I just finished reading, "The Shack." I understand it has been a controversial book, but for me I just kept thinking, this is fiction! I prayed for an open heart and mind.
As I read I began to see things very thought provoking. I got my pad, my pen, my bible and began taking notes, especially where Sarayu is discussing relationship with Mack. To me all of life is about relationship.
We have relationships with each other and hopefully with our Creator, God. I don't believe you can have one without the other. They are intertwined, or as I like to think about it - crossed.
I relate this to The Cross: if my relationship with God is weak then my relationship with others is weak. If my relationship with others is weak then how can I have a strong relationship with God? I know I need balance and harmony and I find these at the Cross.
My favorite quote from The Shack is: "You can kiss your family and friends good-bye and put miles between you, but at the same time you carry them with you in your heart, your mind, your stomach, because you do not just live in a world but a world lives in you." by Frederick Buechner (Some of us carry it more in the stomach!)
My husband shares a quote from one of his professors in graduate school: "The hardest thing we have to do is take the history that's in us and live the history we're in."
As a Chaplain, I do marriage counseling and when, as a rule the man says, "I'm not marrying her family. I'm just marrying her." I always say, "wrong!" We are all interconnected by relationship whether related or not.
I just was thinking outloud about how important relationship is,
and it doesn't even matter what I think about it..............it just is.
Sometimes relations annoy us and we can't change that, (we can choose to change
our attitude about it though) we don't even have to accept it, but we do have to acknowledge it.
Relationships.............they're all or (their) all relative!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Friday, January 16, 2009
Sixty Seven and Counting
Here it is Friday, January 16th, 2009. My 67th Birthday is today and I was feeling sorry for myself, because I'm spending it at home recovering from surgery. Then I decided to think back on how I got to be 67. It's through the stages of my life. You know some days, in my head, I'm still that 16 year old girl raring to go. Others, I'm 21 and ready to fall in love with my husband, Jack, all over again. Then there are days I wish my kids were back home for me to look after, tease with, and gripe at, or put on guilt trips, and then I hear myself saying, "stop that fighting," "do not call me at work unless you're bleeding." Here's one of their favorites, "don't make me come in there." Its funny what you miss. I grew old, faster than I wanted, but then the grandkids came along and I fell in love with them and felt like I was getting a second chance to be a better parent. It was fun spoiling them and getting to send them home and watch my kids try to correct them for the same things they used to get in trouble for. Paybacks can be a delight.
Every age has its burdens, its blessings, and its benefits. Having said all that, it's not bad being 67 and having your husband of nearly 48 years spoil you with sweet romantic cards, a dozen red roses, and a new Brighton Watch (I bought for myself). Or, your friends bring supper to you because you can't get out. Trust me, being older you appreciate people and the little things more.
I won't always be just 67! Lord willing, I'll make 68. Now that's really getting closer to the 70 year mark. So I'll take life as it comes and enjoy it. The Lord only promises us 70 years anyway. In Psalm 90:10 it reads, "the days of our years are three score and ten and if by reason of strenghth they be fourscore years.............Verse 12 says: "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
The wisdom is: "thinking on the good things." If I focused on my burdens instead of my blessings and benefits, life would be miserable and I would make everyone around me miserable. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians in chapter 4: 8, "To think on these things: whatever is good, worthy of praise, true and honorable, respected, pure and beautiful." Paul had no idea he was preaching the sermon of "garbage in, garbage out." Maybe if I choose to number my days and apply them to wisdom, I will live in such a way that when people see an older, somewhat shorter, and wider, white headed, wrinkled old woman, they will see inside me a woman who loves the Lord
Jack's grandmother, "Mama Poe" used to say to me, "Honey, enjoy every age you're in." I can say with all honesty that I truly did my best to enjoy every age my children have been in. I hope I've grown with them through the stages of their lives. Mama Poe was right, enjoy every age, every stage. So, here's to me: "Happy 67th Birthday, Phyllis, ENJOY!"
Every age has its burdens, its blessings, and its benefits. Having said all that, it's not bad being 67 and having your husband of nearly 48 years spoil you with sweet romantic cards, a dozen red roses, and a new Brighton Watch (I bought for myself). Or, your friends bring supper to you because you can't get out. Trust me, being older you appreciate people and the little things more.
I won't always be just 67! Lord willing, I'll make 68. Now that's really getting closer to the 70 year mark. So I'll take life as it comes and enjoy it. The Lord only promises us 70 years anyway. In Psalm 90:10 it reads, "the days of our years are three score and ten and if by reason of strenghth they be fourscore years.............Verse 12 says: "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom."
The wisdom is: "thinking on the good things." If I focused on my burdens instead of my blessings and benefits, life would be miserable and I would make everyone around me miserable. Paul said in his letter to the Philippians in chapter 4: 8, "To think on these things: whatever is good, worthy of praise, true and honorable, respected, pure and beautiful." Paul had no idea he was preaching the sermon of "garbage in, garbage out." Maybe if I choose to number my days and apply them to wisdom, I will live in such a way that when people see an older, somewhat shorter, and wider, white headed, wrinkled old woman, they will see inside me a woman who loves the Lord
Jack's grandmother, "Mama Poe" used to say to me, "Honey, enjoy every age you're in." I can say with all honesty that I truly did my best to enjoy every age my children have been in. I hope I've grown with them through the stages of their lives. Mama Poe was right, enjoy every age, every stage. So, here's to me: "Happy 67th Birthday, Phyllis, ENJOY!"
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