Delighting in the Divine
Yes to freedom, yes to play and yes to celebrating the moment!
I am sitting here pondering on what to write about how encouragement brings joy and there are so many different ways that God has used others to encourage me in the past few months and I want to feast on them for a moment…
Happiness and joy are daily choices. Both science and the Bible confirm the same thing. Science has shown that it is not the circumstances in someone’s life that determine how happy they will be, but that in fact, it can often be the opposite because we find out how unsatisfying wealth and success can actually be in themselves. What makes a difference is perspective...
One fact about me: I hate surprises.
More than hating surprises, I hate surprise announcements in group settings! I feel so awkward and never know how to react. Honestly, my first reaction to any announcement is never overwhelming joy and excitement. I never feel like jumping up and down. Generally I feel like I have just been hit by a truck and my face probably looks a mixture of sea-sickness and a bunny in headlights. Living in a Facebook-email culture, being British and culturally emotionally reserved, I feel like I am not trained in face-to-face group announcements with people close to me, where everyone is looking at everyone else to see how they are reacting. They make me want to run far, far, far, far, away, not jump up and hug the person who has just made the announcement...
I was totally exhausted but I still had another meeting. I had been rushing around since 6am and now it was 9.15pm. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, my body was giving way, but I knew I needed to go and see my friend. This kind of exhaustion I knew was not just physical but also emotional and spiritual. I arrived at her house (which is just across the street from my house,) and flopped down on her sofa. She could see my exhaustion and came and surrounded me in a hug and began to intercede for me. I had been through an intense spiritual battle that week and she knew it. She began to pray, speak out life and promises over me and my spirit. She and I cried together and brought the intense issues of the day to God...
About a week after the miscarriage life was pretty intense for some other circumstances and with the stress of grieving the miscarriage, being thrown straight back into leading stuff out here with Mark and readjusting to living life back in Peru after two months of travels led me to really question whether or not I wanted to carry on leading out Oikos with Mark. Not that I had anything else I wanted to do, or any idea of where we would go, but I felt the enemy strongly trying to get me to give up and ‘go home’ wherever that would be! If God had offered me an accelerated ticket to heaven, I may well have taken Him up on the offer! ...
As I have been reflecting on how God’s Word brings me joy this week, I reflected on how much the Word unlocks situations for me. It speaks directly into my situations and gives me solutions, life and wisdom. The enemy can use God’s word to bring discouragement (remember Jesus in the desert?) so it isn’t just the written Word in itself that speaks to me, but rather the Living Word, Jesus and His Spirit who bring the Word alive for me and who brings me joy...
In the last few weeks I would say I have had the foundations re-done in my faith house. It is not that I ever desired or even thought about turning my back on God, but I found myself in a some very uncomfortable soul renovations. After I had the miscarriage I felt responsible for the death of the baby. Whether that is true or not is really irrelevant and besides the point - I wasn’t purposefully trying to kill my child, but what it meant is that I struggled with an un-shruggable feeling of guilt for a while...
One of the things I am realizing by studying joy is that perhaps the practical ways of putting on joy are ‘obvious’ but how much I fail to actually do them! These studies are not so much about trying to reveal to myself ways to be joyful, but rather opportunities to practice what I should already know!
I have to say, however, that I was very surprised at the number of different things the Bible says that bring us joy and how much I take them for granted and refuse to recognise and embrace and intentionally place these things in my life!
Joy is, in many circumstances, a choice...
It’s around 5pm when I am really struggling with joy this week. I feel tired and as the children get ready for bed and peace reigns somewhere around 8pm, I feel like I should do something productive with the last couple of hours before 10pm, but all I feel like doing is nothing. My mornings feel full of joy, with the conscious effort of putting on joy, but by mid-afternoon I feel dissatisfied with my effectiveness and anxiety sets in about how to be productive with any ‘spare time’ I have.
As I sit this morning and write out all the things that are making me anxious, I realize that in all the different situations what I need to know is whether to push through or let go...
This morning as I got out of bed, the balcony door had been left open and in slid a crisp, inviting, fresh morning air. I took it to be an invitation from the Lord to go outside for my quiet time and meet Him in Creation.
Daniel and Kaleb were already up so I asked them if they wanted to come with me and together we walked the four blocks down to the sea front. I know it sounds idyllic, but it really is not...
Who gets you dressed in the morning? Has your spouse or a friend ever got you dressed? Maybe after an operation, or if you are unable to dress yourself for whatever reason, but I'm guessing there aren't many couples who get each other dressed in the morning. I don’t imagine there are many roommates who do up each others buttons either other than on a wedding dress or ball gown?
Has anyone ever given you an item of clothing? Other than when you were too small to dress yourself, when you were given that item of clothing, did the person who gave you that item of clothing also dress you in it? ...
Is it just me who has been frustrated when the fruits of the Holy Spirit don’t automatically appear in my life at all times?
Although I do believe that the fruits are gifts of grace and cannot be earned, sometimes I fail to recognize they are also part of the process of becoming more like Jesus and often require faith to walk in on a daily basis...
Have you ever seen a canal lock being opened? In order for the water levels on the canal river to align, a large metal key is wound into the lock gate which slowly opens sections of the lock gate to allow water to flow through. The more the key is turned, the more water is allowed through until finally the water is at such a level that the gates of the lock can be opened and the flow of water is aligned...
I need joy! I crave joy - that sanctified radiating witness of the Holy Spirit in my life. The empowering strength of the Lord, that springs into praise of my Creator.
I need the joy of the Lord to be my strength but I often find that joy does not come easily or naturally to me. Despair, grief and lethargy seem to creep up on me and try and cloak my spirit instead...
I wasn’t expecting our last days in the US and our return to Peru to be so dramatic. We had a wonderful albeit super-busy time in the UK and US spending time with so many friends and family and making new friends. We were looking forward to coming back to Peru and beginning to process our trip!
However, the last few days of our time in the US, I ended up in the Emergency Room in Lexington, Kentucky, with horrendous abdominal pains...
This post could also be called: accepting the incomplete and imperfect whilst hopefully expecting the fulfillment of promises.
Okay, so the time it is taking for our kitchen to be finished has moved past the ridiculous and I think we are resigned to it just being done when it is done. What we do now have is some cupboards so we have been able to move most of the kitchen things back into the kitchen and use it! ...
Yep, we are now fully into week 11 of our kitchen redesign. This week is the first week we have been able to use the kitchen, even though we still have no cupboards or drawers! Our brand new oven is currently being fixed and is due back next week, as are the cupboards, but with all the unfulfilled hopes we're not expecting too much! ...
I am in a hurry to get the kitchen done. I am fed up with the kitchen not being finished.
God is not in a hurry. He is not fed up with the kitchen not being finished.
I am trying to see it from His perspective...
We are into the final weeks of our kitchen being done. Hopefully, hopefully, everything will be done in the next two weeks… Last week the worktops were laid and this week the floor was put in. I had been hoping for it all to take one month, but it is going to be more like two...
