Psalm 103:8

The Lord is compassionate and merciful, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love.

How to Make a Beautiful Garden

1. Clear out everything that's not beautiful, or that you just don't want there. Kill the things that might come back later.
2. Decide what beautiful things you want to put in your garden.
3. Plan them out in a nice way, making sure that they're in a place where they can get lots of sunlight (things don't grow well in the dark).
4. Dig holes for the new plants, and put them in.
5. Fertilise everything.
6. Mulch everything, to lock it all in, keep the weeds away, and improve the soil quality over time.
7. Water everything thoroughly.
8. Over time, make sure you keep taking out the bad things that come up, and watering everything. You'll need to trim the beautiful plants too from time to time, to keep them nice and to train them to grow in the right ways - otherwise they will get ugly. They might look a little ugly at first when you trim them, but they'll come good and look even better afterwards.

Be aware the initial set up is very quick (most gardens you can completely turn around in a day), but the care and love to help it grow into a beautiful place takes a very very long time - growth happens very slowly, but slow growth results in stronger and more lovely gardens.

What is A Good Story?

A character who wants something and overcomes conflict to get it.

- from A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, a brilliant book by Donald Miller.

Here are some more of his perceptions, seemingly unrelated, but most probably not (like much of Donald Miller's writing!)....

"When you are born, you wake slowly to everything. Your brain doesn't stop growing until you turn twenty-six, so from birth to twenty-six, God is slowly turning the lights on, and you're groggy and pointing at things saying circle and blue and car and then sex and job and health care. The experience is so slow you could easily come to believe life isn't that big of a deal, that life isn't staggering. What I'm saying is I think life is staggering and we're just used to it. We all are like spoiled children no longer impressed with the gifts we're given - it's just another sunset, just another rainstorm moving in over the mountain, just another child being born, just another funeral."

David Crowder Band - SMS [Shine]

Here's a very cool song, and a very cool video, from the David Crowder Band. The song is called "Shine."

Lily's World

I love Lily's imagination, even if it does worry me a little. We were going on a bear hunt this morning, and this is how it ended up.

Lily: Oh no! We found one! And it's not a friendly one!
Me: Oh no! Quick, run away!
Lily: Quick quick quick quick quick! Run all the way home, up the stairs, under the covers into bed.... Oh no! We forgot to shut the door! Quick! Slam.... Whew.
Me: Whew.
Lily: I don't want to go on a bear hunt again.
Me: Me neither....

Lily: Oh no! It got in the door!
Me: Oh no! Oh, it's alright, I'll get it with the vaccuum cleaner. Bang.
Lily: Bang bang bang bang bang!
Me: Phew, it's all ok now. We got it.
Lily: Now it looks like a sultana.

A Prayer for Our Church

From "Living the Resurrection," by Eugene Peterson....

Lord Jesus Christ, we come to you with a deep sense of gratitude, care, concern, devotion, love for you, and desire to live responsively to you. We sense that we're with friends in your company of followers - friends who share the life of resurrection and want others to get in on it, notice it, and begin participating at the centre of what you're doing rather than on the periphery. We pray for strength and discernment to understand the culture we are in - the deadening effects, the seductive lures.... We ask your blessing on your church - scattered and dispersed and so much of it in despair. We pray that wherever we are and whatever places we go back into - whether it's pew or pulpit - we may be part of this resurrection life, knowing that you are present and doing your work. You're not anxious about what is going to happen or whether this is going to work or not. It's worked a long, long time and will continue working. Mostly, keep us faithful, attentive, adorational, sacrificial, and personal. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

Sorry

I just realised how arrogant the song "How Great is Our God" might sound if there were any non-Christian people listening, or people from other religions. I've used that song so many times when I've been leading worship, and I hadn't even thought about it in that light until now. I really hope I haven't offended anyone.

It makes me sick to think how many times we've offended people (in any number of different ways) without even knowing it. I really apologize for anything I've done in the past that's been arrogant or insulting. I wish I could apologize directly to the people who've been offended. I'm sure there are probably a few.