Two Becoming One

This blog has been incorporated into Allie Chilling so can I invite you to pop over and join us there?
Sure hope you will.

Guilt and Freedom

The Artist's Way book is going to bring up some really meaty things to process on this blog as I go along.
I can tell already.
After just 13 days of writing the 3 pages every morning (see Allie Chilling for more details) things are starting to emerge.

For example, one day I noted that I felt guilty about something: then I began to list randomly things I felt guilty about.
To my amazement, a seemingly endless stream spewed out of my pen
I had no idea that I carried so much guilt about so many things!

Guilt about keeping sufficient contact with friends; about things left undone; about procrastination; about not being a good parent/grandparent/wife; about not exercising properly; about lack of faithfulness in praying; about not liking to cook. . .
Just on and on.

And I had been oblivious to this.
And even more bizarre is that this is going on unrecognised in the mind of a Christ-follower!
We, who have set free in Christ, should of all people, be free of guilt.
Not because we get everything right, but because Jesus did.
Then took the Fall for us.

Now that I recognise where these accusing comments are coming from, the potency of the attack is lost.
I can dismiss them and move out into the freedom that has been provided for me at such cost.

Yay!

Standing on the Desk

Do you remember the scene in Dead Poets Society where Robin Williams gets his students to stand on the desk to demonstrate the need to look at things from another perspective?

A powerful visual aid!

We too, need to allow God to shift our perspectives to help us deal with life on earth.

To remind us that we are "seated in heavenly realms in Christ" even while we are living out our lives here.

We all want dynamic faith.

To have that certain knowledge that God can be utterly trusted -

Even when nothing seems to be going according to plan and it looks as though there is no way forward.

And we want it to descend on us from heaven, gift wrapped - complete with "feelings of faith"

The trouble is that faith often grows by way of tests and trials.

We usually only begin to lean on God after we have depleted all our natural resources.

We don't even realise that most of the time, but He knows.

And we need to know it too.

And so He teaches us to look at those trying circumstances with new eyes if we are willing.

Is God perhaps using the hard and sad things of this fallen world as His opportunity to show His love and power towards us who believe?

Is God answering our prayers for increased faith by taking us beyond what we can manage on our own?

Whittling away at our independence and missplaced self confidence?

Wouldn't it be worth feeling helpless if it made God more real to us?

Let's be willing to" stand on the desk" in times of hardship, and see them as a gateway to increased knowledge of the reality of our Lord.

Starting Over

Hullo again, little blog
I have missed you.
So let's take hands and continue our journey here.
Are you ready?
Let's go then.

Goodbyes

On "Alliechilling" yesterday, I said I doubted whether my two blogs could happily co-habit.

(You can check the post if you need more info)

But the very act of saying it, has made me realise I need to do just that.

Not sure why, but I do

So, the time has come to put them, like the two very different siblings they are, in one room and see what emerges.

Let the dominant sibling trample the other

Or let them learn to give each other space

Maybe they will finish each other off and something completely different will rise from their ashes.

So this is goodbye to Sonsearcher as I have known it (sob)

But this "little sister blog" will no doubt peep through in Alliechilling now and then.

She is small but tenacious.

And she has loved her short life.

Thanks for sharing it

Heartfelt

On Tuesday evening, 700 women packed our venue to listen to 5 amazing stories of ordinary girls doing extraordinary things.
They had been invited to an event called "Heartfelt"
700 is a number that noone had anticipated!
That so many women turned out on a week night was evidence that God was at work right from the start.

We watched spellbound (part of the presentation was done on video and part "on the couch" type interviews) as each story unfolded before our eyes.
Stories of braveness, faith, difficulty, devastation, hope, sheer hard work, perseverance, great joy, victory -
Overridingly, they were the story of God showing Himself powerful and gracious through the lives of women willing to *go there* in response to the leading of their Lord.

A case of their "setting their faces to the wind and scattering their handfuls of seeds on high" (see sidebar)
Who knows what those stories will inspire others to be and to do?

True

Hmm, from the responses this post received perhaps a part two is a good idea
To try to explain more clearly what I mean
About not mis-understanding Him.

Let me see. . .
The way I find easiest, is to relate spiritual things with human things; almost like little parables, for eg:

If babies, going for their shots, could think logically, they would assume their parents don't care about them; do not protect them; don't love them.
After all, how could they they allow someone to stick a needle into their flesh and cause them a lot of pain otherwise?
Because the parents don't lift a finger to protect them; in fact, they thank the perpetrator!

Schoolgoing kids rail against parents because they have to go to school and learn stuff they don't think they need to learn: they have to deal with children and teachers who are not always kind.
But the parents make them go anyway.

Teens often accuse their parents of not loving them because the parents refuse to give them what they want.
How many of us have had the accusation aimed at us (and have aimed it at our own parents): "You don't care about me!"

But we all know now that that is far from the truth

It was misunderstanding
Misunderstanding of the hearts of the parents;
Of the motives of the parents
An inability because of youth or ignorance to see the bigger picture.

Now we see things differently: we no longer misunderstand those kinds of things
But we can still misunderstand God
When life seems tough, and nothing is clear
Because we don't see His bigger picture.

But what we need never ever do again is misunderstand His heart or motives.

When He says He is good
He is good
No matter what life dishes up.
When He says He loves us, He loves us
No matter how it looks to us at the time, if we belong to Him, He is bringing something good out of the mess.