Dealing with the damages

I spend most of my days with children. Some days I am with children who are functional. Other days I am with children who function differently. Society has lots of labels for this second set, labels that are mostly polite ways for saying they are damaged. We live in a world where broken-ness is not tolerated. Instead it is something to be defined, analysed and fixed. This is fairly easy to do when you wear your damage at a surface level – when the way you walk or talk or behave is clearly different from the way everyone else does. But what about when your malfunction is not on the surface? What about what your broken-ness is so deep inside that no one can see it? Or so deeply woven into who you are that you don’t realize it is broken-ness until you try to untangle the reasons you behave the way you do?

Advertisement

Higher Thoughts: Pre-Problem Solutions

I have the memory of an elephant. An elephant with short term memory loss. So in order to ensure that I get things accomplished I have to make lists and use calendars and the like to remind myself of what I need to do. It doesn’t help that I usually have a million things going on from week to week. Between my ever-changing work schedule, my activities at church, appointments with my family, favors for friends, and the volunteering I manage to squeeze in, I can barely keep track.

Higher Thoughts: Actively Waiting

I received this amazing devotional thought in my inbox this morning that I thought I would share with you.
_____________________________

Last Friday I wrote about the fact that having faith means patiently waiting. As I continued to focus on that this week, a text I read some time ago came to mind: James 2: 14 – 16 (NKJV). The highlights of this section of scripture, for me, are:

“14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him?…17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”

You can’t say you have faith, but then not show it. It does not work that way. The New International Version puts it this way: 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

To me, waiting patiently and showing action seemed a little oxymoronic – how do you actively wait? Then I remembered something my dad once told me. He said that when you can’t hear God’s voice, you just keep doing the last thing He told you to do, or head in the last direction He pointed you in, until you hear Him again telling you otherwise.

Higher Thoughts: It all counts

There’s a man at the Kennedy Subway Station in Toronto who stands at the escalators telling people, “Jesus loves you”. I see him in the morning sometimes – around 7am when I am passing through Kennedy Station – and I sometimes also see him in the evenings on my way home. I can’t help but wonder about him. Does he have a job? Does he have a family? Responsibilities? How does he find time to do this so often? Doesn’t he even care that almost no one looks at him, and those that do look at him as if he’s strange? Is he even making a difference?

Higher Thoughts: The Question is…

“What does God want me to do” has to be one of the most asked questions, not only by Christians, but also non-Christians. It is often a preface to other more specific questions like, “What does God want me to do in school?”, “What does God want me to do for a career” or “What does God want me to do about this relationship?”

Higher thoughts: Right word, wrong way…

I am a strong proponent of minding your own business. There is no quicker way to stir up some drama than by offering up your opinion where it wasn’t asked for. The problem comes however when someone directly asks for your opinion. I found myself in this precarious position some time ago while sitting with a friend in KFC.

Higher Thoughts: A shelter in the time of snow

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. (NIV)

I love winter. The clean crisp air. The shimmery white snow. My cute winter boots. I however hate winter driving. I hate everything about it, from the snow shovelling, to the cold car seats, to being stuck in snow banks. And this week I had the joy of experiencing all this and more when I drove my friend to school in London from Toronto.

Wanting Less

At the floating market in Amphawa on my last days in Thailand

So I’m finally back in the West. I have actually been back in Canada for about a month now but the adjustment has taken time for a girl. The first week it was dealing with the time change. How did that go? Let’s just say I had a very early bedtime every evening. But after a week I was fine. It was the psychological part of the adjustment that has taken a bit longer.

The truth is, you don’t know how somewhere has changed you until you go back to where you were before. I was told I would have reverse culture shock. But no one told me it would come at me at the most random moments and in the strangest forms. Like my disgust at the amount of time I have to spend getting from one place to another; or my disdain at the excessive amount of ‘things’ in my home. It’s funny, when I was in Thailand, I met so many people who wanted to come to Canada. But now that I am back in Canada, there are moments when all I want to do is go back to the simplicity of my life in Thailand. It has been like seeing my Western life through new eyes and wondering what the big deal was anyway.

I guess it is similar to the experience of coming to know God. A lot of things get tossed off as you walk closer to Him, and sometimes you stop on the road and look back at the things that were so hard to let go of and wonder what the big deal was anyway. Personally, I am learning to appreciate this feeling of wanting less. I hope it never goes away.

It’s the end of the world as we know it

So if you’ve been around people the last couple weeks you’ve probably heard the prophecies that talk about the end of the world happening on May 21 at 6pm. I have many questions about this so called end of the world, such as, is this 6pm eastern, central or mountain time? Since I am in Thailand, does the end of the world come sooner for me (May 21 at 6am)?

But all jokes aside, no doubt the world has been in a state of conflict for long enough that it is easy for people to think that our world is in fact coming to an end. And it is. The question is, when?

For the truth check out:

The Final Events According to Bible Prophecy

Get the facts, then decide for yourself.

He wants it all

Music loves me. I would say I love music, but I honestly feels like its the other way around most of the time. Especially days like today when a song crawls into me and won’t go away.

I have been missing out on a lot of new music since I switched latitudes but a couple days ago I came across this song from Forever Jones – He wants it all. I have been struggling a lot with what it really means to really give God everything. Like really get-up-in-the-morning-don’t-move-until-God-speaks everything. It’s a scary concept. I guess that’s why this song appealed to me right now. So of course, I must share. Enjoy!