by emma | Mar 24, 2008 | Faith
I’ve been thinking about Easter a lot today. When I posted on Saturday about it feeling very un-Easter-like, I thought it was just me. Yet it seems to be a general theme among a lot of my friends and fellow bloggers. Many people feel like the season just kinda crept up on us and all of a sudden it was here and we weren’t acting or thinking any differently, even though this is the defining day for us.
I’ve got this friend who reminds me a lot of Jesus. Neither of us are your stereotypical girl, yet we still will call each other up and talk for hours on the phone. She’s got this beautiful, tender heart that lets me talk around the subject for as long as I need, then gently but firmly asks me the questions I’ve been avoiding.
I can’t help thinking that’s a lot like what Jesus does. He’s gentle and he wont force himself on you, but if you let him, he’ll ask the hard questions.
Today I feel like Jesus has been doing that to me. Easter came early, and the disruption was just that: a disruption. It’s almost as if Jesus has been saying, “You’re too comfortable Emma.” Have we put Easter in a box? Have we forgotten what this story really means? At church yesterday we sang Jesus Loves Me, an old kids praise song. It’s simple truth knocked me for six. “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” For me at least, I have become so familiar with many of the songs and many of the stories of Jesus life that I don’t really think about them much anymore. I mean, lets be honest…
Jesus rose from the dead!!
In case you didn’t notice… people don’t normally rise from the dead! It just doesn’t happen. But we (I) walk around as if this is completely normal, nothing our of the ordinary, doesn’t surprise us at all.
Maybe as our patterns and rhythms of living are disrupted, maybe that’s exactly what God wanted this easter. Maybe it was less about our not engaging with it and more about God calling out to us. Calling us from death into life.
And you see, that’s the beauty of the cross. It isn’t just Jesus’ resurrection. It’s my resurrection too. It’s all the ways in which Jesus makes me alive again where once I was dead. It’s life in all it’s fullness.
by emma | Mar 22, 2008 | Faith
I have a confession:
It doesn’t feel much like Easter to me right now. I am struggling to engage with this season. For some reason, it feels like I have been railing against it, unwilling to let it permeate who I am. Which is a really stupid thing to do, even if I do say so myself, because this is the thing that defines me. I’ve been in a prayer room in Govan several times this week, I’ve been reading blog reflections and more on the cross, I’ve been reading the Gospel narratives… and my heart is harder than I’d like to admit.
I’m so thankful God holds me, even when (maybe especially when?) I’m not so good at holding him…
and you held me and there were no words
and there was no time and you held me
and there was only wanting and
being held and being filled with wanting
and I was nothing but letting go
and being held
and there were no words and there
needed to be no words
and there was no terror only stillness
and I was wanting nothing and
it was fullness and it was like aching for God
and it was touch and warmth and
darkness and no time and no words and we flowed
and I flowed and I was not empty
and I was given up to the dark and
in the darkness I was not lost
and the wanting was like fullness and I could
hardly hold it and I was held and
you were dark and warm and without time and
without words and you held me
[ And You Held Me by Janet Morley ]
HT: Anna Poulson, on the Grace Lent blog
by emma | Mar 22, 2008 | Words
“Windows in general has been like a confused and slow person. Vista is like a person who lost their meds and its trying their best to ignore the voices.”
[ 37signals blog ]
by emma | Mar 22, 2008 | Poverty, Social Justice
Today (as you might have guessed by the title!) is World Water Day.
Right now, 1.1 billion people on the planet don’t have access to safe, clean drinking water. That’s one in six of us.
Unsafe water and lack of basic sanitation causes 80% of all sickness and disease, and kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Many people in the developing world, usually women and children, walk more than three hours every day to fetch water that is likely to make them sick. Those hours are crucial, preventing many from working or attending school. Additionally, collecting water puts them at greater risk of sexual harassment and assault. Children are especially vulnerable to the consequences of unsafe water. Of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and a lack of basic sanitation, 90% are children under 5 years old.
Shocked?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBOJyAY42M8&hl=en]
One way to help: get involved in charity:water…
by emma | Mar 20, 2008 | Everything Else
I’ve been listening to some new podcasts recently I thought you might appreciate…
First up, the Guildford Boiler Room are hosting ’24/7 Prayer Spaces’, a daily 10-minute podcast in the run up to Pentecost. I’ve really been enjoying having a little it more focus as I begin my days! Find out more on their website here.
Secondly, I stumbled across the website for a conference that took place last month, “A Sustainable Faith“. The conference looks at a wide variety of topics, all orientated around fostering community. I’ve only listened to one podcast so far (Troy Bronsink, talking about ‘adaptive re-use’), but it was excellent and I am very much looking forward to listening to the rest. I was struck by how Troy described us (followers of Jesus) as being ‘artist, artisan, and curator’.
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