Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Addendum to "With Hope"

An addendum to my earlier blog 'With Hope'.......

Jim Houser, Steven Curtis Chapman's manager, writes in his blog of Maria's memorial service.....
"...I too echo Caleb and his wise beyond his years comment, after having the privilege to walk with so many of their family and friends next to the Chapmans through this time, I have never been more convinced that Jesus is real, that the Gospel is true. Despite this tragedy that could seem to contradict He is a good and sovereign God, we know the truth that is on the front of Maria's Memorial Service program! That He has plans for us 'plans for peace and not evil, to give you a future and a hope.' "

It's cool to note that the couple for whom Steven wrote "With Hope" were able to hear his best friend sing that song at Maria's memorial, and to be a source of comfort in response for what Steven had helped them through in similar circumstances.

You can read about the memorial service here.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Sabbath Mode


This morning before church I remembered a story that I thought was very funny. An older couple once told us that they had bought a new stove but at times it acted very peculiar. It would be working fine, and then all of a sudden nothing on it would work. They figured it was just the timer on the oven and tried to adjust all that, but it just wouldn't work. But the next day it would. So they thought everything was fine until a while later the same thing happened. They could not get it to function at all. But the next day it was perfectly fine! They made some phone calls, went to the store where they purchased it, and after speaking with many people they finally got an answer on what was 'wrong' with their stove. The man with the answer said, "You've got it set on 'Sabbath Mode'." Sabbath Mode? What is that? He explained that in strict orthodox Jewish communities these stoves are very popular. You set the stove electronically to Sabbath Mode so that the stove cannot be used to 'work' on the Sabbath. Even if someone in the home tried to use it they wouldn't be able to. With absolutely no disrespect meant to my Jewish friends, I had quite a chuckle out of that. I mean, why don't you just....um....not use the stove on the sabbath? Is the temptation that great and our willpower that little that we need electronic means to prevent us from sinning?


Actually, I know a few people who could use some sort of electronic programming mode that prevents them from going back to the same old habits that drag them down....and others with them!
But I was reminded of a better way in church this morning. We sang,


"Amazing love, How can it be?
That You my King would die for me?
Amazing love, I know it's true,
And it's my joy to honour You,
In all I do, I honour You.
You are my King, Jesus, You are my King."

Gee, if we could get a handle on that one, we wouldn't be struggling so much with stuff we know we shouldn't be doing.........'cause we're gladly serving a King we not only love, but we joyfully honour in all our actions because His love is amazing beyond belief.

Joyful obedience, not out of ritual, but from a heart of love and devotion. 24/7. No Sabbath Mode programming required.



Thursday, May 22, 2008

With Hope

Oh how I wish Steven Curtis Chapman did not have to live out these words in his own family that he once penned for someone else ....ache, grief and hope....

We ache and grieve with his family and pray for peace and strength from that precious hope for each one of them.

"This is not at all how
We thought it was supposed to be
We had so many plans for you
We had so many dreams
And now you've gone away
And left us with the memories of your smile
And nothing we can say
And nothing we can do
Can take away the pain
The pain of losing you, but ...

We can cry with hope
We can say goodbye with hope
'Cause we know our goodbye is not the end, oh no
And we can grieve with hope
'Cause we believe with hope
(There's a place by God's grace)
There's a place where we'll see your face again
We'll see your face again

And never have I known
Anything so hard to understand
And never have I questioned more
The wisdom of God's plan
But through the cloud of tears I see the Father smile and say well done
And I imagine you
Where you wanted most to be
Seeing all your dreams come true
'Cause now you're home
And now you're free, and ...

We have this hope as an anchor
'Cause we believe that everything God promised us is true, so ...

We wait with hope
And we ache with hope
We hold on with hope
We let go with hope"

With Hope, By Steven Curtis Chapman

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Freeze!

There are some moments in time that I just wish I could freeze and stay in that moment for a very long time. Like when my kids were little and said (and sang) all those phrases from a wonderful childlike perspective.

"...Home, home on the range, Where the deer and the ants can go play...." , or

"All things are popsicle, only believe"

I miss all that stuff. Sometimes.
Right now I want to make time stand still and stay in the month of May (but without the ridiculous chill we felt this week, after being spoiled with an extra early spring arrival). Although it's a month of memories of when my Dad passed away, it's still a month I wish would last for at least 3 months so I can drink in the beauty around us.
Remember this????










As much as we complained, all that moisture and insulation has done a world of good and my plants have never looked healthier (except for the grass!).


Stuff I love about May:

Brilliant tulips and creeping phlox.
Woodland trilliums, daffodils, bleeding hearts, and Solomon's seal.
Clouds of Forget-Me-Nots that remind me of my Dad.
Magnificent magnolia trees - those are the ones whose blooms look like giant tulips.
Intoxicating fragance of fruit and crabapple tree blossoms, lilacs, and lily of the valley.
Robin and cardinal songs that wake me before 5 am.
Bumble bees and butterflies.
Green emerging everywhere from what was dead, hard, cold ground.
Warm breezes (except this past weekend!!).
Chipmunks.
And so much more.

Can't we just stop and stay right here for 3 more months with none of that summer humidity that makes us long to bury our face in a snowdrift?


I have one ulterior motive for my longings. I'm eyeing the plague of 65 trillion maple keys just waiting to helicopter their way down and drop over everything we own, in addition to many neighbouring properties. This picture is a teeny shot from two old massive messy maple trees in our backyard. If you think I exaggerate, come and help us rake, sweep and bag them as they completely cover our car, our driveway, our deck, our sidewalks, grass, gardens, and begin to root into little trees everywhere they land. Come enjoy a BBQ on our deck as they fill up your plate and add a mapley essence to your food. While you're at it, you can try to clear your chair of them before you're seated and then continue to pick them out of your hair as we chat. Just shake them out of your clothes and sandals when you leave - better to leave them here with the rest than take them home with you....or worse, begin to sprout in your clothing. When you drive away in your key covered car, you will bless all the neighbours for miles around with a share of our bounty.

I admit it was a totally cool plan that God had to ensure trees repopulated the earth. If I were God (Lord help us all), I would have just allowed about 20-25 keys per maple tree. But I suppose that would bring the wrath of the squirrels who like to eat and store as many of the seeds as they can. More power to them. Less to clean up....about 500 less.

The snow was beautiful indeed...but in my estimation, not nearly as lovely as these...








Tuesday, May 13, 2008

You had a bad day...

"...you had a bad day....you're taking one down...you sing a sad song....." lalalala la.

This morning I was wondering about how my day was going to go when I hurried out the door late for work and the car alarm told me the gas tank was --empty-- (thank you, son). I made it to the gas station on fumes, put 20 bucks worth in at $1.24 a litre and arrived at work 15 minutes late.
I turned on my computer but although the monitor was on, the screen remained black. I crawled around under my desk ensuring everything was plugged in, then checked all the connections at the back of the computer. Everything looked fine. I turned the power bar off and on and it started up...and then hung there. I repeated this process about 5 times. After a 30 minute wait for IT help, they replaced my computer with a junky one that is used for training but takes forever to load anything. They booted it and it hung so long on one screen that I went for breakfast early and came back and nothing had changed. And so, they replaced that computer with yet another and after having waited 2 hours I was finally up and running again.... although I had no idea where my prints were going as we have several printers around the office. I got plenty of exercise today visiting printers.

Later in the day, we were warned that police would be visiting our facilities because an unhappy individual had threatened to come in shortly with a 10 gauge shotgun. Mmmhmm. All in a day's work. Luckily, he appeared to be all talk and no action.

Well, that wasn't a definition of a bad day - that's as bad as it got. That was just a day with annoyances. Perhaps a bad day or week might be when your kids have chicken pox - I've done the time on that one!

But lately I've been reading stories of the urban poor, and kids across the world whose mothers were brutally murdered before their eyes, and a devastating cyclone where a young boy watched his father swept away from him, and an earthquake wreaking havoc in peaceful neighbourhoods, tornadoes, and stories of bloody wars, and we know this list goes on forever of untold tragedies we have never experienced.

I don't quite know what to do with all this information. The world is so lopsided. I think of it every single night when I lay my head on my pillow and ask God why am I so blessed? Why should I have so much comfort at my disposal when so much of the world suffers tragedy almost too great to bear? What can I do to help? As I go to sleep praying for children I've never met who have no other mother to care about them, I pray that I will find answers to ways to help. To know to do right and not do it is wrong. And to care for people's needs is what God requires of us.

And I'm thinking I have no idea what a bad day is.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Starfield


I was quite excited today that my son gave me the new Starfield CD, I Will Go, for Mother's Day. (I'm hoping I hear some guitar strains wafting through the house from the new songs he learns from the CD!) I had just been talking about Starfield yesterday with someone who had been at their concert recently in Abbotsford B.C. Part way through this rock concert filled with 1,000 people, if you can imagine, lights and scaffolding came crashing down and sent about 40 people through the floor which caved in to the basement 3 metres below. Thankfully, there weren't more hurt but a couple are still in hospital in serious condition. My friend said he was very impressed to watch some members of the Starfield band just jump right in the hole in the floor to help the people that had just fallen through.
I've always liked this band for their attitude and excellent lyrics, and the new CD does not disappoint. Go buy yourself a copy and be encouraged and inspired. Here's a taste....
....."Let me not be blind with privilege
Give me eyes to see the pain
Let the blessing You poured out on me
Not be spent on me in vain
Let this life be used for change
I wanna live for You
Go where You lead me
I wanna follow You..."


"I Will Go", Written by Tim Neufeld, Jon Neufeld, and Allen Salmon

Thursday, May 8, 2008

The grass is always greener....



This is what a good part of our front lawn looks like this year.

Too much drought and grubs last season I guess. I'm not one to fuss over a lawn but we kinda had to do something about this lest it fill in completely with weeds. Sure, weeds are green but there is a certain expectation in a neighbourhood that you at least aim for neat and tidy. Besides, there's a mantra going around now by the lawn care companies that lawns are environmentally friendly as they convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, trap pollutants and provide cooling. Or course they don't mention in the same sentence the fact that they spray pesticides on that environmentally friendly turf and that the grass prefers a substantial amount of precious water.

All I know is, the grass provides exercise for my husband while cutting it, provides plenty of reason for me to sneeze in the spring, and provides food for the multiplying rabbits in the neighbourhood, and probably provides grubs for the birds, raccoons, and skunks. The ideal weather for grass growing was slipping away so we decided that we should check out some lawn care companies because this would be no small job. I actually won a year's worth of lawn care many years ago in choosing a slogan for one of these companies...they are still using the slogan. We called them and one other company. They left their quotes in the mailbox...and we left their quotes on our kitchen table. Life has been too busy with much more important things on our mind, and we didn't get around to making a decision until.......we got a repair bill for our second car - $800. That decided it. The evenings are still cool and rain was in the forecast. We would tackle this one on our own.

Last Saturday, we borrowed a truck and my husband got two loads of triple mix soil and began putting piles of it all around the lawn. We were feeling good that there was a nice light rain that would water in the grass seed when we were done. Yes, a nice light rain. I continued raking out the piles of soil as my husband dumped the remainder, cleaned out the truck, and returned it to our friend. It wasn't long before I could feel the pain of blisters forming on the insides of my thumbs under the gardening gloves. (They still hurt!) The rich, crumbly soil was now quickly turning to clods of mud as the rain began to pour down more steadily. My coat was not rain proof. I was drenched to the bone. Water dripped off my baseball cap and off my nose - I couldn't wipe my face or it would be streaked with mud. The piles were actually too large to spread effectively and we didn't have enough to do the whole lawn. I pulled harder and harder on the soil to try to spread it. I squished the mud down with my old running shoes (now trashed) until I literally had an inch of it on the soles and had to keep scraping it off. My arms were aching. I really questioned whether we were wasting our time because how would the seed grow up through all these clods of dirt? I don't know how many hours we worked but for me it seemed an eternity. When the soil was spread as well as we could under the circumstances, I went in the house to peel off my clothes and have a shower. My husband stayed outside to spread the grass seed and then we both watched from inside as the rain began to really pelt down and puddle all over the lawn as the wind picked up. Not the ideal conditions for grass seed to take hold! And now we water daily (if Mother Nature doesn't) and wait.

It can take a lot of sweat and toil to grow something. It's during this difficult time that you want to just pack it in and say it isn't worth it. Nothing will come of it. I'm not doing a good job. The odds are against me. No one cares anyways, so why am I putting myself through this for nothing? My husband has always been one to persevere until a job is done. (His dad taught him that no job is worth doing unless you do it right and stay at it until it is finished). That's why he's a good match for me because I'm the one to give in when the going gets tough. I really hope this has a happy ending and that we at least get some new growth from it. It will be a start and can be improved upon again in the fall.

The following Monday, I was out watering the lawn when a truck dropped off some young men on the street who began going door to door to drum up some lawncare business. A young man approached me, obviously knowing we were trying our hand at planting seed, and offered to aerate the lawn for us. I thanked him but explained that we had no extra money and that we were going to handle the lawn this year. He tried again to offer the aeration services, but I insisted that we really couldn't afford it. He said okay and turned to go. He turned back and said, "Ma'am, could I offer you some advice? Next time", he said, pointing to the crabapple tree now full of leaves and emerging blossoms, "start growing your grass seed earlier in the season before the tree starts leafing out so the sun can get through to the lawn." In that moment I confess I wanted to hit him. Perhaps I should have just let him have it with the sprinkler - by accident of course.