Being filled

Today I wrote to my penpal in Indonesia, an 18 year old Christian sister.

"I am praying for you!  The Lord is pleased when we pray to Him and depend on Him for your help and strength.  A friend encouraged me with this thought:  The Bible says we are to "be filled with the Spirit".  When we think of being filled with food, we think of eating quite a LOT of food to be full.  We are not full from only one bit.  In a similar way, we must be filled with a LOT of the Spirit, as the Spirit of Christ we must be filled with the Word of Christ to be filled.  And it may take a LOT of the Scripture to fill us!  I am praying that you are filled with the Word to accomplish all that the Lord hopes for you.
....
I pray for you and your family, that you may have peace of God and His comfort and Hope within you.
With much Love
Laura"

On Belay?

Great weekend in the Colorado Rockies this weekend for my cousin's wedding (congrats Chris & Becky!!!)
One highlight was the Bouldering Room with 22' high walls of varying difficulty.  We had the opportunity for the adults to be trained as Belayers. 

[definition courtesy of Wikipedia]

Belaying refers to a variety of techniques used in climbing to exert friction on a climbing rope so that a falling climber does not fall very far.^[1] A climbing partner typically applies the friction at the other end of the rope whenever the climber is not moving, removing the friction from the rope whenever the climber needs more rope in order to be able to continue climbing.

Communication is also extremely important in belaying.

Climbers should wait for a verbal confirmation from the belayer that they are ready to begin. In the US, usually the climber will ask "On Belay?" or "Belay?" and wait for the belayer to reply "Belay On". Once ready, the climber then follows with a "Climb Ready" or "Climbing". This is usually acknowledged by the belayer saying "Climb On."

Mom on Belay, daughter on Climb

There's an amazing amount of trust between climber and belayer - and the belayer may have the less glamorous job in reality.  It's similar in mentorship situations, the mentor essentially is in back drop, watching out, keeping safe and grounded his or her mentee as they Climb On.  The relationship requires great amounts of trust and communication in order to be successful.    

to Abstain

In an email to a friend today, who thoughtfully asked what was new, I shared the below. Pray it's encouraging to you too :)

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Life is good, keeping busy with CYT NYC, the day job, time with roomies, three Bible studies and half marathon training. So.. yeah. Busy.

The Bible study that helped me be encouraged is the one in 1 Peter 2:11 the text is "abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul" and when I looked up the Greek word I found the expanded definition of "abstain" to be really intriguing:

568 apéxō (from 575 /apó, "away from" and 2192 /éxō, "have") – properly, to have one thing by separating from (letting go of) another.

568 /apéxō ("to have by separating from") includes what is gained by discarding something else (cf. Phm15). In each case, 568 /apéxō ("relate from") retains its root-meaning, "to have something, because far away from something else" (J. Thayer).

The idea that I have separated from something in order to have something else is a really powerful one for me, somehow the idea that saying no to one thing makes it possible, or even is the cause for, saying yes to another more valuable thing.

It's been very helpful in how I think about my time. Which isn't really "mine" at all.. but that's for another day :-)

Quote of the Week

First Tim Tebow, and now this; NYC will be oozing goodness before too long.

Dad

Running around New York City

This morning I started my day by making a (really obscenely long impossible-to-do-in-one-day) to do list, having a quiet time (daily devotional) and as I looked at my list and closed in prayer, I asked God to help me accomplish the things that He would want accomplished and, basically, not sweat the small stuff.

Because I'm signed up for a [and now will be words that I never thought I'd utter...] a half marathon, one of the items on my list today was a three mile run. I'm still new to the whole "running thing" and had never run outside before. But I was also craving nature and even spent 20 seconds thinking about how to finagle a visit to Central Park Zoo on my list to see animals. Turns out that God saw fit to bless my little desire to see animals and nature; the beautiful weather today meant that everybody in New York City who has a dog was out with their dog. Big dogs, small dogs, the dog who nearly took down his owner because he lunged for the squirrel, the shaggy brown dog who patiently let the little boy pet him and then some. Not to mention the beautiful spring time flowering trees, all on a backdrop that I've come to love.

It's been a pretty full month with a few trips (vacation and business), some big changes at work, starting a not-for-profit, training for the half marathon, and a loss in the family.

In light of everything, though, God's goodness and help are there when we ask and seek to do what we know is right.

Psalm 84:11

Selah.

A short time ago I was reading Psalm 60 and came across verse 4:

"You have given a banner to those who fear You,
That it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah"

At the time that I read it, I was struck by the "Selah."
According to Hebrew Lexicon (dictionary), the word definition is:

Selah: to lift up, exalt

and further:

From calah; suspension (of music), i.e. Pause -- Selah.

At the time that I read it, and today as I recall it, I'm grateful that the God of the Scriptures has a balance. There are times to go, and there are times to pause and think.

Confessions of a Frequent* Traveler - 7 of 7

1. I love ironing in a hotel room. I really don’t like ironing at home. There’s no rationale reason for this. Perhaps I have a mental block about putting the ironing board away. In the hotel room, you only have to get it out and iron, you don’t have to put the board and iron away in the closet. Somehow that makes all the difference to me.

Confessions of a Frequent* Traveler - 6 of 7

1. I pack a plastic grocery bag. This is especially true if I don’t know much about where I am going, most relevant for travel abroad. You’ll want a place to bag up all the dirty laundry so it doesn’t contaminate the clean clothes, right?

Confessions of a Frequent* Traveler - 5 of 7

I only pack One pair of shoes. That’s all you really need. I choose black or brown (or other) and every outfit I pack has to coordinate with the shoes. The tricky question here is about athletic shoes. I’ve recently started an exercise routine and it required – I’m a little embarrassed – me to pack athletic shoes, and consequently, more than one pair of shoes. But I did select a pair that are thin-soled & lightweight; they slid easily into the front pocket of the suitcase. And I wore the high heels so they wouldn’t take up precious suitcase space.

Confessions of a Frequent* Traveler - 4 of 7

1. I consider pajamas carefully. It’s important to pack small pajamas so that you don’t over-pack. However, you need to pack pajamas that are large enough you don’t mind being seen in them if there is a fire in the middle of the night and you – and all your fellow hotel stayers – need to evacuate.

Confessions of a Frequent* Traveler - 3 of 7

1. I love shopping at the airport. Not sure why, but if I’m early for a flight I love poking around, even if I don’t buy anything. Shopping at the airport is somehow way better than shopping, let’s say, at a mall or somewhere there is something else to do. Shopping in the airport is like a condoned way to kill time. [Though in general I'm against killing time. Really, what has it ever done to you?]