Feasting and Fasting

Occasionally I listen to the podcasts from Mars Hill Church. They are always so full of teaching and the Word of God. I do recommend them because they are always fresh.

One such podcast was on feasting and fasting and what they truly mean to us. In the abbreviated form:

Fasting is taking the thing away that’s a barrier to God – it doesn’t always have to be food. It can be technology, a sport, a hobby, any distraction.

Feasting is transforming that very thing that could distract us from God, into that which takes us to God – we don’t have to feast on food alone either. We can feast on our sight and appreciate the world God created. We can feast on our hearing and praise His mighty Name. We can feast on the little things. We can even feast on our very breath. Feasting is finding gratitude toward God and knowing He loves us and wants us to experience joy.

I love the different perspective on these definitions. We can worship God through both.

Making Sense – Hearing

Continuing the study of the senses, today I will explore the sense of hearing.

When I was very young I had a condition which damaged my hearing. I was almost deaf and didn’t know it. I had learnt to read lips and no one knew. But I became extremely shy because I didn’t always understand what people were saying. I believed I was stupid. Others thought I was rude because I didn’t always respond to them. So I retreated into a shell where I couldn’t cause any anger or earn any ridicule.

Then my mum discovered the problem and the doctors operated. When I woke after surgery I cried and I cried because every sound seemed to boom in my ears. This was my new normal. I could hear again. Because I was so young I hadn’t realised how much I’d been missing.

I thank the Lord for this hearing. I could at last understand the things that went on around me. I was no longer lost in a muffled world.

If you have the gift of hearing, then I urge you to use it.

Listen to the wind in the trees.

Listen to the birds in the neighbourhood.

Listen to the ocean waves breaking on the shore or the traffic roaring by.

Listen to God’s voice. Hear His whispers. Respond to His call.

Making Sense – Sight

God has given us the gift of five senses with which we can experience the world around us. This week I’ll be doing a 5 day ‘study’ on these senses. Ok, so ‘study’ may be too strong a word, but I will explore a sense a day just to see where it takes me. Today’s sense is sight.

I think of sight as an artist’s tool. We see and then we interpret. What one person sees is not always the same as what another person sees. One might see the kindness in a stranger’s eyes, whereas another might only see the stranger’s filthy clothes. What do you see?

Through sight we can perceive only brokenness and grow discouraged or we can behold God’s creation and rejoice.

We can witness God’s love in action, or we focus only on our failings.

We can find joy in a child’s smile.

We can see signs and wonders.

We can learn and grow.

We can dream.

Or we can close our eyes and choose darkness.

What do you choose?

The Attitude of Age

Continuing on the theme of perception, I thought I’d talk about that dreaded thing called old age. Why are we so obsessed with age? Why do we spend ridiculous amounts of money on make up, chemicals, surgery, even airbrushing, in the never ending search for youthfulness? What are we so afraid of?

Some days I feel like 101 and yet other days I still feel like a teenager even though those years are long gone. Is it all just a matter of perception?

The European Social Survey (the ESS) polled 40 000 people to see the differing opinions of the definition of ‘old age’. Apparently those aged 15-24 thought that youth ended at just 28 and old age started at 54. However, those in their 80’s regard the final year of youth to be 42 and old age began at 67. These numbers also varied in differing countries. For example, in Portugal they were no longer young at 29, but in Cyprus it was 45. Even climate, education and types of jobs factor in the equation. If you feel younger then old age seems further away.

I often wonder what it will be like when my knees give out, my bones become brittle, my eyesight worsens and the wrinkles take root. And then I remember that regardless of how old we feel, despite the fear we carry deep down inside, our Lord reassures us that He will be there. He will be our strength when we are weak. He keeps us young in spirit.

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4 (NIV)

Are you struggling with that label “old age”? What is the best thing about growing older? How do you keep young?

Attack of the Mutant Carrots

Do you like my carrots? Yes, they are carrots. No, really. I grew them and then yesterday I harvested them. I’m very proud of these carrots. They may be too embarrassed to show themselves to the other shop-bought vegetables, but I love them because I grew them. So what if they aren’t perfect? So what if they are a little strange and very stumpy?

Even though I’m not a skilled gardener, I managed to grow these little nuggets of sunshine all by myself. I think they are beautiful.

God thinks we are beautiful for the same reason. He made us and He loves us. It doesn’t matter about the environment we grew up in. It doesn’t matter if we have physical defects. It doesn’t even matter what we think about ourselves. We can be a little strange. We can be a little stumpy. We can be considered outcasts. And God will love us anyway.

Because God sees our beauty, we are free to be ourselves. We are free to allow God to shape us, rather than society.

Do you allow society to guide the way you think about yourself? Are you influenced by all the beautiful models and celebrities we see everywhere? Do you really believe you are beautiful because God believes you are beautiful?

Beyond the Yotta

I was reading recently that scientists are looking for a new name for a thousand million million million million. That is, a number with 27 zeros. Currently the highest prefix we have is a “yotta” which is 24 zeros. Impressive, but apparently it’s not impressive enough.

Our advancement in technology has allowed us to count phenomena way beyond the giga, the tera, the zetta and now the yotta. Such high numbers can be found when measuring the distances between galaxies or counting the atoms in large samples. But who is to say 10²⁷ will be sufficient?

For me all this simply reminds me how vast the universe is, how little we truly know of it, and how small we seem in comparison. It reminds me of God’s infinite power and how we can’t even come close to quantifying it or even replicating it. And it reminds me that despite how small we might seem, God will never lose us in the immeasurable expanse that fills the universe.

The Big Picture

Would you know what the first image was if you couldn’t see the second image?

Often we think we know what the big picture is. We carry on living as if we had all the answers. We bravely make plans on what we think we know and we rely on this knowledge above anything else.

And then something happens and we realise we don’t know everything. We remind ourselves that we are fallible. Then we turn back to our Lord and humbly ask for forgiveness because we have learnt – yet again – that we can only rely on Him. Only God can see the big picture, the whole picture. Only God understands everything. Only God can guide us through our blindness with a steady hand.

The Strawberry

Life is like a Strawberry. Its sweetness can be delighted in – until you get a seed caught in your teeth. Then you have to pick at it and poke at it and hope the seed dislodges. It’s uncomfortable and irritating when it refuses to budge. Even though you know the seed will eventually come out, it becomes a distraction to everything else.

The big question then presents itself to the lover of strawberries. Do I avoid the strawberry for fear of the seed? Do I perhaps only appreciate the shape, the plumpness and juiciness of the strawberry from afar? Or, do I take large bites out of the fruit and accept whatever comes my way because I know the strawberry is a gift?

The thing is a strawberry, like life, can only be fully appreciated in its entirety. This includes the seeds. We can do all we can to avoid the seeds. We can squash strawberries down and strain out the seeds. We can cook them and soften the seeds. But no matter what we do, strawberries will always have seeds. It’s just a matter of how we deal with them.