Wednesday, August 31, 2011

endowed with splendor

Well, let's see how a very sleep-deprived Stacia blogs!  Should be fun.

 Let's talk about BEAUTY.  Oh dear, when I write it like that, it seems so daunting.  Let's not be so epic. 

When thinking about beauty, I always think of a verse about differing splendors.  Thank you, Paul (NOT whom I'd expect for beauty insights!).   I Cor. 15:38-41:
"Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor. "

Each of us is endowed with splendor although we differ from another in splendor.  Every woman is beautiful in a very personal way.  The God who calls the stars out by name ensures a handcrafted beauty.


We display His splendor (Is. 49:3, 60:21, 61:3. 62:3).   He has endowed us with splendor (Is 60:9). [Yes, those verses are about Israel.  We're grafted in.  They're also about the redeemed and the already-but not yet kingdom of God.]. 

yeah yeah yeah there are many things in this world that try to destroy beauty (and I think some of the major ones are frantic attempts FOR beauty, e.g. botox and eating issues).  But as we draw closer to God (THE BEAUTY), the ashes themselves become beautiful.  Restoration Resurrection HOPE. 

One of my favorite things is the moment when a veil is lifted and I see a woman's beauty.  It's especially fun if there are things that might mar the beauty.  When you're talking with her and she smiles or looks a certain way... and LOVELINESS is revealed.
Simply and irrevocably.  Oh I love that moment.  Then you know how to see, and you can see God's splendor whenever you see her.

May we all have Jesus' eyes to see.

Just one more note: we are beautiful just because God gives us beauty.  None of it is our own.  There is incredible rest in that truth.  It's all to Him and through Him...and FOR Him.  God loves beautiful women, he created a lot of us!  And we can rest in our beauty, for it depends on Jesus, not us.

Let me end with a movie quote from Twister.  I never ever thought I would write that sentence. 
The aunt catches the leading lady primping in her bedroom, and says, "Well, there's nothing you can do.  You're beautiful."

:)

Saturday, August 20, 2011

i thank You God for most... (cummings. and a little me)

Almost my favorite.  I love e. e. cummings. Read it out loud!

i thank You God for most this amazing day 
~(e. e. cummings)~

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings;and of the gay
great happening ilimitably* earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any - lifted from the no
of all nothing - human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

*Illimitable means incapable of being limited or bounded.  

And now my own little list--
i thank You God most for....  Love (which is You). 

i thank You God (not MOST, but thank you just the same) for:
 Live swing bands and Debussy and Brahms and books books books and Vitamin water and families and the ocean and pumpkin muffins and jiao zi's
 and red red roses and the hope of New Zealand and Italy and different cultures and the particular peculiarity of us people.  
For funniness... You didn't have to create hilarity, but it's lovely to laugh.  I want to know your laugh.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

asking

Well.  It's been a while since I've written, so I'm determined to write something.  


Asking.


Asking God for things.  


Jesus asks us to ask him for specific things.  Like when he asked a blind man what he could do for him (Matt 20, Mark 10, Luke 18).  And when Jesus asked the cripple by the pool if he wanted to be healed (John 5).
(I always thought those verses indicated a sense of humor, but now I believe Jesus was in earnest.  Drastic healing means drastic change, and voluntary change is never for the faint of heart.)


And of course, the famous, "Ask [in my name] and you will receive, and your joy will be complete (John 16:24)." For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Luke 11:10)," "For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matt 7:8)."  And more.


God has asked me what I want during various conversations, and my typical response has been, "I want what you want."  I truly want what He wants, and believed that this was the right, holy answer.  It's also a pretty safe answer.


I still think that.


HOWEVER~~~~ 


It wouldn't be very fun if a father asked their four-year-old what he wanted for his birthday, and the kid replied precociously, "I want whatever you want to give me, Daddy."  


It builds intimacy to voraciously LONG for a red fire-engine and then receive it.  More fun for the parent, too.  There's no robotic qualities whatsoever.


So with God, He's been nudging me to ask for things I want.  Which is terrifying and difficult!
It challenges who we can truly say that He is (probably most important question of our lives).  Is my Jesus kind?  Does He care about my desires?  Are they submitted to him but not stuffed into deadness?


And after the courageous leap to ASK (for healing, for a nation, for strawberry bubble gum, whatever have you) comes.... the waiting.  [duh duh duh DAH. Beethoven's 5th]


I wonder if the hours in the Garden of Gethsemane were not harder for Jesus than the flogging. 
The anticipation, the AGONY... the waiting.


confusion and doubts and accusations sting like hail.  No wonder faith (being SURE of what we HOPE for) is called a shield.


Well, that's all I've got.  Being in the thick of things, I really don't have resolution except that 
1. God wants us to search after what's in His heart and ask him those things. 
2. God also asks us to ask Him for things that we truly desire.  He LOVES it, because this means that we trust his kindness towards us, and we HOPE in Him. This brings us closer to him.  
3. Waiting is a battlefield, and God is glorified when we dare to fully feel and ache with him.
4. We know Jesus in a unique, precious way when we wait for things we long for.  He's only been waiting, oh, several thousand years for his bride!