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- Details
- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I've been reading in Philippians this week and was struck by this passage:
Philippians 3:12-14
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
It is usually quite easy for me to remember that I have not yet attained perfection. It is not always so easy for me to remember to keep looking forward. When I read this, I wonder why exactly Paul talks about forgetting the past - is he alluding to his history as a persecutor of the church? Did he ever become discouraged doing God's work when he remembered his part in arresting and executing Christians before his conversion? Or did Paul need to turn his back on the past because it could tempt him towards complacency? After all, he had planted numerous churches and preached in many cities, he faced death threats and jail time and slander all without shirking. Perhaps if he thought about everything he had already done for God he worried he'd lose some of the fire to press on.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
My day started unusually early this morning when Torre felt that 4:30am would be a good time to chat and play rather than go back to sleep after nursing. I checked my email while we sat in the living room and learned some sad news for our family.
Sitting in the dark living room, I held Torre and felt sad and prayed, and I was grateful for the stillness of our apartment and for the time just to sit with God. In the stillness, I thought, God is good, which surprised me because his goodness is yet to be seen in this situation. And I thought about what I have been learning lately in the Bible and in daily life, and I wondered whether those lessons still apply to a bigger problem than a sink full of dishes, whether God is the same refuge for disappointments that weigh heavier than spit-up on my favourite jeans.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I am not always a big fan of The Message Bible translation, but sometimes it gives me such a fresh perspective on scripture, and the simple language allows the truth to get right into my heart. For example, this week I read Matthew 5:13-14:
Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?... Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.
It can be so easy to get bogged down and forget the greater purpose our lives are designed for, making God visible and tangible to the world. I know that I often get so wrapped up in my own concerns and struggles, I forget they are opportunities: chances for my faith to grow, examples I can look back on, obstacles I can wrestle with, and all of these things will shape me and the way that I reflect God to the people around me. To me, that is the best way to understand the meaning of being made in God's image, that my purpose is to show what God is like. Certainly on most days, reflecting God is not the first thing I think of, and my actions and reactions often fall very short of this lofty goal, but it helps me not give up when I remember that it's God's plan, not my own.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I have not managed to read my Bible very much lately, but I have been so struck by this realization since it came to me two weeks ago that I think about it nearly every day. I almost feel like I can't read anything new until my soul finishes savouring the Beatitudes in light of this new perspective. I am familiar with the Beatitudes as a challenging/confusing list of all the ways God's kingdom is upside down and backwards to what we might expect. However, as I read through Matthew, I freshly noticed the passage between Jesus' temptation in the wilderness and his teaching of the Beatitudes to his disciples (Matthew 4:23-5:2):
Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people.News about him spread all over Syria, and people brought to him all who were ill with various diseases, those suffering severe pain, the demon-possessed, those having seizures, and the paralyzed; and he healed them. Large crowds from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea and the region across the Jordan followed him.Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him,and he began to teach them.
In the beginning of his ministry, Jesus is on the fast track - he is fulfilling his mission to proclaim the arrival of God's kingdom in word and deed, and the news is spreading. He is fantastically well-received, and the intensity of people's response is hard to imagine: pained, seizing, paralyzed and possessed people from across Syria flocked to him for healing. Crowds followed him, but his response was to withdraw away from the crowd and teach his disciples (those who followed him even when there wasn't a show). He teaches them the way to obtain God's blessing, and it is pretty much the opposite of what you would strive for if you were pursuing a promotion or raise in any earthly context.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I was struck by this verse in 2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty may become rich.
I forget sometimes that Jesus coming to Earth wasn't just a publicity stunt to get the word out that God loves us and wants to be in relationship - it actually cost him. He became poor, giving up his status and power in Heaven, then giving up even his earthly life. Jesus held nothing back for himself, but the poverty he experienced makes us rich! We can enter the presence of God and we can live without fear because Jesus left the presence of God and was terrorized.
I've been challenged to reflect how far I'm willing to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Can I love my neighbour? Sure. Would I become poor for my neighbour? Not so much.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
Matt preached a phenomenal sermon on Sunday, and I was lucky enough to talk things through with him earlier in the week, so the truths have had extra time to sink in to my blown mind (unrelated: if pastors' kids are called PKs, does it make sense to call pastors' wives PWs? Or is that too close to POWs?). Fresh excitement for God's goodness and power is still settling into the corners of my soul, and I've been trying to figure out how to boil the big ideas down into something the size of a blog post.... here goes.
Luke 24:1-12 - On the first Easter morning, the women who had gone to attend to Jesus' corpse tell the disciples that the body is gone from the tomb and an angel says Jesus is risen from the dead. Confusion ensues, and Peter runs to the tomb to see what he finds.
Peter is not the first person in the Bible to run and see proof that God has done an incredible thing. In Daniel 6, King Darius throws Daniel into a lions den with the prayer "May your God, whom you serve continuously, deliver you!" The next morning he runs to the den and shouts down into the pit, where, miraculously, Daniel is alive.
Both of these stories feature miracles that people run to see, but we don't always feel the excitement when we read in our Bibles because we know the end of the story. It is amazing what happens, but it is not a surprise to us.
Enter Paul and his first letter to the Corinthians. Misinformation has been spread about the resurrection, which Paul sets out to correct. In chapter 15 he writes, "For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins...But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive."
The promise of eternal life is a huge piece of the gospel, and Jesus' resurrection proves that it is possible, that we're not just hoping in a vague idea or a theoretical possibility. On Easter, God demonstrated his absolute power to not only save life (as he did with Daniel in the lions' den) but to restore life where it has been completely stomped out. Paul says that looking back on what God did for Jesus helps us look forward to what God will do for us when we trust in him. I totally buy in to this, BUT I think I have missed out on part of this promise for... ages. Possibly the whole time.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I was struck by Esslesiastes 1:7 this week:
All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.
Endless cycles are part of nature - the sun rises and sets, seasons change, the rain falls and the wind blows. I remember when I was in grade 5 or 6 being amazed at the idea that I could be breathing air molecules that Cleopatra had breathed, or Shakespeare. It still kind of grosses me out to think about sharing air with all the people on a bus.
But that's reality, and it applies to our human lives as well as to nature. We breathe in and out all day long, but it's never enough;
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I was hanging out with Torre the other day (as I do every day now) and got a little nostalgic thinking about how quickly he'll grow up. He already holds his head up when we hold him against our chests, and he is so strong in body and will that I doubt it will be long before he can roll over and crawl around and start causing mischief. Part of me is excited and proud in advance for how he'll develop, but I know it will be bittersweet as he becomes more independent and more challenging to parent.
As I was thinking all this though, I wondered to myself why this tinge of sadness accompanies the milestones we celebrate. When we see the beauty of a blooming flower or a towering tree, nobody thinks to mourn the seed.
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
It is a cold, snowy day (says the internet; I haven't been outside), and I think the Truck is making a last-minute attempt to renovate rather than move out and has been pushed up against my ribs all day. Anyways, with my limited energies I have been deleting old emails, and I came across a post that I typed up and saved but never put online. It's from December 2011, and although my personal situation has changed I wanted to post it because the lesson still stands:
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- Written by: Alyssa
- Category: Thoughts
I feel very fortunate to be entering the season of motherhood with many friends and sisters in Christ who are also expecting/new moms. When Matt and I got married, I only had one close friend who was also married, and she lives FAR, so we don't get to visit and chat and share. Getting married is wonderful, but it is also a huge adjustment, and even though I didn't really confide in anyone about how I was going crazy, it could have been helpful to have someone around who was adapting to a similar change. Now that I do have more married friends, it is so nice to commiserate about even just the little things.