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- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
Our church is offering a marriage prep course this month, and I am so excited to be a part of it! Matt and I went through the course with engaged friends of ours last year, and it was fun to re-live our pre-marital counselling and compare our married selves with our engaged selves, fun to spend time together with another couple, and so fruitful to revisit the topics and invest in our marriage.
I met up with a married friend recently and was raving about how great this course is and the topics I’m thinking about. I want to have helpful things to say, but it's hard when I know that great advice simply doesn’t teach as well as experience. I want to share so much of what I’ve learned over 5 years of marriage about the disguises that selfishness wears, the importance of adjusting expectations in different seasons, the safety net of close friends you can confide in or vent to.
But I also know that I am far from perfect, and my marriage has many ways to grow yet. My friend and I were talking about the inevitability of challenges in marriage, the impossibility of two imperfect people seamlessly forming a perfect life together, but how the challenges are hard to articulate; they go beyond trust, respect and communication to something primal and irrepressible.
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I saw an article on facebook this week titled Dear Church, Here's Why People Are REALLY Leaving You. When I read it, I got a big rant that attacks five cliches of the evangelical church: the big productions many services turn into, the alienation caused by "Christianese" lingo, self-absorption, wrong priorities, and lack of genuine love. Fair enough - those things all suck.
But the article made me sad because all the pain that was harnessed into this attack is directed at big-C Church, which I consider myself a part of. The Church includes all Christians around the world and throughout history, and it is so much bigger than the evangelical movement (which, for all its failures, is part of the Church). I am heartbroken on behalf of the Church that we have been so misunderstood and that we have perpetuated the misunderstandings by inviting people to come to church at 10:30 on Sunday morning.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
"Only they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."
-Galatians 2:10
This is not me. To be perfectly honest, I'd rather not remember the poor, because the less I think about those who have less than me, the easier it is to be self-indulgent and self-pitying about how little I have.
In reality, I have far more than I need. I know it deep down, and I know it when I take the time to be grateful that there is money left over when we pay our bills, which is more than many many people can say. We eat good food, and I have to say that my heart has caught in my throat a time or two with just how happy I am to watch Torre eat a whole peach's worth of slices,
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
Tomorrow is the first day of VBS, and it is going to be great! How do I know? Well I saw the curriculum in action on our Bathurst mission trip, and it is honestly just so much fun. I'm excited for another week of singing those songs and watching kids build relationships with each other and their leaders and they experience the different stations and learn about God's love for them.
I also know VBS will be great because it's what God wants us to do. We had staff training on Saturday, and I shared a devo based on Mark 10:13-16. The story comes in the middle of Jesus answering questions from religious leaders, some time after his transfiguration and healing a demon possessed boy (in Mark 9). At this point in his ministry, Jesus was officially a big deal, and his disciples had to do some crowd control, organize his appointments if you will, and let people know when he was ready for an audience. The problem is, they had the wrong idea of who Jesus prioritized seeing, and they were turning away parents who brought their children to be blessed by Jesus.
Can you imagine the scene?
Parent: "We've come to see Jesus."
Disciple: "He's very busy today - is this a religious matter? Do you have questions about applying the law or interpreting the prophets?"
Parent: "Oh, I've brought my children for Jesus to bless."
Disciple: "To bless eh? Well, do they have demons? Are they crippled? Are they dead?"
Parent: [stunned] "No, they are well thank God. We just want his blessing."
Disciple: "It sounds to me like you're already pretty blessed. Trust me, we've seen some crazy stuff go down. Just be grateful for your happy healthy kids and go your way, Jesus has much more important business. Next!"
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I have been doing good reading lately and came across this great insight from Bernard of Clairvaux, quoted in Richard Foster's book Prayer:
"If you are wise therefore you will show yourself a reservoir and not a canal. For a canal pours out as fast as it takes in; but a reservoir waits till it is full before it over flows, and so communicates its surplus…We have all too few such reservoirs in the Church at present, thought we have canals in plenty."
I thought back to this image of a reservoir as I was reading in Ephesians this morning, from chapter 3:18-19 where Paul prays "[that you] may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God." What a great image for this prayer that we will know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that we will be filled with what we cannot possibly contain!
- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
It has been a week since our epic hiking adventure, and I am still hobbling around with sore knees. There is no swelling, and I don't have too much pain unless I overdo things or use stairs. I can walk from one end of the apartment to the other; I can stand and sit and carry Torre, but to actually get out and run errands or go to the park slows me down to turtle pace. I think my muscles are still in disbelief at what we did and are worried they'll give me ideas if they just work without complaining!
I was talking to God about my sore knees and asked if there was any lesson or something I should get out of this, and it turns out there is. So here you have the spiritual lessons I am learning from this physical pain:
- Don't do all your training indoors
Here's the thing - I'm in reasonably good shape, and it was a huge blow to my pride to be so crippled by physical activity I thought I could do. I even did a workout video the night before we left to go camping! I can climb the stairs to our apartment on the 11th floor, even carrying Torre; I can do pull-ups and push-ups and tricep dips and squats and mountain climbers, and I will hate them and sweat buckets then feel great after. But that kind of training doesn't translate so well to the complexity of hiking through back country terrain. My knees basically died because all the little muscles that stabilize them became exhausted because they're used to my feet landing on firm, level ground.In faith, it is just as risky to do all your spiritual training in safe, stable, controlled environments.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
Palm Sunday is just days away, which means Easter is around the corner! I'm not yet ready for Easter to come because I have no idea how to transition back onto facebook. It has been a really nice break, and my days have been calmer yet fuller for all the hours I don't lose to social media. Of course, I'm looking forward to Easter for so much more than breaking my facebook fast, but I am also doing my best to savour Lent rather than wish it away.
One thing I've enjoyed over Lent is having more time for music - I alternate playing piano at church with another woman from the congregation, and I've been practising quite a bit because it's my turn to play on Palm Sunday. One of the hymns I chose to play is All Glory, Laud and Honor (recommended by eHow, which actually has an article for everything, including good hymns for Palm Sunday. It's crazy.) and one of the verses has blown me away. Hymns get a bad rap sometimes because they have weird melodies and strange words, and they're so much less palatable than new songs. For better or for worse, however, I'm glad our church has a blended service because so many hymns have nuggets of theological gold that we'd be foolish to simply toss. Hymns may not sweep me away with emotion, but getting backhanded with truth is sometimes just as effective for the state of my soul as a good cry during a light show.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
This video captures a social experiment: a hidden camera records how people respond to the sight of a shivering child (don't worry, he's an actor) with no coat at a bus stop is Oslo, Norway. The goal is to raise awareness and funds for a campaign to provide coats to Syrian children. The idea is that in the winter time, displaced children in Syria need coats just as much as this young boy, even if you don't see them shivering.
By the end of the video I had tears streaming down my face, which was no surprise since I have come to terms with how motherhood has changed me.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
Deuteronomy 11:18-21 says
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates,so that your days and the days of your children may be manyin the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
Remembrance day is set aside to reflect on the sacrifices that make it possible for us to enjoy the peace we have today. Veterans and their families are celebrated for selflessness and courage, and children are taught about the horrors of war. Leading up to this day many people wear a poppy to show their remembrance.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
It is Thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. I woke up this morning with the same anticipation I feel about Christmas: one more sleep until our big family meal! But it is not just the calendar that has me thinking about gratitude - I have been a little bit haunted by the topic for the last month or so, ever since the blessing for a meal knocked my socks off.
Matt and I were having lunch with a friend/mentor of his, and it was only a last-minute thing that I was even there, but obviously God wasn't going to let it go to waste! As we bowed our heads over takeout salad, our friend prayed, "Heavenly Father, thank you for calling us to ministry..."
I'm sure he blessed the food as well, but that is not what has echoed in my mind and heart for weeks. I was stopped cold and convicted and confused because I don't think I've ever thanked God for calling me or my family into ministry. I always figured it was one of those things where God asks you to do something and you agree, and then you're partners, and you feel good about "answering the call," and sometimes it's hard but you get through it.