I met with my spiritual director today. In our time of prayer and reflection with God, the image came to mind of being seated among colored shards of glass. And I sensed God’s direction to let him put them together into a beautiful mosaic. How less beautiful would the work of art be without his Light to shine through it?
I don’t know how to put the broken pieces of my heart or my life together. But, I can hand them over to my Artist to make a masterpiece. The design, intention, and artisanship, of a Creator changes the useless into his glorious creation. I’m “in progress”, and when he’s done, I won’t just be mended, but I’ll be his lovely work of art.
Help me, dear God.
Do you feel like a mosaic in-progress? What places need to be mended in your life?
This picutre stinks. Sure it’s beautiful, but if we only see the world through 2D images like this, we may not encounter awe or wonderment. We can know who we are better and our place in this world when we include a healthy and vibrant visual ingestion of the beauty around us, outdoors.
I’m putting you up to a challenge.
Don’t let this day go by without going outside…until you are amazed.
Notice the natural world. Take in the sights of the clouds, trees, the birds, the mountains, valleys, rivers, or plains around you. Soak it in until you are in awe. The glory of nature in a window into the transcendent. The intricacy, careful design, loveliness, and goodness of the created/natural world should astonish us.
When was the last time you made time to be astonished by God’s world?
Oh, and please don’t forget to tell us what amazed you!
I got a cheap App for my Mac today called Smoovie. It’s a super stripped down stop animation Application. It’s quite lowbrow for anyone into film/animation, but for about 50 minutes, I had some fun. It’s 35 seconds long.
Tell us what it’s about (in your opinion).
No worries. There is no right answer.
This is really beautiful because you can tell the dino feels God's love.CAUTION: Dinosaur related humor in this post is to be read as comedy.
(The Jesus picture isn’t perfectly related to this post. But sharing it seemed like the right thing to do–especially within the scope of the topic today. You see, if God gave me a baby T-Rex, I’d give him back; both out of fear, but as a offering of first fruits too. Mostly because Jesus would probably tame him into a “little lamb”. Sort of like he when he changed things up as he called out to Mary in the garden: “Mary”. He would say, “baby dino,” and that would be it. I guess that’s just the power of God.)Instead of the word “Rules” in the title, I was going to use the word “Laws”. But, I soon realized Laws aren’t what the used to be. Even what we’ve thought of as “Laws of Physics” have been bent or misshapen somehow, in recents times.
Here, I use the word “rule” to highlight what seems to be invariably consequential. Or , “It seems thus.” If you’d like to debate it, I welcome that.
The #1 Giving Rule: Hoarding causes spoilage. Not just the material variety of hoarding, but also as a spiritual reality. An inner decay.
A helpful (Biblical) case in point is the spiritual lesson gathered (ahem) from a physical instance with an ancient wandering people group. Here we see what happens with a “hoarding of mana” (or sustenance): Exodus 16:20. In a word: Maggots.
Yet, the story begs the question for us all: Do we think our daily provision (in every way) is really up to us?
It seems that all gifts and blessing that are not shared with others and given back to God as a love offering, ferment and grow toxic.
This includes spiritual blessings, talents, and material blessings. There seems to be scads on this principle demonstrated in the Bible.
I came up with an equation a few years back, and I feel a burst mathematical jubilation to use it here.
Think about the equation below for about 15 full seconds, and please tell me what you think.
Gifts (from God) – Fruit (of the Spirit) = Corruption
Do you agree? How does this play out?
And-Please Help me with the reverse equation. (What formula does not cause corruption?)
So-What is the best “giving back” to God? Worship in Spirit and Truth. John 4: 22-23
Worship is giving: A gift of one’s first affections.
This has a board range starting with core loyalty, and moving into every other area or currency that involves us. (Yes. Including your time, talents, thoughts, technology, and legal tender. It’s all-encompassing.) And it is all thoroughly swaddled in gratitude.
I thank you to participate in thought and word today. :)
U2 sings “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day”, and I think they’re right. BUT, over the years what was considered cute seems to have changed. A lot.
This vintage card is from about the turn of the 20th century. (1900-ish, for anyone who is confused). Maybe this is why they came up with the Constitutional Amendment forbidding alcohol, (prohibiting alcohol, Amendment 18, for those of you who are confused). It seems too many babies were celebrating New Years Eve, and perhaps other holidays, and drinking from huge champagne glasses.
Babies shouldn't drink, even on New Years Eve
In 1933 came the repeal of this ill-conceieved ban: the 21st Amendment. This repeal was basically so people could drink themselves into drunken stupors because The Great Depression (economic collapse) made everyone (except really rich people) really poor. I’m not sure if babies got in on the drinking at that time too, but most of them probably went off to war a few years later (December 8, 1941–September 2, 1945) to fight the Germans and the Japanese. Lots of alcohol was flowing then. And boom–no more Depression. Alcohol had solved everything.
Or maybe babies were just much, much smaller 110 years ago. The cork seems gigantic also. So, the mystery continues!
Any thoughts on this matter?
Any hopes for the New Year that you’d like to share?
