Sushi
Had my first attempt at making sushi on Saturday… I’m pretty pleased with the results! The maki turned out OK, some were a little over-filled, but most stayed together nicely. I’d like to make some gyoza and tempura next time.
Telling Ghosts To Go
We all live with ghosts, and today is a day mine make their presence known more than others.
I wanted to write something about the ghosts we live with, and then Jamie went and said the things I wanted to, only much better… so read his words below instead…
What does it mean when something is haunted? What exactly is a ghost?
Is it when something from the past refuses to leave? Is it when something dies but doesn’t go?
It’s easy to talk about haunted places. A haunted house. A haunted building. We smile at those stories. We get excited. There is no stigma, no shame. But what about haunted people? Isn’t it true that, as people, our lives can become haunted things as well? The past can haunt the present. The past can steal the future.
Isn’t that what most of this is about? Something painful in our past? Something breaks or something dies and in living with the pain, we begin to live with ghosts. And by our choices, we either ask the ghosts to leave or we help them make a home.
If we can talk about haunted buildings, then we should be able to talk about haunted people. We should be able to put a hand up and say, “I’m not doing well” or “I need some help” or “Can we talk?”
Maybe we begin to ask the ghosts to leave when we begin to ask some other folks to join us in our haunted places. In the broken parts of stories. Our messes and our questions. To meet us, to know us, to help, to care, to listen.
Maybe we begin to help our friends become unhaunted when we let them know we’re not afraid of their pain. When we ask to really know them. When we ask to see inside. When we do our part to go beyond the distance and the smile, deeper to “who are you?” and “how are you?” and “are you okay?”
i have been a haunted house. i have had things die but stay and i didn’t know how to make them leave. And there were certainly times i didn’t want them to leave because they were beautiful. They were no longer real but they were beautiful. They were bridges to brighter days. i thought they were my dreams.
But reality is the best place to live. Reality is where healing happens. In the honest light and by the voices of our friends.
We all have our past. We all have our pain. We will all know ghosts from time to time. But if our life is like a building, then we should open our doors to let some people see inside. And into our darkest places – into those rooms that hold our fears and dreams – we will begin to walk together. Friends with hope like candles, telling ghosts to go.
So may we open the doors, shine light into dark places, and tell the ghosts to go…
What Owns You?
In the vain of Ally’s “things I learned on Sunday…”
We worry because we think God can’t, or God won’t.
Anxiety kills generosity, because it causes us to hoard. How tight are you holding on?
Anxiety always leads to idolatry – it’s putting our trust in something other than God. And it will eventually own you.
So, what owns you?
Footwear & Judgment
Thanks, Lee Ann, for making me smile!
On Being Pummelled
Six years ago, I went on my first ever overseas missions trip. Every week for 6 months a small group of us met together to encourage, challenge, and inspire each other to live ever more faithfully into the lives we are called to. Those months culminated in two weeks working alongside churches in Holland and Scotland.
On our last night in Delft, we worshipped with the church community we had joined. We worshipped, we gave thanks, and we waited. Our Dutch friends begin to pray for us, and the prophecies started coming…
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“But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness…” [1 Tim 6:11]
As I was reading the Bible a few days ago, this verse grabbed me. I still so desperately seek tenderness in my life, and grieve for all the places I’ve not experienced it where I should have, not given it where I should have. So I ask the Father to make my heart more tender.
Do you really mean that Emma? Do you know what I’ve been doing? Do you know what it means to be made tender?
I know how much you love food, so think about tenderising meat… you take a mallet to it, and you pummel it into shape.
Is that what this has all been about? Is the pain God’s way of tenderising me? It’s like being pummelled by a mallet.
So I ask, make me strong to take those hits.
And then, I remember.
A prophecy spoken over me in that small room all those years ago:
“The LORD has made you strong! He has made you STRONG so that you can take the hits and he will make you stronger.”
God answered my prayer 6 years before I even prayed it!
– – – – – – – – –
May you be encouraged by the faithfulness of a Father who knows our prayers long before we ever pray them.
Abandon The Knife
A while back Christian Aid hosted the first of their film screenings, made in conjunction with The Guardian, on pressing global justice issues. This month sees the screening of film number 2…
‘I will never be cut’: Nancy and Gertrude are Kenyan girls about to face a brutal passage to womanhood.
Directed by Sara Nason, this documentary tells the story of two young members of the Pokot community in Kenya, who stood up to family and community to resist the traditional practice of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM). The film looks at how their actions influenced other young women and their families, changing minds and attitudes about FGM.
Join us for a screening of the documentary film followed by an expert panel discussion and Q&A exploring the issue.
Introducing Poverty Over
Poverty Over is Christian Aid’s powerful manifesto which investigates why the developing world is still poor, and defines what needs to change to help bring an end to poverty. In partnership, Christian Aid and the Guardian have created a series of investigative documentaries exploring key issues faced by the world’s poorest communities.
Tues 29 November, 7pm, CCA Glasgow.
Free Tickets from the CCA Box Office 0141 352 4900.
A Heart of Tenderness
“An additional effect of understanding God as the heart of tenderness is reconciliation. Seen from a biblical perspective, reconciliation isn’t primarily making up with another person; it’s making peace within ourselves in that dimension of our lives where we’ve previously been unable to find peace. Reconciliation is the inner healing of our hearts by the tenderness of Jesus.”
[Brennan Manning]
One Touch
Community.
You hear a lot about that from me. Then somedays, I catch this glimpse of a God who loves it so much more than I do. This God who blows me away by the community he puts around me.
I got to be with my church family today again for the first time in a few weeks, and we sang one of the songs that grew out of our experiences. About the goodness of God.
You are good, You are very good…
I so wanted to sing those words, but I couldn’t get them out. Instead, I had burning tears run down my cheeks.
Then there was a touch.
It was just for a moment, but a friend had her hand on my back.
The touch that says more than words ever can.
I’m here.
I’m with you in this.
You are not alone.
That one touch gave me the strength to sing those words, ‘you are good’. Strength I didn’t have on my own. I could sing them because I knew she was helping me sing them.
And isn’t that the point?
A Week In The Sun
Stolen Wine, Dignity & Downton Abbey
I have never been a big period drama fan, but I have been completely sucked in by Downton Abbey. Steady now – don’t be giving me any spoilers for season 2! I’ve only just finished season 1, watching 2 or 3 episodes at a time.
I think Downton Abbey has got to me more than any of the others because of the pacing and the writing. The stories and the relationships between the staff and employers grips me.
I watched with baited breath to find out what would happen between Bates and Thomas, and as the story progressed I found myself seeing more and more of God in Bates.
No matter how many times Thomas and O Brien try to get him fired and disgraced – tripping him, framing him – he never sinks to their level. Even when questioned by his boss, he never says why he fell, or how he knew the wine was stolen. He always looks to bestow dignity to those around him. He always accepts the blame himself and takes their disgrace, rather than having them suffer indignity.
Bates inspires me to be a better follower of Jesus than I currently am.
How often do I accept disgrace so that someone else may gain dignity?
How many times do I let others endure disgrace without helping?
How many times will I have to watch a TV show before I do something about it?
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