Borrowed Wisdom

This is not original to me, but I think it is well worth sharing.  I hope you find it as spiritually edifying as it was for me today.

First, from Dr. Richard Mouw, President of Fuller Theological Seminary.  His full blog can be found here:  http://www.netbloghost.com/mouw/?m=201103

I owe the “generous-stingy” distinction to the late Kosuke Koyama, who said in a speech I once heard him give, that in approaching the Bible we need to decide whether the God of the Scriptures is a generous God or a stingy one. I like that way of putting things. But I like it because it is a way of focusing on the conception of the divine attributes that we bring to our theological discussions.

Although this is not the major point of Mouw's article, I believe this attitude is foundational not only to how we read about God in the Scriptures, but how we view all of life.  If we decide we don't like something, we will undoubtedly see all the things wrong with it (the same also goes for people).

Put another way:  we see what we believe.  We do not see and then believe.  As in the gospels, we believe and then we see.  It is true with the Kingdom of God.  It is true with goodness.  It is true with all of life.  Believe in what you are looking for, and you'll begin to see it in the most unlikely of places.

St. Patrick's Day Chapel

We just had preschool chapel, and given that it is St. Patty's Day, we talked about St. Patrick.  All of the preschoolers knew he was from Ireland (even though he was born in Roman Britan), and that he lived a long time ago.  I also shared with them that we remember St. Patrick because he did lots of good things and told all the Irish people about Jesus. 

I shared with them a section from St. Patrick's Breastplate, a prayer attributed to the 5th Century Saint.  As I said to the preschoolers, so now I say to you:  It is pretty cool that we can say the same prayer that St. Patrick said so long ago!

I bind unto myself today

The strong Name of the Trinity,

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One, and One in Three,

I bind this day to me forever,

By power of faith, Christ's Incarnation;

His baptism in the Jordan river;

His death on the cross for my salvation.

His bursting from the spiced tomb;

His riding up the heav'nly way;

His coming at the day of doom:

I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power

Of the great love of cherubim;

The sweet "well done" in judgment hour;

The service of the seraphim:

Confessors' faith, apostles' word,

The patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls;

All good deeds done unto the Lord,

And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today

The virtues of the starlit heav'n,

The glorious sun's life-giving ray,

The whiteness of the moon at even,

The flashing of the lightning free,

The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,

The stable earth, the deep salt sea,

Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today

The power of God to hold and lead,

His eye to watch, his might to stay,

His ear to hearken to my need;

The wisdom of my God to teach,

His hand to guide, his shield to ward;

The word of God to give me speech,

His heav'nly host to be my guard.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,

Christ behind me, Christ before me,

Christ beside me, Christ to win me,

Christ to comfort and restore me,

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,

Christ in hearts of all that love me, 

Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,

The strong Name of the Trinity;

By invocation of the same,

The Three in One, and One in Three.

Of whom all nature hath creation;

Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:

Praise to the Lord of my salvation,

Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

Amen.

Reversed Thinking

This is pretty sweet!
Enjoy.

My Lent

I've been wrestling with what to do for Lent this year.  Suggestions on my Facebook page ranged from 'give up giving things up' to 'making Lent a celebration of Christ'.  I finally settled on something that fits for me.

I need to be more grateful in my life.  God has richly and abundantly blessed me, and it is about time I take notice and intentionally say 'thank you.'  So, from now until Easter, I am going to start and end every day with three things I am thankful for.  I might even write them down so I end up with a huge list of things I am thankful for.  That might be aiming a little high, however!

I'll start with this morning:  I am grateful for the peacefulness of early morning, for my sleeping family, and for good friends--everywhere they happen to be.