Thursday, June 23, 2005
Intellectuelle
Visit me at my new website - anniecrawford.com
Marla Swoffer hosted a contest to launch a new site of intellectual Christian women bloggers. I am excited to read the site when it begins June 28th. 31 women entered the contest, including me. I entered a devotional post which had been on my mind for a few days at the time. I origionally had meant it for this site, as a meditation on the blessings of the Lord amidst the weariness of housework. I am posting below the origional version, which was too long for the contest.
Please check out Marla's site and the new intellectuelle site as well. I think it will be good food for thought!
Yet when I remember these words of Piper and ask myself, doesn't it make my heart glad to be with God?! Isn't His pressence so sweet? What is wrong? Have I forgotten who HE IS?! Why don't I want to be near Him? Why don't I desire to run to the shadow of His wings? My heart nearly breaks with tears at that last question. All the lies I have believed today, the unconfessed guilt that weighs me, all of it comes rushing foreward to show me the wall built up between me and my kind Savior. It is not a question of "Am I going to do my 7-minute a day duty?" but of fighting for my soul's delight in the only One who can satisfy.
Our God is a mighty, awesome, As a devotional exercise I want to make a list of what makes my heart glad . . .
1 - Wind. I love the cool feel of spring wind, fresh and exhilirating against my skin. I love the delightfully terrifing winds of a Texas summer storm. A gust of strong wind will immediately awake me from my daily stuppor and remind me that there is an awesome, powerful, unpredicatble God directing the earth to turn and the heavens to roar. I learned to love the wind in Chicago. The daily breath of heaven refreshed me often durring a very dry and lonely time in my life. How could we have any understanding of the Spirit without the wind, blowing where it will, strangly invisable yet real? We can't see it, yet we see its' power at work in the trees and upon the grasses. How it can rush across my face remind me of a life and power much greater than I.
2 - When I loose myself playing with my children and for a moment return to the delight of open curiosity, imagination and enrapture. Bearing children has brought depth and joy to the Lord's words, "for such is the kingdom of heaven." Though I am a parent to my girls, I am but a child still, so thankful that I can come to my Father and rest in His arms. It makes my heart inexpressibly glad to know that He ask me to have before Him not adult-like confidence, certainty and control, but child-like faith, trust and freedom. He gave His Son to pay the penalty of the law and to fulfill it so that I might live in newness of life, full of delight, open curiosity, imagination, and enrapture.
3 - I love to work really hard to get a worthwhile project done and then rest and see that it was good. Reflecting upon Genesis 1, I believe that is the heart of the sabbath.
4 - Epiphanies. I love to be suprised and delighted with a new thought, a fresh persepctive, a divinely given understanding that the Lord of hosts has been gracious enough to bless me with.
5 - Choral music. The abundance of, at best, mediocre choral music and performance circulating through our churches may cause you to wonder if I am either crazy or lacking in any musical taste whatsoever. However, there is little other music more truly incredible than a tallented choir singing a divinely inspired peace with excellence and passion. The voice is the one instrument crafted alone by the hand of God. Years ago, in the towering marble capital rotunda of Oregon, our highly awarded high school choir sang an incredible arrangement of "We Three Ships" for the yearly Chirstmas concert. The soaring, consuming sound shook my body with absolute wonder and exhiliration. I am quite sure it was a presious taste of the honor we will have forever to sing praises before the eternal throne.
When I sat down to write this list, I assumed it would be a refreshing yet random collage of the God given blessings in my life. I was somwhat suprised to observe that my heart most deeply rejoices in the moments of this embattled life and in the glimpses of creation that most awake my soul and cause my heart to yearn for the unveiled pressence of my Lord. He is glorious, is He not!? He is utterly beautiful and wondrous enough to satisfy the soul of men for a thousand upon thousand of years. How difficult it can be to remember among the shadows of sin and trial that surround us. I cannot fix my mind on the things above and the glory to be revealed out of duty or because I must, for the law kills! I seek the mountain of the Lord and teh courts of His temple because He is supremely worthy. Where else can I go to satisfy my thirsty spirit? He alone has the Words and fountain of life.
Please check out Marla's site and the new intellectuelle site as well. I think it will be good food for thought!
What makes your heart glad?
I have been haunted by a line from John Piper's DVD The Blazing Center: "The battle is not fought in the realm of duty; by sheer will power doing what is right. The battle lies in what makes your heart glad!" (approximate paraphrase) Wow. I love that! I have heard so much lately about "How are you doing spiritually? How are your quiet times going? Have you done x, y, and z so that you can be spiritually blessed?" I am disturbed by the increase in duty-driven, joy quenching legalism in our American churches. I KNOW I ought to have glorious time in the Word and in prayer daily, but approaching it as a duty akin to brushing my teeth dries up my spirit, especially in times when life is to tough to hack it out with will power.Yet when I remember these words of Piper and ask myself, doesn't it make my heart glad to be with God?! Isn't His pressence so sweet? What is wrong? Have I forgotten who HE IS?! Why don't I want to be near Him? Why don't I desire to run to the shadow of His wings? My heart nearly breaks with tears at that last question. All the lies I have believed today, the unconfessed guilt that weighs me, all of it comes rushing foreward to show me the wall built up between me and my kind Savior. It is not a question of "Am I going to do my 7-minute a day duty?" but of fighting for my soul's delight in the only One who can satisfy.
Our God is a mighty, awesome, As a devotional exercise I want to make a list of what makes my heart glad . . .
1 - Wind. I love the cool feel of spring wind, fresh and exhilirating against my skin. I love the delightfully terrifing winds of a Texas summer storm. A gust of strong wind will immediately awake me from my daily stuppor and remind me that there is an awesome, powerful, unpredicatble God directing the earth to turn and the heavens to roar. I learned to love the wind in Chicago. The daily breath of heaven refreshed me often durring a very dry and lonely time in my life. How could we have any understanding of the Spirit without the wind, blowing where it will, strangly invisable yet real? We can't see it, yet we see its' power at work in the trees and upon the grasses. How it can rush across my face remind me of a life and power much greater than I.
2 - When I loose myself playing with my children and for a moment return to the delight of open curiosity, imagination and enrapture. Bearing children has brought depth and joy to the Lord's words, "for such is the kingdom of heaven." Though I am a parent to my girls, I am but a child still, so thankful that I can come to my Father and rest in His arms. It makes my heart inexpressibly glad to know that He ask me to have before Him not adult-like confidence, certainty and control, but child-like faith, trust and freedom. He gave His Son to pay the penalty of the law and to fulfill it so that I might live in newness of life, full of delight, open curiosity, imagination, and enrapture.
3 - I love to work really hard to get a worthwhile project done and then rest and see that it was good. Reflecting upon Genesis 1, I believe that is the heart of the sabbath.
4 - Epiphanies. I love to be suprised and delighted with a new thought, a fresh persepctive, a divinely given understanding that the Lord of hosts has been gracious enough to bless me with.
5 - Choral music. The abundance of, at best, mediocre choral music and performance circulating through our churches may cause you to wonder if I am either crazy or lacking in any musical taste whatsoever. However, there is little other music more truly incredible than a tallented choir singing a divinely inspired peace with excellence and passion. The voice is the one instrument crafted alone by the hand of God. Years ago, in the towering marble capital rotunda of Oregon, our highly awarded high school choir sang an incredible arrangement of "We Three Ships" for the yearly Chirstmas concert. The soaring, consuming sound shook my body with absolute wonder and exhiliration. I am quite sure it was a presious taste of the honor we will have forever to sing praises before the eternal throne.
When I sat down to write this list, I assumed it would be a refreshing yet random collage of the God given blessings in my life. I was somwhat suprised to observe that my heart most deeply rejoices in the moments of this embattled life and in the glimpses of creation that most awake my soul and cause my heart to yearn for the unveiled pressence of my Lord. He is glorious, is He not!? He is utterly beautiful and wondrous enough to satisfy the soul of men for a thousand upon thousand of years. How difficult it can be to remember among the shadows of sin and trial that surround us. I cannot fix my mind on the things above and the glory to be revealed out of duty or because I must, for the law kills! I seek the mountain of the Lord and teh courts of His temple because He is supremely worthy. Where else can I go to satisfy my thirsty spirit? He alone has the Words and fountain of life.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home