Lent Day 8: New every morning

What a gorgeous setting for the new morning. W and I slept on a friend's boat overnight. We love the gentle rocking of the waves in the sheltered harbor. We've enjoyed a nice "sampler" dinner in Seattle (promo for the Museum of History and Industry), read in the cozy lounge aboard the boat, and rode back to a meeting at the university before 9am.

Now it's time to tackle something I haven't ever wanted to do ... before this. Learn some guitar chords. I picked up a guitar by Seagull yesterday. The reviews recommended the model for beginning and intermediate players and the price was good enough that I can resell it if I don't like it.

My mom used to strum guitar. I asked my son if he was interested in playing.

"Mom, you made me take guitar lessons," he reminded me. So I'll snag him to teach me the basics. There are many tutorials online and I've played by ear on piano all my life (well, since age 5) so here I am, ready or not.

Music calls me now and then. I think I'm done, then off we go again. After a piano degree, I played weddings, funerals, churches, and cruises. I taught piano, organ, keyboards, theory, and harp.

After a few years of harp lessons, I was bored silly because all harp music sounds the same to me. It might be so with guitar, too. However, it's easier to pack a guitar than haul around an orchestral-sized pedal harp!

This might even be fun. One of the things I appreciate about playing piano by ear is that moving my fingers slightly results in completely different chords. I suspect the guitar functions similarly. Can't wait to start!

God is endlessly creative and has invested himself in his creatures. We love to invent and reinvent our worlds. Who knows how God can use our attempts? Some day I may need to know how to pluck guitar strings.

It takes hard work and perseverance to acquire a skill. Sometimes we're grabbed by a new effort; sometimes we quit an experiment that's a poor fit for our gifting or interests.

What new thing is kicking your brain or body into gear? I'd love to hear about it.

Read more:

*Moses said to the Lord, "If your presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here.” Exodus 33:15 NIV

*My child, don't reject the LORD's discipline, and don't be upset when he corrects you. For the LORD corrects those he loves, just as a father corrects a child in whom he delights." Proverbs 3:11–12 NLT

* (Someone with a rough start - at least for his mother): There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, "Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!" And God granted him his request. 1 Chronicles 4:9–10 NLT

*When Paul had seen the vision, we immediately tried to cross over to Macedonia, being convinced that God had called us to proclaim the good news to them. Acts 16:10

Moravian Prayer: Transfigured Christ, open our eyes to your glory and give us your vision, so we may go wherever you send us to tell the good news of your life, death, and resurrection. Amen

Endlessly inventive

God is endlessly inventive. Each morning when we wake, the world seems born new and fresh.  I'm a light-sensitive sleeper, so when the sun comes up, I'm awake if I can't pull the covers over my head fast enough.

The Morning Glory cloud on the Gulf coast of northern Queensland

Some awakenings feel like, "What! Morning already!?" while others are, "Oh, can't wait to see what the day will bring!" Sometimes the clouds hang low, and I wonder what the day can possibly bring. I love the days when sunlight, reflecting off the forest to caress me awake.

It can be unsettling when God's creativity moves us outside our ideas of who we are and what we should be doing.

• Sometimes he nudges us with an opportunity that is such a great fit that we happily embrace it. 
• We may feel discontent where we are, unsettled when what once made us thrive is no longer appealing.
• Once in a while, someone else opens our eyes to the next season, "Look, that job/house/friend would suit you so well!" or "I think you've gone as far as you can where you are. Why don't you look elsewhere?" 
• Other times, God pushes or carries us up steep mountain slopes, kicking, screaming, wailing that we are no longer in the valley below. Or gasping with joy at the new vistas that come into view.

Change, inevitable and ongoing, is rarely our preference. Sure, we like a little variety and a few options.

A few of us are adventurers who love to capture, examine, and embrace new things, new work, new friendships, or new family members (including children, in-laws, or long-lost relatives). We thrive by moving wholeheartedly into the unexplored or repurposing the normative into the unusual.

But most of us want the security and safety of doing what we we're good at, with people we know, in the time and place we have chosen. We often forget that we weren't that happy to arrive where we are, and that the past seemed challenging and scary. The future may feel just as comfortable and secure to us, once we understand it better.

God seems to have little respect for our wishes, though sometimes our stubborn refusal to let go and move on creates havoc for others and us. Since God knows how life interlocks, he chooses best. We can only celebrate the inventiveness with which life's challenges and comforts come our way.

What are you celebrating today?

Read more:
*Then Jacob said to Joseph, "I never thought I would see your face again, but now God has let me see your children, too!" Genesis 48:11 NIV

*The wise are glad to be instructed, but babbling fools fall flat on their faces. People with integrity walk safely, but those who follow crooked paths will slip and fall. Proverbs 10:8–9 NLT

*Afterward the disciples asked Jesus privately, "Why couldn't we cast out that demon?"

"You don't have enough faith," Jesus told them. "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible." Matthew 17:19–20 NLT