Long Storms

Recently we watched The Shawshank Redemption, a favorite of mine.

The line that really stood out to me this watching was Andy Dufresne: "I was in the path of the tornado... I just didn't expect the storm would last as long as it has." 

Most storms I feel fine, think I can brave them out, even enjoy some of the power and rawness. But sometimes life makes me feel like Piglet, a Very Small Animal on a Blustery Day, and the Blustery Storm just keeps coming and coming and I realize how much I lack Bravery. Then God slowly, quietly teaches my heart to hold hope, which is what both Andy and Red learn in the film.

And I started wondering, what are some things Scripture says about storms coming upon God's people. So...


I know that Christ calmed the storm in Luke 23-24: and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. He certainly does not always calm the storm, at least when I would like, but I believe He will always give a calm to those who are His. Thinking of the children's song: With Jesus in the boat we can smile through the storm. :)

He sends and controls the storms -- Psalm 107:25 and 29: For he commanded and raised the stormy wind, which lifted up the waves of the sea.  He made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed. Psalm 148:8:  fire and hail, snow and mist, stormy wind fulfilling his word!

Job 30:22 tells that God sends us to ride the storm: You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it, and you toss me about in the roar of the storm. Not sure what it means to ride the storm... makes me think of Muad'Dib

Psalm 57:1 tells He gives us refuge during the storm... note to self, NOT that He always takes the storm away: Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me, for in you my soul takes refuge; in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge, till the storms of destruction pass by.

Isaiah 54:11 tells of God's care for those who are storm-tossed: O afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and lay your foundations with sapphires.

No tidy wrap-up, but some things to think about when the wind howls.

 

Please Do Not Mention My Housekeeping Skills

Look at this, would ya? I went to check through my random extra spices if I have bulk whole cloves or if they need to go on my shopping list for making orange pomanders. I didn't find any but instead found this bottle of yellow food color, with the lid so so corroded:

So. Not sure what you are thinking but my thoughts ran pretty much like this: Look at how corrosive yellow is. What does that mean about hope? I decided to scratch corrosive for something more positive. What do you think about transformative? I like that one. Hope is transformative. It cannot even be bottled up (think of Pandora, ye random thinkers) but escapes the bottle. I like that.

***

apologies for the excessively rambly nature of this entry. Mr Music is reading through Histories of Herodotus and believe me, I stuck to the point by comparison. 

Bean Report, Finally

I am a slow reader these days, not sure why. I finally finished reading Orson Scott Card's Ender's Shadow. Miss Language has been a fan of this series and shared it with Mr Music. Mr Music saw I was ready to read Ender's Game and was quite vocal that I must read Ender''s Shadow first, so that I would not "judge Bean ahead of time." Whatever that means. 

So, I finally did. 

Mr Music keeps asking what I think. 

Well, what do I think? I think I am not crazy about books where babies hide in toilets and children kill other children. And I never have understood why children have to command in this army, anyhow.

But. There were some interesting ideas and some good quotes. Those I marked were: 

"Do you know why Satan is so angry all the time? Because when he works a particularly clever bit of mischief, God uses it to serve his own righteous purposes."

"So God uses wicked peoples as his tools."

"God gives us the freedom to do great evil, if we choose. Then he uses his own freedom to create goodness out of that evil, for that is what he chooses."

So in the long run, God always wins."

"Yes."

"And in the short run, though, it can be uncomfortable."

"And when, in the past, would you have preferred to die, instead of being alive here today?"

"There it is. We get used to everything. We find hope in anything."  (from chapter 16)

~ ~ ~
and

"... the thing with brothers is, you're supposed to take turns  being his keeper. Sometimes you get to sit down and be the brother who is kept." (in chapter 18)

Seems like I have read these ideas somewhere before. :)

End of Winter Musings

Winter. This year it goes on and on. I keep bumping into one big question: What amazing thing is God doing with all this snow and cold?

Thinking about winter this way gives me hope. I am all about hope and watching for the first signs of life being brought forth from winter. I wish I were biologist enough to know how 
so much winter affects life. What is going on down under all this snow? Will the flowers and crops be especially abundant and beautiful? And the animals, how will it affect them? 

I think one way God uses nature is to teach us hope. He has made the ebbing and flowing of seasons a part of human nature; it resonates with us and makes sense. God says in Ecclesiastes 3 that He has "made everything beautiful in its time. Also, He has put eternity into man's heart." What I learn from watching seasons change ~ maybe especially seemingly endless seasons ~ helps build hope into my heart. 

Romans 8:22-25 has been one of my memory passages:

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.  And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.  For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?  But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience

It almost feels as if nature is groaning under the pain of winter and waiting for spring, as Lewis showed when Narnia was under the White Witch's rule. What will all that snow give birth to?

But spring is coming. And what application does this have for different types of "winter" ~ what beautiful glory is God working under all the stuff I'd rather not experience? I am waiting with hope to see.

Spring Somethings

I think the coming of Christ's kingdom is a bit like things growing in spring, they come silently, just pushing right through the dead stuff. And somehow God even uses the dead stuff for life. 

~ ~ ~

and there is e e cummings: 

                        Spring is like a perhaps hand
                                               III

Spring is like a perhaps hand

(which comes carefully 
out of Nowhere)arranging 
a window,into which people look(while 
people stare
arranging and changing placing 
carefully there a strange 
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps 
Hand in a window 
(carefully to 
and fro moving New and 
Old things,while 
people stare carefully 
moving a perhaps 
fraction of flower here placing 
an inch of air there)and

without breaking anything.

~ ~ ~ 

God is in the business of changing everything carefully, without breaking anything. Isaiah 42:3-4 ~ 

        a bruised reed He will not break,
            and a faintly burning wick He will not quench;
            He will faithfully bring forth justice.
        He will not grow faint or be discouraged
            till he has established justice in the earth;
            and the coastlands wait for His law.

Hope, Ice Cream, Bilbo, PotC, and Aslan

Yesterday we took the crew to see The Hobbit, as Bilbo and company have finally arrived at the theater that fits our budget. 

On the way we drove past an ice cream stand. The owner  has signs up letting you know it is getting near for a couple miles ahead in each direction, and also signs afterward, which let you know you have missed your chance for some ice cream. Signs like "You Just Passed Betty Jo's Ice Cream and Frozen Yogurt." I thought about asking to stop for a photo but did not want to miss the beginning of Bilbo's adventure, so I missed my opportunity.  :-P

Which all got me thinking about The Opportune Moment.*

Wouldn't it be nice, if, in real life, there were some sort of Jack-Sparrowlike announcement when you have just missed a golden opportunity that might give you a chance to go back and do it over? I mean, what if it turns out Betty Jo really does have the Best Ice Cream ever? Wouldn't you really rather know it and be able to turn back and get some?

But it doesn't work that way. We miss opportune moments and don't even know they were there. And there is what Aslan told Lucy in Prince Caspian, when she asked, "Am I not to know?" He said, "No. Nobody is ever told that." But he goes on to say, "You must all get up at once and follow me -- what will happen? There is only one way of finding out." 

That trust is a part of the hope we have. 

* For the word nerds reading this, it turns out the greeks have a word that fits in here, kairos - the right or opportune moment. I love that wikipedia says it "signifies a time between, a moment of indeterminate time in which something special happens." I am trusting Christ to help me to recognize kairos when I see it.

How to Have Hope plus a Bonus Observation about Boys

This summer I've become a big fan of Scripture Typer, an online site that lets you work against your own best time to memorize passages. A recurring theme in my life for awhile now has been taking hope. I recently memorized this verse which strikes me with its counterintuitivity every time I read it:


Romans 15:4 For everything that was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.


It is counterintuitive to me because of the part I bolded: through endurance... we might have hope. What? Really? I thought it was the other way round, and I keep thinking so ~ in the Carpe Version the text reads through hope you might endure. But no, God says, we endure and somehow that gives hope. That is good news, it means that when I think I cannot possibly deal with a situation any more (such as teaching fractions :-P ) I need to preach to myself that by continuing to teach fractions I am building - not crushing - hope. 


~~~


Bonus observation:


Boys are like this. Mr Music complained the other day that since we moved, his socks have not been as clean AND that the new washing machine turns them inside-out. Hmmmm. I pointed out that at the same time we moved, laundry was reassigned from my to-do list to Miss Dance's and perhaps she is not taking the step of turning his socks right-side out. Hmmmm. Mr Music seems to think his understanding of the situation is more reasonable. 


I am glad I do not have to depend on his logic to have hope.

Current Favorite Promise

And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ~ Isaiah 37:31

Look What the Mailman Brought!!!

My dear online friend over at The Laundry Pile and I have a longstanding use of yellow as the Color of Hope.


So at lunch I heard a mailtruck rumbling up our gravel driveway. I left my plate of reheated spaghetti and met him and was glad to see a package. I was gladder to see Comfy Denim's (as I first knew her) return address. And when I opened it, Oh, my. What a lot of yellow goodness was crammed in that box. A box full of sunshine and hope. :)  Thank you, thank you, thank you.