Monday, November 29, 2010

Thanksgiving 2010




There is much for me to be thankful for this year. The turkey meal for one turned out quite well, in spite of the fact that our girls were not home early enough to help with much of the baking and cooking! (They both flew home late Wednesday, Lauren from St. Louis and Kathryn from Chicago.) Turkey was moist--tried a smoked turkey this time--and the side dishes were a hit. We had dessert galore with an ameretto ricotta cheesecake from Lauren, tipsy angel food cake from Pauline (our young seminary friend), and the must-haves of apple and pumpkin pies!

I am thankful most of all for my God, who has kept and loved me and my family all through the year and the years before, and will continue to do so in the years to come. It is comforting to wake up each morning, assured that I am in the palm of a loving and powerful God, knowing that no matter what unfolds during the day, He is with me to sustain and to guide.

I am thankful for my husband who drives me batty in many ways but whose love and faithfulness I have been able to count on through the years. We embarked on our empty-nesting journey this September and are enjoying our time sans les filles.

I am thankful for our daughters: our college graduate whose love for the children she mentors inspires me, and our college freshman who has dived into collegiate life with her usual oomph and enthusiasm.

I am thankful for my mother whose love still warms me from across the miles. I am grateful that she is in relatively good health, having given us quite a scare late this summer.

I am thankful for my friends, young and old, near and far. This summer I was able to connect with college friends whom I've not seen in many years. And this weekend, a high school friend popped in for a visit! I look forward each week to the time of bible study, prayer and laughter with my Dallas friends. My seminary friends keep me young and connected.

I am thankful for my professors at the seminary, for their inspiring and dedicated teaching. What a privilege it is to be able to study Systematic Theology with Sinclair Ferguson or the Pentateuch with Douglas Gropp. I don't have to worry too much about getting Alzheimer's as they challenge my grey cells with the rigor and profundity of their courses!

I am thankful that from the pulpit this Thanksgiving Sunday, I heard the reading and preaching of one of my favorite passages in Scripture. I leave you now with Luke 2:21-35,

And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

And when the time came for their purification according to the Law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord”) and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the Law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him according to the custom of the Law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
“Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation
that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and for glory to your people Israel.”

And his father and his mother marveled at what was said about him. And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”




Thursday, October 21, 2010

Gratitude


The Breakfast Table, 1883-1884, John Singer Sargent,Fogg Museum

All that we have are given to us by our loving heavenly Father, including the gift of life. May we not forget our very generous and gracious God when we are enjoying His bountiful gifts.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

The Prudent and the Simple

The prudent sees danger and hides himself,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.

Proverbs 27:12

Monday, July 26, 2010

A Fork in the Road


The Three Trees, Rembrandt, 1643

“…Life is a bent path among branching possibilities—after you move past a fork in the road, you cannot get back.”
John Updike, In the Beauty of the Lilies

I've been thinking of this quote from Updike for the past couple of weeks. It is wonderful yet intimidating when life presents us with possibilities. We pray that we will take the right path, make the right decision; we should indeed carefully consider the possibilities. However, I think there are times and situations when we can get back to that fork in the road. When we know we have chosen the wrong path, it would be foolish to keep going down that road and hope for the best. I believe we can retrace our steps (it will probably be arduous, requiring sweat and determination, and perhaps embarrassment and humility), but it sure beats pridefully stumbling down the path of stones and briars, absorbing unnecessary injuries that will take a lengthy time to heal, and acquiring a lifetime of scars.

Friday, July 9, 2010

Teach Us to Number Our Days

...following up on my previous post about living life in earnest...

A prayer of Moses in Psalm 90 speaks similarly of living life earnestly, with God-given wisdom and God-ward purpose. In the Psalm, I am reminded that it is the eternal God who not only gives me life but is the one who sustains my life. My life may be brief and fleeting (even if I live to 80!), but there is much that God would have me do. And in order to live my life fully in the "living present" (Longfellow), I need God to teach me to number my days that I may gain a heart of wisdom to live each of my days purposefully for Him (Psalm 90:12), and not flippantly for myself. When I wake up each morning, may He grace me with an acute awareness of His unchanging love. May He be so gracious as to establish the work of my hands for the day, helping me to recognize the opportunities that He has set before me, giving me the eyes to see beyond my own truncated agenda, and granting me the will and strength to bid His call (especially when what He is calling me to do is inconvenient, difficult or unpopular).

I believe we can indeed "make our lives sublime" (Longfellow), but only when our motivation, focus and purpose rest beyond ourselves. For if they come from within ourselves, we become proud and self-absorbed!

Friday, July 2, 2010

Life is Earnest


Painting by Jacob van Strij (1756–1815)


I was recently reminded of a poem that I first heard from my father. It's A Psalm of Life by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. I can see my dad with my mind's eye, smiling as he often did, telling me not to live life like dumb driven cattle but to be a hero in the strife of life. I don't think he particularly meant doing heroic things, but rather living life purposefully.

As I read the poem anew, I am impressed by Longfellow's reminder to live life fully in the present. Our past shapes us, our future directs us, but we need to live earnestly in the here and now, with a sense of purpose that is beyond ourselves.

Here is the poem:

A PSALM OF LIFE
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each to-morrow
Find us farther than to-day.

Art is long, and Time is fleeting,
And our hearts, though stout and brave,
Still, like muffled drums, are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.

In the world’s broad field of battle,
In the bivouac of Life,
Be not like dumb, driven cattle!
Be a hero in the strife!

Trust no Future, howe’er pleasant!
Let the dead Past bury its dead!
Act,— act in the living Present!
Heart within, and God o’erhead!

Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time;

Footprints, that perhaps another,
Sailing o’er life’s solemn main,
A forlorn and shipwrecked brother,
Seeing, shall take heart again.

Let us, then, be up and doing,
With a heart for any fate;
Still achieving, still pursuing,
Learn to labor and to wait.