To Sing Without a Beak.

I have this wooden bird in my cottage that sits in my cozy little reading nook. It's long, slender neck reaches high towards the Heavens and I call it my “Praise Bird.” Lizzy coined the phrase when she found these carved creatures pointing their beaks to God. When I saw her praise birds worshiping on the kitchen shelf, I knew my house had to have one too.

I handpicked my Praise Bird and settled on its new home in my reading nook as a constant reminder that each day I live should be one stretching my neck towards God and praising Him. This last week a mysterious occurrence happened. I woke up in the morning, glanced in the corner and found that my praise bird was strangely different. Upon closer inspection, I could clearly see that the beak was broken completely off. I searched high and low to find the beak so that I could restore wholeness to my beloved bird, but the beak was no where to be found. An accident must have occurred to de-beak my bird and having no solution for repairing her, I put her back in her spot and carried on with my day.

As the week has gone by I have again and again glanced at my Praise Bird, who is now broken and beak-less. I been struck with the fact that regardless of her state, she continues straining as high as she can to offer praise. It may seem strange but as I look at this funny, little wooden bird, I find within myself a level of relating. At times I have unexpected troubles and trials that come that leave me broken, humiliated, and un-whole. Just like my Praise Bird, I have a choice. I can choose to praise God out of that brokenness or not. The truth is that God, the Almighty, is worthy of praise on good days and bad days. Whether I am feeling strong to stand and declare His worth or I feel as though my life is busted and missing something, He deserves my praise, honour, and adoration.

This week I read, Psalm 92:1-3, it says...

“What a beautiful thing, God, to give thanks, to sing an anthem to you, the High God! To announce your love each daybreak, sing your faithful presence all through the night...”

My heart is steadied in the truth that God does not change. His character, ways, and presence is never dependent on the state of my heart and circumstances. Amen, Hallelujah. As my broken, beak-less Praise Bird stands tall shouting her praises in the corner of my little cottage, so will I choose daily to lift my heart in worship and praise to the One who is always worthy and deserving.

The Coleman 5309.

Tonight the power went out.

Ahh, to live in a village with “routine” power outages.

As I stumbled through the dark toward the kitchen where a pile of dirty dishes awaited me, I was dreading the task of scrubbing in the dark yet again. But alas, I remembered a little gadget tucked away in my house that would help get the job done. I enlisted my cell phone as a torch and made my way to my cottage where my new favorite gadget awaited me. Don't you worry, those dishes are spotless thanks to the help of the “Coleman 5309 Series”...

...This little puppy commonly used for Spelunking, [Spelunking (verb): the act of exploring caves], can be comfortably fastened to your head using the adjustable strap for hand-free, no-fuss illumination. It's wide-beam light is versatile as it moves up and down vertically for optimal viewing pleasure. Wherever the wearer looks, the Coleman 5309 lights the way with ease.

Once I finally regained my vision after squirting tears from hysterical laughing at how ridiculous I looked/felt, I gathered myself and set to the task of dish doing. The Coleman 5309 worked brilliantly-Oh, that has meaning on so many levels. I highly recommend this new little gadget to be added to this year's birthday and Christmas list. It's a must-have for the season.

Feel free to laugh your head off, I have been doing it all night. Especially when I finally looked in the mirror. I dearly love to laugh.

Still Standing.

I have been silent for some time...I have wanted to write but have felt I better keep quiet. I have sought solitude in pursuit of some much needed perspective and soul sorting out that could only be done in the secret, quiet places with my Saviour. It hasn't been easy but I am sensing His restoration and strength renewing me day by day.

Throughout the last few weeks, I have heard echoes of His Word deep in my spirit.

He has said...

“Do not grow weary in doing good,

for in due season you will reap a harvest if you do not give up.”

(Galatians 6:9)

To be honest,

I have grown weary.

Circumstances have threatened my view of God and who He is.

My faith has seemed as small as a mustard seed.

I have been beat down and challenged.

I have wanted to give up.

Each new day I have run to Jesus from a place of wondering, weakness, and brokenness and found that His strength has renewed me. He has reminded me that He has created me to not be a quitter, that HE is the Author and Finisher of my faith, and that He is enough.

The strength of God's Spirit within me has caused me to stand. I have stood and I have purposed to sow seeds of obedience, sacrifice, and worship. I cannot see the harvest quite yet, but I know it is on its way. For He has promised and He is faithful.

When I'm 94.

I recently happened upon this darling picture of my Great Grandma

(who we fondly called, “Grandma Great”) that has been making my heart smile all week.

She was 94 when this picture was taken.

Please note the giant sun hat, the dainty white pearls, and her tender little smirk.

I will have you know if by any chance I live to be 94 years old, I fully intend to look exactly like this.

By the way, Grandma Great had a robust version of “Onward Christian Soldiers,” played at her funeral. It was brilliant.

The Posture of My Pursuit.

God so gently and tenderly revealed to me today why I so often find myself spiritually sore.
The truth is I won't stay down.
I humble myself in adoration and love before my King, longing to serve Him and His people.
Then, the next thing I know, I have popped up again, out of that attitude of humility.

In Philippians 2:7, it describes my Saviour who,
“...Set aside the privileges of deity (though He totally could have claimed them) and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process.” (Italics mine:)

I am amazed that not only did God choose to humble Himself for me, but also that He chose to STAY humbled.
It's the Bent-Down Gospel at its best!
He became a servant and stayed a servant because He knew it pleased the Father.

I am weary of the repetitive spiritual squats that I frequently feel it necessary to do.
I go from humility
to selfishness
to humility
to entitlement
to humility
to plenty of other postures that in no way please God.

In these days I feel called to purposefully adore the Lord better.
This knowingly will involve staying face down before Him.
And so, friends, I am prayerfully down for the count.
Humbled in the Presence of the Almighty.

Confessions of a Manual Laborer.

Over the past month and a half I have had the rare “privilege” of getting an up close and personal look at the life of a builder and/or manual laborer. While finishing my darling cottage I turned into a sort of apprentice to the trades of tiling, painting, furniture staining and countless other odd jobs. To be honest, it hasn't always been pretty and has included a plethora of wounds, mishaps, and even late night work by candlelight. Through the 8 hour days exerting myself in ways I have never experienced, I have come to make some observations regarding the life of a builder. Take them for what they are, the confessions and random thoughts of an outsider looking in on a world previously unknown.

• Manual Labor. Does anyone else notice that the word “MAN” is in the very title? Now I am a rather hard working and independent woman, if I don't say so myself, but I realize now that the reference to “Man” in the title of this sort of work should have at least served as a warning to me. This kind of work is stinkin' hard and ordinarily used to help the men (or women in this case) doing the work feel a sense of masculinity and affirm their strength and gender. Had I stopped to recognize that this is a purpose within manual labor, I perhaps would have a) Given myself some grace and b) Perhaps let someone else help.

• A Lesson on Glove Wearing. Perhaps, like me, you may someday find yourself in the position of working with materials that are known to be harmful to your skin and include a mild, yet present warning on the back of the packaging recommending that you wear gloves. My advice on this one is that you WEAR GLOVES. Do not think to yourself, “Well, Tyler (insert any name here) never needs to wear gloves and he was actually a builder, HA why should I?” or “Warnings, shwarnings, how can I possibly work with such exact perfection were I to wear the said dorky looking and sweat-producing gloves?” Blame me. I failed to wear gloves while grouting my shower and thought the whole day I merely cut my finger which thus began the stinging. I WAS WRONG. The chemicals in fact ate the tips of four of my fingers off , boring holes into them that became like open sores that legitimately hurt like none other and didn't heal for weeks. When in doubt, heed the warnings.

• Man Hands. This topic spirals off of the “Wear Gloves” advisory. Again, I should have stopped to think that partaking in MANual labor would naturally replace my dear, sweet, dainty little hands with MAN HANDS. What are “man hands” you ask? They are defined as hands that mysteriously peal in random places, have cuts, sores, and bruises who's origins are unidentifiable, nails often broken off and you better believe have paint, dirt, concrete, and various other materials forever embedded in every nook and cranny. My lovely hands are still recovering from their month-long thrashing and so again I say, if you can, wear gloves.

• Fun Tools. Yep, I'll admit it. I actually pride myself on now being able to peruse the aisles of Builder's World fully aware of the names and uses of the plethora of tools and materials. From chuck keys to trowels, and fascia board to galvanized pipes, I have grown in familiarity and now see why men like their power tools. They're fun. But the real question is, have you ever used a chalk line? For those of you who don't know, a chalk line is a little magical tool that places a straight chalk line (thus the name) in brilliant violet across any surface with precision and ease. The perfectionist within was mesmerized by it again and again. I totally want one for my birthday.

• R-E-S-P-ECT. In a nutshell, my month and a half chained to my cottage working early mornings to late, late nights has given me a deep sense of respect for those individuals who do manual labor for a living. It is hard work. This may seem obvious but working with nasty materials, dangerous power tools, toxic fumes, sweat dripping, consistently covered in something, day in and day out, is not all it's cracked up to be. I am grateful that I had the opportunity to physically invest and work hard to complete my little cottage, learn so many random skills and prove to myself that MANual labor is not just for men. However, I am relieved to be DONE. Amen, hallelujah!

He Beckons.

Romans 8:14 (MSG)
God's Spirit beckons.
There are things to do and places to go!

God calls us to a new life. A life that is adventurously expectant on Him and His purposes in us to glorify Himself. The book of Romans has been nourishing me this week but I keep finding myself back at verse 14 of chapter 8. I am in a season where the Spirit of God is calling me to deeper levels of faith, trust and intimacy with Him. The Spirit of God truly beckons me. I hear His whisper telling me there is more of Him, more to this life in abundance, more than I ever dreamed or imagined. I don't know how to get this “more” but I can't help but feel my tiny box of expectations and my minuscule vision burst at these stirrings of God. The Almighty is surely on the move. Like a child, wide-eyed with anticipation, I want to be sure to be in these places to see these things that God is up to.

May you sense the Spirit of the Living God beckoning you.
This abundant life in Christ isn't what I thought it was.
I assure you, there is more. God is beckoning.