the goldilocks workout plan

This gorgeous Southern Ontario spring morning is warming up the soil and coaxing new life out of the chilled earth. As I cleared away the detritus of winter, I saw the green spears of tulips, tipped with red, emerging for the first time - I planted them last fall and have waited eagerly all winter to see them come up. I love tulips! And now they are three feet tall and topped with glorious red and white blooms. These ones are extra special: they are the new "Canada 150" Maple Leaf tulips bred in Holland for this year's sesquicentennial.

As I work in the garden I start a little conversation with my Vinedresser. It goes something like this:
Me: I love being in the garden with You. It's so peaceful out here. I want to learn to talk with you. To be able to tell You the deeper things in my heart. But I don't always know what to say.
The Vinedresser: That's ok - just go ahead. I'm listening ...
Me:  You know how much I want to have fruit. How much I want to DO something that will give back to you some return for spending so much love and care on me.
The Vinedresser: I know that. Be patient. You're doing fine! [Just then a freight train rumbles by on the far edge of the fields. I look up at it as the Vinedresser speaks into my heart...] But don't try to pull too heavy a load.
Me: [thinking ...] You know that's a difficult one for me. I always seem to get it wrong - take on too much, and run into trouble. [I think of the old story of the frog in the slowly-warming pot of water on the stove.] How shall I know when it's too heavy a load?
The Vinedresser: [smiling] If it feels good when you stop to take a rest, you'll know you have the right load.

I mull this over and it's clear to me right away just how much wisdom there is in that. It's like working out at the gym: Too much weight, or too many reps, and we get hurt or are stiff for days. If the load is too little, we don't even feel we need a rest: There's no real challenge, and we don't build strength or endurance. But when the load is just right, enough to give us a good workout, but not enough to break us down, we feel good - even exhilarated - tired and sweaty but invigorated.

Master Gardener, let me be like Goldilocks in finding the load that's "just right". Continue Your work building up in me the right sort of strength to do what I was created for, to fulfill Your purpose and bring You glory. Amen.

the camino - first century style

Imagine yourself in Bethany. It is summer, late 0020's of the First Century of this Common Era, and John is baptizing people and calling them to repentance, preparing the way for the Messiah. Imagine the scene and the conversation. Jesus, who has just been revealed as the Son of God during his baptism by John, begins to seek out those who will be his disciples - and the story goes like this (from the Gospel of John, chapters 1 & 2):

The next day Jesus decided to go to Galillee. He found Phillip.

Jesus: Follow me.

Phillip: Uh - what? Me? Where are we going? 

Jesus: There's a wedding in Cana and I want you to come along.

P: Cana! But that's 2 days' journey! We'll have to walk. And I have only just met you, Rabbi.

J: That's ok - we'll talk along the way. 

Can you imagine the long hours of walking with Jesus and his new band of disciples, talking, reflecting; stopping for a drink or a meal or to rest in the first bit of shade on the route in hours; finding a place to spend the night? Sounds very much like the renowned Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

Now, in the 21st Century, I am on my own Camino with Jesus, my Rabbi, my Teacher, my Lord. He has chosen me as one of his disciples and he is teaching me how to be more like him as we travel together to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9). As I follow him and we journey together, we talk along the way, stop for refreshment and rest in the shade side by side when the sun gets too hot in the early afternoon. I invite you to come along: he wants you too, on this journey of a lifetime. There's always room for another, and the conversation is like no other!

made in the image of God

Genesis 1:27 is a familiar passage to many:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

It's familiar, but do we actually think about what it means to us today? Do we take it for granted, give it lip service, gloss over it? What about Ephesians 4:24:

... and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

What does this mean? We have not seen God, and we are mere humans: How can we be the image of God? A quotation from the writings of St. Athanasius of Alexandrea (4th century AD/CE) offers us an answer:We were made "in the likeness of God". But in course of time that image has become obscured, like a face on a very old portrait, dimmed with dust and dirt. When a portrait is spoiled, the only way to renew it is for the Subject to come back to the studio and sit for the artist all over again. That is shy Christ came - to make it possible for the divine image in man to be recreated. We were made in God's likeness; we are remade in the likeness of his Son. To bring about this re-creation, Christ still comes to men and Lives among them. In a special way he comes to his Church, his "body", to show us what the "image of God" is really like. As posted at http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/152.html, viewed May 2 2017

How can I present the image of God to the world? How can others see Him, not me? Keith Green's song "No Compromise" inspires me and challenges me to allow God to work in me to accomplish just such a miracle in my life:

I want to live, and let you live / Your life in me, that they might see ... 

(click here to listen:  https://youtu.be/GC2vvncga4U)

P.S. Athanasius is my hero! If not for his valiant and long-suffering championship, the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ would have yielded to Arianism, the belief that Christ Jesus was merely "a god". 

in him ...

Today I am enjoying an excercise of contemplative prayer. Reading Ephesians 1:3-12, the Father's plan of salvation, I found myself focusing on the words IN HIM which are repeated several times through the passage:

     IN - not out, beside, with - but IN - inside, immersed in, surrounded by, all-encompassing

     HIM - no-one else but Jesus Christ, as God, our Saviour

I found myself remembering from long ago a science fiction story in which the protagonist finds himself in an alien world where the atmosphere is so dense that one can swim through it as if through water, and so "fly" in a way above the buildings and streets, like a bird but much more slowly.

Thinking of this, I see myself sinking into Christ as into the sea, with tiny bubbles rising around me; and I begin to move my arms a bit, then find it's like that story: I can remain suspended, surrounded, deep within this atmosphere that is HIM.

He is in me, and I am IN HIM, one with Him.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:3-12. The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

may day - with st. joseph the worker

It's May Day today - the first day of May, traditionally the day to celebrate workers and work. I think of Joseph, the foster father of Jesus, who is honoured today in the Calendar of the Saints. As I consider his life and ask God to show and teach me, I ponder on the thought that to Joseph, it must all have been a Big Mystery - but nevertheless, from the first appearance of the angel, he assented to God's direction.
As I think of Jesus growing up under Joseph's fatherly direction, Joseph must have taught Jesus his own traits, just as we all pass along our traits and habits, both good and bad, to our children. And so I believe we can say with confidence that, like Jesus, Joseph must have been a thoughtful, careful, devout man of faith; hard working, quiet, considering his actions, thinking before speaking - yet speaking out boldly when necessary. He definitely was deeply faithful: he must have KNOWN God well over his lifetime in order to have received the message from the angel and assented in this way. Later, he heard from God in a dream - and understood that it was God. He knew God's voice.
Overall, I come away with the knowledge that Joseph DID HIS PART even when he did not understand God's plan. I must do the same!

Anton Raphael Mengs (1728–1779), “The Dream of St. Joseph"