Abiding Monday

From Spoken Worship, by Gerard Kelly

Fit Me In Somewhere

Fit me in somewhere

in this giant jigsaw, God,

somewhere in this work of art

you're working,

select a space my shape can fill

and with a puzzle maker's skill

let my contours find their fit without contortion.

Teach me which patch I am, God,

in the cosmic quilt you're quilting.

Show me where my square of selfhood is of use.

Let the colourful complexities

of the pattern that is me

find their purpose in the placement that you choose.

Show me my position, God,

in this group photograph.

Stand me where you want me to stand.

Put me next to who you will.

Make me stand, for good or ill,

precisely in the place your plan demands.

Tell me what I am, God,

in this body you are building;

a tongue to taste, 

a nerve to serve, 

an ear to hear.

Give me grace

to not be, gracefully,

the parts I am not called to be

and to play with elegance

the roles I'm given.

Fit me in somewhere

in this giant jigsaw, God,

somewhere in this work of art you're working.

Weave your wondrous tapestry

until the twisted, tangled threads of me,

surrendered to your artistry,

form an image that is beautiful to see.

Forever changing it up

Yeah, I know I already showed you this room.  But hey, it's different...surprise right??? :)  I loved the quilts on the couches, but they are a pain in the butt to keep straight.  So I removed them and put colorful throws and pillows...and re-arranged the room a bit.  For those of you who do not know already I have another name.  Roommover!!  My husbands greatest fear is that he will go blind and trip over something.  What can I say, I like change!

Have a great day friends!!

Thankful

Thankful for my warm, cozy, and colorful kitchen on these cold winter days.

It's cold, windy and rainy today.

The perfect place to curl up with a good book and cup of coffee or tea.


I want to introduce you to another new blogger.  Please stop by and welcome her.
Rebecca at "Bending Toward Daybreak"  

Abiding Monday

I am reading "Life With God, Reading the Bible for Spiritual Transformation" by Richard Foster.  I want to read the Bible, these living words for life transformation and heart change, not just head knowledge.  I want them to mold and change me. In abiding I am finding Spiritual Discipline's to be of great help.  Richard Foster explains what they are in such a clear and understand way.

 WHAT IS A SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE?

Now, to move forward in this life, we must understand clearly what a Spiritual Discipline is in the first place. A Spiritual Discipline is an intentionally directed action by which we do what we can do in order to receive from God the ability (or power) to do what we cannot do by direct effort. It is not in us, for example, to love our enemies. We might even go out and try very hard to love our enemies, but we will fail miserably. Always. This strength, this power to love our enemies – that is, to genuinely and unconditionally love those who curse us and despitefully use us – is simply not within our natural abilities.  We cannot do it by ourselves. Ever.

But this fact of life does not mean that we do nothing.  Far from it!  Instead, by an act of the will we choose to take up Disciplines of the spiritual life that we can do.  These Disciplines are all actions of the body, mind, and spirit that are within our power to do.  Not always and not perfectly, to be sure.  But they are things we can do.  By choice.  By choosing actions of fasting we can learn experientially that we do not live by bread alone by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. (Deut. 8:3; Luke 4:4). By choosing actions of study we can learn how the mind takes on an order conforming to the order upon which it concentrates, which is precisely why we seek to turn our mind toward all things “true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things” (Phil. 4:8). By choosing actions of solitude we can become intimately acquainted with many things that control us so that we can be set free from them by the power of God (Mark 6:31). And so forth.

Now, the Spiritual Disciplines in and of themselves have no merit whatsoever. They possess no righteousness, contain no rectitude.  Their purpose – their only purpose – is to place us before God.  After that they have come to the end of their tether.  But it is enough.  Then the grace of God steps in and takes this simple offering of ourselves and creates out of it the kind of person who embodies the goodness of God; indeed, a person who can come to the place of truly loving even enemies.

Again, Spiritual Disciplines involve doing what we can do to receive from God the power to do what we cannot do.  And God graciously uses this process to produce in us the kind of person who automatically will do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

This ability to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done is the true freedom in life.  Freedom comes not from the absence of restraint by from the presence of discipline.  Only the disciplined gymnast is free to score a perfect ten on the parallel bars.  Only the disciplined violinist is free to play Paganini’s “Caprices.”  This, of course, is true in all of life, but it is never truer than in the spiritual life.  When we are on the spot, when we find ourselves in the midst of the crisis, it is too late.  Training in the Spiritual Disciplines is the God-ordained means for forming and transforming the human personality so that in the emergency we can be “response-able”- able to respond appropriately.

Richard Foster, Life With God; pages 16-18

Megan's blog

My daughter started a blog. Little Pieces of Me.

It was a requirement for one of her college classes.  I think I am more excited about it than she is. If you have some time to stop please stop by and leave her a sprinkling of encouragement.  

another journal spread

I am enjoying this process. You get the look of multiple layers without  using layers and layers of paint. I signed up for several of Traci Bautista's online classes. I think creating those Zentangles opened up a doodling vein in me, and yes Bren, I do think they will show up in future journal pages.

large journal

My friend Bren mentioned Traci Bautista and her journaling.  Traci's book "Collage Unleashed" was one of the first art journaling books I purchased in 2007.  I have always loved the look of her journaling, it has this messy, colorful, graffiti look to it.  I love how Traci incorporates color, image, words, and mark making. I like the free handwork mixed with the use of the more perfect look of stencils.

So I decided to play a bit.

I like the results.

What I love about art journaling is incorporating a new thing one learns with what is already known.  The pages then become not a copy of someone else's work, but your own.  They may have a bit of the same feel, but they can never be truly duplicated because we each have our own "art print" just like fingerprints.

Traci is also offering daily journal prompts on her blog and her blog is just pure fun to look at.

Yes, I did some Zentangles

I have shied away for doing Zentangles but a friend of mine showed me hers and I just had to give it a try.
While Meg was home for Christmas break we watched three seasons of "Alias".  I had seen most of them, she had not. So, during many episodes I doodled.  It was a lot of fun, and very addicting.  It's one of those things where you say, "just one more".  Like chocolate!!

Abiding Monday

I was not sure if I was going to continue Abiding Mondays.  After all Abide was my word for last year. This is a new year. But as I thought about it some more I realized that even though I have a new word for a new year I do not stop applying the old word to my life. I add the new word, it does not replace the old. And really they go together.  To be Wholehearted I must continue to Abide.  

I have two resources I want to share that helps me in this.  One is a book I have been reading.  "Saying Yes, accepting God's amazing invitation to artists and the church" by Cindy West.  In the book Cindy mentions a friend of hers who is a worship leader, Mark Tedder.  He handed her lyrics to a song of his called

More of You

When I'm lost in need of mercy, more of you, more of you.

When I've wasted time you've given, more of you, more of you

When I've taken more than giving, more of you, more of you

And when I leave before you've spoken, more of you

When I've wandered from your presence, more of you, more of you

When I'm scared in need of clinging, more of you, more of you

As I bring this life that's broken, more of you, more of you

Which led me to seek out the CD titled "The Door" Live worship from Beijing, China with Mark Teddar and the Worshiplanet Band. It includes a CD and a DVD.  It is wonderful. You can get them both through Amazon.  

During the CD and DVD a few poems by Gerard Kelly are recited.  Here is one of them.

HUMANIFESTO

I want to be a grace guerilla, 

no longer a chameleon of karma;

the time has come to stand out from the crowd

I want to give forgiveness a fighting chance of freeing me,

to live in love and live it out loud.

I want to drink deep of the foolishness of wisdom

instead of swallowing the wisdom of fools,

to find a source in the deeper mines of meaning

I want to search out the unsearchable,

to invoke the invisible;

to choose the truths the TV hypnotists aren't screening.

No camouflage, no entourage, no smoothly fitting in

I want a faith that goes further than face value

and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin

I want to be untouched by my possessions

instead of being possessed by what I touch,

to test the taste of having nothing to call mine

to hold consumption's cravings back

to be content with luck or lack

to live as well on water as on wine

I want to spend myself on those I think might need me,

not spend all I think I need on myself

I want my heart to be willing to make house calls

let those whose rope is at an end

find in me a faithful friend

let me be know as on who rebuilds broken walls

No camouflage, no entourage, no smoothly fitting in

I want a faith that goes further than face value

and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin.

I want to be centered outside the circle

to be chiseled from a different seam

to be seduced by another story

and drawn into a deeper dream

to be anchored in an undiscovered ocean

to revolve around an unfamiliar sun

a boom box tuned to an alternate station,

a bullet fired from a different gun.

No camouflage, no entourage, no smoothly fitting in

I want a faith that goes further than face value

and a beauty that goes deeper than my skin

Gerard Kelly


Here's a link to "The Door Project" has some good info and links on it.

winter blessings

No you don't!

okay, no more

gonna catch it!!

Meg reading the snow tablet

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning.

Winter blessings.

Becoming

Being shaken up, being changed, becoming does not always feel good.  Well, to be honest when you are smack dab in the middle of it, it downright feels like sh.., sorry, I mean crap...well I really mean...  

God is shaking up this family. When it happens to one in the family it usually has ripple effects. But, I see such good coming from the shaking.  I thank God for the pain, even though it is hard to witness, and to live it.  But when you trust the one that is doing the work you know when you come out on the other side that hearts and souls will be a litter bigger, brighter, and stronger.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge. 

Selah. 

Psalm 62:8

I posted this painting a few days ago, them removed it.  It looked quite different when I posted it, and as  I continued to work on it, even to the point that I said, "finished" I knew it did not have the feel I wanted.  It was too contrived. So I covered much of it up and will begin again. I really wanted this to done, and at first I was so very frustrated with myself. Then I asked, why do I think the process will be or should be easy and fast?? Isn't that what we think sometimes about ourselves?  I do. I want the change now! 

Funny thing, as I was painting this I had a new word for the year.  Wholehearted!  And yes, that is what I long to be, but I really think endurance is really what God is teaching me.  And as I endure the process I think I will be becoming wholehearted.   

Grace and peace to you my friends.