Lynne Taylor

Pentecost - more than WWJD

Sitting in church today,
smiling at Steve's sermon,
it suddenly clicked for me.

I've never really gotten too excited
about the whole wwjd (What Would Jesus Do?) thing.
I'm sure it's great for people, and I can understand why,
but for me it hasn't just hit the spot.
I figured I was too old(!) and that was why.

But today I realised...
there's more to it than that.

Steve asked us two questions
of some scenarios he set out:
Could this be the Spirit of Life?
Where is the Spirit of Jesus?

And I realised as I listened to people's responses
that those questions had the potential
to change lives: their lives, my life.

Because if I have my eyes open
looking for the work of the Spirit of Life in the world
and if I am asking where the Spirit of Jesus is in it all
then that is 100% good!

Suddenly there is a framework
to explain why people
who wouldn't call themselves Christians
can be so spot-on, so perfect
in their blessings and helps and in their work

Because the Spirit of Life, the Spirit of Jesus
(that's the Holy Spirit in case you're still worried)
is active in our world.

Let's celebrate it as such!

Celebrate all the work of the Spirit in the world
(not just that which happens within the church walls,
or from church-run ministries)
And look for the Spirit of Jesus in it all.

(I'll ask Steve to post some of his sermon up...
to help explain more
watch this space)
LATER - Na... he's opted not to ... may publish it somehow later ...

Tonight at church, they are
(following my above thoughts)
benedicting by stamping SL SJ
on their hands
Spirit of Life
Spirit of Jesus
... a reminder to ask
Could this be the Spirit of Life?
Where is the Spirit of Jesus?
as we go through our everyday.

May it be so.

Probability

So why is it...
that the amount of time
you spend staring at the shampoo
in the supermarket,
trying to decide which one to buy...

(how am I meant to know if my hair
needs a volume boost or straightening...
it can't decide... I can't decide... don't make me!
...and then there's the fact that
steve and i use the same shampoo
and his hair is certainly curly!)

...the greater the likelihood that once you get home
you'll discover the shampoo you have just bought
has turned into conditioner.

Bah.

Yesterday, I could see the mountains

Yesterdat I walked home
after dropping Shannon at school
looking at our gorgeous mountains
set against a clear blue sky.

Today my world is shrouded in fog.
I can see the letterbox!

But I am happy to believe that the mountains are still there.
Blanketed away, to be sure.
But an ever-present reality.

On good news...

Just received an email update
from James Frankham
who gets to travel the world,
writing, photographing, listening...

It is nice to hear news of hope
of freedom
in what has been a "badlands".

May they continue to know hope and peace
He writes,

"I returned from assignment in Kabul, Afghanistan last month. Once a city
on the vertices of east and west, it has endured 23 years of warfare
which drove many Afghans into exile in Pakistan and Iran. Kabul now has
a taste of peace. The streets are lively, confident and bustle with
simple industry. People seem liberated. In fact in the last 12 months
the population has swelled from 500,000 people to more than 3 million!
If you want to see some photos of Kabul, or read some thoughts from the
field just log in to the Wildlands site. "

More, specifically on Kabul, here.

Tapestry of love...

As part of Sunday morning's church service,
we (silently) prayed our way through Colossians 2:2.

I was struck by the phrase that says;
"I want you woven into a tapestry of love"
(from The Message)

And I could imagine the sense of belonging
that could come from people
easily seeing where they fitted
in the tapestry of life, of love, of community.

In unfinished tapestries
you can clearly see where the thread will go
because the colours are printed onto the fabric below.

How nice it could be
for people to so be welcomed,
to so feel the potential for belonging...
because they can see their colour printed
on the tapestry
and know it is waiting for them
to be stitched into it.

How can we create communities
where such is the sense of belonging?
How can we help people
to see the unique colour of their thread?

Sounds like a life's work!

Pause ... sigh ... good

Came across this,
thanks to Anj (thanks!).

I think it may become for me
a site to take a deep breath at.
To pause and reflect
and take a moment.

A sort of a coffee break in a morning's work.

look what i can do...

Just learned to upload photos...
how cool is that?!

A verse from Paul

This is posted on Paul's blog:

(written by a Jew on a prison wall in Cologne)
I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining.
I believe in love
even when I cannot feel it.
I believe in God
even when he is silent.

Too often our faith in God can mean
that we seem to think
we have a right to "smoothness"
to the sun always shining
to warm-feelings of love
to knowing a sense
of God's presence, or God's voice.

But it's not like that, is it?
We need to be grown up enough
to believe
when the object of our belief is out of sight -
around the corner, perhaps,
or seemingly absent altogether.

A PS on self-esteem etc

A PS to the previous entry
I need to say that I think the Body Shop is great
The website I directed you to has good stuff.
And hats off to The Body Shop
for the way they trade and care
and follow their convictions
and help us follow ours.

On self esteem... and stuff

I sat at a cafe today in the Riccarton Mall
(sorry, Westfields Riccarton - blah!)
with my two girls
waiting for my capuccino.

Also waiting was a woman whose back I could see.

She looked like she was dressed in retail-uniform
(using that to describe what people work in retail wear
not the required dress-code for retail shoppers!)
and I was curious to know for whom she worked.

You see, across the back of her t-shirt were the words
"I'll always be number one to myself".

And I shook my head and wondered if I was reading it right.

She finally turned around and returned to work.
The front of her t declared she was working at The Body Shop.

How is that?
Why do we need to take a healthy emphasis on good self-esteem,
such as what I find here on their web-site
and turn it into a "therefore I am number one" statement.

I don't wanna be number one.
I wanna be an interdependent part of my many networks.
I want to be Steve's wife and partner
but not number one, not the most important.
I want to be the mother of my children
but not number one, not the most important.
I want to be a good sister, a good friend
but not number one, not the most important.
I want to be a kind and loving daughter and daughter-in-law
but not number one, not the most important.
I want to be a good employee
but not number one, not the most important.
I want to be an involved, real, honest church member
but not number one, not the most important.

I want to live symbiotically
organically, interdependently.

I am not number one.
I don't want to be.

I want to value my own importance,
but not above others.
I want to be whole
but not at others' expense.

Most of all,
I don't want it to be a hierarchy
where someone is number one,
thus assigning others other, lower, numbers.

Don't wanna!
Won't!

First hot text...

I got to do the first "Hot text" at Opawa Baptist on Sunday.

I was nervous - actually dreamt about it 2 nights b4
in an anxious sort of way.

Steve was preaching Colossians 1:12-23
so I got to further pull together my thoughts
on the whole sea glass mosiac thing.

Some good feedback afterwards,
including thanks from someone who
is currently being tumbled.

Hot text follows:

God found me on a beach north east of Gisborne.
I found God on a beach north east of Gisborne.

We arrived for our refreshing, long,
beach- and sun-filled holiday
Only to discover wind
and wind
and hassles with the purchase of our house.

It wasn’t the relaxed stress-free time it was meant to be.

We drove into Gisborne to phone the lawyer
We held onto our tent poles anxiously
We drove to Gisborne to get our tent poles repaired.
We spoke to the neighbouring caravaner
about the concrete foundations
he uses for his awning in the winter time.

But I found God there
In what was really a minor inconvenience
rather than a major drama
I found God asking me if I trusted
If I would trust in the hard, as well as the easy.

Yep, I decided, I would.

And then God gave me a treat
An insight

I was walking on the beach
Collecting sea-glass.

You know, those bits of broken bottle
that have been so tumbled by the waves,
so smoothed by the sand,
so mellowed by all that has happened to them
that they emerge smooth and rounded and beautiful.

I looked at the sea glass
I held it and felt it
and suddenly I thought about Colossians 1
and about the Message translation which says:
All the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe
- people and things, animals and atoms-
get properly fixed
and fit together in vibrant harmonies,
all because of his death,
his blood that poured down from the Cross.

And I thought,
perhaps it’s not about God
fixing things by
sticking everything back together the way it was.
Perhaps God will make something
new and mosaical with all this.
With our world, with people’s lives.
Not by sticking shattered shards
back together with superglue,
but allowing brokenness to be healed
by the rhythms of life,
and making the resultant beauty
to fit together in vibrant harmonies.

And I think about my life
And how God takes the jagged edges off me,
off my experiences,
and I hope to tumbled by God
to be continually healed and shaped by the rhythms of life
by the grace of God
in the company of God’s good people.

All because of his death
His blood that poured down from the Cross.

All the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe
- people and things, animals and atoms-
get properly fixed
and fit together in vibrant harmonies,
all because of his death,
his blood that poured down from the Cross.

"Hmm" said the salesman

"There's probably nothing I can offer you then."

Young man from Telstra Clear
keen to sell me their services.

He went away, in an
"OK, you seem to have it all sussed" sort of way.

So nice to feel so well organised!

Toll calls with GI Ltd
(14c per minute anytime within NZ,
42c to cell phones,
with 5% of toll spend
going to support new baptist churches.)

Cell phone barely used
with message service available on landline
(therefore no paying for voice msgs).
Internet access through work.

How organised are we?

I smiled... twice

Really I did.
At previously-snarled-at woman.

I have smiled at her,
genuinely,
the last 2 times I have seen her.

Woke up morning after last blog entry
and realised I could
thought I would.
And did.

OK
So we were both in our cars
and she wouldn't have seen me
But the attitude was there!

Really .. it was!

Unembargoed embargoed insights

Or one anyway...
and then a personal rave about my current angst

From the exegesis/excavation
I did in prep for Steve's sermon today...

Colossians 1:1-12

I really liked NT Wright's definitions
of endurance and patience,
as identified by Paul (Col 1:11)
as qualities required to live in the world,

endurance = what faith, hope and love bring
to a seemingly impossible situation.
patience = what faith, hope and love show
to a seemingly impossible person.

I like the fact that I'm allowed to acknowledge
that there are people I find
"seemingly impossible" out there.

That's reassuring.

But I needn't get stuck there.

Because, because of the gospel,
I can have patience.

I'm working on that.
I'm on a journey.

You see I think God may have winked at me.
I think God may be asking me a Job-question.
I think God may have a redemptive eye
on the first person in many years
(in fact I can't remember one before!)
who makes me want to poke my tongue out at her.
(Such maturity, I know!)

Ahh
Because of the gospel
Because what I hope for
is kept safe for me in heaven,
I can have patience.

Will I go to Ninevah?
Or will I run away?
(And if I run away
will I be gobbled up by a fish,
only to be spat on the shore of my Ninevah,
to have God wink again?)

Watch this space!

PS I need to say I don't know this person
I encounter them in a retail setting.
Actually
(having had a run-in
that involved my lovely 4 year old
and raised my blood pressure)
I now actively work to avoid encountering her.
But I have a hunch
that God may be smiling on her
winkling her out
(and she sure does need it!!!!!!
(that last bit uncharitably and tongue in cheek!!))

Oh, God
I want to get to the place
where I can say,
"OK, OK. Use me"
(Still not terribly convincing, is it?
I actually want to get beyond that point
to one where I enthusiastically leap into action
but that will do for starters!)

embargoed insights

I'm doing some sermon exegesis stuff for steve
as part of his/opawa's strategy to help him cope
in this no-youth-pastor phase of existence.

The problem?
I do the exegesis 12 days ahead...
so Steve shapes the sermon and preaches
from the passage I look at
12 days after the exegesis.

I feel I can't share my insights here
when they are fresh for me
and "beat him to it" in his sermon.

I shall have to think of a strategy...
perhaps blog the stuff and post it post-sermon...

we shall see!

On banknotes and compost bins

I have just discovered
that old bank notes
don't die
don't lie discarded
don't get shredded...

they get recycled.

Turned into useful things
like wheelbarrows and compost bins.

How many dollars does it take to make a compost bin?
I wonder!

From the Reserve Bank's website...
Polymer is also more environmentally friendly. Whereas paper notes were shredded and discarded at the end of their lives, old polymer bank notes can be recycled economically into useful products such as polymer wheelbarrows, compost bins and plumbing fittings. (See here!)