Month: March 2013

Paper Roses

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Man made, Photography12 Comments

paper roses def

On my way out of the gardening shop I spotted these roses near the door.

“Wow! Are they real?”

They seemed too good to be true. They were –too good to be true, I mean. As soon as I felt them I knew they were paper. Pretty though.

I drove home singing an old Loretta Lynn song I used to hear crackling out of the plastic  radio with the big gold dial that sat on top of Grandma’s fridge when I was a kid.

Paper roses paper roses oh how real those roses seem to be
But they’re only imitation like your imitation love for me…

That got me thinking about the nature of deceit and manipulation and feigned love. In the cold greyness of spring that doesn’t feel like spring, those paper roses were beautiful and you know, I can appreciate them just fine –until the real thing comes along.

We joke about our tendency in Canada to be more polite than some other cultures. Honestly I grew up thinking it was normal to say sorry to the person who bumped into you with a grocery cart. It’s not heart-felt, but it does ease tensions and keep the traffic flowing in the produce section.

Someone told me the story of watching a woman trying to purchase a can of pop at a convenience store with a fifty dollar bill. The cashier took it but didn’t even look at the bill as he said, “This is fake.” The woman left the money  –and the Coke – on the counter and dashed for the door.

My friend asked how he knew it was fake.

“I’ve been handling money all day, every day, for years. When you are familiar with the real stuff the fake stuff is obvious.”

There are a lot of people in the world who have no idea what real love feels like. They mistake politeness, tolerance, gratitude, warm fuzzies, lust, familiarity, loyalty, manipulation…all manner of things, for love.  They have never been the recipients of true, unconditional, self-sacrificing love.

Here’s the thing. You can’t give what you have never received.

It is so easy to be critical of prickly people  -the ones who are difficult to feel affection toward, or manipulative people –the ones who prod you into serving their own priorities with large dollops of honey on that stick. My son calls them EGN people. Extra Grace Needed.  I believe that is one of the reasons why believers are to band together like a family. You can pick your friends, but God assigns family because we need practice learning to love EGNs, and also to experience being loved ourselves by those who can discern the real from the counterfeit and demonstrate the difference.

Very few new family members come with 70 years of wisdom. Very few church members start off as sanctified lovers, and some, like irritable, contentious old uncles sitting down at the end of the Thanksgiving table take much longer to get there than we think they should. It takes time –and just because a person recognizes an ideal doesn’t mean they are skilled in the practice of it. It’s not about tolerating hypocrisy; it’s about needing grace to grow.

Sometimes the best demonstrations of love some people can offer are like paper roses because that’s all they know. I wonder if, rather than reject the imitation item, we need to smile and accept politeness or tolerance or even well-intended criticism graciously –then return  genuine love we have received from God by being willing to lay down our lives for people who have never truly known love before. Lord knows we all need some grace.

“It’s easy to say “I love God,” but genuine love reflects God’s love. If we belong to God, then we will love each other regardless of how hard love is.” (Note on 1 John 5 in The Voice version)

This is the embodiment of true love: not that we have loved God first, but that He loved us and sent His unique Son on a special mission to become an atoning sacrifice for our sins. (1 John 4:10)

Everyone who trusts Jesus as the long-awaited Anointed One is a child of God, and everyone who loves the Father cannot help but love the child fathered by Him. Then how do we know if we truly love God’s children? We love them if we love God and keep His commands. You see, to love God means that we keep His commands, and His commands don’t weigh us down. Everything that has been fathered by God overcomes the corrupt world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. ( 1 John 5:1-4)

Save

Save

Promise

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Man made, Photography8 Comments
In the greenhouse
In the greenhouse

It’s snowing. Again.

This time of year we have glimpses of spring, a bit of green grass, a momentary warm breeze, a tiny crocus leaning into the foundation on the south side of the house. Then hope is deferred when the valley is socked in by low grey clouds and the signs of change disappear under more snow.

March morning

Sometimes I need to look for hope. So yesterday I took my camera down to the local plant nursery to see if anything was stirring there yet .

In and around the first greenhouse there were signs of change with pots being sorted, dusted and cleared of spider webs in preparation for filling.

clay square

clay pots DSC_0125

brown pots

blue pots

barrels rain

tall pots

pots blue

IMG_6722

The next green house was still bare and the third contained a tumbled mix of unsold plastic-wrapped patio furniture left  from last season.

But in the small greenhouse at the back of the lot, someone was lining up pails of perennials on worn seasoned tables. These are the hardy ones, the ones that have known seasons of fruitfulness and seasons of rest, and they are showing new growth. Survivors. Forerunners.

greenhouse

new growth

green things 2

tulips leaves

green

But on the way out, in the warm environment of the shop, near the window, heaven poked its finger into my cold snowy world, and a perfect pure white flower from another place, one which cannot grow here, grew anyway.

 

gardenia 2

 

We, on the other hand,

continue to live through the Spirit’s power

and wait confidently in the hope

that things will be put right through faith.

(Galatians 5:5 The Voice version)

Pray this way:

Your will be done

on earth

as it is in heaven.

-Jesus

Prepare your pots. Heaven is on its way.

Planting Peace

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Flowers6 Comments
Gentle
Gentle

But the wisdom from above is first of all pure.

It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others.

It is full of mercy and good deeds.

It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. 

And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace

and reap a harvest of righteousness.

(James 3:17,18)

I’m so in love with you

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Just folks, Music, Photography7 Comments
First crocus
First crocus

Praise comes naturally to children who are accustomed to hearing it.

Yesterday I saw my little granddaughter running around my almost barren garden. Her arms were in the air and her face grinned at the sky.

“Thank you! Thank you, rain!” she said, “You made the little flowers open! Thank you, rain!”

She showed me that the two tiny crocuses we had seen beside the house in the morning were indeed opening.

“Spring is coming! Spring is coming!” she said, dancing her silly happy dance (and refusing to come in out of the rain.)

The day before we had driven to a town about half an hour away.  She insisted on hearing “her” song -on repeat- the whole way there and back. Her mom told me that the night before when they arrived at our house she would not get out of the car, as excited as she was to visit Nana and Boppa’s house, until the song had finished.

I asked her why she liked it so much. She said, “Cuz it’s a song to Jesus.”

As part of their bedtime ritual her parents have a time of saying “nice words” to the children, in which they bless the kids by telling them the positive things they see in them  – things like kindness, gentleness, enthusiasm,  patience, beauty, intelligence, helpfulness, joyfulness. I wish I had known about the benefits of blessing with nice words when my children were growing. The difference in my grandchildren is that they also know how to bless and encourage others. It melts my heart when my little grandson cuddles up and says, “Thank you for the milk, Nana. You are kind and gentle.”

A lot of times when kids want songs to be repeated on the car sound system they are hard-on-the-nerves songs. The song “Daisy” wanted was very gentle. She told me it sounded a little sad at first, but it got happier. We talked about it and she made the connection to “nice words.”

“The song sings nice words to Jesus!” she said.

It thrilled my heart to be in such a holy atmosphere as we rode quietly and were led in worship by a child, not yet four years old, singing along with Misty in the back seat.

“Lord, you have my song…..I’m so in love with you, I’m so in love with you,  Jeeeesus.”

They asked Jesus, “Do you hear what these children are saying?”

“Yes,” Jesus replied. “Haven’t you ever read the Scriptures? For they say, ‘You have taught children and infants to give you praise.’” (Matthew 21:16)

Just keep a lid on it?

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, Photography4 Comments

 

McGyver
McGyver

There was a time when I could have gladly smacked one of those smiling, happy, praise-singing, weirdos upside the head with a hymnbook as they had their own  little personal in-love-with-Jesus experience in a church service. The guy up front leading the choruses, who insisted we all needed to plaster on a smile as big as his, particularly irked me. Did he not know the scripture that said, “Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day, and like vinegar on soda?” I was tired of faking it. I didn’t need to add hypocrisy to my considerable growing list of sins.

“So your Christian experience is wonderful.  Goody for you,” I thought, “Well, mine sucks. I am exhausted trying to raise rebellious teenagers, maintain some sort of relationship with a workaholic husband, dutifully meet the expectations of  church and parents and maiden aunts, and appease picky people everywhere I go, all while coping with depression and chronic fatigue and pain that nobody, even doctors, understands. His yoke is easy? Hah!”

Finally I quit trying. I just gave up.

I gave up on my ability to try any harder, or to try at all.

I didn’t give up on Jesus though, unlike some of the outsiders I formed friendships with at the time. I felt like one of  his left-over disciples standing around after he said something about eating his body and drinking his blood. Many religious keeners found that statement extremely offensive and said, “That’s it. I’m outta here.”

Like the ones who stayed with Jesus I said, when he asked if I wanted to leave too, “Where else can I go? The stuff you say is really hard to understand but I have no hope in anything else. I don’t get you and this whole church thing drives me nuts, but I recognize that you alone have the words of life.”

When I finally gave up, he could finally start to change me.

Recently I heard someone go on a mini-rant that sounded very familiar. It was along the lines of, “If someone is having a great personal spiritual experience they should just keep it to themselves! It is insensitive to talk about what God is doing for them when so many are suffering.”

How strange it is to be sitting on the other side of the table. I realized the irritating person he was talking about was me. God has been so good to me in the past few years. I have come to understand his love in a way I never did before. Like a person who goes on and on about a new love, I just want to talk about him, brag about him, praise him. I had forgotten how annoying that can be when you are in a place where the relationship feels duty-based, when prayers aren’t answered, when pain and suffering without an end in sight is a way of life.

Here’s the question I have been pondering: Should I shut up? Am I somehow increasing the pain of disappointment in God by talking about his goodness to those who can’t feel it right now? Should I just keep a lid on it?

I was reading today about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem:  “And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. And as he rode along, they spread their cloaks on the road. As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” Luke 19: 33-40

And the events in the temple after his arrival:  “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant, and they said to him, “Do you hear what these are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, “‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise’?” (Matthew 21:14-16)

Jesus did not allow expression of praise to be limited to a level that was comfortable to those who felt indignant, like I once was. The reason I was so uncomfortable around people who had joy and a deeper personal experience with Christ was because I was like the older brother in the prodigal son story who had worked so hard for the Father and felt angry that I even though I had been so dutiful, I had seen so little reward. The wandering irresponsible younger brother had done nothing to deserve special treatment! My pride was in my effort, and that’s the very thing that was getting in the way of seeing that everything he owned was already mine. It wasn’t until I gave up my need to prove my worthiness that I could start to receive.

Will I stop talking about his goodness? No. My focus is on the Lover of my soul first. I have tremendous empathy for those who are frustrated and feeling left out. I really do, but I desire to bring  hope and not merely sympathy. I don’t intend it to, but sometimes that just may appear to be offense-worthy. I know there is nothing in me, or the millions of others who have known His favour, which has earned a single drop of his blood by my own effort. I weep with those who weep, yes, but now I can finally rejoice with those who rejoice without feeling offended myself.

I’m not going back. In the words of the old spiritual, “If I don’t praise Him, the rocks is gonna cry out, ‘Glory and honour! Glory and honour!”

God is good.

How Wide

On By Charis PsalloIn Art, Fields, Photography, Winter1 Comment

Cowboy Trail wide ch

And may you have the power to understand,

as all God’s people should,

how wide,

how long,

how high,

and how deep his love is. 

May you experience the love of Christ,

though it is too great to understand fully.

Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power

that comes from God.

(Ephesians 3:18, 19)

Benign

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Sky16 Comments
dark cloud
 I love you, Lord, my strength!  He made darkness his covering, his canopy around him—
the dark rain clouds of the sky.
  He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
  He rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
(from Psalm 18)

What a lovely word.

be·nign

adjective \bi-ˈnīn\

Definition of BENIGN

1
: of a gentle disposition : gracious <a benign teacher>
2
a : showing kindness and gentleness <benign faces>

b : favorable, wholesome <a benign climate>

3
a : of a mild type or character that does not threaten health or life; especially : not becoming cancerous <a benign lung tumor>

b : having no significant effect : harmless <environmentally benign>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I received the pathology report today: Benign. No further treatment indicated.
Thank you, Lord!
Your light shining on this part of the journey revealed Fear still hiding in the shadows, and when he threatened to overwhelm me you rescued me.
You are good. Thank you!

Flooded with Light

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Photography, Sky4 Comments

 

kin park rays

“The Puritans used to say that far too many Christians live beneath the level of their privileges. Therefore, I need to be told by those around me that every time I sin I’m momentarily suffering from an  identity crisis: forgetting who I actually belong to, what I really want at my remade core, and all that is already mine in Christ. The only way to deal with remaining sin long-term is to develop a distaste for it in light of the glorious riches we already possess in Christ. I need my real friends to remind me of this–every day. Please tell me again and again that God doesn’t love me more when I obey or less when I disobey. Knowing this actually enlarges my heart for God and therefore shrinks my hunger for sin. So, don’t let me forget it. My life depends on it!”  -Tullian Tchividjian

 

I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.  I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.

 I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.  Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. (Ephesian 1: 16-21)

But what will people say?

On By Charis PsalloIn Man made, PhotographyLeave a comment
The Neighbours
 Neighbours

“You will never be fully resigned to the will of God if you are troubled by human opinion of you, or if you make of yourself a little idol of what people say.

You cannot be hurt by men. You cannot be hurt by devils. You can only be hurt by self, your own pride and the violence of our desires. Your self is the greatest devil of all.”

-Michael Molinos

Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. (James 1:13-15)

Ice Fishers

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Sky, WinterLeave a comment
Ice fishing
Ice fishing

I have friends who love ice fishing. They are out there all bundled up before dawn and after dusk just for the thrill of pulling a skinny little fish out of the hole.

Me? I have to contemplate whether the joy of  buying a hunk of fish more frozen than the ones in the lake is worth scraping the snow off the car to drive down to the Superstore. The whole idea of freezing precious parts of my anatomy to catch one from a frozen lake leaves me cold. Ice fishing is not my talent and I politely refuse even when friends try to pressure me into joining them. I don’t even feel guilty, which almost makes me feel guilty, but not quite.