communication which actually cause me not to do life together with people. “I am busy” is one such.
WHAT ARE COME OF THE THINGS YOU SAY TO PUT OFF ACTUAL CONVERSATION WITH PEOPLE?
I had a morning drive out towards Boston today and I had some time to think. Everyone around me was going so much faster than I was. I was still going over the speed limit but everyone else was passing me like I was standing still. It bothered me a little, to be honest. First because I felt like I was holding people up with my slower pace. Secondly, because I felt like I was being left behind. Thirdly, because I felt like our world has become addicted to rushing towards oblivion, and that makes me mad?….frustrated?….anxious?…. Sad?….Anyway it makes me feel not good. SOOOOO, today I am thinking about slowing down.
Notes From the Vicarage 