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What you think determines what you see

7/25/2017

I think I’ve misjudged winter. I’m someone who can never get warm, so winter has always seemed like an endurance test to me. Especially frosty mornings when you can’t just hop in the car and go, first you have to deice the windows in the biting cold. That’s not much fun.

But one frosty morning I noticed some fallen leaves in the gutter and bent down for a closer look. I was captivated by what I saw. I grabbed my camera and, freezing as it was, the beauty I was seeing through the lens made the cold seem incidental. It was a miniature world of wonder.

Hoar frost adds another of layer of loveliness to the winter landscape. Frost has a beauty of its own … its delicate branching patterns of ice crystals add magic and turn the ordinary into something quite extraordinary.

Because of its crystalline structure, it scatters the light in many directions, which is why it appears white even though each crystal is translucent.

The name ‘hoar’ comes from an Old English adjective that means "showing signs of old age"; in this context it refers to the frost making plant material look like it has white hair, and therein lies the magic!

Beauty is always there if we have the eyes to see it. I hope these images give you a taste of the beauty that we so easily pass by or crush underfoot in the busyness of living.

I’m continuing to wander through the book of Romans and this week Ch12:17 made me think about winter, of the beauty that’s hidden beneath a bleak and biting landscape. Peterson translates it, “See the beauty in everyone” … not just the obviously kind, caring and generous people, but the cold and distant, the prickly and difficult-to-get-along-with and those who think and believe very differently to me.

That’s not an easy call. It requires me to get closer and look deeper. To take the time to listen and be involved so I can see beyond the obvious and external. To discover what is underneath … in the heart.

So often what we think determines what we see. When I think of winter as cold, miserable and something to be endured, I fail to see the beauty it holds … the tracery and symmetry of trees, hidden by leaves in summer … the gentle, mellow light that deepens colours and softens the landscape … the mystery of mist and the glory of frost.

How true of life. The ‘filters’ of my judgements and preconceived ideas, my blind spots and too hasty assumptions and even my beliefs, can obscure my view of others. What I think about them determines what I see.

The next few verses go on to call me to let go of judgements; they are not my prerogative. It’s not up to me to decide if someone is worthy but to endeavour to see everyone as God sees them. I have no way of knowing what they are struggling with or what has brought them to this point in life.

My paternal grandmother was one of six children. Soon after she married, her mother disappeared and her father was left with four children at home. He worked long hours in his boot making shop, trying to make ends meet. There was no other choice but for grandma to take in her three brothers and younger sister and bring them all up. She went on to have children of her own but sadly three of her four children died. I was told that as a young woman she was fun loving and the life of the party but the grandma I met was miserly and quite bitter about life. Only as an adult did I understand. She had a good heart but life had taken its toll.

This week I’ve been challenged to look long and hard at the ‘filters’ through which I view the world … the ‘filters’ that can distort the way I see others. Beauty doesn’t always look like the softness of spring or the vibrancy of autumn; sometimes it looks tough and harsh like the faces of winter … courage, perseverance and endurance.

It’s not my place to judge. I'm only called to love and be open to finding the beauty in others.

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Between the lines

7/18/2017

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Words have power. Those little squiggles on the page can move us to tears or inspire us to greater heights. Some people talk about the book that changed their life, transformed their thinking or set them off in a new direction. That’s powerful.

But the most important thing is what's between the lines. Space. Words need space or they lose their power.

Spaces and pauses give us time to think, to reflect, and to process what we are reading. Spaces allow words to ‘sink in’, to be absorbed deep into our soul. It’s the spaces that give words power.

Recently I bought an eBook, which had been formatted with a small font and little space between the lines and I found myself reading a few paragraphs and giving up again and again. It was hard work and frustrating ... after a few attempts I gave up altogether.

Reading without spaces is tiring and unsatisfying. And so it is with life. Life without space is exhausting and powerless. A life crammed with constant activity, planning, sorting, problem solving, and yes, ministry … without space in between to reflect and process, becomes powerless.

I should know. I’ve lived a good part of my life at full throttle, 150 kilometres an hour. I’ve grasped life and lived it to the full but mostly without the spaces to recharge. Consequently I’ve burnt out on more than one occasion. There is always more I want to do than there are hours in the day so its easy to skip meals, push the extra few yards and make it to my usually over ambitious finishing line.

I grew up in a family that valued hard work and I joined the club. Hard work was rewarding and satisfying and in many ways the harder the better. Of course there isn’t anything wrong with hard work, but like spaces between lines, time to recharge, relax and unwind is essential to a healthy balanced life. It’s taken me a long time to learn the reality of that truth. Time out always seemed lazy and a waste of precious time, but I’ve discovered its magic.

Time out not just to recharge so I can work harder, but for the fresh perspective it gives me … time to reflect, imagine, dream and let life ‘sink in’ … time not just to rest the body but the mind. And that's the hard one for me. I have a mind with a mind of its own, always hatching some new plan, getting excited about a discovery or enquiring into a yet to be uncovered truth.

It has no manners ... interrupts my reading, eating or sleeping, even praying if it must, and insists on its own way. But I've found one way to silence it. When I take my camera and head out into the wild, somehow I manage to leave my mind behind. I enter a world of my own where nothing intrudes but the open spaces, the beauty and the discovery beyond the lens. I've found a place where I can completely relax and come back refreshed and renewed with a well behaved mind. Then I have the capacity to listen to life and the still small voice of God.

Eugene Peterson sums it up beautifully in Romans 12:11 "Don't burn out; keep yourselves fuelled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master." When I'm burnt out it takes all my energy to survive and the focus is on me. When I'm fuelled and aflame, I have the capacity to hear and see the needs of others and the energy to live compassionately.

Where is the place that you can totally relax and let life 'sink in'? Where are the spaces between the lines in life that give you time to relax, appreciate, be moved and challenged by the everyday?

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Who are you

7/11/2017

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When I left school, all I wanted to do was be a florist. The thought of spending every day arranging flowers was my idea of the perfect life. I had an aunt who was a florist and often after school I’d go and visit her shop and sit with her as she created exquisite arrangements. I loved the smell of the shop, the intricacy of her work and just being around flowers and fragrance.

But she knew behind the scenes it was a very different story … up before dawn to get to the flower markets … tough seasons when storm damage, floods or cyclones left flowers in short supply and expensive, and damaged hands she always tried to hide.

In those days people didn’t buy flowers as they do today, weddings and funerals were the main stay of a florist’s work and it was a struggle to make ends meet. She did everything she could to discourage me … she wanted a better life for me.

Eventually with great sadness I gave up the dream and applied to the gas and electricity companies to be trained as a cookery demonstrator. Again the door was slammed. I was too young to be accepted for training.

So I became neither a florist nor a cookery demonstrator.

Often that’s the first question I’m asked, “What do you do?” Somehow in the western mindset, what I do paints a picture of who I am.

When God comes to Moses on Mount Sinai, he doesn’t introduce himself according to what he does, Judge, Creator, King, Sovereign God of the Universe but as “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin”. Exodus 34:6,7

God defined himself according to his character.

We are not merely a carpenter, CEO, interior designer, or teacher … not even a mother, father, husband, wife, friend or daughter, son … those roles provide the vehicle through which our character is shaped and developed … the means of rounding off the rough edges, removing the dross from the gold and helping us reach our potential.

We are so much more than our roles in life. We are a sum total of our gifts and talents, our experiences, choices, mistakes, values and beliefs and the relationships that have helped shape us one way or another.

We are created in the image of God but shaped through the earthiness of human existence … the very humanity that can grow in us compassion, kindness, patience, love, courage, perseverance and so much more.

My life has been so different to the one I imagined … maybe yours has too.

I went on to work for many years in pathology and then God wonderfully opened a door for me to become a writer and go on to be a Communications Manager. I think he brought me to the place I was created for in the first place.

As a child I did little else but write and draw. I wrote my first book when I was about 10. At school I excelled at composition and comprehension and my mother told me I was never happier than when I had a pen in my hand. I think the seed was there in childhood it just took a very long, roundabout and convoluted journey to eventually blossom. However, God used that journey to build my character and make me who I am today.

If you had popped into my life along the way you would have found bowls of fresh flowers all through the house. My love affair with flowers never waned and filling my home with living beauty has always brought me great joy. And maybe you’d have smelt the fragrance of fresh baking wafting through the house because cooking has remained a life-long passion too.

But most of all, I hope along the way I’ve learnt to love more deeply, give more generously, act with more kindness and allow myself to be more vulnerable. I don’t think it matters which path we take, we can “be sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good” (Romans 8:28 The Message.)

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A different way of being

7/4/2017

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On a trip to Africa a few years ago I met people who didn’t have to worry about water or electricity bills because they had neither water nor electricity. They didn’t need to be concerned about rising petrol prices because they had no cars. There were no possessions to insure and no taxes to pay because all they had were the crops in the field. Yet they were some of the most beautiful, contented and generous people I have ever met.

The children had no toys and the closest they got to entertainment was front row seats watching a well being dug or following this crazy white lady with a camera and begging to be photographed. It was such a beautiful thing to see their faces when they saw themselves, often for the first time. Their excitement was contagious. Some giggled uncontrollably and others just jumped up and down in sheer delight. They were happy, delightful children just living in the moment and enjoying whatever the moment brought.

I couldn’t help compare them to many children back home, glued to screens, overwhelmed by oceans of toys and often time poor from the demands of extracurricular activities, homework and too many choices.

Two things impacted me as I enjoyed the beauty and simplicity of that very different culture.

Firstly, their culture is centred around people. Their lives are uncluttered by the things we see as essential ... they have no fridge, no washing machine, no computer ... few worldly possessions. Apart from their single-room mud brick houses, they have little else but a few cooking pots and utensils which are stored in a corner of the house. Relationships are the priority.

I returned to a society that often values money and the things that money can buy before relationship. And the saddest part is that in the race to accumulate more things, more money, more recreation, more success, there is less and less time for developing rich, deep meaningful relationships.

How often do you try to make time to get together with someone and need to be fitted into their appointment calendar?

Secondly it confirmed to me that abundance has nothing to do with money, material possessions or achievements. Abundance is a mindset. Abundance is all around me wherever I am, it's the state of my heart that determines what I see.

When my heart is grateful, I notice abundance everywhere. I notice beauty in small things. I’m awake to life and to all the good things that come my way in the ordinariness of my day. I’m less likely to focus on what I don’t have and enjoy all I do have. When my heart is full of love, I can accept what others have to give, without expectations ... I can value people just as they are and seek to see the positive in them.

I find it's a daily choice ... a mindset of abundance and a grateful heart or a mindset of scarcity and a heart of dissatisfaction or resentment. It's a constant challenge.

For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7
Be careful how you think; your life is shaped by your thoughts. Proverbs 4:23

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What you think determines what you see

Between the lines

Who are you

A different way of being

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