Full to the brim

Ever feel like exploding with possibilities? Or are you dragging your heels?

"Morning by morning, new mercies I see.
All I have needed your hands have provided.


GREAT is your faithfulness, Lord, unto me."

That's the music track in my head this morning after a week of spiritual nourishment and physical rest. My spiritual accountability group spent three days on retreat. Then W and I relaxed for three days with dear friends -- on a boat in the middle of God's creation. This morning, I finished a 4-week "Get Unstuck Bootcamp" designed by Kim Martinez.  (I'll write more on that self-coaching system another day.) Wow. What a time of refreshing! (Thanks be to God, especially as the weather changes to Seattle autumn.)

What makes you feel "full" and ready to engage the world? For me, it's interaction with people that is paced by quiet times alone. Without friends and collaborators, I languish and circle in place. Without time by myself, I become exhausted and irritable, numb to stimulation and new ideas.

How do you refill your tank when you're weary? Here are a few observations:

1. Extroverts gather energy by being around people and introverts gather energy from time alone.

2. What you love to do aligns with at least one of your personal strengths or talents. Pay attention the next time you experience joy.

3. What you hate to do may align with a personal weakness. Do you have more choices about things you dread than you think?

• When possible, delegate the task. For this option, accept someone else's "done-well-enough." Don't micro-manage what you hand off to others.
• If YOU have to do it, emphasize parts that line up with things you love. Dislike driving to work but love to pray? Take the cause of travelers in cars next you to God -- while you sit in traffic. 
• Take a mental vacation while you work. Hate maintenance but have to change the oil on your car? Take a great book along or listen to a podcast while someone else does it. While you work, plan a reward that "rings your bells." Washing floors? Look around to see what you can redecorate or reconfigure in the room. (Decor possibilities were my pleasurable mind-escape this morning while cleaning bathroom floors.) 

4. Look around to see how people with your temperament or job cope. Copy copy copy. "There is nothing new under the sun," said the wise sage. What works for others may work for you, too.

*5. Most importantly, recognize and appreciate that The One Who Made Us is interested in developing our full potential. Whom or what has God already brought near you to help you refuel and kickstart the day or the next season?

Read more: 

*I will listen to what God the Lord will say; he promises peace to his people, his saints—but let them not return to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land. Psalm 85:8-9 NIV 

*He revealed his character to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel. The LORD is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. Psalm 103:7–8

*I am teaching you today—yes, you—so you will trust in the LORD." Proverbs 22:19

*Declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it forth to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” Isaiah 48:20

*God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by

making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:19-20 (NIV)  

Moravian Prayer: Great and loving God, you bring us redemption and reconciliation and we respond in joy to your great faithfulness. Thousand, thousand thanks to thee, dear Lord. Amen.

Lent Day 31: Thankful for healing oil

I'm fending off the flu on a rainy day with one of Dad's magic remedies: oil of oregano. It's been over a year since I've been sick. The blog this morning is a ramble. Just a warning.

My body began to wilt yesterday at the birthday table (@Szechwan Chef in Bellevue.) We ate rice and peppered fish and my energy revived until nightfall. (The menu item, Szechuan boiled fish, sounded awful when the server recommended it on our first visit. Though we and our kids are not big seafood eaters, we risked it. It was fantastic and we've had it there ever since.)

I don't know if the oil and medicinal teas will help but I need my full day for editing. I can't wait to clear off my desks. I have a 3X5' table with 6 stacks of books (by category) plus an L-shaped desk where my computer and pages wait for edits. My file cabinet and paper file are full. At some point, when the writing is done, I get to purge and restore order. Ahhh. T'will be a happy day.

I'm optimistic about a tidy office. However, let's get real: though I'm drawn to the clean idea of minimalism, I won't ever be a minimalist. I have only a few medicines: oil of oregano, tea tree oil, baking soda for toothpaste, and Vicks Vapo-rub. Old standards. I stock up on a few cleaning supplies, the multi-purpose basics. (W stashes specialty items; I'd ask him if I needed them.)

The things I use often are obvious: our tea cupboard is filled with leaves in dozens of glass jars for liquid restoratives. Two cabinets of spices wait beside the stove, sealed containers ready to share smells before their tastes unfurl in food.

And it's the season to rejuvenate our living room. W oiled the dry wood tables this week and they look refreshed. Yesterday, I treated myself to two wonderful blankets from Pier 1 Imports. When I flung them over the sofas, the colors were perfect. I bought them because I liked them; the color-match is a bonus.

One has a muted front: the lime in the store becomes golden green in the gloomy lighting of the morning. But the cheerful fringe shouts to guests arriving at the front door. The pom-pom corners make me smile though I expect them to last until only Kinsey gives them a tug.

The other blanket has bright felted floral and bird appliqued on a creamy white to compliment the pillows. (You never know until you try. It's nearly always worth the risk, isn't it?)

The tired old cushions on the DR chairs have been consigned to the wash, replaced by bright beaded ones (@$2.38, reg. $24 each). Nope, those don't really match either. There are 5 of one, 3 of the other. Somehow it looks wonderful in place. [photos below: before and 2 afters. no surprise which is which.]

Life brings unexpected harmony, too. We start with ideas of how we will match this activity to that time and place. Then surprises derail our plans. Sickness or financial constraints limit our energy.

It's good to stay open to possibilities.

Somehow the details always work out. We look back to say, "God is good and I'm still here."

I'm trusting that the day will bring good work and solid progress. Steady efforts and small steps along with the oregano oil, I tell myself. I might have to pick up the pace since my dissertation revisions are due this weekend.

I'm looking ahead, beyond the obligations. The living room is waiting for me to snuggle up with a book among the restful "it's-almost-spring" tones.

Read more:

*Inquire first for the word of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 18:4

*Jesus also said, "The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he's asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come." Mark 4:26–29

*Continue in what you have learned and firmly believed. 2 Timothy 3:14

Moravian Prayer: Guide us, dear Lord, in our efforts to discern your will for our lives. As we turn to the scriptures, your guide for our faith and life, may we use all the resources at our disposal to understand and interpret their meaning for us. Keep us from shallow faith and unquestioning obedience and instead, help us to use our questions and doubts to be able to grow
in our commitment to you. Amen.

Lent Day 15: Thankful for meltdowns

The music flowed over me, harmonies splashing, melodies soaring, and rhythms relaxing in one worship song after another. It was time. Maybe past time.

Once in a while I have a meltdown. Winters are very hard on me: the lack of sun and time outdoors gradually shuts down my systems. This morning, after working in rooms away from my sun-simulator lamp for 2 weeks, everything collapsed. So I staggered over to piano and sat down, eyes closed and hands ready.

One after another, choruses and hymns of praise and thankfulness began to wash off the weariness of study, the darkness and grey climate, and the puttering that fritters away hours of depression. After a half hour, I opened my eyes and wiped away the tears. Renewed. I walked upstairs to my office and flipped on the lights (besides a south window, I have 5 overhead bulbs and a super-Verilux sun lamp). I opened my computer and started the day's work with a lighter heart.

Sometimes God needs us to come close, to relinquish the ideas and hopes of days past and future to wait near in his presence. As we open our hands and hearts in worship, he refreshes us from the inside out.

Jesus stole away for hours with his Father. As I worship, I remember, "Even in this, O Christ, you are a model of life and Life." Thanks be to God.

Do you need time with your heavenly Father today? What gifts can you offer him, that will refresh you and glorify him?

Read more:

*Praise be to the LORD, for he has heard my cry for mercy. The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. My heart leaps for joy and I will give thanks to him in song. Psalm 28: 6-7 NIV

*My words that I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouths of your children, or out of the mouths of your children's children. Isaiah 59:21

*The word of the Lord endures forever. That word is the good news that was announced to you. 1 Peter 1:25

Moravian Prayer: We give thanks to you, gracious God, for the gift of Christ - your communication of who you are and what you want us to be. We have experienced your good news and we are determined to pass it on to future generations through our words and actions. Guide us in this endeavor. Amen.

Resurrection days

"Life from 30,000-Year-Old Seeds!" Wow - I read via the BBC that scientists have coaxed plants from seeds buried by squirrels. Very old squirrels, apparently. Chinese scientists also found a 300,000-year-old swamp formed "in a few days," beautifully preserved by catastrophe. I always wonder who verifies the dating process. Does someone get into a secret time machine and zip back to check the calendar? Scientists rarely follow their own rule that the simplest explanation is the place to start. Um, the Flood, anyone?

Like the seeds and the petrified swamp, many of us have dormant seasons. I feel like I'm looking ahead to life again. I submitted my dissertation yesterday. The committee will read it and I still have to defend it before it goes to the copy editor and bookbinder. This morning, after waking in a sweat to wonder if I should have read it ONE MORE TIME!, I decide not to look at it until later in the week.

I'm going grocery shopping instead. That may not seem like much of an outing to those who regularly visit Safeway or QFC. (I've been at a regular grocer 2-3X since last summer.) W and I typically visit Costco, Trader Joes, and Grocery Outlet twice or thrice a month. Our pantry is bursting but my eclectic shopping list has been growing for a month. We're low on rolled grains for Mueli, cornstarch, Asian-style corn oil, and silver polish. (The polish has lasted 24 years, purchased at JAFCO in Bellevue the year after we moved to Seattle.)

I'll send off the last tutorial this morning before I head out the door. (I may have to learn to drive the car again: W's been chauffeuring us to church and out to eat out at least once a week.) It will be nice to visit with our daughter, who's been here since early December but travels back home on Tuesday. My house needs more than the once-over that's been its weekly fate. The fresh and saltwater aquariums need an algae clearing. And - if the rain stops - the dogs could use a good walk.

Many of us currently live in stormy winters, dormant or tossed about by circumstances. Some of us can feel warmth ahead, a growing season with longer days and new sprouts shooting up where the earth has been bare and cold. Others enjoy a personal summer, fully blooming with fruit maturing and feeding those around us.

Before I do anything else, I pause to thank God for endings and beginnnings. We're glad our daughter's foot is healing from surgery. We're thankful for ongoing health and strength for W and me. We're grateful for baby Kinsey, who continues to delight with normal development. I'm awed by God's provision in 1001 other ways.

Please join us in praying urgently today for Donny Neary. A high school student, he's suffered loss of central vision in both eyes over the past two weeks and had stroke-like symptoms yesterday. He's in San Diego, where an eye specialist was to see him today. Instead, he's under observation at Children's Hospital because of the other symptoms. Please pray that God intervenes for him and his folks (Dan and Laurie). When children suffer, parents' lives also become turbulent; they need the sustaining prayers of others.

Meanwhile, our daughter's body has flared with severe rheumatoid arthritis symptoms as the rain and winds blow across Seattle. How we would love for God to heal her! She's suffered for 15 years; we'd all be grateful for her complete remission.

Let's look around today to see where God is at work in his Family and in the world. Is he directing us to be his helping hand? A praying partner? An encourager and cheerleader? The one who cooks meals or cleans the house for needy sisters or brothers? The provider of rent or giver to missions? To visit someone in the hospital or a shut-in at home? (cartoon: http://cakeordeathcartoon.wordpress.com)

Let's be like those old seeds, reviving and thriving in surprising and perhaps unexpected environments. God, let us feel your touch today. Water us with the Word, warm us with your presence and interactions with Family, and guard the tender new growth as our prayers rise to you.

Read more:

*I call on you, O God, for you will answer me; give ear to me and hear my prayer. Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.

Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. Psalm 17:6-9 NIV

*Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28

*God has not left himself without a witness in doing good - giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, and filling you with food and your hearts with joy. Acts 14:17

Moravian Prayer: Creator God, you will not faint or grow weary of your people. Your love is endless and your provisions are bountiful. We joyfully give you thanks and praise for your goodness towards your whole creation. Amen.