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What is love?

7/29/2012

This little person is easy to love most of the time. I am not as in love with him when he bites. And he bites a few too many times for my liking. Despite repeated attempts at punishment to get him to stop, he bites as a means of communication. He bites when he is hungry, thirsty, or tired. Love bites.

I am not thinking about love when he bites. I am thinking about how to get him to stop that.

But love does this amazing thing. Love bears all things. It's stego in the Greek, a thatch roof.

Love is a roof. What does a roof do? It absorbs storms when the weather takes a turn for the worst.

Love bears all things - like a roof bears wind and rain. Love willingly carries one another's burdens.

How does a mother continue to do that in the rainstorms of missed homework, a full time job, a husband, learning struggles, bedtime angst, childhood fears.

They just need me to love them.

Christ's love carries the burdens that sets us all free.

Love bends and unfolds itself around others like a roof. This is love.

And often, when I have thought about how much God loves us, those moments of bearing one another are not even painful. They are beautifully weightless.

It's not always a bite

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Which 'C' do you want?

7/23/2012

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I have been thinking about sin these days. Sin makes me angry.

I am angry at those around me who think they are above everyone else. That is the sin of pride.

I am angry at sin that physically harms children. It makes me want to run back to Canada. (I think this is a safe place but maybe it's not.)

I am angry at sin that smothers children.

I am angry at selfishness that steals human dignity and apathy that infects the heart of the comfortable.

I am angry at myself.

I am angry at how much I want 'c'omfortable way more than I want 'C'hrist.

I am settling for the small 'c' when the big 'C' is the one that will really bring me joy.

I sponsor children through Compassion International and through the Nazarene Church. Why is it so hard to really see the poor? I want to be the big 'C' for them.

I get covered in comfort. I get way too comfortable.

I need to put on some new clothes. I need to stop wearing my well worn coats, pants, and shirts. I need to put on I think of Job saying "justice was my robe and turban" (Job 29:14).

In the family of Christ, we wear justice for the poor. In the body of Christ, our lives should be clothed in caring like are bodies are covered in clothing.

I need to change my clothes. I need to do whatever it takes to get my heart to stay with the poor.

I need to change my clothes.

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Hopes and Dreams

7/22/2012

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I had big dreams as a child and as a teenager. It was a rather long list of things that I wanted to do. Be a teacher, a wife, a mother, a journalist, a writer, a missionary, a photographer, an artist, and, of course, a cook. (I still love messing around in the kitchen).

Most people have big dreams, big hopes for the future. The question is do our dreams match up with God's dreams? I would like to suggest that we cannot dream big enough and match what God has intended for our lives.

Many people have the dream of climbing higher in society, having more. God's dreams are about giving more. What we might gain will not make as happy as what we could give away.

Many people have dreams to become somebody. To become a someone. God dreams are about being bread for anyone in need because they love Him.

Many people have dreams about climbing out of their current lives, getting out of or away from their burdens. God's dreams are about carrying a cross and sharing those burdens.

It's funny. My dreams have been stepping stones to what God intended for me. I am all of those people listed above. I am a teacher, a wife, a mother, a journalist/writer, a missionary, a photographer, an artist, and a cook. All of these done under the leading of the Holy Spirit have led to make connections with others, with God, and have, ultimately, healed me in different ways.

My dreams were too small. I was too small without Him. I was without hope. With Him, I can enter fullness of joy.

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Compassion

7/17/2012

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Have you ever thought about what it means to be "moved with compassion"? That phrase is thrown around a lot lately. Is it extreme kindness, a desire to love, or a hope for a better life for someone?

It is used in the Bible. It is only spoken of in Scripture in regards to Christ and our Father. It's "splangchnisomai" in the Greek. It's what we would call guts.

Think about this for a moment. When Christ was moved with compassion it was like he got kicked in the gut.

How did Christ feel? Did he feel pain in the deepest part of Him, a pain that caused him to bend?

As Christians, we feel compassion as Christ did, struck in the stomach, kicked in the gut, pain in the deepest place. This pain causes us to reach down, reach out to others, becoming cruciformed, shaped into the cross of Christ.

Compassion isn't a vague sense - it's a feeling so strong that is causes you to bend; it shapes your body, your life, into a response. You give, you learn, you change, you are conformed more to Him.

God is with us as we give. The God of Compassion is the God who is with us, the Word made flesh that dwelt among us and continues to dwell in us.

In Latin, compassion is 'pati' and 'cum'. It means 'to suffer with'. Compassion chooses to suffer with the sick, to be kicked in the gut, to weep with those suffering, to pray with those powerless, to cry with those cast out. Compassion is the condition of being fully human and fully Christ-like and being fully with.

In Hebrew, compassion is similar to the Greek. It's 'rachamim' - meaning bowels, a tender love, and that 'rachamim' derives from the word 'rechem'
which means womb.

Christ followers are always safe in God's womb. We move within the womb of God.

Our God is both Father, mother and His body is our brother and sister stirred in the deepest places, suffering with others. The Compassion of Christ shakes the earth to respond, to labor and deliver with Him a new Kingdom.

We are to bring into the world the endless, streaming amazon of God's tender compassions, His mercies, His inexhaustible, Christ-made grace.

---be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

Luke 6:36

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God-Bumps

7/10/2012

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Isn't this a cute picture? A rare moment of cooperation between a 3 and 4 year old. Definitely a wonderful surprise for my mommy-friend Colleen and myself, the mothers of these two adorable tots.

Aren't surprises great when they happen? I love it when a cool breeze comes in right at the moment when the heat is so bad I feel like I am going to die! It gives me goose-bumps.

Does God ever give you goose-bumps? Are you ever surprised or overwhelmed by His gifts that your skin comes alive? An earthquake of the soul, an extreme awareness of His gifts. Those are God-bumps.

Sometimes I get God-bumps from a worship song, sometimes from a sermon, but often from my children. This weekend I witnessed an amazing act of cooperation between my two oldest sons that made my skin come alive with joy, God, and mommy-happiness.

Aidan, as usual, was sitting at the table. He had his regular 3 spoonfuls of his supper before the complaining had begun. "I am full." "Mom, my tummy hurts!" "I'm not hungry anymore."

Dad and I have been fighting this battle for a while so we were hardly paying attention. And then the miracle happened. Justin, my eldest, sat down beside and proceeded to feed Aidan his supper spoon by spoon until the bowl was empty. No one had prompted him.

I had been praying for my boys to be more caring and compassionate towards each other and others for a few days. I was thrilled to see some immediate fruit from those prayers. A God-bump!

This one was written down that night in my journal. There were other God-bumps that day, but that is the one I remember most clearly. Amazing!

Do you write down your God-bumps? Write down those things that show you Him. Write down those things that make your skin come alive.

When the eyes of the soul looking out met the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on this earth.
A.W. Tozer

The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.
Emily Dickenson

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What is love?

Which 'C' do you want?

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