Tim and Olive's Blog

The Word for today in Streams in the Desert is from Deuteronomy 11:10-12:

For the land, into which you are entering to possess it, is not like the land of Egypt from which you came, where you used to sow your seed and water it with your foot like a vegetable garden. But the land into which you are about to cross to possess it, a land of hills and valleys, drinks water from the rain of heaven, a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning even to the end of the year.[NASB]

This first day of the new year, we stand on the threshold to another 365 days that lie ahead of us. To me, this passage speaks truth about my life. The land I came from was a land of self-effort. It was a small land, a garden patch. The land I am about to possess is a land of hills and valleys – a vast expanse of discovery, joys and sorrows. It is a land that is cared for by the LORD Himself. I look forward in anticipation to possessing this land that offers me a fullness and richness that I could not come about by my own work.

I read this verse to my mom tonight and she asked the question, “Are you ready?” Ready for what? I wondered. “A lot of people aren’t ready for hills and valleys.” I don’t feel unready. I am confident because I know God will only lead me there when I’m ready and that when that time comes, He will go with me.

Bring on 2008!

All the days ordained for me

were written in your book

before one of them came to be.
~Psalm 139:16~

In the last 365 days, here is where the good Lord has brought me (in order):

• Toronto

• Vancouver

• Panama

• Vancouver

• Toronto

• Vancouver

• Colorado

• Vancouver

• Whistler

• Vancouver

• Toronto

• East Asia

• Toronto

• East Asia

• Toronto.

A lot of people travel more than this, I know. I suppose travelling needs to be differentiated from moving though. For me, I’ve moved at least four times in the midst of all the travelling. For a creature who is a homebody by nature, this is an amount of packing, unpacking and moving that borders on being classified as extreme!

Still, I’m deeply grateful for this year. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have been in all these places, for all the people I’ve met and all the lessons I’ve learned. I’m grateful for my parents who’ve allowed me to journey away and keep welcoming me back, even when I come back worse for the wear. And I’m very grateful for Tim, who’s persisted in courting me through all these changes of distance, time zones and my moods that fluctuate faster than either of us can keep track of.

At the end of this year, my heart is full of praise because I know God that much more intimately. And Jesus is my heart’s treasure more than ever.

I’m tired, yes. But His grace is allowing me to rest now. And by His grace, it’s going to be a

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.
~Genesis 28:15~

How is it that the grandeur and splendour of a natural wonder like Niagara Falls has attracted such an odd assortment of businesses? It is sad to see that so many “attractions” that have sprung up in the downtown part of Niagara Falls are really distractions from life: Ripley’s believe-it-or-not, wax museums, haunted houses, tatoo parlours and more recently, the much celebrated casinos. It’s like all the weirdest stuff, the out-of-ordinary, the ghoulish and fantasy have all collected right beside one of God’s amazing creations. It’s just bizarre. On one hand, you have the magnificence of what God has to offer. And on the other, you have the pitiful emptiness of what humans have to offer. The clincher is this: the experience God offers is free, while the other option will cost you your wallet (and maybe more).

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
~Romans 1:22-23~

WORD OF THE DAY: FRANGIBLE

(from dictionary.com)

frangible \FRAN-juh-buhl\, adjective:
Capable of being broken; brittle; fragile; easily broken.

me.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
~2 Corinthians 4:7~

ALL THINGS NOT EQUAL

I bought a bunch of bamboo a couple months back. Since they were too long, I cut off some inches from the bottom before I stuck them in a vase of water. They have now happily grown a healthy entanglement of roots.

The short bits that I cut off, I stuck in their own little glass container with some pretty white pebbles to keep them standing straight. I’d seen a friend do this before and hers started to grow leaves. I figured I might as well give it a try too. I put my little “garden” next to the sink in my bathroom. I like how it greens things up.

Anyway, they have started to grow leaves. What intrigues me though is that some of them have leaves about 3 inches long, while others are only just starting to show a little nub. In observing their growth, I’ve realized that God’s creativity extends to the timing of things. I mean, He could easily make them all grow at the same rate – and the human perfectionist in me would be more satisfied if that were the case – but He doesn’t.

In the same way, I think He allows people to grow at different rates as well. Too often, we are tempted to compare ourselves with others (imagine one bamboo comparing itself with another one!) and we might even complain that God’s not being fair, but reality is that His love and grace is just as plentiful for each of us and that He is glorified in the variety and differences.

God…makes things grow.
~1 Corinthians 3:7~

WHO DOES GOD TRUST?

At a retreat this past weekend, in one of the prayers, the person thanked God for trusting Himself to the care of a teenage girl when He came to earth. That’s a pretty incredible thought. That God would trust humanity to take care of Him. That the Creator would trust Himself to the created. Then it dawned on me that God not only trusted Mary, He trusted many other people in the Bible. He also trusted many others throughout history. He trusts each of us who know Him. And most incredibly (to me anyway), He trusts me.

This is something I’ll need to think more about – that God’s character is trusting.

[Love] always trusts.
~1 Corinthians 13:7~

REMARKABLE!

Yesterday, a friend and I had lunch on the 12th floor of a hotel by the beach. Looking out over the rhythmic waves as they washed up along the shore, we prayed for each other. She thanked God for His love and that His thoughts about me outnumbered the grains of sand. After we finished praying, we both looked at each other and wondered, “What could God possibly be thinking about us that He would have THAT many thoughts about each one of us?!”

Could it really be that Someone out there loves me THAT much?

How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
~Psalm 139:17-18a~

MIRACLE

I think I’m finally starting to believe that I really am loved.

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
~Ezekiel 36:26~

BROKEN

Today,
The water isn’t running,
Our apartment smells like sewage,
The internet is temperamental,
I was fortunate to have a seat on the bus one-way,
It’s taken me almost 2 hours to make a simple soup,
And all I want to do since I woke up is go back to sleep.

This soldier is broken.

I waited patiently for the LORD;
he turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
~Psalm 40:1-2~

FRUIT-LESS

This post has been rattling around in my brain for a while now and I thought it was about time to set it free…

In my devos one day, I read about a gardener who was asked about his abundant and lush grape harvest. He explained that when he first acquired the vineyard, he pruned all the plants and for two whole years he had no harvest. I saw a parallel in my own life. I’ve been feeling fruitless lately but it was as if the Lord spoke and affirmed to me that it is actually quite unnatural and impossible for a plant who is in the pruning process to bear fruit. A pruned branch cannot bear fruit! Nor is it expected to. A pruned plant has only one task: to drink in the sunshine and take in the nutrients from the earth through the vine. And one day, when God deems it time, flowers will bloom and fruit will come forth. Even more fruit than was ever possible before.

Christ’s yoke is much lighter than my own. Hallelujah!

…Every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit.
~John 15:2~