Colossians 4: ⁵Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ⁶Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

This was a cool scripture to be reminded of tonight.

Fascinating!

After a MASSIVE week I rushed out after work tonight to have coffee with someone that I met recently. It was one of the most fascinating conversations I have had with someone in a long, long time.

We have differing faiths, and, with this being understood had a great time discussing a variety of topics. Charity work, music, travel, life in general, goals and values.

He was flattering, open, engaging and dynamic - yet reserved and very polite - as he has been since I've known him.. yet, as neither of us will date outside of our faith, there was no awkwardness in defining the relationship. A spoken agreement that it was nice to have a conversation with someone so grounded, but no thinking that this is a possible partner.

I'm glad I've made a new friend, and I'm also thankful for the experience I met him through and understanding gained about his faith, along with the challenge it has been to live my own more fully.

With that being said - I'm off to the first night of a course called The Truth Project.

ROFL

Poor Piglet, by Peter MacMullin. Published in the Sunday Mail on May 3, 2009.

wow.

Recently I was reading Style magazine from our local paper and read an article about an amazing company in town called Vera & Rose. The lady who runs it was at the party today and recognised me from when I went to TAFE with her... it was a few years ago so I didn't feel bad about not recognising her! She's a florist who works from home and also plans and manages events (baby showers, weddings etc) It's a very small world and in the town that I live life is much smaller ;)

Reading her site today I was directed to another blog which had some of the most amazing images on it: yes, they're of a wedding (she is a wedding planner) but I'm posting them regardless of the connotation just because they're so amazing. The First. The Second. Beautiful things should be celebrated - words, images, events and people.

To top off a lovely day my Rugby team caining one of the best teams in the league - Go Reds GO! I haven't had cause to celebrate my team in a while so it's well worth mentioning here - perhaps more so than the above :D

Why I go AWOC....

Why is there so little anxiety to get time to pray? It is the want of these solitary hours that not only injures our own growth in grace but makes us such unprofitable members of the church of Christ,and that renders our lives useless.

It is not in society - even Christian society - that our soul grows most rapidly and vigorously. In one single quiet hour of prayer it will often make more progress than in days of company with others. It is in the desert that dew falls freshest and the air is purest. So with the soul. it is when none but God is nigh; when His presence alone, like the desert air in which there is mingled no noxious breath of man, surrounds and pervades the soul; it is then that the eye gets the clearest, simplest view of eternal certainties; it is then that the soul gathers in wondrous refreshment and power and energy.

And so it is also in this way that we become truly useful to others. It is when coming out fresh from communication with God that we go forth to do His work successfully.

Horatius Bonar, Words to Winners of Souls
Reading for February 17th (read a day late!)
Celtic Daily Prayer: Prayers and Readings from the Northumbria Community

(thanks Steve for my pressie!!)

Catharsis

Catharsis is a Greek word meaning "purification", "purging", "cleansing" or "clarification." (according to Wikipedia)

I'm in need of it. Every definition above, in need.

Thankfully, the weekend is coming and for a night and a bit I'm going AWOC (away without communication) to get this from the Lord, and to spend time on the sermon I'm preaching in 3 weeks.

Catharsis. I can't wait.

Timothy and Barnabas but lacking Paul...

I got home tonight thinking about the concept alluded to above - that of mentoring.

After googling what a friend mentioned on the need in our lives for a Timothy, Barnabas and Paul (and the fact that we should be that to others) I got thinking again about the lack in my life of a Mentor - of a Paul.

http://daletedder.blogspot.com/2008/05/who-is-your-paul-barnabas-and-timothy.html

The concept (as outlined a bit in the above link and on many others when you google "paul timothy barnabas mentoring") is this: We have someone that mentors us (Paul) We have someone that walks the road with us (Barnabas) We have someone that we mentor (Timothy), and vise versa - "Basically, we need to be a Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy and to have a Paul, Barnabas, and Timothy."

I got home tonight from being a Paul - or at least something that is developing into that with three girls who I've made myself available to. Tonight was the first night that we got together since they graduated and, to my surprise, have asked if we could make it a regular fortnightly thing.

While this is good, it reinforces something that I've been thinking about for the past two years: I need a Paul.

Gasp moments

I watched the first episode of a program last night where one of the main characters dies... throughout the episode, over the following weeks and months, every now and then one of the remaining characters would suddenly remember and have what I would term a “gasp moment”. That often sickening moment where one remembers something that happens, and you feel the shock/pain/emotion of it all over again. You live your life normally, but every now and then IT hits.

I’ve been having a few of these Moments lately, especially today. When one is tired I think they hit more. The unreality we construct for ourselves in hopes and dreams can’t be sustained when other faculties are strained.

I don’t think though that these Moments are always bad. They can remind us that things we were working towards can no longer be, thus reinforce the need to move on. They can strengthen our resolve. They’re not necessarily pleasant moments, but they’re not bad for us.

Sneaking around the corner

I wish life was easy. I have friends who tell me it's ok when it all gets confusing because then it makes life interesting - I reckon that life is interesting regardless. It's interesting enough seeing dew on the grass, an unexpected thing in the day that makes you smile, a seemingly unsolvable problem that you work out... a whole range of things - but messiness and angst and ick?!? Spare me please! It's fun when you know that it's all going to end up well - otherwise I have enough things at work alone to make me stressed or sad or angry without asking for more.

3 days out of 7 I wonder which way is up. I hate feeling that way. Hate feeling fragile - hate others suffering and not being able to help them. Hate being afraid of hurting people. Hate not feeling I can be myself (or wondering who that is). Hate feeling angry over matters which are out of my control and I'm too scared to trust God with them.

The thing that gets me is this - I've been asked to preach at the Sunday service of a woman's camp. I said yes yesterday. Me - messed up me. It's a huge thing and I didn't say yes lightly (just in case you were wondering...). The person who asked me knows me pretty well - knows a lot of my faults and failings and still felt to ask, still wanted me to share God's Word.

What's really heartening though is that God still keeps on believing in me. Believing in us. Giving us chances and opportunities that scare the wits out of us and cause us to keep on falling back into His arms. Keep on falling back (think a really soft feather bed lying behind us that is safe and secure and envelops you completely when you land upon it) into the One who loves us so much that He died for us. The one who says "Run the race" with the knowledge that we can - even when we doubt ourselves. He never doubts us.

I don't know anyone that has life all together. We can pretend all we want that our 2 hours of "this is right and all makes sense" is actually how our whole life is. Kids get sick, parents get older, jobs get lost, dinner gets burnt, cars need repair, brains get foggy with too much to think of - life can be difficult - and I'm praying that what God gives me to share in a month's time is real. That it doesn't bring focus to me, or to events, or to anything else other than God. And as I seek to bring His light, may I also bring the reality of the tension in which we live, and God's redeeming mercy throughout it all.