year end creativity

I started thinking about my year end collage/vision/reflection board today.  (That's last years pictured - it hangs in our room .... ) This is a tradition I've started in the last couple of years - the board is a compilation of words, phrases, images, ideas.  It helps me to think on what's been and what's ahead....

What are your creative year end activities?  Let's hear about it! 

I accidentally found out that vision boards are not my own invention!

check out this great link for more ideas:

http://www.chookooloonks.com/the-beauty-of-different/2010/12/1/own-your-beauty-creativity.html

advent

advent reflections this year have been a blessing - I say that every year and its always true.  I was particularly encouraged by an early december reflection about the church year - which begins with advent.  David wrote about the difference between ordinary time and extraordinary time.  We are in ordinary time all year, except during Advent and Lent - those are 'extraordinary times' in the church calendar.  Since I began observing lent and advent many years ago, it would seem that these extraordinary times have shaped my growth and my devotion.  The most poignant times in my spiritual life are often traceable to lenten or advent reflections.   I remember sitting in our prayer room on Parr street about 10 years ago when John 15 came alive for me in ways that I still recall like it was yesterday - the moment is frozen in time and the memory is sacred. Matthew 11 was part of our morning reading today and I recalled sharing about that passage during advent in a Saskatoon church a couple of years ago.  Another time, way back in the days when we were at FGMB, I remember another sharing out of Mt 11 with a moms group.  Extraordinary indeed.

Imagery is so often an important part of my devotional life; and this advent season has found me picturing waiting and emptiness as I read and pray.  Our community's morning prayer includes the line; 'I will come, in my innermost self, to the courts of my God, and show myself to Him again.'  Each day, saying those words has generated a mental picture of what I see when I contemplate showing my inner self to God.  Now, during advent, the 'showing myself' has changed to a picture of hopeful, anticipatory emptiness - waiting to be filled, to be cleansed, to be healed... in the courts of my God, Emmanuel.

We have heard with our ears, O God,

our ancestors have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

in the days of old:

you with your own hand drove out the nations,

but them you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

but them you set free;

 for not by their own sword did they win the land,

nor did their own arm give them victory;

but your right hand, and your arm,

and the light of your countenance,

for you delighted in them.

 You are my King and my God;

you command* victories for Jacob.

Through you we push down our foes;

through your name we tread down our assailants.

For not in my bow do I trust,

nor can my sword save me.

 But you have saved us from our foes,

and have put to confusion those who hate us.

 In God we have boasted continually,

and we will give thanks to your name for ever.

Ps 44

Handles

    You know what I mean by handles, right?  I don't actually mean the literal handles like the ones we open doors or flush toilets with... I mean metaphorical handles that help us understand stuff thats going on in our lives.

Like, when we are seeking clarity or understanding as we communicate with a friend... we ask questions in order to 'get a handle' on the matter.

Or, if we are trying to make sense of circumstances that confound us, sometimes we need to break things down to whatever things we can make the most sense of, or 'get a handle on'.

I have a few 'handles' that have been helpful lately.  Today, I'm listing them here for your reading enjoyment...maybe you'll adopt a new handle!

• pipes and water.  This handle came from a conversation with my friend and pastor, Bruce.  It helps me in my constant struggle with structured vs. unstructured.  (or porous vs rigid, loose vs tight, flowy vs. controlled...)  Think about the water and pipes going to and fro from source to tap.  Water is free and unconstrained.  It moves wherever it wants, isn't obedient or conforming.  Water is flowy and uncontrolled, open to whatever opportunity might present itself.  It can change course without much thought; where it went yesterday has no bearing on today!  Pipes, on the other hand, they restrain and restrict water.  They direct it and help it to not make a mess or overflow in undesirable ways.  They carry it to where it needs to go.  The reason that this handle so helpful is that it reminds me that both pipes and water are necessary, and that they need eachother.  Pipes are silly if there is not water to deliver, but water without pipes can be unattainable mess.  The 'pipes vs. water' handle is a good one for me as I look for balance in my mind and in my life.

• vulnerability as path.  This handle comes from life in community and also from seminary classes.   It seems like a willingness to be vulnerable, to put ourselves out there, leads to freedom, trust and depth in communication.  I feel like I have repeatedly seen this evidenced in my own relationships and in others around me.  Vulnerability is often feared, and the cost of obeying that fear is high. I've written before about speaking the truth in love (Ephesians 4) as growth and maturity.  A certain commentary talks about a life of truthing - which is impossible without vulnerability and the inevitable blows we'll suffer because we've allowed it instead of fearing it.  Now, when I am in the midst of a conversation where I can be more honest or less, I think of my new handle of vulnerability as path and choose the path accordingly...
• stackable losses.  This handle on grieving has helped me so much in the last couple of months!  I talked enough about it before, so I wont go into that again.  Envisioning losses piled up on top of each other is a great handle on understanding stress.
• deleting files.  You know how you can go into your email program, and go to the deleted folder, and there is a command there that allows you to delete all the mail in there at once?  OR, you can select the files you want to save, but delete the rest?  I think deleting files is a great handle on what needs to happen in our mental filing cabinet every once in a while.  There could be some unmet expectations filed away that are causing havoc just because they haven't been deleted.  There could be unresolved grudges or hurts that hang around and unwittingly affect new opportunities and relationships .. all we have to do is take a look and see that certain files we forgot about are still hanging around - then decide if we actually want to keep them.  Recently, I went through a mental file about 'what I thought it would look like to be a long term Flatlander' and deleted all sorts of crap - but I held on to a few key non negotiables, and starred /flagged those files so I remember to review them even more often!
• christian imagination.  This is a handle i've been using for a while to think about all sorts of ideas.  I resent modernity for reducing our faith to the least mysterious and most scientific explanation!  When I consider the layers of meaning in the scriptures, the stories of Jesus, even faith itself, I employ this handle to open things up, not wrap them up in a manageable package.

But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knitted together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.   Eph. 4

money and stuff

After months of hemming and stewing, I've posted a new page on this blog called Contributing. It talks about money - even a way to be supportive of this life we've committed to at Flats.

The page outlines points along the journey, and it'll stay around should anyone wish to access the info down the road.  For now, suffice to say that it has indeed been a journey....

From when we came to Flatlanders in 2009 to now, very few of our plans, dreams, ideas, and hopes with regard to finances have come together as we'd have liked.  It's been hard, and up til now we've been pretty closed-mouthed about it all.  One of the reasons it's been sort of 'under wraps' is because we've always been in the midst of an idea that should address the concerns ... it always seemed like the light at the end of the tunnel was just a month or two longer ... AND - this is a really important part - we've felt taken care of.   Whether it was an unexpected contract that came along at exactly the right time, or a larger income tax refund than we expected, there have been good surprises along the way too.  But overall, its been a heavy burden, and there have been a few disappointments along the way that were heavy too.

But a couple of weeks ago, (I think it had something to do with figuring out and naming losses)  I was just ready to be honest about it.  So now, the truth is out.. this financial part of our life at Flatlanders just hasn't come together yet!  It will, and maybe this openness is part of that, who knows?!