Category: 366 days of novice motherhood

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Everything is spiritual

Place: home

Poison: chocolate

Favorite things: coming home.

We are back from a beautiful Easter holiday and I am so grateful for the little things.

Our neighbor came over and asked us to walk down to the beach and watch the sunset with him, I’m thinking he was feeling a little alone, after spending Easter by himself.

As we walked I watched family after family in our little seaside town fishing together and enjoy the final hours of their holiday weekend.

As I watched them I was reminded of my reading about post resurrection Jesus.

At dawn Jesus was standing on the beach, but the disciples couldn’t see who he was. He called out, “Fellows, have you caught any fish?”
“No,” they replied.
Then he said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat, and you’ll get some!” So they did, and they couldn’t haul in the net because there were so many fish in it.
Then the disciple Jesus loved said to Peter, “It’s the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his tunic (for he had stripped for work), jumped into the water, and headed to shore. The others stayed with the boat and pulled the loaded net to the shore, for they were only about a hundred yards from shore. When they got there, they found breakfast waiting for them—fish cooking over a charcoal fire, and some bread. (John 21:4-9 NLT)

I love that with Jesus, he didn’t yell at Peter for denying him, he didn’t chastise him or even confront him, Jesus cooked him some breakfast, he cooked him some fish.

Everything is spiritual.

We all try to place different components of our lives into different boxes.

However, I see that the dinner we had tonight with our neighbor; curry, that’s spiritual. Did we talk about spiritual things? No. It was a meal full of community, conversation and shared common-union (communion).

I get so annoyed when people overspiritualize things and make their conversations sound spiritual, to highlight their own piety.

Everything is spiritual, we don’t have to make it sound more spiritual to make ourselves look good.

Fishing is spiritual

Curry is spiritual

Life is full of spiritual moments, it’s just how you perceive them. They are not restricted to a church building, in fact Jesus had more encounters with people outside of the temple than in one. He told off the religious people in the temple for their over-spiritualized attitudes towards people.

Take a deep breath and soak in the spiritual, it’s everywhere.

A

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Fresh bread

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Place: dunsborough

Poison: chocolate of course too much!

Favorite things: the sound max makes whilst sleeping.

Today as I lie here resting, after our church service reading scripture and listening to a message on DVD and singing to our iPod I am refreshed.

Our church shaped box tells us that it’s the pews we sit on, the worship team up in lights, the suits and clothes we adorn that make church.

No.

What makes church is the people first and foremost and Christ risen.

If he didn’t rise, we wouldn’t have anything to celebrate.

His funeral cloths were laid empty on the floor of his tomb and he walked free from death.

The smell of fresh bread is pervading every corner of our holiday abode.

That’s what the resurrection of Christ is to me.

It smells like fresh bread. Not stale religion, not stuffy rules and regulations, not bossy, fake humility filled people.

Fresh, real, organic people who are inspired and living a relationship that is not stale and moldy.

How is your relationship with the risen Christ?

Is it full of yesterday’s bread?

Is it old and stale?

Or is it fresh with the power of the resurrection today.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying. Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). (John 20:1-16 NIV)

Is your Christ dead or alive?

A

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Separation

Place:dunsborough

Poison: toothpaste

Favorite things: 1970s caravans

There is a separation between Friday and Sunday, it’s called Saturday.

There was a separation between the disciples expectations of Jesus and his death.

How often do you find yourself in a place of separation, when something that started off so great finds itself in a place of inbetween?

Lenten blog

It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things. (Luke 23:44-49 NIV)

Imagine being one of these disciples. Imagine the separation, the loss the utter desperate place of confusion at what had happened.

How could someone who called himself the son of God, not save himself?

How could something that started so well finish so badly?

Saturday is the day in the easter story that prolonged the separation.

Saturday is hump day in this story. We know the next part of the story though the disciples didn’t.

What areas of your life are you in a place of separation?

You don’t know the end of the story. The place your in now seems desperate and unbelievably low, yet don’t despair the stories not finished.

Don’t lose hope, I believe the bible when it says ‘all things work together for good.’

How bad did this story look in the disciples short term history, yet God had a plan that would take their breath away.

Separation is only that because there is something on the other side.

It’s Friday, but watch out Sundays coming!

A

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Beloved

Place: Eastlake Church

Poison: flat white

Favorite things: friends and family in church together

Easter is not about chocolate!

Easter is not about a four day holiday.

Easter is not about hot cross buns, Easter bonnets, passion plays, church, marshmallows, hunts or long leisurely lunches.

Easter is about you and me.

You might think that you are far from valuable, you might think you are unloved, you might think you are despised, rejected or foresaken.

The story of today, the story of the cross is all about you and me.

It is a people centric tradition. It was designed with you as the focus.

Without people, the significance of the cross would be null and void.

We had an interesting conversation with my eight year old nephew on Monday night. He asked me ‘aunty manda am I Christian or Catholic?’

I said to him ‘Well depends do you believe in God?’

He said ‘No I don’t believe in God’

I said ‘well where do you think you came from?’

He said ‘I believe we came from
Monkeys…’

I said ‘ I believe it takes more faith to think we came from monkeys, than a God who loves us unconditionally and created each and every one of us unique and valued.’

The conversation went on for a long time and traversed through dinosaurs, to monkeys, to Jesus, to our uniqueness…and at the end of our discussion my nephew was no closer to believing in God and that is okay. I’m impressed that he is actually asking the questions and not just blindly believing another’s faith. He embraces chocolate Easter eggs with abandon however and I love him.

Lenten blog
1 Peter :18
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18 NIV)

Today is all about you. Good Friday is a day that Jesus thought through the generations, he knew every detail of your life and he died so that you may be free.

Good Friday is bigger than a cross, it is about a lover who died for his beloved.

You are his beloved.

Rest in peace

A

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Maundy Thursday

Place: bed

Poison: Easter egg (weak I know)

Favorite things: holidays tomorrow

A solitary life is a lonely one.

It might be less complicated and quiet, but it is a life that is very isolated.

There are many people who confess to me that they are really lonely.

Loneliness is a curse, a disease that has overtaken our society.

Yes we have more access to communication technology but it has isolated us all even more.

When was the last time you sat at a table and had a decent conversation with someone?

Your spouse, your mother, your father or your child.

It saddens me to see people sitting out at a dinner table with mobile phones in hand watching the latest status appear on Facebook, whilst a loved one sits opposite silently waiting attention.

We are so desperately taking photos of moments to repost that we miss the golden opportunities that the camera can’t denote because of distraction.

Lenten blog
During the meal, Jesus took and blessed the bread, broke it, and gave it to his disciples: Take, eat. This is my body. Taking the cup and thanking God, he gave it to them: Drink this, all of you. This is my blood, God’s new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins. (Matthew 26:26-28 MSG)

Today is Maundy Thursday and it is the beginning of our official walk towards Jesus death.

He begun this important season with a farewell dinner, a moment to be savored, he took time to delight in those closest.

How often do you miss opportunities to engage in communication with your family because of social media?

When was the last time you invited someone to your house for dinner?

When was the last time you went technology free?

The disciples had no idea what was about to unfold…they had no idea this meal was their last, but Jesus did.

Treat every meal with your family as though it’s your last and I am sure that you will look back over the years and find a collection of amazing memories and relationships.

Hospitality is not just a idea, it’s actually a very valued spiritual gift. Jesus eats with more people than he prays with, Jesus’ first few miracles involved wine and food. When he came back to visit the disciples the first thing he did was cook fish on the beach.

Food provoked relationship with Christ. He ate with the broken and forgotten, the despised and the rejected, the afflicted and the embarrassed. Food was Christ’s healing balm, an oasis of mercy displayed by sitting and eating and giving of people His time and attention.

Happy Holy (Maundy) Thursday everyone.

Tomorrow is a significant day.

See you on the other side!

A