Category: Uncategorized

She Smiles at the Future

On By Charis PsalloIn Fields, Man made, Mountains, Uncategorized13 Comments

 

hayfield near bar u ranch

Strength and dignity are her clothing,

And she smiles at the future.

(Proverbs 31:25)

Can I be honest? For many years if I were to be asked who my least favourite Bible character was, it would have been that impossible “excellent wife” of Proverbs 31. She runs a perfect household, makes clothing for her family and half the town; she weaves her own bed linen, dabbles in real estate and farming and still has time to exercise and watch her husband collect accolades. It says she never let her lamp go out at night. Well, she’d have to stay up all night with a workload like that. At the time, when I was in a place where this scripture was used like a trudgeon by workaholic “ladies’ teachers” (the modern equivalent of Pinterest super-achievers) who said we could do it all if we were organized and disciplined enough, I was lucky if my kids’ socks matched and we could arrive anywhere within the same hour an event was scheduled to begin.

Finally one day, an older woman (with the teaching of kindness on her tongue) laughed at me when I went on a rant about the dreaded Proverbs 31 woman.

“She didn’t do it all in one day, dear! That was a life-time achievement award kind of speech. Relax. If God grants you health, life is not over when the kids go to college.”

Now that my children are grown I understand better. Those years with little ones and acting out teenagers seemed like they would always be my whole life. They were important years, and I beg young mothers to realize they go so fast and children can’t wait until you have time for them. They do come to an end (and I cried when they did).  You don’t have to accomplish your life’s work before you are 45. You don’t have to do everything on the same day, or even in the same decade! Leave something to look forward to. Relax once in a while. Take time to enjoy your life where it is right now. Be thankful for matched socks.

I have the time and freedom to pursue creative interests now. Instead of depression and exhaustion there is gladness because I am old enough to see how God delivered us from so many cliff-hanger episodes before. I can smile at the future.

And my light doesn’t go out at night -so I can find the bathroom.

IMG_5459 foot bridge leaves

IMG_5291 old walk

The Rest of the Story

On By Charis PsalloIn Photography, Uncategorized10 Comments

IMG_5567 jaffrey snow

Winter forces the earth to rest.

Sometimes rest is one of the attributes of God we find most difficult to understand. He is at rest. And He wants us to enter His rest.

To be honest, I find one of the most difficult things to do, especially in crisis, is to rest. I’m not just talking about sleeping, which I am notoriously bad at, but about resting spiritually, like a soothed child in my papa’s lap, trusting him to look after me, and waiting for his instructions. Some of the worst messes I have created have been when I’ve tried to control my anxiety by “doing something.”

Today my dear friend is in the ICU after emergency surgery. Again, I feel the frenzied urge to “do something.” Again I am snapping at my husband over trivial things, knowing full well my anxious thoughts are the cause, and not his human foibles. Again I hear the still small voice telling me to enter His rest, to give my time and attention to the One who loves my friend more than I do.

Resting my heart and mind in Christ, entering His presence with thanksgiving and allowing His peace to stand guard is like feeling the gentle snow calm my anxious thoughts, cool my embarrassing temper, and hush my worries.  It’s about trust.

Don’t worry over anything whatever; tell God every detail of your needs in earnest and thankful prayer, and the peace of God which transcends human understanding, will keep constant guard over your hearts and minds as they rest in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

Like Snow
Like Snow

 

This song has been going through my head like a prayer today.

If I could save time in a bottle

The first thing that I’d like to do

Is to save every day

Till Eternity passes away

Just to spend them with You

 

If I could make days last forever

If words could make wishes come true

I’d save every day like a treasure and then,

Again, I would spend them with You

 

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I’ve looked around enough to know

That You’re the one I want to go

Through time with

 

If I had a box just for wishes

And dreams that had never come true

The box would be empty

Except for the memory

Of how they were answered by You

 

But there never seems to be enough time

To do the things you want to do

Once you find them

I’ve looked around enough to know

That You’re the one I want to go

Through time with

 

Glory

On By Charis PsalloIn Mountains, Trees and forests, Uncategorized, Water8 Comments

st marys lake Glory is however God chooses to express Himself.

Sometimes His glory is the beauty he placed in creation.

Sometimes His glory is the beauty he placed in you.

This Little Light of Mine

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized11 Comments

IMG_5516 This litte light

I’m not a big fan of Hallowe’en.

Perhaps it goes back to being a parent of kids with food allergies and being what we called then “a health food nut” (before it became trendy).

Perhaps there is some latent childhood guilt about the way my brother and I planned our routes like those clocked shopping spree wins in the supermarket. (They don’t have those anymore, do they?) Two totally full pillowcases each was our usual haul. (Hey, we were good.)

Our costumes then were always homemade, often out of stretchy crepe paper, and had to fit over a parka. Decorations were something, often unidentifiable, made out of construction paper at school and taped to the window. Our loot bags, often drool-stained, were the pillow cases Mom had already rejected for regular use. No adults accompanied us; they would only slow us down.

Our parents didn’t freak out about Hallowe’en. Mom commandeered the apples in our bags for pies, so she was okay with it. They steered us away from the parts of the occasion that mentioned evil or the occult, but by the time my kids wanted to go out things changed.

Then the night of mocking our fear gave way to fear. Fear of razor blades in apples, poison in popcorn balls, drugs in cookies… fear of pedophiles… drunk drivers… actual satan worshippers…

As I walked around the stores this week and saw the decorations around the neighbourhood, I realized much of what this All Holy People’s Evening (the meaning of the word Hallowe’en) has morphed into is actually an expression of things we fear – the opposite of all that is holy. In the way Medieval Carnivals were parodies of religious and cultural restraints, when for one day a year folks felt free to turn their society upside-down, I wonder if Hallowe’en has become the day to remove restraints on expressions of what folks fear?

The fear of death has always been with us, but I’ve noticed some changes in the past few years. Hallowe’en is getting darker. Fewer Dorothys and more wicked witches.

The obsession with zombies lately tells me people are afraid of going through the motions, but feeling dead inside – living, but not alive.

Perhaps this thing with vampires is a clue to a fear of having the life sucked out of one, and then feeling helpless to curb cravings left in its place. What if we also become both victims and perpetrators? What if we become someone who uses other people in a way that leaves them feeling so hopeless and needy that even death is not an escape?

I wonder if a bad guy costume (the pirate, the axe murderer, the monster, the seductress) is about fear of a person’s inability to control the darkness in their own hearts.

I wonder if ghosts and ghouls and witches and wizards are about a fear of the supernatural and the misuse of things we can’t explain or control?

I wonder if underlying all this is our deepest, darkest fear – the fear of disappointment in God, the fear that he is not there for us, the fear that we somehow have to get through the perils of darkness all on our own? (The lack of good father figures in popular children’s stories and films may be another clue to this common fear.)

Fear attracts more fear and more darkness, I’m sure of that. I understand people who want nothing to do with a celebrations of death and darkness and evil and choose to boycott the whole thing. I know some folks who shut the lights off and go down to the basement for the evening. As a person who has had to fight fear and anxiety much of my life I admit I ran scared of the fear of the taint of possible demonic ugliness myself for a while. I had seen too much to dismiss its existence.

But I am reminded that there is no such thing as a flashdark. Light dispels darkness, not the other way around. We can curse the darkness, or we can light a candle, and if the evil one tries to blow it out, we light another one, and another one and another one. Perhaps it’s time to redeem the time.

I read about a prayer request today. It was that time when Paul asked the people in Thessalonica (who were prone to listening to fearful tales that they had missed Jesus’ return)  to pray for him and his friends, that they may be delivered from wicked and evil men. He held out a torch of light to them when he assured them God was faithful and was willing to strengthen and protect them from the evil one if they looked to Him and just asked.

“May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance,” he said. Knowing the perfect love of God is the only antidote to fear and anxiety.

So this is the little light I try to let shine: Jesus loves you. This I know.

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:4,5)

On All Hallows Evening my house is the one with the candle in the window. It’s a symbol of hope. You are welcome to come to my door. It will be open. I will be waiting and praying for you.

On earth as it is in heaven. Deliver us from the evil one. For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory.

Forever.

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This is a Photo of Two Miracles

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized4 Comments

IMG_5318 Grandfather's shoulders

Or three -or four -or five.

Just after I posted my last blog about steeping in God’s reality I looked through other photos I took this week. The significance of this simple photo of a grandfather carrying his grandson on his shoulders suddenly hit me.

Five and a half years ago we had a tough week full of bad news:

-Our daughter learned that damage from the disease that had already given her so much pain was more advanced than the specialist had thought and it was highly unlikely she could conceive a child.

-My husband learned he had a serious degenerative bone disease that affected his spine so severely that the strange malformation was threatening his spinal cord. He had to give up all sports and stressful physical activity immediately.

-A business coming out of a research project he had dedicated years to was pronounced dead, done, and defunct.

That week I had a bizarre experience when I heard a voice that said, “Follow 228, Ban our tyres,”  that led to an understanding of the definition of hope I believe the Lord gave me.  I wrote about it here:
https://charispsallo.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/hope-vision-led-endurance-2/

Hope: vision-led endurance

I had a vision of babies for my daughter, health for my husband, as well as a satisfying post-retirement business for him. It seemed like an impossible hope at the time, but I felt the Lord was asking us to be patient while he worked things out.

This is a photo of one of the children born to that infertile mother, conceived, like his sisters, without medical intervention.

This is a photo of his grandfather, not only able to walk and have full use of his hands, but able to carry the weight of that child on his back without pain despite missing a vertebra. (It’s been replaced by some sort of  vascular tissue growing there now which doesn’t pinch his spinal cord.)

This is a photo of a visit brought about by God-coincidence. As for the business, he has been able to apply his expertise to a new venture -and he and son-in-law sat together working on it this week beside this beautiful lawn.

This is a photo taken by a photographer who was smiling so much that day, her face hurt.

Our son-in-law (miracle # 4 in this story) survived a bout of flesh-eating disease which took him as close to death’s door as his doctors had ever seen someone come and still be restored to full health, with all his limbs, organs and brain intact and fully functional.

“You know it’s a miracle that guy is still alive,” one of them told his colleague.

“What? That guy should be f…. dead!” exclaimed another of the first specialists to treat him, upon hearing reports of “John’s” recovery after he returned from a long trip.

Their generous friend gave our daughter and son-in-love the gift of a week at a time share in Montana to celebrate. Now we have only been to that part of the world two, maybe three times in the past 20 years, but my husband just happened to have an appointment in the same area this very same week so we joined them for a couple of days.

Miracle # 5? The golf course closed for the season just before we arrived, but it was open to guests to stroll around on the green, green grass, beside still waters and brilliant autumn-coloured trees in warm sunshine (60 degrees F in late October is warm to Canadians!) without having to take turns hitting or chasing or losing those silly little balls. In fact our grandchildren made a profit selling 27 found balls to their Daddy.

I’m looking at the photo and steeping in the reality of God’s goodness.

Wow. Thank you, Lord! Thank you!

I love you.

But someone is wrong!

On By Charis PsalloIn Uncategorized9 Comments

promoting what you love dawn on frosty window

Note to self: Attacking people for attacking people who attack people? Riiight. And how’s that workin’ for ya?

It’s so easy to be captured by the spirit you oppose. It’s like the devil  shouts in the cafeteria, “Food fight!” and then stands back and watches the pie fly.

 

Sorry, Lord.

Black and White

On By Charis PsalloIn Animals, Black and white, Fields, Man made, Uncategorized2 Comments

IMG_3344 horses windmillsI will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding,

which must be curbed with bit and bridle,

or it will not stay near you.

(Psalm 32:8,9)

I heard someone ask once, “What are the minimum qualifications for being a Christian? What is the least I must do or believe to get “in”?  I had trouble answering that question. It felt like a young man asking a friend’s advice on a relationship with a woman who expressed her love for him, by asking, “What is the minimum required of me to be married to her?”

I would be tempted to say, “Run, girl!”

Jesus answered a similar question in Mark 10.

 And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

In other words, he wants your whole heart.

When first introduced to the God of power in the desert, the one who showed up on the mountain in a sound and light show beyond description, the children of Israel said, basically, “Moses, this God is too scary. Tell you what, you talk to him, get his demands in writing, and when you have it in black and white we’ll have our people look at it and get back to you.” Thus a relationship with rules and a book (and experts on rules and the book as intermediaries) became the norm. The question they were asking was, “What is the minimum we need to do to get what we want and keep this God from being mad at us and making our lives miserable?”

A minimum marriage requires signatures in black and white on a marriage certificate. A true marriage requires a husband to lovingly lay down everything for his wife, the way Christ laid down his life for the church, and for a wife to respond to that love by offering him everything she has in return. The Bible often uses the metaphor of the Bride of Christ for his chosen church, the ones who have responded to his call.

Being a Christian is all about relationship. And yes, God does communicate with his beloved with more than rules and a book. He has already given everything. She just has to come to him.

Late to The Party

On By Charis PsalloIn Flowers, Photography, Uncategorized6 Comments
Lady Aster
Lady Aster

I rather admire asters. Late bloomers like me.IMG_3126 asters bee

So here it is October and they are finally opening up. Most of the flowers the deer didn’t eat in their autumn munchies fest have already succumbed to early morning frost. But the asters? They’ve got the garden to themselves, and they are loving it. Go for it, ladies!

They will still bear fruit in old age,
    they will stay fresh and green,
 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
    he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

(Psalm 92:14,15)

IMG_3130 diagonal asters