Life Cycles

It is strange and wonderful how life runs in cycles. We are born helpless naked and needing help for every basic task, and then strangely, after a lifetime of self sufficiency, we often end up right back where we started from.

In autumn, we witness the end of the warm season and the death or hibernation of nature. Plants go dormant or die. Animals crawl into their burrows to wait for spring. And then, after winter has done its worst...everything wakes up again! It is an ordinary miracle - just like many others- that we take for granted.

We were made in the image of God, perfect and whole. Humans are His crowning creation. And then we fell. Adam and Eve rebelled, deciding they knew better than God. But they didn't, and we don't still.

Which is the reason why Jesus had to come, to show us the way back to God and to return us to what God had in mind all along: saints perfectly loving and serving a perfect, loving God.
So now, even though our outward shells are dying slowly day by day, inwardly we are being renewed by the grace of God.*

 And there is nothing more pleasing or satisfying than coming full circle, back to where you need to be.

*"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
" 2Cor. 4:15

{These are Blessings Indeed!}

I must say, I've been blessed. Truly, truly blessed. You all have blessed me! God has smiled on me.
And I don't say that in a cliche "ohymgoodness" sort of way....I really mean it.

The fact that I'm even alive today is a miracle.
The fact that I have a supporting circle of loving people is a true, real gift.
That fact that I have a loving family, and a beautiful, safe home to live in is worth celebrating too!

But today, what I'm thinking of the most is the hearts of the those.....my friends and family....who decided that the dream God gave me of going to Romania, and loving on those lovely, needy people was worth sponsoring.
Worth praying for.
Worth believing in me for.

It's amazing to me!
Because, really, even if I told everything I know and feel about Romania, and what God has said so far to me about it....and even if I admitted that I don't know exactly why I'm going or what will come of it.....it doesn't seem matter to you all!

I'm not talking just about monetary giving for my trip here. (No, but in that respect, I've been extremely blessed as well! Everything has been provided for! Many, many thanks...) I'm thinking of the love, the kind words, the prayers that these folks have given me....each was special!

And I think I'm just standing in awe of God right now.
How He works things out and, how he worked this out for me.
I feel so special! and yet so little, and unworthy of this trip, at the same time!
I promise I will try not to worry about my abilities because "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" and I promise to carry myself well in Romania, and serve with all my heart, soul, mind & strength! As would befit someone who has been so, so blessed....

I must thank you, my friends, my family & my church.
Love in Jesus,
~Hannah

Spent Time.

Life is made up of tiny things. 
Little events.
Small words here & there.
Every move, heart-beat, thought, and action adds up to our life, and what we make it.

I wish I could say that every little piece of my life has been well-spent or even, meaningful.
It hasn't.
Many times, I've tried very hard (ironically) to just 'exist'. Not do anything bad, but not do anything very good either. Unfortunately, there have been whole chapters of my short life spent that way...and it's definitely been a waste.

Breaking out of that safe 'slowed time' cocoon is indeed the hardest part of growing up, and moving forward in my life. As a kid, time was sort of a secondary thing to my day. The important points on the clock (lunchtime, dinnertime, playtime, nap time) were all that mattered...and that was okay, for a small child.

However, now I see that something should shape my day and give meaning to it. Now that I am well old enough to understand passage & importance of time, it also falls upon me to understand the responsibility that comes with living within it. It is not enough anymore for me to say to myself, "Well, as long as it doesn't hurt or hinder anyone directly, and as long as no one notices either...then I'm going go ahead to do such & such for X number of hours." That's a child's mentality, and hardly acceptable for an adult!

It's like this:
Whenever I hear someone mentioning the scripture about "redeeming the time"... I think of holding a check in my hand and going to the bank. Imagine if instead of being paid by a set hourly rate, we were paid based on how we used the time we worked. If you worked hard and well, you got paid well. If you slacked off, you got little or nothing. It would be a fair, but indeed harsh system!

I think that's how I should look at my days from now onwards; less as just 'putting in hours' and more as working as unto the Lord. Because really, He is the only one who always:

• sees what I am trying to do (all of it)
• knows what I could or should be doing
• and understands the whys behind all of it

Giving an account for my day....might just be a more sobering prospect than I thought.

Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time.  (Colossians 4:5)

[Titled]

I hate titling things. Isn't it hard sometimes? I think it is, but I don't know just why that is.
Maybe it has to do with finality. Once you put a name on something
and slap a label on it...
              or punch in those last words up top...
              or finally think you've found those few, descriptive words that are just right...
...everything seems thrown up into the air! What you thought might be the "just right" mix of words to describe something overall...suddenly just won't cut it. It's not enough!

Just think about it. Think of a favorite book or essay or blog/blog post (of yours or someone else's) and how much you enjoyed reading it. How much it spoke to you, how much it said in that (relatively) small space of page or screen. It was a lot, right?

Now, try to remember the title of it.
Was it one word, a few, or a long phrase?
Examples....
A Far Country
Water for Elephants
"The Open Window"
"Information Overload"
'Cold War'


Very often, the title doesn't quite fit. Maybe the writer just didn't spend much time thinking about it.
However, sometimes whatever those few, special words the author, songwriter, blogger, or filmmaker chose do fit. And fit  absolutely, perfectly. So much so, the title itself becomes a direct part of what people remember about the piece!

Whenever I read any of Andree Seu's columns for WORLD magazine, I usually remember the title distinctly, in addition to the content. (Often, the accompanying neat illustrations are imprinted in my head very well too; but that's a whole another post.)
Titles have a tendency to define and characterize things. Just by mere association, or by the poignancy of the words. It's strange to think about it, but I would even go so far to say that the difference between a well-chosen title and a poor title is what makes or breaks many books, movies, songs, etc.

Hmm, and you know, names are very much like titles too...
Have you ever met someone with such a strange, wild, unusual name that you couldn't get over? Through no fault to them, it may have turned out to be impossible for you to get used to saying and hearing their name! (Much like an unwelcome nicknames are to ourselves.)

On the other hand, a beautiful or grand name inspires admiration sometimes. Which is funny because our given names are bestowed upon us, we don't have much of  a choice in the picking, unless we want to change them later on. Whether you are happy with how your 'title' describes you or not, you're stuck with it pretty much! And you become known by what you are name (or titled). Sometimes that is a very good thing, and sometimes it is not so well for us...

Thankfully, there is something interesting (and very different) about God and how He names us.
While we may have individual names with differing meanings, He calls all of his children very specific names collectively. Names like...

fearfully and wonderfully made  Psalm 139:13-14

His precious Bride Isaiah 54:5

crowns of Creation Hebrews 2:7

loved Sons and daughters 2 Corinthians 6:18

It is amazing, and strangely wonderful! To think that this mighty, loving, just, and powerful God of the whole Universe adores His creations: us. Even though He deserves all the greatest and best titles in the whole world...He takes time to name us, too. Each, by name, and as a whole.
Baffling, amazing and yet totally God's way. :)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
So, what about you? :)
What are you called? How do you think what you've been named has defined your existence? (Or how has it not?) What would you like to be 'titled' if it came right down to it?

"I Will Wait for You" by Poet Janette Ikz

She's a woman and a poet and she's a Christian with a voice she's not afraid to use.
I have never been affected by a spoken-word poem like I have by this one.
You've just got to listen to it.  

What Love Really Means

by Christian artist JJ Heller, with her husband David.

This video and song moved me so much when I listened to it several times today. Is it not amazing that God does indeed love us? ...and not just that, He loves us for us, as we are! How can that be?
Yet, it is true.....and that's incredible.

Being Angry...

...really isn't a good idea, I've learned:

Anger is an acid that can do more harm to the vessel in which it is stored than to anything on which it is poured.

- Mark Twain

 We plan the way we want to live,
   but only God makes us able to live it.

- Proverbs 16:9

Book Review: "Same Kind of Different As Me"

I've read this book recently, and I just can't get it out of my head. It touched me and moved me. It opened my eyes too...
Slavery was 'abolished' officially with the publication of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, but did you know that not all the former slaves were free after that? Many of them kept living and working in the same conditions, for years, even up until the 1940s and 50s. Even if they were no longer slaves in name, they lived just like their forefathers and met up with their own walls of seemingly impossible challenges of their times in the quest for true freedom and equality.
This story is about how God took a son of a slave, named Denver, and used a couple called the Halls to change many, many lives. It's a redemption story. And it will make you cry in unbelief, and weep for joy.

I highly recommend the reading of it.

~Hannah

On Trial {God's Refining Fire For Our Faith}

    I love the "Aha!" moments. Those times when something just clicks and things get 'brighter' inside. :-) That happened to me this morning, while talking with Mom, and I thought the subject was important enough to share.

Have you ever heard those verses from the Bible that talk about trials and temptations?
You know: the "hold fast to the faith", "stand strong", and "whenever you face trials" verses?
Well, James 1:2-18 contains a good many things to be said on the subject of trials and temptations.
And where they come from and how to handle them. (Mom was studying James in her personal time this morning, and then she read James 1 aloud to me.) Here are two special verses that caught my attention, but their very juxtaposition:

Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. (vs. 2-3)


When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. (vs. 13&14)

 The first thing I noticed as Mom was reading through it aloud (sometimes hearing a passage brings it out to our ears more than reading silently would) was that trials and temptations are not the same. Not at all. I suppose I 'knew' this, but I did not realize it! But yes, it is true. Think of Job. God was not tempting him, He was trial-ing him, if you will. Job was on trial! Why? For his faith. It's like God was saying, Job, "How much faith do you have in Me? Through how much will you 'stick' to Me?"  Because,

"In this you [should] greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ..." (1 Peter 1:6&7)

This chapter in James talks about trials and how whenever I face them, I need to remember with joy that they will produce perseverance, because they are testing my faith! To my normal human thinking, this does hardly seem something to be happy or joyful about. :( Trials always puts me in mind of Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. He has these bad things happen to him over and over again, often right at a time that would have been otherwise joyful! His act of looking to the heavens with a sort of, "Really, God? Was that necessary?" attitude is something we all feel like doing once in a while at least...
And yet. And yet, I am to welcome trials! Why? Why is that, and, how could I?
I can do just that, and rise above the temptations and make it through the trials because I know that:

• Trials from God are refining me & my faith in Him! He is making my faith stronger and stronger; He is refining my trust & hope in Him until it is a beautiful and true as gold!
• Temptations never come from God, always from the Devil and I am tempted only because my flesh wants to be. My spirit is God's and in communion with Him, so temptations can't touch that! But I must resist the temptings, and stay on the narrow path.
• The greatest (i.e. the most faithful) of Christians from history and time were able to be and do what they did because they knew that through the trials and even in the temptations, God was with them. He never ever left them, and  still promises this to us: 

"No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." (1 Cor. 10:13)

So there you have it. I really learned something today. Something about God (He is so merciful, and thoughtful!) and something about myself (if I trust God, I can overcome!)  :-)

Happy St. Lucias Day, Everyone!
~Hannah

- - - - - - - - - - - - - * Merry Christmas! *

Today is...

{Sunday}

I Never Thought I'd See the Day...




{Actress Claire Foy}

 

Heard that phrase before?
"I never thought I'd see the day when..."
I can think of two ways it can be said. One way, there's a smile too be found at the end, when you look up at the speaker's face and see that they are proud of something, or something you did. Or, there can be a tiny hint of disgust or disappointment found in the saying of it: "I never though I'd see the day when my own children would [do this or that.]" That's when the phrase is sad, very sad. And that's when using it hurts.

I can think of many things I could use this phrase for now, both ways, too. {We don't always like to mention the negative--or, conversely, we dwell on it too much-- but you know, life is not always sunshine & roses. There's real issues and words that aren't sunny and happy, too.}

So I'll start by sadly, mournfully noting that:

I never thought I'd see the day when...
...so few people think about God. Even remotely. {Like He is no even there...}
I never thought I'd see the day when...
...the use of electronics became balls & chains and gods to the users.
I never thought I'd see the day when...
..."liking" and accepting so many secular, evil things (even if evil only "in part") becomes normal amoung God's people.
And I certainly never thought I'd see the day when...
...everyone would become so preoccupied with everything else, it would feel like God did die.

But.
And here's where I stop with the negatives, to also note that:

I never thought I'd see the day when...
...so many beautiful miracles of God are taking place!
I never thought I'd see the day when...
...more and more of my whole family is serving, and worshipping, and loving the Lord!
I never thought I'd see the day when...
...I would be blessed with SO MUCH, beyond (far beyond!) what I need!
I never thought I'd see the day when...
... my siblings and I would not only get along, but deeply love & respect one another!
And I never thought I'd see the day when...
...my Jesus, God Lord of all Creation, would become so real to me.


To tell the truth, I never really thought I'd see this day. :)