Desperate

I have been surprised by how often I have met with Jesus in the times when I have been desperate. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12 v 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why for, Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Ok I can't honestly say that I have delighted in hardships as Paul does. But I have definitely found that if I don't rush to move away from that desperate feeling, but let it sit with me, and bring it to Jesus; then He meets with me in beautiful ways. It may be exasperation at not being able to figure out how to respond to my child's behaviour or need; or compassion and helplessness at seeing poverty around our city; or sorrow for the hard times a friend is facing. All these situations make me desperate. I have a choice, to rush on into all the tasks for the day, to pretend that I am not moved by these issues because they are too much for me; or I can just let the desperation be my companion for a while - even as I am hanging the washing or driving go fetch my child from school. And invite the Holy Spirit into that place of desperation - birthing in me a prayer, an idea, an SMS, a response, a worship song, or something else that affirms that I am connecting with the Father's heart.

Jim Cymbala in his book Fresh Wind, Fresh Power (page 19) writes: 'God is attracted to weakness. He can't resist those who humbly and honestly admit how desperately they need him. Our weakness, in fact makes room for more of His power.'

So I encourage you, the next time you feel desperate, don't run from this uncomfortable feeling or drown it out too quickly with a cup of tea or coffee. Bring it to Jesus in the stillness of your heart, even whilst you are chasing your 3 year old around the garden or whilst changing that nappy. You'll be surprised at how He will respond in the midst of the joyous chaos of life.

New Ways

Having a new born baby in the house, or an active toddler causing glorious chaos changes they way we do things. There are just somethings that are no longer possible - from how much sleep we can get, to leaving beautiful, decorative glass vases out on coffee tables. So too with our spiritual journey, when we kids arrive with new time-tables and demands, some spiritual disciplines become less possible. Some of the ways that were very helpful in our pre-kid days in connecting us to Jesus are no longer working. That morning quiet time is now tortorous after a night of broken sleep. Having long coversations with church friends after the service now consists of a few hellos as one chases that busy toddler around.

Some of us realised that we have been using our pre-kid-day standards of spirituality to assess our current intimacy with God. And this results in guilt and a sense of failure. But God is not limited to using a couple of ways or disciplines to build His relationship with us. He is so passionate about keeping His daughters close to His heart and has lots of creative ways of doing so. We need to let go of doing Jesus the old way, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us into new, "mother-friendly" ways of enjoying our Father's presence, and being filled up with His word and Spirit. Watch this space as we share some of the more "mother friendly" ways we have found helpful in keeping us intimate with Jesus.

Jesus, our Centre and our Source

How can we sow seeds of social justice in our kids lives so that as they they grow up these seeds will sprout into hearts of compassion, eyes that look at the world as Jesus does, and mouths that speak out against oppression or injustice. So that our children will be hope- and life-bringers to all who know them and that they might be used by God to bring His kingdom of freedom, life and restoration to our nation and continent?

It is never going to happen in our own strength.

In our own strength we might teach truths that become burdens of guilt, we might shine a light on poverty in a way that crushes their tender spirits, we might overwhelm them with the worlds problems so that they withdraw completely into the selfish, safe space of just-focusing-on-me, or we may turn into irritating, nagging mothers where "bringing transformation" becomes reduced to a chore, something to tick off a list so that we appease mom.

What we seek to birth in our children is impossible without Jesus. As mothers we cannot inspire our children without Jesus being at our Centre and without him being our Source. 

But how do we make space for Jesus to be our Centre when there are a million mom-things clamouring for our time, energy and attention? This is what we chatted through at our most recent gathering, and will continue at our next. Watch this space as I post some interesting observations, thoughts and helpful hints from some  inspiring, but totally down-to-earth moms.

Dangling our feet in the water

We haven't stopped walking upstream. But sometimes this business of being a mother means that you have to sit on the side of the river with your kids, dangling your feet in the water, and just focus on them for a while. And so we haven't met as moms for a few months, but tonight we finally gathered. And instead for forging ahead, we too sat alongside the river to keep to the river metaphor. This time with a cup of tea in our hands and a bowl of yummy biscuits to share, and had a good catch up chat. Watch this space next month as we reflect on the fact that God is the source and the centre as we raise our children with hearts for social justice.

St Nicolas' Day Pictures

Can the real Santa please stand up!

I’ll be straight with you. I love Christmas and I’m secretly still sad that Santa does not exist. I have fun memories of putting our biscuits and Bashew cooldrinks(yes, the african way) out for Father Christmas to refuel, after he had sneaked into our house and filled our pillow cases at the foot of our beds with all the presents he miraculously knew we wanted. Father Christmas had to get through the window because we had no chimney:) At least, that’s what my parents told me.

So here I am a couple of decades or so later, with two of my own little squirrels, Kristen and Jesse longing to re-invent this magical world of Father Christmas, his reindeer and the mass of presents he wants to leave them as he goes on his way, getting fatter and fatter as he eats all the biscuits and drinks all the Bashew drinks imaginable. But I know I owe them more than that.

So the point of this blog is to help us parents walk upstream during this season of crazy opulence, over-indulgence and myth around that pot-bellied, jolly old man called Father Christmas, on the eve of St Nicholas’ day, 6 December.

So here enters the real Santa.....St Nicholas. St Nicholas was born in a town called Myra, now known as Turkey in the Mediterranean. He was raised by his Christian family as he lost both his parents at a quite a young age. St Nicholas was driven by the christian values instilled in him at a young age and there are many testimonies of him living a life of servitude, generosity, mercy and justice. One such story and my favorite, is when he secretly placed gold coins through the window of a friends’ daughter who was to be sold into slavery because her father could not afford her dowry. Another story goes that he employed a wood carver to make wooden toys for poor children in his community, and another story goes that he generously fed the poor and clothed them. He eventually became a Bishop and his sainted remains now lie in the Port City of Bari in Italy, which strangely enough I have been to.

St Nicholas was a Jesus follower, a dedicated follower of the Light of the world and his life reflected it. A bit of a far cry from the Coke drinking jolly fellow we now know and love (I speak for myself on this point:)). Which brings me to the following point, the image of St Nicholas has evolved over centuries as different groupings and companies have added little touches here and there as a marketing gimmick. So to the Coca-Cola company’s credit, they are not the only ones guilty of tainting St Nicholas’s image.

So on 6 December this year, I will be celebrating the life of St Nicholas with my family and will attempt to use symbols of St Nicholas’ life, which I hope will help challenge our views of the silly season, and inculcate a message of generosity and not of getting stuff, a message of justice and not of adding to the greater divide between the rich and poor, and a message of mercy and not of being wrapped up in our own bubble as we see the poor all around us. So here are the symbols which will be incorporated into the meal. The aim is to keep the little “gifts” as simple as possible....after all we don’t want to perpetuate the cycle of “stuff” over this time:

• A Sock: represents the sock or shoe into which the gold coins fell when he paid for the young lady’s dowry;
• Chocolate Gold Coins: The money he left in the socks;
• Something Wooden: As a reminder of the gifts the Wood carver made for the poorer children. Maybe fun pencils or little wooden Christmas trimmings will do
• Cloth or clothing: represents the clothes he gave to the poor. In this case I’m thinking new ribbons for Kristen’s hair and a little bandana for Jesse
• Favorite food: This represents his generosity as he sought to feed the poor. I’m thinking of giving Jesse a few strawberries, and Kristen some sweet melon, their favorite fruit.
• Ginger Bread: Symbolises the bread St Nicolas made with exotic spices

So it doesn’t have to cost much. Usually some traditional Mediterranean food is enjoyed as the life of St Nicholas is reflected on.

So what on earth are we to do with Santa this season! For me I’m not ready to give it all up yet. I’ll continue to ask God to challenge me in my thinking and preparation as we await Jesus this advent season, wait for Him to transform our hearts and wait on the same Jesus who affected St Nicholas’ life so deeply. So may the Lord of Love, Generosity, Mercy and Justice walk upstream with us this Christmas season!

Please go to the following link to read a very comprehensive article about the Saint we love so much. I've used Scribd, a site one can upload pdf's for viewing on the net, as I was unable to attach a document to this blog. Hope it works. http://www.scribd.com/doc/74814156/StNicholasDay

I also found the following website really informative

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/who-is-st-nicholas/

Watch this space for some pictures of our time together and examples of what we used during the evening. Love Mauri:)

Creating your own celebrations

Christmas Day and the season of Advent is full of tradition and rituals. The question is, is whose traditions are you following? The joyous thing about being a parent is that you have the authority and freedom to create your own Christmas rituals in your home for your children. It is not always a simple task to create traditions, it does take prayer, thought and some good chats with your spouse.

We all carry with us memories of Christmas from our childhood - some are good, some are hurtful, some inspire, and some keep us in boundage. Mostly these experiences are powerful and emotive. So it takes some careful sifting to work out what do we want to carry forward into our own families, and what do we want to leave behind. We need to recognise that the letting go of some traditions is not a simple task due to the emotional attachment we have with them. We may need pray through and process the "letting go" with a good friend.

Add to this we are in a society that, for some strange reason, goes crazy around Christmas with a startling amount of shopping, sales, decorations, Santa Claus, fir-trees, presents, eating, gatherings, chocolate advent calanders, tinsel and more. Ironically in the midst of this frenzied preparing and feasting, very little of Jesus is reflected. (I  recently tried to purchase a toy nativity set and found that most toy store assistants gave me a blank look, but went on to offer me a handful of Christmas related toys that had a whole lot to do with Santa but very little to do with Jesus). In creating our own celebration of Christmas we need to prayerfully decide what we want to include from our society's traditions, and how to explain to our children why we have chosen not to include the rest.

Shaping our own Christmas is not just about keeping what we like and discard the rest, it is also about creating something brand new. As we push into to understanding more of Jesus, more of His justice and love, we may find we are inspired to add to our Christmas season something that is so Holy Spirit inspired that we don't know of anyone else who is doing it. How exciting - so be open to the new things that may be birthed in your heart. I encourage you to share them with us moms as it will only add to the richness of our celebrations.

Jesus's said that His burden is not heavy and that His yoke is light - this provides us with a great promise to take hold of as we look to mould our family's Christmas celebrations. It does not have to feel like hard work. God wants to show us how.

One mom shared how she and her husband had been praying about their Christmas and had specifically asked God to show them What does God want Christmas to look like in their home? and the also sought God specifically on How they could redeem Christmas in their own lives and home? What an inspiring testimony of how God has been answering them with verses that give guidance, and by dropping inspiring ideas in their hearts and minds. God loves it when we are intentional about Him, and seek to live our lives in line with His best for us. When our hearts are yearning for His way, He does not delay in sharing His thoughts, ideas and strategies with us. And what a joy this is, because His way brings LIFE!

There is no ONE right way to do Christmas, no formula and no script. There is room for you to be Holy Spirit inspired, to use your talents and creative gifts to make this season LIFE giving for your family and to celebrate with your children the wondrous gift of God, Jesus.


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AND REMEMBER:
If you are on Facebook, make sure you join our Moms 4 Justice group where those of us who were at the meeting have committed ourselves to inspiring each other during the Advent Season. Each day one of us will post some reflective thoughts or verses that can help us all focus on the real meaning of Christmas, or inspire us to pursue social justice in this season of festivity, or something that we can say or do with our kids that will help them better understand Jesus and Christmas.


Follow this link to go to the facbook group of Moms4Justice