Remember

I realise I haven't posted much in the last couple of weeks. I am still processing much of what has happened this month and the things I have been thinking about. I'd like to get some of them clearer in my mind before I do post on them. Watch out for the day I go crazy and finish all the posts at once that I have started in my draft-box!

I can tell you this now though...

Since I started making time with God and His Word [the Bible] a daily priority - reading big chunks of God's story from the beginning and being more dependent on Him through prayer - I have become more enthusiastic for God and life. My life has been richly deepened recently as God has been teaching me, opening my eyes to see new perspectives, to see what is important - what is lasting. I have heard people talk about Christianity as a blind-faith: following a guy as if he's God with no real proof because of a book that was put together by humans. Yet the more I listen to Jesus through the Bible, prayer, conversations and the work of His Spirit, I feel like my eyes are being opened more and more.

In this month I have read from Genesis to 1 Kings so far. And constantly there is this theme of Remembering. God remembers people, God remembers His promises and fulfills them, then He calls people to Remember Him and Remember what he has Done. The dictionary definition for 'remember' = "have in or be able to bring to one's mind an awareness of (someone or something that one has seen, known or experienced in the past); bear (someone) in mind by making them a gift or making provision for them" [Oxford American Dictionary]. 

It's sinking in more now just how important it is to keep in mind [remember] what is important, what is true - which in my experience and the message of the Bible is God: Maker, Provider, Saviour, Redeemer, Way, Truth and Life. The more I keep Him in mind - remembering who He is, what He was done, what He has promised He will do - I am more able to experience the richness of life with less fear, more joy, more appreciation for people... so much more good stuff! :)

Remembering is so important that it requires us to 'remember' together, encourage each other to keep God in mind - know/discover who He is, what He has done, what He has promised, how He has provided for us.

Have you seen the movie "Remember the Titans"? or any inspiring football movie? Just think of the pep talks that happen before a big game or an inspiring moment where a coach or player shares a new perspective or reminds the team of who they are and what they are able to do together. Remembering God together is like that - it is so energising and inspiring, cause God IS inspiring! :) So let's not shy away from having genuine conversations about God whether you are seeking to know if He's true, remembering God out loud so a friend can know Him too, or remembering together how Awesome He IS and the Wonders He has done and said He will do, and how those truths can fill our daily lives with such passion, purpose, assurance, freedom, and deep joy that cuts through circumstances. No wonder the writer of 'Hebrews' in the Bible says this in chapter 24v23-25:

"Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. "

Let's not let there be barriers like age, personality, different styles, different likes, different life stages or backgrounds stop us from remembering together.

Remembering God shapes the way we live. The way we live shapes our Remembering. Remember God first.

[Pic from creativemyk.com]

My life as a Musical #1

I sometimes dream of living life like it is a musical. It would take at least another person to have the same kind of dream for it to work though haha:) So, instead, I've decided to post various video clips over time of songs that have influenced my life in some way or are part of a sound track to my life. But don't be surprised if I just start bursting out in song randomly one day ;)

I chose this one first because Audio Adrenaline's music has brought me lots of joy, insight, encouragement, "pep-talks" and conviction, dance and singing to my life. I am thankful to God for Audio Adrenaline. Their music and lyrics are inspired.  This is "Get Down" - the video clip is fun to watch and the words help me put things in perspective [they are below]. Enjoy :)

Check out their website if you like here

Lavishly our lives are wasted
Humbleness is left untasted
You can't live your life to please yourself, yeah
That's a tip from my mistakes
Exactly what it doesn't take
To win you've got to come in last place
To live your life you've got to lose it
And all the losers get a crown

CHORUS:
I get down and He lifts me up
I get down and He lifts me up
I get down and He lifts me up
I get down

All I need's another day
Where I can't seem to get away
From the many things that drag me down, yeah
I'm sure you've had a day like me
Where nothing seems to set you free
From the burdens you can't carry all alone
In your weakness He is stronger
In Your darkness He shines through
When you're crying He's your comfort
When your all alone, He's carrying you

CHORUS

This valley is so deep
I can barely see the sun
I cry out for mercy, Lord
You lift me up again

CHOURS
Every time I'm down the Lord ifts me up
Yeah

Redefining Resolutions

I've been working hard to improve my life lately. Switch bad habits with new good ones, be more organised and prepared in my work, maintain a healthy work life balance, prioritise time with God and looking after myself physically... mostly all are with good intentions. Yet some of it is about trying to gain a sense of control as a coping mechanism amid the chaos and uncertainty that exists in my life. 

 

Today I found out that approximately 3000 Sudanese were massacred last week! Perhaps you didn't even know this - even if you watch the news it may not have been told to you. All last week I was meeting people in my community who don't have much support or love in their lives, just battling life daily. So my desire for order in my life and 'being on top of everything' is being challanged immensely! Isn't that just another form of self-centredness and working for my own comfort - possibly even at the cost of others due to the fact focusing on my life means not doing anything about theirs?!

I started writing this post earlier today when I found out about the Sudanese massacre. I am still struggling to finish this post because I am so rattled by what I have seen and heard this week and my response. My heart is troubled. It wants to leap right out of my chest, grow arms and legs and just do whatever it takes to be a part of transforming someone else's life - particularly the youth in this town that I met and the many just like them here.  Yet it feels bound up and helpless as though my rib cage is too strong and my skin too thick to break through. Well perhaps my heart can't break through it all at once - I wish it would... but just as the prisoner in some movie I have seen used a spoon to dig his way out gradually, I am going to attempt to break out too! In fact I think that what is going on in me at the moment is the work of the Freedom Master. I truly believe it is the work of God when our hearts become restless and unsatisfied with the world and our lives. It's the 'shake the building' stage so that we can see we are in a prison and there is the possibility of being free.

So my resolution isn't to be 'on top of all my work and life' anymore. It's to cling closely to God - keep time with Him the main thing I stay in control of and sustain. Then be other people-centred, as in spend more time with people who need it, rather than spend more time writing programs and getting organised. It's really about remembering why I am on this earth in the first place: Love God cause He IS God, a great and glorious God; and Love like God aka like Jesus - can't believe how easy it is to forget that!

Me v The High Jump Bar

High school athletics carnivals always brought fear and trepidation to my unathletic body. This day in 2000 was no exception to the rule. What was different was that I was in year 12 and it was my last chance to gain victory over the tormenting landscape of athletic challenges. I have never been known for my speed and foot-springs -for they too were afraid of their potential or lack of, thus never showed themselves. But maybe, miraculously, they would show themselves this day. 

Then the moment came... the sound that is worse than someone burping in your ear - the megaphone roaring out these words: "15year girls - High Jump". There I found myself face to face with that annoyingly intimidating bar which smirked at me as if it could see right through my determined face. But this was my moment. I was not going to back down. I was going to beat that bar. Suddenly my foot-springs awakened with anticipation jolting my speed to rev and I was away. Stride. Stride. Stride. Leap. And Beat that Bar I DID - with my butt! not once, but all 3 times!! Now if that's not defeating something I don't know what is cause I am sure that bar had to be in some kind of pain - I know I was and my black butt was the symbol of that pain for like  a week, haha :) Yep, that's a day I won't forget. I actually like that memory. Though it was an embarrassing [and painful] moment - especially cause I was competing against girls in a grade lower than me - I am glad I kept trying.

This memory popped [or should I say lept] into my mind this morning when I was thinking about how ambitious I can be -  perhaps too ambitious. For example, I have set myself the challenge of reading all of Genesis to Joshua in 1.5weeks. I am doing a series on Joshua with the kids at church so I wanted to really know the book in it's context and have the story in my head. In making that goal I decided I may as well read the whole Bible as quickly as I can so that I will be more equipped to learn, prepare and pass on it's riches to younger people. I am keen to look at how God has wired us humans - how we learn and grow - things like Emotional Intelligence [EQ] and how God informs, equips and directs us in that so we can grow in relationship with Him, ourselves and each other, and become more Christ-like... in short: Live the Change. So reading the whole Bible will help me with this too.Yep I have some pretty ambitious dreams and plans for this year. I am sure I won't reach them all, but I really want to try.

Though I aim high and most of the time miss the bar, I end up jumping higher than I would have otherwise. What keeps me jumping is the fact that God's Grace covers the gap between me and the bar that I can't clear. Yep I still have moments where failure intimidates me. But I have come to discover that every time I fail God makes a way for that failure to become an agent for growth and I find that it was better for me to fail or not quite reach the mark. Like me landing on the bar, it can be painful though - I won't gloss over that. The growth that comes from it is far more satisfying though, and so the pain fades. 

However high the bar seems to be set for you right now, let your fear or determination lead you to 'reach' it with the only one who can completely 'clear' it - Jesus.

Vote YES to keep future New Years Day

Funny how 1 new day seems to be more powerful than every other new day. Imagine if the world didn't measure time in years, just days... yep that freaks me out! The Bible and any other history books would be full of many more numbers - some taking up more than 1 line probably. That would take some fun out of being an archeologist or historian. No-one would want to be the one reading the Bible up front at church when the passage for the day is Genesis chapter 5! Not to mention how some of those people in that passage would have felt about telling people their age... take Methuselah for example, he was 353,927 days old when he died. Should I be worried that I did the math on that? By the way, if you did the math too and it doesn't look like mine, I took account of leap years - yep I should probably be worried - but I'm not:) There is something more troubling about not having years... there couldn't be months and you know what happens when there is no month or year - there are no anniversaries... I'm talking NO birthdays, no reoccurring celebrations we can look forward to - that is depressing. Although, we could swing it so everyday was our birthday - life would just be full of parties then. There are some weeks and months that feel like they drag on already, having no year would make life feel like it's dragging along. I don't think we could handle it...

So Right about now I am feeling very thankful for New Years Day! How about you? I appreciate that God has structured into our lives beginnings and ends and new beginnings and anniversaries - times to look forward, times for reflecting, times for remembering, times for re-evaluating, and times to celebrate. There is a lot of wisdom and grace right there:) Though every day is really a new beginning for us and a sign of grace to us from God, there is something pretty great about New Years eve and New Years Day that is different from every other day - besides the parties and the public holidays. Here's to the Grace of God and a clean slate for the year. I'm pumped for it! :)

Goodbye Twenty11

I mentioned in my last blog that 2011 has been 'messy'. What better way to capture some that messy nature than to put as many descriptions and events together as possible in a wordle. 

 

It's been easy at the end of 2011 to think of it being a horrible year that I am looking forward to saying goodbye to. But as I reflect on it now in a less fragile state than 2 weeks ago I can say that there have actually been many fantastic things about this year that I am truly thankful for. Tears have been a regular occurrence, yet some of them have been tears of deep joy because of the overwhelming love I have felt from God and marveling at His Incredible-ness. Though the trials, grief and pain that has occurred this year have deeply effected me, God has helped me to get to a place where I can move forward. Some things I will leave behind, and some I will carry into 2012 because God still has some healing work to do and He will also use it somehow - that's something I love about God: He takes the broken pieces of our history and builds them into our future in such a way that makes them no longer seem broken rather important pieces of a masterpiece. I wonder what you are saying goodbye to on the eve of the new year...

Before I say my last goodbye for the year and sign off my last blog for the year, I would like to do  3 things:

1.  Here's a shout out to my friends who I have said temporary goodbyes to this year - I miss you all! And though you are not near me locationally anymore, I am definitely making sure you are a part of my 2012 somehow. Much LOVE to you:)
2.  To the family of my friends who have died this year - I will continue to remember our loved ones with you as we walk the road next year without them. May we hold on to the hope that Jesus has given us: that we will see His face one day forever and stand with those we have said goodbye to for the rest of this life. I praise God He redeemed them and gave them as gifts to us!
3. If you are at the point where you really want to say goodbye to your life in some way, now is a great time to say hello to the Only One who can give True New Life - seriously start 2012 with Jesus or more of Jesus if you already know him :)

Goodbye 2011 and goodnight,
Mel<><

Uncluttering Campaign

For the last 2 weeks I have been running a personal campaign in my home... it hasn't got a name but it's slogan is something like: "clean house = clean slate" or "declutter the home to declutter the mind". "Messy" is the best way to describe 2011 for me, so as the end of 2011 draws near my natural inclination has been to clear any cluttered or messy part of my environment I have control over - the only environment I am in charge of is my house. Now I'm not just talking about the usual tidy-up, we're talking sorting and clearing a mass scale. First room was my home office - cause I started that process 6months ago which meant the floor had been covered in 'organised' piles for that long! I say 'had' because now I can say those piles aren't there anymore. There are a few new ones, haha:) I laugh cause the office has actually been 98% sorted now. I pulled out everything! It feels great to have chucked out so many unnecessary papers and receipts - don't worry I recycled. My desk is functional and I know where everything goes now. sigh of relief and a longer sigh of satisfaction

My wardrobe got the next shock this morning. I like to think of myself of not too vain and not too much of a hoarder. It's now become clear - thanks to this supposedly personal campaign against my home - that vanity is still an existent issue for me and, though I am not a chronic hoarder,  I have waaaayyyy more stuff than I NEED. I have had a large wardrobe all to myself and have managed to fill, FILL it with clothes - most of which I hardly wear. Sure most of them are 2nd hand [or many more than that], I'm not a big clothes shopper. But still I have many clothes. I wear maybe a 3rd of them regularly and I'll wear them til they can't be worn by anyone. So today was the time to be ruthless. Much more of a challenge than I thought. I can't believe how many times I thought: "maybe I will need that later" to clothes I said that to last time I had a clean out. I like jeans so I have quite a few of them! not anymore - but boy was it hard to give some of them away. There were more than a few times I thought: "I look good in this" which made me not want to give them away when really I didn't need them. I literally sat down and asked for Jesus' help at one stage cause I was feeling too attached to some clothes and couldn't decide! That's when I realised vanity and whatever it is - there's something else - exists and I have to keep fighting it. I am glad to say I have gotten rid of about 1/2 my clothes perhaps a few more. I still look at my wardrobe and think - how could I possibly need all this. Someone else would probably look at my wardrobe and tell me I don't have enough. There are all these unwritten rules about clothes in our culture. Like:

• you can't wear the same clothes 2 days in a row, definitely no more than that, otherwise people will think you don't wash your clothes
• dressing for an occasion requires a few different outfits to choose from cause you can't wear the same outfit to all similar occasions such as weddings
• dress for the environment
• have 'backups' just in case
• you have to 'look' professional to be professional and taken seriously [or is this one written somewhere?]

I subscribe to the 'just in-case' rule more than anything - what can I say, I'm a 'just in-case' girl [you can tell by what I pack to go anywhere]. I've never really like to professional one, but since I started working at a school I have had to take it more seriously. Before you ask - no I didn't become a youth worker so I could wear whatever I want to most of the time - though it is an advantage! :) Once I find an outfit for a special occasion I pretty much wear it to all of them if possible, yet I find I still have a couple of choices... hmmm... then of course there are a few articles of clothing I really have enjoyed wearing in the past that I have kept in the hope I may fit back in them again!

I find it interesting that people really notice when I get 'new' clothes because they mention it. Perhaps there is another rule I don't know about: wear a variety of clothes regularly so as to not bore the people who have to see you everyday ;) Well I apologise to those people who have to see me regularly cause I just got rid of half my clothes which definitely means less variety to look at :)

I don't think I have ever talked about clothes so much in my life! I'm really surprised you're still ready actually - but don't stop now ;) I'll finish it for you. I guess my conclusion is this: clothing is more than a physical need to  many of us, this fact alone is reason enough for us to consider thinking about clothes more - just differently so we can see what our clothes are really covering up beyond our skin.