Rest and Renewal

Yesterday I read this great article from Darling Magazine, and I really loved it. The writer addresses how to make the most of the newness each day brings and finding renewal in morning quiet time. (Read article here:
http://darlingmagazine.org/category/the-dreamer/page/2/).

Renewal comes from taking time to rest and be still and quiet. God modeled to us the spiritual discipline of rest. When he created the world, he rested on the seventh day. Not because he needed rest, but because he knew we would. We need rest to be spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically well. Jesus took time away from the crowds and his disciples to rest. He slept, prayed, and spent quiet alone time. This was his necessary renewal and refreshment to continue on in his ministry at his best.

If Jesus needed to rest, don't you think we do to? Sometimes we let life get the better of us. We never stop moving or doing, until we are too exhausted to do anything but collapse. But when we operate in this way, no one is getting us at our best-- God, family members, friends, co-workers. Rest, quiet, and stillness should be much more valued and prioritized in our daily lives. We tend to forget the beauty of these "quiet times." But the beauty and renewal are there in great abundance, if only we would grasp them.

When we take time to be alone and quiet with God in the mornings, we gain that desired renewal and make the most of our new beginning at the start of each day. Our God is a God who loves re-birth and renewal and fresh starts. That's his whole business of redemption. We get to pull out a fresh piece of paper and write something new with no trace of anything previous and no hint of what is to come. It is a beautiful thing to engage our mornings, claiming that fresh start that God has waiting for us each dawn.

I have slipped out of the habit of morning quiet times and relegated it to the times that I think best suit, but if I'm honest with myself, stopping in the middle of the day to close out life and be with God is so much more difficult than giving him the first untouched part of my day. Having quiet time in the morning before the busyness, expectations, demands, and stresses of the day tug on you seems much more beneficial. And there is an almost magical feeling to the early morning, as if the world is only yours and you can do with it what you like. You feel infinitely large and small at the same time, and it is absolutely marvelous and lovely and altogether wonderful.

I have been inspired to start rising early in the mornings and start each day in the early hours, claiming them as mine and God's alone. I want to start each day with the Lord, refreshing my heart, mind, and soul; meditating on scripture, reading, journaling thoughts and revelations, and sparking creative inspiration. I think there is more beauty and contentment to be found and captured for my life in that morning quiet time, and I want to grab it with both hands and let it flow into my life and permeate all that is there.

So, I now ask you, just as the article asks, "How do you wake up in the morning? Where does your renewal come from?"

"Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have."  
-Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book

"When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive-to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love-then make that day count!"  
-Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free

"Outside the open window the morning air is all awash with angels"  
-Richard Wilbur, Collected Poems, 1943-2004

Hearty and Abundant

I've just recently finished reading "She's Got Issues" by Nicole Unice (you can check out her blog at http://www.nicoleunice.com/blog/ ). It is a great read and I highly suggest it to all Christian women out there! I read through this book with a close friend of mine and we corresponded via email about each chapter and how God was using it to encourage, challenge, and convict us. It was very enjoyable for me--it was a means of processing what I was reading and learning, it was a space to be honest and vulnerable, and a place to give and receive encouragement within a healthy Christian relationship. Cyber fellowship. Welcome to 2013! But seriously, I have been very blessed by it.

I want to share a little something that stood out to me in the final chapter of the book that spoke to me and challenged me a bit about the things I value and why. Nicole is speaking to the idea of what a healthy Christian woman looks like. She proposes that this woman would be "hearty and abundant."
          "Hearty and abundant? those words don't seem to sum up what I'm trying to become. They sound like the description for a can of soup. I don't want to be soup. I want to be beautiful and elegant and smart and witty. But hearty and abundant might be much closer descriptors of what Jesus offers us. Hearty is defined as warm-hearted and affectionate; genuine and sincere; completely devoted; exuberant. Hearty is about a full-of-life heart."
I LOVED that. She hit the nail on the head. It really resounded within my heart--especially when she says she wants to be beautiful, elegant, smart, and witty. I want those things too; and other things like it. Most women do, I would imagine. But why? Do I desire those things because the Bible (God) tells us that they are the qualities of a godly woman, or is it because our culture and the media and the people around us portray them as valuable? I think far too often I can be found pining after the qualities and characteristics that the world values. And far too infrequently I am focused on developing the ones that God says are valuable.

What descriptors of women would God value? Well, he tells us in Proverbs 31 that a godly woman is virtuous, capable, hard-working, trustworthy, energetic, strong, confident, a provider, dignified, wise, peaceful, careful, kind, and God-fearing.
These aren't quite the same as beauty and elegance or popularity and style, or the other characteristics valued in the world. While some may overlap in different ways, I think a worldly focus is missing the mark.

Not only does God tell us what qualities we should be focused on attaining to be godly women, he also warns against things that we can become overly concerned with--things that take our focus from godliness.
          "Don't be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes form within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This si how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful. They trusted God and accepted the authority of their husbands."           (1 Peter 3:3-5)

I need to be honest with myself and realize that I have tendencies to be more concerned with outward beauty, hairstyles, clothes, and fashion. My desire is truly to be more focused on cultivating the characteristics of a godly woman. Do I want to be a woman that is precious to God because I have beauty on the inside and a gentle and quiet spirit, or do I want to be a woman who is precious in the eyes of the world because I am keeping up with the latest trends and buying the most fashionable clothes?

          "We must be honest--gut-level, searingly honest--about the ways we are influenced by the world around us, with our issues old and new, and with our need for God in the moment-to-moment details of our lives. We need Christian sisters who hold us, not to the standard of our neighbors or culture, but to the standard of obedience to a life transformed by Christ."          ("She's Got Issues")
This is how we turn from that worldliness and fight every day to become a little bit more like our wonderful God. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves, even when we don't like the truths we uncover. And we need brutally honest and incredibly loving Christian friends who will hold us to God's standard and won't allow us to settle for anything less. And we must help ourselves by knowing what we want and going after it.

"Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."          (Romans 12:2)

New Life in New Zealand

Today marks exactly 2 months of being a New Zealand resident! I have really been enjoying living here. I can hardly complain. We live in a beautiful coastal town called Mangawhai Heads (also known as "Magical Mangawhai") on the North Island. We are blessed to be in the downstairs flat of Heath's mom's house, which is completely furnished and very nice. God has provided for us way beyond what most newlywed couples could hope in a situation like ours. We are very thankful!

I am currently here on a visitor's visa, so I am not allowed to work yet. I will soon be in the process of sending in my application for a work visa, because I am now eligible to do so! Not being able to work has meant a very extended vacation for me, and it has been a much needed period of rest after quite a difficult season of life for me during the second half of 2012. It's amazing how God knows what we need and when and is gracious enough to bless us with rest and relaxation to help us recharge and re-center ourselves.

While I will be looking for a job once I have my work visa, I have also just embarked on a small business venture. I'm currently testing the waters, I suppose you could say. My hope is to make some money on the side doing lettering--namely addressing wedding and party invites, and then branching out into a couple other avenues if it proves to be successful and have enough of a market. I am really excited about this, as it is something that I love doing, so I'm praying that it will work out.

As for Heath, he started a new job about three weeks ago for a travel agency called Flight Centre. This week is his last week of training and then he will be certified as a travel consultant, selling flights, accommodations, and trip packages to customers who come into the store. He is working in Whangarei, which is about 45 minutes drive from Mangawhai, which means he has a bit of a commute every day. It's a lot of information for him to learn and take in, but he is confident that it will be a job he enjoys once he becomes more familiarized with things! It has been a great blessing and answer to prayer for Heath to land this job.

We are happy as clams here in New Zealand and as a married couple! We have been married almost 3 months now, and I am loving every minute of it. Hopefully Heath is too, hehe. That's all for now! Love and blessings to all our friends and family :)

Family

Lately I've been thinking about my family a lot. I suppose that's natural when you're far away and missing them. Sometimes it takes a bit of distance to help you to make sense of things and understand things you were too close to see before. God really wants us to see that we are loved, and our families are a huge part of that.

My family may not be one in which words of love are easily or often expressed. Love instead is measured and imparted in fierce loyalty, physical presence, and selfless servanthood and sacrifice. It is not in speech, but in action that they love.

It has taken me quite a while to realize and appreciate this. As I grow older, I understand my family and its unique characteristics and rhythms more. As I grow older, the less I puzzle in frustration and the more I find joy and feel in my heart how greatly and completely I am loved.


"When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God."     (Ephesians 3:14-19)

Power Over Darkness

"The power of Satan and his fallen angels is limited. They are but finite creatures who can do nothing outside the permissive will of God. Stan could do nothing against Job (and this was his complaint) until divinely permitted to do so. Satan and his angels are in possession of great knowledge, but they are not omniscient; they have vast power, when permitted to employ it, but they are not omnipotent; they cover the world by their delegated responsibility, but they are not omnipresent. They can suggest evil, but cannot coerce the will of another creature. They may spread snares and devices to ruin the children of God, but they cannot compel any other being to comply with their designs. They have power over nature when permitted to use it, but they can create nothing, nor can they employ God's creation other than as He decrees. They never defeated god. In truth, God uses Stan as an instrument to chasten and correct the erring saints. The knowledge of these limitations cannot but be a comfort to those Christians who take seriously their conflict with the powers of darkness."
-Lewis Sperry Chafer

Choosing Not to Choose

I longed to walk along an easy road,
   And leave behind the dull routine of home,
Thinking in other fields to serve my God'
   But Jesus said, "My time has not yet come."

I longed to sow the seed in other soil,
   To be unshackled in the work, and free,
To join with other laborers in their toil;
   But Jesus said, "It's not My choice for thee."

I longed to leave the desert, and be led
   To work where souls were sunk in sin and shame,
That I might win them; but the Master said,
   "I have not called you, publish here My name."

I longed to fight the battles of my King,
   Lift high His standards in the thickest strife;
But my great Captain had me wait and sing
   Songs of His conquests in my quiet life.

I longed to leave the hard and difficult sphere,
   Where all alone I seemed to stand and wait,
To feel I had some human helper near,
   But Jesus had me guard one lonely gate.

I longed to leave the common daily toil,
   Where no one seemed to understand or care;
But Jesus said, "I choose for you this soil,
   That you might raise for Me some blossoms rare."

And now I have no longing but to do
   At home, or far away, His blessed will,
To work amid the many or the few;
  Thus, "choosing not to choose," my heart is still.

Guerillas of Grace

I read this beautiful poem today:

"How shall I pray?
Are tears prayers, Lord?
Are screams prayers,
     or groans
                     or sighs
                                   or curses?
Can trembling hands be lifted to you,
     or clenched fists
                    or the cold sweat that trickles down my back
                                 or the cramps that knot my stomach?
Will you accept my prayers, Lord,
       my real prayers,
                    rooted in the muck and mud and rock of my life,
and not just the pretty, cut-flower, gracefully arranged
bouquet of words?
Will you accept me, Lord,
      as I really am,
                   messed up mixture of glory and grime?"