Faith is a bluebird

You see from afar

It's for real

And as sure as the first evening star

You can't touch it

Or buy it or wrap it up tight

But it's there just the same

Making things turn out right

Read more...

Story, part 3

"Stories tend to get out of hand, and this one has taken an unexpected turn." J.R.R. Tolkien

This is one of my favorite quotes about stories. As someone who tries to write stories, I can personally attest that often you think you know how the plot is going to go, how the characters are going to react. And then, right in the middle of everything, you notice that things aren't going as you thought they would.

You have two choices. You can become frustrated, and try to make the story go back to the way you thought it was going. Sometimes you might succeed. Sometimes it might even be the right thing to do. The other choice is to go down the unexpected road to see where it might lead you. If you don't like the ending, you can always go back and start over.

Now, in life the going back and starting over bit is a tad more difficult. Nonetheless, I would like to challenge us all to try choosing the second path. Try being open to the twists and turns we didn't forsee and didn't plan.

Who knows? They might just change our lives.

Read more...

Inscription of Hope

Hello all!! Yes I know I said I would have a post for you when I came home from camp but we ended up with unexpected company and I've barely been home at all!!  I have a post it's just not edited yet so you will have to wait till next week.  But here is a song to get you through.

I believe in the sun

even when it is not shining

And I believe in love

even when there's no one there

And I believe in God

even when He is silent

I believe through any trial

there is always a way.

But sometimes in this suffering

and hopeless despair

My heart cries for shelter

to know someone's there

But a voice rises within me saying

'hold on my child'

I'll give you hope

I'll give you strength

Just stay a little while

I believe in the sun

even when it is not shining

And I believe in love

even when there's no one there

And I believe in God

even when He is silent

I believe through any trial

There is always a way

May there someday be sunshine

May there someday be happiness

May there someday be love

May there someday be peace.

This lyrics to this song were found written on a basement wall in Nazi Germany Jewish refugees had been hiding from agents of the Holocaust.

Read more...

Story, part 2

[Note: My apologies for the lack of posting the last two weeks. I was insanely busy and then out of town. Here is part two, and part three will be up on time next week.]


"Story is seldom true if we try to control it, manipulate it, make it go where we want to go, rather than where the story itself wants to go." Madeleine L'Engle

If we take our stories seriously, we must also take them humbly. What do I mean by that? Very simply, I mean losing a sense of undue proprietariness. Many writers talk about the stories they write as choosing them, rather than the reverse. Obviously for a writer there is a sense of pride in a well-told story, a job done properly. But if we remember that in some way the story exists outside of us, that we do not own it, we can be humble. Rather than stamping our feet and shouting "Mine! Mine!", we have a sense of wonder and joy at this thing which has graced us.

How does all of this relate to real life? In the same way, if we remember that the story of our lives here are parts of something bigger, something which we do not own or control, our tendency to kick and scream is reduced. Rather than flouncing and saying "It's my life!", we can live it, shaping it as best we can. At the same time we can feel that sense of joy and wonder which comes from being trusted with something we do not own.

It is only when we stop trying to control our stories and start trying to listen that we can really begin to tell them as they ought to be.

Part 1 here.

Read more...

Hello all!!!

Sorry I've been quiet the last two weeks. Our church does organizes and puts on a Bible summer camp every year. We are leaving Sunday and it's major crunch time. I can't tell you what it's about because we keep as much a secret as we can :) What I can give you is a bit from the presentation the choir will be doing this year. (I'm the choir director)

1Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

When God will not use thee in one kind, yet He will in another. A soul that desires to serve and honour Him shall never want opportunity to do it; nor must thou so limit the Holy One of Israel, as to think He hath but one way in which He can glorify Himself by thee. He can do it by thy silence as well by thy preaching; thy laying aside as well as thy continuance in thy work." - Elizabeth Gaskell

Matthew 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.

"If we did all the things we were capable of doing, We would literally astound ourselves.”

~ Thomas Edison

Luke 18:27 And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Mat 5:13-16 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Read more...

Stir Me!

Stir me, oh, stir me, Lord, I care not how,

But stir my heart in passion for the world,

Stir me to give, to go, but most to pray;

Stir till the blood-red banner be unfurled

O'er lands that still in heathen darkness lie,

O'er deserts where no cross is lifted high.

Stir me, oh, stir me, Lord, till all my heart

Is filled with strong compassion for these-souls;

Till Thy compelling word drives me to pray;

Till Thy constraining love reach to the poles

Far north and south, in burning deep desire,

Till east and west are caught in love's great fire.

Stir me, oh, stir me, Lord, till prayer is pain,

Till prayer is joy, till prayer turns into praise;

Stir me, till heart and will and mind, yea, all

Is wholly Thine to use through all the days.

Stir, till I learn to pray exceedingly;

Stir, till I learn to wait expectantly.

Stir me, oh, stir me, Lord, Thy heart was stirred

By love's intensest fire, till Thou didst give

Thine only Son, Thy best beloved One,

E'en to the dreadful cross, that I might live.

Stir me to give myself so back to Thee,

That Thou canst give Thyself again through me.

Stir me, oh, stir me, Lord, for I can see

Thy glorious triumph-day begin to break;

The dawn already gilds the eastern sky;

Oh, Church of Christ, arise, awake, awake.

Oh! stir us, Lord, as heralds of that day.

For night is past, the King is on His way.

~Bessie Porter Head

Read more...

Story, part 1

"A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver." Proverbs

The idea of Story is intensely powerful, even today. Though many have turned away from the story of the universe as the story of God's creation, we can still feel its power, however diluted. For Christians especially, Story is an amazing thing--that is, a thing which amazes us. The Bible itself is a story, just as it is also the truth. Think of all the emotional dramas, all the epic tales contained in just the Old Testament. Moses, David, Gideon, for example. And the Story itself continues beyound the Bible. All of us are part of it and our small stories help to make up the wonderful pattern which is the Story.

For the next few weeks, I would like to talk about stories and about Story, and about the ways in which the smaller stories interact with the larger. Feel free to respond, to agree or disagree, as we go along.

Read more...