Cogitations

Who would have thought ironing could take it out of you?!

Yes, I have been ironing ALL morning. 130 seat covers for 130 chairs with 260 sashes to tie into 130 bows. Five ironing boards, ten ladies. NO AIR CONDITIONING. Only some good reggae on a nice system could make that bearable.

Also remembering how horrible it was to use the steamer first! :) That definitely makes it better.

But still--I'm sacked!

I think we're half done.

This castle is going to be magnificent for Saturday's wedding. Black and white with a riot of different colored flowers. I made new curtains that let the light in in a perfectly ethereal manner right behind the couple.


I went to bed last night MISSING my precious nieces and nephews. Yes I cried--because I'm going to be gone for a very long time. The only thing that makes it worth it is a promise; that if I leave parents and sisters and brothers and home behind for His sake and the Gospel's I WILL RECEIVE THEM BACK 100 times--in this life, no less!

I don't understand how that works. But as I gasp for comfort and resist despair over the prospect of loneliness, I recognize the Hand that is grasping mine SO tightly, I see His face "through a glass" beaming at me. "Hey, you know Me. Have I EVER let you down? You don't have to worry about that stuff. Remember how it feels when you Come Home to Me after a hard day's work? I don't get worn out, and I'm not going ANYwhere. I'm not making you do this, but you KNOW if you do you will go deeper with me and experience more joy than you ever thought possible. It's your choice, my dear, but I WILL be with you wherever you are and you can enjoy that. I have promised."

So I go on that. There is nowhere else TO go! I wish that I were spiritual enough to say with Hudson Taylor, "It is no sacrifice!"--but I have to admit to the weakness. Oh well. If one way or another the Living Light can break through to the Dark Ones through me, even by my weakness, I will be thrilled.

You might say, "You don't have to go to the other side of the world to help people." Jesus did. To the "other side" of the universe, the "other side" of eternity. After all, didn't the Lord Himself leave the most perfect and satisfying existence with His Family in order to come down here into a different--highly inferior--culture (though I'm certainly not saying that others are inferior to mine, only that they often feel that way to both sides, because of the unfamiliarity), learn our language and feel our pains--for why? To adopt us! And that's why I leave mine--so they can know the Father of us all. Reconciliation--that's what it's all about. "Change your thinking, and be reconciled to God."

Then I woke up this morning and just bathed in Ephesians 1. Lord knows I needed it! Sometimes I just gotta remind myself why I do what I'm trying to do. Sometimes people don't understand. Or care. But He does, and you know what? That changes--and fixes--everything.

"Thanks, Lord. I love You so much!"

"I love you MORE!"    



WAY WAY WAY more!!!

Bless you!!!

What I learned today--so far. . .

Alzo lief heeft God de wereld dat Hij sijn eniggeboren Zoon gegeven heeft. Eerste John drie zestien.

To speak Dutch you have to re-train your mouth to retain more spit than it formerly considered necessary for speech....(plug it into google translate and you'll see what I mean).

Eric Ludy - The Gospel

"Porwigle"

Also known as Purwiggi, Polliwig and Polliwog. "the immature free-living form of most invertebrates and amphibians and fish which at hatching from the egg is fundamentally unlike its parent and must metamorphose".

Yep, that's me. A child of the King, but still in process. Born again, but not full-grown. Beloved and accepted by God, letting Him make me more like Him daily. Fundamentally UNlike Him at birth, and the metamorphosis has begun. This is the work of the Spirit and I gladly receive His hands' chiseling to make me decrease and HIM increase. Yet oddly enough I am the more comfortable with this earth-suit the more I let Him own it. For He makes all things beautiful in His time. "Then we shall be what we should be".


Now the background you see? That's the view from the pond. A polliwog can't see what's up over the rise, where all those carefree dandelion tufts are drifting. But soon we'll get our legs. Then we'll hop right out of the muddy old home, up the bank, into the bright green sunlit field and...well, perhaps here the analogy ceases, because really I want to FLY! And the unpoetic frogs don't. But you get the point.

So here's (a blog) to waiting eagerly for the arrival of my big brother Jesus, abiding in Him so that when He comes I will not be ashamed. Because He is not ashamed of us! (Hebrews 2:11) May we embrace together the loving training of the Master Teacher as He exposes and challenges more of our natural selves and replaces these with His Self, letting Him win over our hearts and change us truly, deeply. I am not what I was, nor yet what I shall be, but I am satisfied with the One Who owns me forever.

How I love Him, because He first loved me!


Incidentally, this was also my dad's nickname for me and no you may NOT call me by it...