A cheerful heart brings a smile to your face; a sad heart makes it hard to get through the day. Proverbs 15.13 (MSG) It was one of my sisters' birthday this week, and so one of my other sisters arranged for us all to make a little 'Happy Birthday' video, and then she put them all together. It was brilliant! Everyone in my family seemed to use this as an opportunity to be varying degrees of silly, and all my sister's friends gave very tame, heartfelt, proper birthday messages! 😂😂 But it was brilliant to see each other being silly, and then to join together later on a video call to again be silly and make each other laugh.
I'm sure you've all got those people in your life who make you laugh. And at the moment, I think it's more important than ever to not take ourselves too seriously and allow ourselves and others to laugh at our sillyness. I made this post because one of the pastors at my church shared a story of how he needed to buy some dental tape, but in order to avoid delivery charges, he had to buy 8 reels of it. When he told his wife, our other pastor, she said, "What about if you die before you use them all?" Which set them both about laughing, and they were glad of that moment of light relief and the release that it brought. The proverb above seems to hold true in my experience. Doesn't mean it's always easy to have a cheerful heart, but there are things we can do to help. We can force ourselves to stay in contact with those we love and who love us, even when we don't feel like it. We can try to focus on the things that make us happy and feel strong, instead of ruminating on what we're not good at or that makes us sad. And we can open up to others when we need someone to break through our wall of damaging thoughts against ourselves. Keep laughing. Keep loving. Keep hoping. Stay safe, and take care!
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You will keep that person in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on you, because they trust in you. Isaiah 26.3 (translation mine) I'm going to share a little more about me in today's post (not that I don't mostly just end up doing that anyway...) - I keep the Sabbath. Now, it's not some legalistic thing I do with a million and one rules or lists of 'I shall not...', and I absolutely don't do it because I think it'll get me into heaven or that people who don't do it won't be invited. Not at all! I keep Sabbath because it injects rhythm and purpose into my weekly walk with God.
I try to do things on Sabbath that will direct me towards God - I spend time reading the Bible, worshipping and praying, I sometimes study books about faith and God, I talk with people and make sure I know how they're really doing, and sometimes I get the chance to make things while doing some of that as well! I love creating as I worship, or pray, and making things that focus me on some aspect of God's character, either alone or alongside a friend. Last Sabbath I got to do just that. For my housemate's birthday a couple of months ago I'd gotten her a lino-cutting starter pack, and we'd liked it so much that we'd gotten some more pads, and then we hadn't really done much with them. After we enjoyed a good lunch together (with cheesecake for dessert - my all time favourite!), we decided to do some printing. I had this verse in my head from earlier as it was the one sent to me that day to illustrate for my church's Look up in Lockdown post, and I just sat there reflecting on this idea of "perfect peace". And in that day, of not having to worry about productivity or work; and in that meal, of being open and true with my husband and closest friend; and in the discussion we'd had about the intricacy and beauty of the flowers that adorned the table, sent to me from my sister earlier in the week - I felt a sense of that perfect peace. So I made a print of one of the carnations that stood in the little jar of water in front of me. To remind me of that beautiful time when there was no fretfulness, no rush, and no worry, and to remind me that this is what God wants for each of us. Peace. Shalom. Wholeness. Perfect peace. Stay safe, and take care! Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; on you I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, your tender mercies and your lovingkindnesses, for they are from of old. Psalm 24.5-6 (NKJV) The Psalmists went through some pretty treacherous times, and they documented them willingly. But in each Psalm, no matter how difficult the picture is that they paint of their lives, they are singing to God of how good and faithful God remains. If you were to write a song to God right now (ignoring musical capabilities, rhymes, rhythm or anything else that goes into the complicated mix of songwriting), what would you say? What would you focus on? What would you sing about? What would you want to repeat again and again in a chorus until you feel the truth of it in your bones?
We sing God's praises, we sing a new song, we sing day by day. Maybe, like the Psalmists, we can use these difficult times to sing from our home fortresses too. To sing that God is the God of our salvation. To use these precious moments to seek God's truth for us today. I love the second half of this verse: God didn't spring up when tough times started: God's tender mercy and lovingkindness is of old! They've been here forever, and will continue to be so. Whether we're sat here content, or on our knees with broken spirits and tearful emotions, let us know that God hasn't changed. Let us sing new songs as we pray to God to be here with us, new yet the same each and every morning. Stay safe, and take care! [Daniel, to Goliath:] You come at me with sword and spear and battle-ax. I come at you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel's armies, whom you curse and mock. 1 Samuel 17.45 It doesn't take a giant to kill a giant! I remember back when we actually went to church, one of the girls (age 5-6) would repeatedly ask me for the story of David and Goliath. I'd try and convince her to have a different one sometimes, but we'd always come back to this tale at some point! She clearly passed that love on to her little brother too, whose dad asked him why he loves the story so much this week. And with an innocent look and a smile on his face, he answered, "because tiny David killed the giant Goliath!"
With kids, good and bad is so easy! If the good one kills the bad one, it's happy days! I remember when I lived with a family a couple of years ago, and we were watching The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe for film night, and when it got to the ending fight scene, the 4-year-old girl saw Aslan's army go charging off and was shouting, "Yes, go, go, go, kill the witch," like she was in some 16th century witch-hunt!!! It's not so easy now. Did Goliath want to fight for the Philistines, or was he forced because of his great size? Why was this war happening anyway? Who had started it (if it's ever that simple...)? I'm not a fan of violence, in any form, and this tale has lots of it! But there are times when I have felt like what I was up against was bigger than I could overcome. Like I'm tiny David against the giant Goliath. When I was going through my times of disordered eating and struggling with anorexia, it has felt like a giant standing between me and the way to being healthy again. And those times certainly felt like a fight. A fight it was often easier not to fight, like the Israelites, cowering and shaking in their tents, not putting anyone forward, hoping it would all just be fine in the end, even if they didn't actually do anything. They could take the mocking and the shame, the humiliation - but they weren't willing to take the pain of trying to fight and losing. And each time I've felt like I was in the hands of anorexia (those giant hands coming out forwards out of my illustration), I am convinced that I have only survived because I finally let God come and fight it for me. God is the reason tiny David killed the giant Goliath. And God is the reason we can overcome things that are far too big for us to overcome on our own! If you feel like you're up against something way bigger than you can overcome, remember today that it doesn't take a giant to kill a giant. God is there, waiting for you to let God in and transform the possibilities! Stay safe, and take care! But for you who revere my name, the sun of righteousness will wise with healing in its rays. And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves. Malachi 4.2 (NLT) Not so long back, around January, I was exhausted all the time. I would go out to work, and by the time I got home it was not abnormal for me to just climb into my bed and fall asleep. Now, I wasn't working long hours, and I'm the sort of person who is usually go-go-go, so it was frustrating and a little alarming in its almost constant-ness. The tiredness also made me get ill more often, which when you're in your first year of working in a school anyway means getting ill A LOT. So after a few weeks I decided to go to the doctor and had a blood test - nothing serious, just on the low side of a few things, one of which was Vitamin D. Unsurprising given it was the middle of winter and I live in the UK! I talked to a doctor at my church (because I didn't really understand my test results and because there was nothing terrible, my doctor never called about them...) and he suggested a daily multivitamin including iron and vitamin D, and so that's what I got! And since then, I've been absolutely fine! I've had lots of energy, done lots of things, and feel stronger. Sadly, I still caught things at school, but they certainly didn't hit me as hard. I was surprised at how much of a difference it has made!
But maybe that's like our faith too. We go about our normal lives and suddenly we find there's not as much energy in it - not as much zest or interest. We've been doing all the things we were supposed to be - exercising (doing good things), eating healthily (studying the Bible), creating head-space (praying regularly), and yet, it's just become tiring! Well perhaps just as I was so dependent on this "sunshine vitamin" that I hadn't been getting enough of, our spiritual life takes a slow-dive when we're not getting enough exposure to the 'sun of righteousness'. We can't always take our to-do lists into our faith. Productivity can't always be our goal. Slow down - soak up the rays of health and healing. God has what you need. As always, stay safe, and take care! |
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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