Through the Seasons

Recently I visited Angela Hunt’s ’A Life in Pages’, one of my favorite author’s blog, http://alifeinpages.blogspot.com/.  She had just received six advance copies of her book, The Elevator, which comes out in July and decided to give 3 away.  All you had to do to win was have the number of comment that matched the age of either one of her kids or her husband but you couldn’t post consecutive comments.  Another girl and I traded comments until we each reached her kids’ ages (without knowing what those were) and won ourselves a copy.

Angela Hunt signed the book (on request) and put it in the mail the very next day.  I just got it today, ripped it open, and began reading it immediately.  It’s everything I can do to put it down!

It’s about three women who get stuck in an elevator together with a hurricane coming.  The twist is that one man connects them to each other but they don’t know it.  I think they also have secrets and pasts they’re running or hiding from.  I keep thinking I’ll just finish the chapter I’m on and put it down but each chapter makes you NEED to start the next and the cycle continues…  

For more info on the book go to: http://www.angelahuntbooks.com/html/coming_soon.html.  Oh and any of her books are great to check out.  Happy reading…

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I got the coolest gift – a book of quotations – and now I have a fresh resevoir to pull from for my weekly feature.

That’s not the quote.  This is:

I am happy and content because I think I am.  ~Alain-Rene Lesage

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I was just in the middle of writing a blog post (not this one) and needed to find a picture of being ‘happy and content’.  I entered ‘relax coffee’ into the search because somehow coffee symbolizes relaxation to me.  And happiness and contentment.  Strange, really.  A chemical that gives a nervous kind of energy and gets some of us through our days can also give me a sense of rest?  Maybe not rest exactly but of stopping, withdrawing from the ordinary, separating from the busy pace and just taking a moment to enjoy the company I’m with, my surroundings, the moment itself, the day, and life in general.  And what better than coffee?  It can be fixed in specific ways to fit each personality and you just can’t rush through a cup of coffee.  It’s meant to be taken in slowly and savored.  Sometimes I go to bed at night anticipating the next morning’s first cup of coffee.  There’s just nothing like it.  On a recent questionnaire for personnel in Tanzania they wanted to know my food likes and dislikes.  The list of dislikes was pretty long.  I’m sure they’ll regret asking.  (I didn’t put bugs but surely that’s a given.)  For my likes I said simply, “Coffee and chocolate.”  Is there anything else? 

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I just read a great book: The Last Sin Eater by Francine Rivers. Fox is making a movie out of it so if you don’t read the book, check out the movie. I find it hard to describe the book without giving too much away so here’s how the back cover reads:

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This ’slow down’ when reading the Bible plan has been working out really well so far.  I began Hosea today and what an amazing story.  To illustrate Israel’s unfaithfulness, He had Hosea marry an adulterous wife.  Yikes.  Too bad we can’t just take Him at His Word, right!? 

So, this is what I learned in what I read today…

God is faithful.  I know we already know this but to actually write it down and see it against our unfaithfulness, it really drove the point home.

As described in Hosea, unfaithfulness to God is forgetting Him and turning from Him to “lovers” who seem to meet our needs.

Alternatively, faithfulness to God is recognizing that He provides for our needs and blesses us beyond that.  It is remembering Him in everything and going to Him for everything.

I also learned that God will take away the things that we run towards.  It seems rebuke to us but in actuality is mercy.

“She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.  Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’”  Hosea 2:7

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere…”  Psalm 84:10a

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This year I decided to read through the Bible using a reading plan I found online.  I’ve stuck with it and now I’m at Isaiah in the Old Testament and Galatians in the New Testament. 

I have two problems with how I approach this.

First, I get so into what I’m reading that I tend to read beyond that day’s assignment.  Second, I’m so task-oriented that sometimes I approach it trying to see how far I can get in a smaller amount of time than recommended.

So, it’s the middle of March and in the reading plan I’m in the middle of September.  I’ve gone through 8 1/2 months of reading in 2 1/2 months.  Now that I type that out it seems crazy.  Of course I read fast, for quite a long period of time in the morning and then sometimes again at night.

But this morning I felt a strong impression on me to SLOW DOWN.  It was hard to accept that notion.  I was already 10 chapters into Isaiah and halfway through Galatians but I decided to start those books back over and read through the rest of the Old and New Testaments more slowly now.  I even threw away my reading plan guide (because marking the days off is exciting for me and prompts me to read more, more, more). 

Although I’ve read rather quickly and at high volumes, I have gained a lot.  I’m starting to see the big picture of the Israelites’ story.  I can see within the kings of Judah where Isaiah came in and who he was preaching to.  I can see where Daniel falls in line with the Babylon captivity.  I understand now why Ezra and Nehemiah were rebuilding the temple and wall. 

But I began to wonder if I was learning more of the story and less of the One who wrote the story.  So here I go to read at a slow pace and the same passage repeatedly because knowledge alone is meaningless (vanity of vanities, a chasing after the wind).  I want to savor every morsel seeking God, not just an understanding of the Bible itself.  I want intimacy with Him and life transformation.  I don’t want to be one who hears (or reads) the Word without also being a do-er.  I want my heart to be receptive soil for Him to take root in my heart and bear fruit in my life.

Dear Lord, hear my prayer…

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I lost my first game in the Bracket Challenge tonight when Purdue beat Arizona.  There are 4 more games to go in Round 1.  Hopefully I can go into Round 2 only getting one pick wrong… but we’ll see…  I can’t tell you how happy I am the Hokies pulled that game off against Illinois.  Wow.  What a finish!

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When I was a young girl, probably a pre-teen, my mom cut out an article from the Ann Landers column in the newspaper and gave it to me.  It was on maturity.  For nostalgic reasons, and to get an old-fashioned view, I looked the column back up.  It follows…  (See mom, I really was listening, although slow in actually applying what I heard…)

Maturity is the ability to do a job whether you are supervised or not; finish a job once it is started; carry money without spending it, and be able to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.

Maturity is the ability to control anger and settle differences without violence.

Maturity is patience.  It is the willingness to postpone immediate gratification in favor of the long-term gain.

Maturity is perseverance, the ability to sweat out a project or a situation in spite of heavy opposition and discouraging setbacks.

Maturity is the capacity to face unpleasantness and frustration, discomfort and defeat without complaint or collapse.

Maturity is humility.  It is being big enough to say, “I was wrong.”  And, when right, the mature person need not experience the satisfaction of saying, “I told you so.”

Maturity is the ability to make a decision and stand by it.  The immature spend their lives exploring endless possibilities; then they do nothing.

Maturity means dependability, keeping one’s word, coming through in a crisis.  The immature are masters of the alibi.  They are confused and disorganized.  Their lives are a maze of broken promises, former friends, unfinished business and good intentions that somehow never materialize.

Maturity is the art of living in peace with that which we cannot change, the courage to change that which can be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.

James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

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Well, March Madness is upon us, there are 9 brackets in our group and I’m in first place… as of right now… along with 2 others.  I don’t really know what I’m doing so I thought I’d stand in this spotlight for the brief moment I have the opportunity. 

I picked VCU over my favorite team, Duke, and right now VCU is actually winning!  It’s so hard to pull against Duke but sometimes you have to lose the battle and win the war…

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A dog owns nothing, yet is seldom dissatisfied.  ~Irish Proverb

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