hello! sunday brief (well not so brief actually)

hello friends! So how is everybody?! Wondering about Tyler, Jon...
I know I haven't posted here in a very long time... (I disappeared for almost a year... you can read my blog for those of you who don't know...)
Anyway, I got this random devotional in my inbox from DaySring and, though a bit cheesey, I thought it was encouraging. It kinda made me think of you all "foul weather friends." Is there really any other kind of friends?- Maybe all-weather friends.

How Can We Walk Through Life's Rain With You?

I wish I had a big red umbrella that would keep all the rain out of your life. I would hold it over your head and the drops would splash, splash and you would never even feel them.

But I don't have a big red umbrella...so I'll walk through the rain with you.

God doesn't intend for us to go through our storms alone. We all need our "foul weather friends" who will venture out into the weather with us.

There are two questions we must answer to not only survive but thrive through life's storms;

Who will walk through the rain with us? And will we let them?

Friends love through all kinds of weather. Proverbs 17:17 MSG

Devotional quote from the 365 Day Inspirational Calendar, Rain on Me based on the book, by Holley Gerth.

I'll share my latest-
We are in the process of moving to Arizona at end of the month. My husband hasn't yet found a for sure full-time job. A couple prospects and many opportunities. But prayers are indeed needed. I know some of you have been mindful of us, and we are so thankful! Please continue to keep us in your prayers. We also have to find a new home and we will be staying with my brother until then. The job really has to come first!?!
Also, we'll be traveling with two cats for a 24 hour drive- NOT straight through, mind you. It could be interesting. I've been reading about it... Many people say kitty tranquilizers are usually in order. I was thinking more like people tranquilizers...
Well, I'm actually fairly peaceful at the moment. We had a good family time praying together this morning- totally unplanned- those are the best. We really realized how much we need to daily lean/trust the Spirit, who has the life we need in spite of the insanity- give us each day our daily bread... The blood still washes and makes new. (Not trying to sound religious- It's just true. sometimes i can forget)

Sitting Down

:sigh:
Hi guys...

Can I just come sit down here for a bit?

Thanks...

Happy Birthday Erin

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday dear Erin.......
Happy Birthday to you!!!

Spammers

I have a feed set for comments on this blog so the new comments all go into my reader. We have now come under the attack of spammers and advertisers. I still don't see any reason to moderate comments here, but I will remain watchful for these types of comments making it in here and will add the senders to the blocked list when possible.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Mike

Happy Birthday Sue

Peace for Jon

Many here know Jon, who started this site. He had embarked on a new journey of a tough new job. He recently is struggling with some things that has his spirits very low. If you could say a prayer of support for him, it would be greatly appreciated. It is one of the things that we felt a loss of when our father died. Every day he prayed for each and everyone of us, his children. That love and devotion of Him is missed sadly, but it was felt. Only as a loss when it was gone, for it was always there when he was alive. But Jon would greatly appreciate the prayers. Thanks.

Heading Back into Community

Hey everybody,

I am thinking seriously about heading back into some sort of Christian community and oh, boy, it doth open up all sorts of worm cans :) It scares me so much!!

The man I was talking to regarding this was very understanding and it's been quite heartwarming. The plan was to go and meet up with these people in their regular Wednesday night meal they all share together. Woke up on Wednesday with 148 different kinds of fears running round my head. It felt almost sort of demonic, actually. Creepy, you know?

And I thought, "Wow, boy, okay. These fears are pretty strong and so I need to unpack them a little," rather than just wanting to breeze into something. I have this tendency to just shove down my disquiet sometimes and it's not to be borne, I'm afraid. The part of me that rocks is too enamoured with reality and groundedness for me to just go into something without dealing with these fears and talking to Papa about them.

So it's been an interesting few days for me. I have really reasserted to myself that I am in fact some sort of a contemplative (which is really no surprise) and that what I am scared of is that going into some sort of community I will feel coerced by the pace and doingness of the other people in the group. That I will find myself doing things that I don't actually want to do simply because everyone else is doing them and that they are good things, you know?

It's so scary, feeling this fear (often quite subconscious) that to be a part of a group you somehow have to lop off parts of yourself and do things differently than the rhythm of your life says (and the Spirit breath says). It has been all kinds of interesting to begin to separate the strands of what it means for me to be myself within community, with the desire to be part of something bigger than myself and to be in a space of loving and being loved. Combine that with those "deny yourself" phrases that Jesus spoke and it's no wonder that so many of us have struggled with maintaining ourselves within communities. We thought that Jesus' words were all about lopping off parts of yourself to fit in, but these days I tend to think that he was referring to those big ego parts of ourselves, the parts that wish to be powerful, to lord it over others, to be right, to be superior, to be always utterly in control.

And so yes, I'm happy to deny myself in those ways. Well, happy to an extent (my ego hates and fears it). But alongside it I'm also terrified. Because giving up control sometimes feels very much like opening yourself up to be abused, and I've had enough of that in my life that sometimes I still get the two mixed up - maybe not so much in my mind, but stll sometimes in my heart. Enough to send me into near panic at the thought of getting involved in community, something which I pant for on the other hand.

Ahhh, paradoxes :)

(And BTW this group is particularly understand of all of these sorts of thoughts. They do not pressure people to get involved beyond what they wish. It actually seems ultra fluid and about relationships rather than pandering to some created structure. It's all exciting ... but still totally scary too).