Constant Companion

One mother shared how she had to find a new way of connecting with Jesus during the dark days of her post-natal depression. In these emotionally strained months she had very little energy to carve out time for the classic devotion time. She started chatting to Jesus, throughout the day, not in a formal way, but comfortable - just as you would a friend. Her life is busy, and she shares honestly that it is not as though she does not live in God's presence every minute, but she is growing in this discipline of being conscious of God's companionship throughout the day. It is brings her life. She has also started inviting her children into her chats with God. Driving to school in the morning she moves easily from conversing with them about their day, to praying with them about the day.



"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"--which means, "God with us." Matthew 1: 23



Immanuel - God With Us



Every moment

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:)