Unfading Beauty

He is God

2007-06-26T00:10:00.000+01:00

Rocks are pounded by the sea, second after second, minute, hour, day, week, month, year, lifetime. In, out, In, out. In, out. So God is big enough to take that from me. His feelings about me do not change. But I do. Sometimes I am gentle, almost caressing; sometimes I am flat and grey. Sometimes I am full of life and sparkle; sometimes I am angry and full of pain. Sometimes I am listless. Sometimes I long for the shore; other times I never want to get there. Regardless of how and who I am that day, that hour, that minute, God accepts me unconditionally.

He remains, he is constant, he is unchanging.

He is God.

Timing is everything

2007-06-14T16:03:00.000+01:00

I was chatting to one of my mates from England last night, and we got onto the topic (as girls tend to do) of relationships!! As Christians we put a lot of emphasis on "who" God has for us to marry, and forget about the "when". I know everyone has come across at least one smugly married person who has quoted that wonderful line "At the right time your paths will cross...." and most of the time we smile through gritted teeth. But actually there is a lot of truth in that. And I say that from a very single position! How many times have we said (or thought secretly) "If I just knew who it will be it would be so much easier to wait"? But surely if we knew who, it would be so much harder to wait. If we knew who, then, I think, we would probably think we knew when too! We would want to skip the journey of friends-courting-engaged-married, and just cut straight to the chase. And we would lose out on so much by doing that. There's a reason God doesn't hand us a piece of paper at birth with details of husband/wife, number of children, grandchildren, job spec, etc. God is not just about the destination, but about the journey. He wants to travel with us, step by step. I often use The Celtic Daily Prayer Book, and this gets me every time I read it:

As the rain hides the stars,

as the autumn mist hides the hills,

happenings of my lot

hide the shining of Thy face from me.

Yet, if I may hold Thy hand

in the darkness,

it is enough;

since I know that,

though I may stumble in my going,

Thou dost not fall.

Alistair Maclean

One thing my wise housemate often says is that when we are in God's will, things just fall into place. We don't need to force anything. And I have definitely found that out. When I take things into my own hands and try and make things happen, they just don't work. I need to learn to be content to wait on God, because he is not just about the who, but also about the when. Timing is everything...

Space to think

2007-06-10T21:59:00.000+01:00

As I sit here at my laptop, I ask myself "Why am I doing this? Why am I 'blogging'?" And I guess there are a few reasons.... Firstly, I have been so impacted by reading people's blogs, who simply by sharing their thoughts and feelings have allowed me glimpses of God and a new revelation of different aspects of his character. If I can do the same for others then this will be worth it. Secondly, I like to think deep. One of my favourite things to do is to sit or walk with friends and grapple with things I have heard or read or felt. I find that writing helps me to do that. If I am going to communicate my grapplings with others, they must be thought through, start somewhere and end up somwhere else. Writing allows me the space and time to finish my thoughts. Not only that, but I love to write. It's very safe to say that artistic-ness is not one of my strong points. Put a sketching pencil in my hand and I freeze! But I love painting pictures with words. I think it allows the reader the freedom to see their own interpretation. I think it would be pretty unlikely for me and another person to read the same page of a book and have the same image in our minds. That is why I would rather read a book than watch television practically any day of my life. Thirdly, my wonderful housemate http://www.joywatson.blogspot.com has just started to blog, and that gave me the kick up the bum I needed to start mine.

Reading back over this I realise that it is maybe a little intense for a first post, but hey, start as you mean to go on.....