a prompt just right

Fridays are for writing, so let's get to it!

Instead of looking at a blank page or screen (way too intimidating), copy and paste the prompt and begin with the first things that come into your mind.  Freewriting is unedited and unpolished ... and isn't the beauty of it?  So if the first thing that comes into your mind is

This is scary I don't know how to write about this but I'm brave enough to try and who knows maybe something will come of it if I just give it a shot so here I go hurricanes are scary and destructive and I hate them this week...

then write all of that and keep going.  Oh how I love the delete button and the red pencil.  They are beloved friends, aren't they?

So freewrite for several minutes (at least 15) about the following:

The hurricane blew in the ___________ with the wind, and then ...

Feel free to share it here or email it to me!

Happy writing, everyone.

As we begin the traditional month for being thankful...

... I hope I'll have many of you join me for Thankful on Thursdays.

When we're thankful for His gifts, and acknowledge them as such - oh what praise to Him! 

"Enter his gates with thanks;
    enter his courtyards with praise!
    Thank him! Bless his name!" - Psalm 100:4 (CEB)

When we say, "I'm thankful for ..." there's an understood to whom we're giving thanks.  We're not implying that we're glad for the possessions we've accumulated on our own.  Oh, no no ... when we as followers of Christ and children of God claim thankfulness, we are proclaiming that we see this gift as undeserved favor and grace from the Giver and we are demonstrating our love and appreciation for His love in return.  

If I ever tell anyone, "I'm thankful for you," what I'm saying in truth is, "I acknowledge that God didn't have to put you in my life to bless me, but He did, and because He loved me in that way, I'm declaring my joy over the gift of you to you and most of all, to Him." [Yes, there are too many prepositional phrases in that sentence, read it again and forgive me.]

Thankfulness is always about God.  Turkeys and feasting are great.  Cornucopias and decorations are lovely.  But Thanksgiving has a source and a direction.  Blessings of all shapes and sizes, seen and unseen, are sourced, all of them, from the Father of Lights, the Giver of all good things (James 1:17).  And the direction of our thanks is always back at Him.

Eucharisteo - thankful to God for Grace.  Let's begin:

- J: my pajama friend on a Saturday morning

- spooky, silly stories from fifth-graders, and their attempts to write their classmates into laughter

- Chai-tea this morning when the coffee's all gone

- K's pretty smile after I wished her Happy Birthday and she got out of the car

- Your righteous garment, provided for me, imputed for me to wear at the Wedding feast, and the security of knowing You won't throw me into outer darkness (Matthew 22:12-13)

- hearing KS's testimony three times this weekend, and crying my way through all three, these tears of joy for her victory in You to overcome

- sustained joy even in all of this cold rain - a true miracle of strength (Nehemiah 8:10)

- tears of joy running down my face, praising You for the miracle of CK and Grace, and pictures of them on fb together in China

- a funny video-chat with my little niece, L, and how we laughed to see her crawl for the first time, all the way out of the room

- a panel of professionals, able and brave through the storm, coming to my writing group to share their wisdom and pour it into the thirsty sponges of amateurs 

- sitting fireside at Panera, typing and thanking, so cozy

- Here by Kari Jobe, and the comfort washed over my heart with a song:
          "Breathe in, Breathe out
            You will, you will find Him 
            Here."

-Pumpkin bagels, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin bars, pumpkin candles, and pumpkin everything this time of year

- generous donations for prisoners - the forgotten, now remembered

- a baby's happy voice, babbling like a brook over and around the stacks at the library, breaking the silence with the most amazing sound I can imagine

Oh my God - Your gifts are so extravagant! Jesus, thank You every day for new ones, overflowing to more than I can hold.  And today I offer You back the only thing I have for You: thanks.  You deserve to be recognized and praised for Your generosity, Father.  Your goodness is more than I can describe.  May these words honor You, and inspire others to give You thanksgiving too.  Not only in three weeks or this month, but every month, every day, every moment.  This alone is true joy.

I invite you to add your eucharisteo too!  He is worthy of public praise.  

strain the gnat, swallow the camel

I'm reading through Matthew this month, the book where many of Jesus' heaviest rebukes are recorded.  Yes, written by Matthew, the detested former tax collector who left it all in the booth to follow Him at the mere invitation; the one who threw a party immediately after, inviting his friends to meet and follow this Jesus too.  Who more appropriate than Matthew to record the guile of hypocrisy, and Jesus' detest of the sins that required rebuke as opposed to those which merely required an invitation to leave them?

Pastor Mark Batterson (National Community Church) has often said, "Sometimes as Christians we major in the minors and we minor in the majors."  My friends, this should not be.  In fact, if we are truly Christ-followers and not modern-day Pharisees, it will not be.  

Because tithing on mint and neglecting justice is innately repulsive.  As I tell my son who is still learning socially appropriate behavior, "Nobody likes that."

The bottom line is this - the longer we follow Him, the more we should look like Him.  Talk like Him, act like Him, work like Him.  Heal like He did, teach like He did, love like He did.  Care about the things He cared about, and dismiss the things He didn't.  Invite the lost to be found, the forgotten to be remembered, and the broken to be restored.  And how about our friends straining the gnat and swallowing the camel?  Perhaps a rebuke would be in order for these who think they know Him intimately but have never even laid eyes on the hem of His cloak.  

Because they make God repulsive too.  

And I love Him too much to allow it.  Not on my watch.

So what's the difference between a sinner and a hypocrite?  I'm glad you asked.  Humility.  Not sin, for we all sin.  Not the literal can't-follow-through-faithfully-in-what-I-believe.  We are none of us perfect.  No, the difference is one's willingness to appear lowly and to associate with the lowly.  In truth we are all lowly.  It's when we pretend we're not all ragamuffins that we become the hypocrites and the Pharisees.  

Not me. For the record: I am a sinner in need of a Redeemer ... every day. No longer a slave to sin, but nonetheless so utterly fallen.  I don't have all the answers, but I have some of His answers. The lessons I learn the hard way I pass on to others so they can learn through me the easy way.  I make mistakes on accident and I also rebelliously and purposefully, knowingly disregard His plan for me.  O God, forgive me. 

"This saying is reliable and deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'—and I’m the biggest sinner of all." - 1 Timothy 1:15 

I want to see the camel, the plank, the sickness that takes me to the Doctor.  No more of this wasting heart beats on gnats and splinters and putting on make up to look healthy.  

Oh, Jesus I'm desperate for You again today.  Life is painful and confusing and sometimes this storm just rages on and on, and I feel like I can't see You.  But You rescue me every time.  You are my anchor and my Father, and You came and died to save me.  I need your forgiveness today, again.  I feel like I'm the biggest sinner of all.  Help me, God - deliver me from this sinful life that chokes me every day.  Save me from temptations and evils.  Help me to focus on the issues at hand that really matter and to throw off those minute incidentals that won't amount to a "hill-o-beans" in eternity.  Oh, God thank You for the invitation to follow Your Son.  There's nothing I want more than to follow Him so closely that I feel the warm wake of His love.  

Fridays are for Writing ...

So, let's get to it!

Grab your keyboard or a notebook and spend at least fifteen minutes with this today.  If you feel brave, share it here in the comments portion.  No pressure to be polished - just let that creativity flow.  Trust me, it's therapy for your soul.  After fifteen to thirty minutes, stop.  Go back and read, edit if desired, and then pray. Thank You, God for these words and thoughts.  Do you want me to do something more with this?  And then obey what you hear.  Sound fun?

Ready ....

"It was completely out of left-field ..."


Happy writing!

Eucharisteo

"What's that mean?" people ask when they see my ribboned journal with all the pretty papers.  

Paper is a bit of a passion of mine.  My face begins to break into an uncontrollable smile when I walk through that aisle in the craft store, and I rarely leave empty-handed, therefore I rarely go.  The prettiest papers make the prettiest journals, and this is what I had decided - being thankful for His best called for writing it down on my best.

The best I speak of is His grace.  According to Ann Voskamp in One Thousand Gifts, "All is grace."  Yes, even the trials, even the pain, even the rain, even the abundance.  If I have anything at all, it is from the Giver, our Lord and Father.  Not what I deserve or what life owes me, but what is bestowed because He chose it for me ... because He is good and He defines good and if He puts something in my hand and calls it good, who am I to say it's not?

Jesus took some bread in his hands and gave thanks for it. He broke the bread and handed it to his apostles. Then he said, “This is my body, which is given for you. Eat this as a way of remembering me!” -Luke 22:19

He gave thanks for the bread.  Thankful for the whipping.  Thankful for the punches.  Thankful for the sharp crown.  Thankful for the nails and the spear and the mocking and the spitting and the shame and the weight of my sin.  Thankful.  He. Gave. Thanks.  Thankful for the death.  Thankful for the victory of Resurrection.  I wonder how many of those went through His head when He broke that bread.

And I am thankful too.  For all of that and for every day more and more grace.  More and more gifts.  More and more blessings, and yes they are all blessings.  Even the trials are blessings.  Because He defines Good, and He only gives me Good.  

Like these ...

- Miss W.'s class - tiptoeing down the hall with smiles, each one

-Mr. B saying K has a lot of my mannerisms - an observation he makes gladly and I take heavily - oh how I want to be a good model-mom

- the lyrics of "Even If" by Kutless

- the privilege of being my husband's listener

- the dark, rich green color the grass turns in the fall, a perfect bed for all this glorious leaf massacre

- the again (?!) struggles and attacks, and Your faithful answer of patience, another portion of forgiveness, and another helping of hope to overcome this again

- Isaiah 40:31 in the Amp. version - waiting on the Lord in expectation to be renewed 

- Paper - lovely in pages of books and crafts too.


This has been Thankful on Thursdays.  Join me for your own eucharisteo [thankfulness for grace - and all is grace] ... ?

(and if you'd like a pretty journal of thankfulness too? ... let me know ;)   )

Review - The Ragamuffin Gospel

I thought I might try my hand at a few book reviews - I hope to be objective and honest.  I won't be reading just to read - my time is just as precious as yours.  Hopefully God will help me to choose wisely and review according to His good standards.

The first in what I hope to be a weekly series (on Mondays): The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning.

So, this book sat on our bookshelf for at least five years, along with several others we won as a prize package from a Church Planting seminar.  Oh how I wish I would have read it sooner...

The author shares candidly about his disreputable past, including his battle with alcoholism and his journey to find Christ despite several Catholic hurdles in his path.  The basic premise is that all of humanity - each and every person - is a ragamuffin in need of a redeemer, and Christ alone can be that for every one who would respond to His radical grace.  When recommending this book to my husband, I described it as "on the opposite side of the spectrum as Frances Chan" (whom I love, but whose stomp-all-over-your-toes style my dear sweet husband tends not to care for so much).   This book is not about what we do as followers of Christ, though I do believe every bookshelf ought to shove over some room for a few of those, too.  However, The Ragamuffin Gospel is not one of those books.  

Rather, it is a love story of the response in a person's heart when faced with the painful realization of humanity's deplorable state.  When one reaches the conclusion, often after many useless attempts to find fulfillment in life, that life's only true fulfillment for the screw-up lies in the open Hands of the God who offers mercy.  And, in case you didn't know, we're all screw-ups.  He didn't come for the healthy, but for the sick - and we're every one of us so hopelessly sick.  Hopeless, that is, until Jesus arrives on our scene.

The writing of this book ( (c) 1990) is [pleasantly] surprisingly formal, by comparison to some of the newer non-fiction on today's Christian literary scene.  I found Manning's imagery and metaphors to be haltingly thought-provoking.  (And by that I mean I literally had to close the book mid-page and think about it - I LOVE when a book can make me do that!)  Here are two of my favorites:

"... when we accept ownership of our powerlessness and helplessness, when we acknowledge that we are paupers at the door of God's mercy, then God can make something beautiful out of us." (italics added)

"Honesty... is always unpleasant, and usually painful, and that is why I am not very good at it.  But to stand in the truth before God and one another has a unique reward.  It is the reward which a sense of reality always brings.  I know something extremely precious.  I am in touch with myself as I am.  My tendency to play the pseudo-messiah is torpedoed." (again, added)

Be it proper, however, the writing is nonetheless personal.  Manning is honest and vulnerable with his own story, and shares vulnerable stories of others as well, including a scandalous testimony about a man who was broken to humility in the middle of an AA meeting the author attended.  I can assure you I'll never forget Max's story in chapter seven for as long as I live.   He shares many quotes from famous writers and preachers such as C.S. Lewis, Mother Teresa, Henri Nouwen, and Nikos Kazanzakis, which add diversity and validity quite convincingly to his persuasive prose. 

My favorite chapter -though it's difficult to choose - was most likely the one entitled Grazie, Signore.  Maybe I like it best because of it's practicality - because once I've been reminded that I'm just another ragamuffin in need of rescue, I want to know my part (typical control-freak, I know).  And Manning spells it out beautifully: Response, Trust, and Gratitude.  Once this scandalous grace has been offered by this bloodied God, one must respond in free-willed choice to receive the mercy extended.  Take it in hand and hold tightly, regardless of the stumbling we may do along the way.  Second, we trust Him and not ourselves for every second, every breath.  We believe what He says, because the love on the Cross compels nothing less.  Third, the ragamuffin's action is to give thanks to God for doing what he never could have even attempted.  And that is all Manning says of the "doing."  Most of the rest of the book is a glorious rendition of ... well, of The Gospel.  The real, living, truth of God's extravagant, even embarrassing love for people, messy and bedraggled through the grime of sin though we are.  

The bottom line of this book (because, if you didn't know, I'm really just a "gimme the bottom line" kind of a girl) is gorgeously summarized in this quote, though I really hope you'll read the whole thing:  "Christianity is not primarily a moral code but a grace-laden mystery; it is not essentially a philosophy of love but a love affair; it is not keeping rules with clenched fists but receiving a gift with open hands."

So, I hope you'll go get your own copy of The Ragamuffin Gospel and ... happy reading!!

why not try your hand at this?

Writing on Fridays.

I'll give you a prompt, and you use the words you have, and maybe some the Father puts in you.  Hands are for writing [among other important things], so let's do it!  Start with some BIC (Butt In Chair) writing, and see what happens.  No fear of an editor or critical eye - it can be just for you and Him, or share here in the comments box, if you like.  As I like to say to my writing group, 100% of what you don't write will be left as only an idea in your head.  And who's to say your ideas were meant to stay there? (*wink*)  I encourage you to "freewrite" first for 15 minutes, meaning just let the words flow unedited, and then go back an edit if you want after that 15 minutes, continuing as you have time and muse.

Ready ...?

Write a poem, short story, or prose about the following observation:

Courage can only be realized in the face of an obstacle of fearful proportions ...