Seasons of Love

Perhaps it's because it's currently wedding season, but I can't get the following thought out of my head...

I love watching young and old couples alike holding hands in the grocery store, opening the door for one another, referring to each other as "My Beautiful Bride" or "My Love." I enjoy seeing newlyweds that can't sit farther than a few inches apart at church. I love hearing "how we met" stories at the nursing homes. I find beauty in hearing that my best friend misses her husband when he's been gone but a day.

I'm beginning to sound like a creeper, so let me cut to the point...

While I am not another person's bride (yet), I still have an identity as a bride. I am part of the Bride of Christ. I want to live each day craving to be close to the Bridegroom - Christ. I want to draw nearer to Him everyday. I want to cling to Him when my world shakes. I want to tell those with open ears how we met. And yes, I miss Him even now, though He is not gone. I look so very forward to the day when I can be with Him in His kingdom.

Remedy Drive has a song called "Daystar" (from their "Magnify" album). Here are a few lines from it:

Hasten the day You come take Your Bride away. Send your cherubim chariots to carry the conquering children home to the Promised Land. Bright and Morning Star paint the sky so far with the colors from a dawn of an eternal dawn that will chase shadows away that will set up light upon a throne in the center of it all. So hear me call: "Heaven open. Sprinkle stardust in my eyes from the day that's dawning. Hear me call. Rise the Daystar in my heart. My King is coming!"


I love it. :)

There are days when I wish I could simply jump back in time a few hundred years. I'd love to live in a time where families lived close, evenings were spent together, education and manners were taught at home, and the church was the social hub of society. Obviously this wasn't the case "back in the day" all the time and there were many "cons" as well, but I'm sick of everything that is not from the last five seconds being considered out of date and unimportant.

Solomon said, "There's nothing new under the sun." SO true! Even with technology advancing every second of every minute of every hour of every day, the ideas behind them are the same. Social Media? Wanting to connect to one another! Aka...God's idea behind creating relational beings.

You want to know the real reason for this rant (GRR)?
Respect your elders. Don't regard every thing they say as stupid or out-of-touch with reality. Many of them have seen heights and depths of humanity you cannot imagine. And for Heaven's Sake....quit ignoring them!

Tis a gift..

One of the first songs I learned to play on piano was simple gifts. It has a sweet little melody and folk-y words. I never thought much of it before, but ironically while the words are simple, the message is deep:

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come 'round right.

It was originally written by an elder Shaker. (They were an interesting group!)

Maybe it's just the small-town girl in me aching for a bit of familiarity and simplicity, but there are days I just can't wait for Heaven. No paperwork, no schedules that are filled beyond capacity, no attempts to do so much in order to "feel" likes something. Heaven is sure to be much simpler, for we will have but one focus - worshiping the King.

Yet, should that not be our one focus here? In all of our busyness and chaos, worship should be the one focus. Can I not worship God by living a holy life, by remember the mission He has called me to? Sometimes this involves being involved in complicated things, for life itself can be complicated. I suppose the question is what in life is made up of unnecessary complication and what in life am I trying to bury with all of those other things?

Enough rambling....just some random mid-afternoon thoughts to get out of my head. ;)

Oh my.

Friends, I just need some space to process a few things. Here goes:
In the month of May I will only have 3 full days available to be in the office. Next month I will be on Emergency Disaster Services, going as a delegate to the territorial social services seminar, doing my cousin Sarah's wedding (yeah!), attending the divisional business seminar, and going to SACEP. Mind you, I am looking forward to all of these things, however, I feel quite guilty for not being in the office more. Additionally, in June, I will be attending the pre-Jamboree, Commissioning, and music camp. This takes me away from the corps three Sundays in a row. July brings the Jamboree and Pilgrimage (2 Sundays) and August brings SACEP, brief furlough, and returning my family to CFOT. October brings the Scandinavian Jubilee with the divisional youth band and Officers Councils. November begins kettles.

Oh. my.

Quite simply, I will not neglect the responsibilities I have assumed in the next months. However, I am painfully aware that when August comes I will have to do some serious pruning of activities I'm involved in. Army though they may be, they do not all have direct correlation to my corps. I want to be more available for my people. I do not want them to always assume that I am too busy for them.

Dear Lord,
Grant me wisdom. Show what to do (and not to do). Teach me how to be in Your presence. Teach me Sabbath - not laziness - but Sabbath.
Amen

"In the chaos, in confusion I know You're sovereign still. In the moment of my weakness You give me strength to do Your will. So when You call I won't refuse. Each new day again I'll choose. There is no one else for me. None but Jesus. Crucified to set me free. Now I live to bring Him praise." - Hillsong