turning homes, offices into cathedrals

"the world i live in is loud and blurring and toilets plug and i get speeding tickets and the dog gets sick all over the back steps and i forget everything and these six kids lean hard into me and i fail hard and there are real souls that are at stake and how long do i really have to figure out how to live full of grace, full of joy- before these six beautiful children fly the coop and my mothering days fold up quiet? how do you open the eyes to see how to take the daily, domestic, workday vortex and invert it into the dome of an everyday cathedral?"
-ann voskamp

Father, whatever "leans hard" into me, help me learn to lean on You for the strength to serve with a cheerful, zealous heart.

the eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

a fortifying message

http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/two-great-tests

rats in the cellar & rotten fruit

when I come to my evening prayers and try to reckon up the sins of the day, nine times out of ten the most obvious one is some sin against charity; i have sulked or snapped or sneered or snubbed or stormed. and the excuse that immediately springs to my mind is that the provocation was so sudden and unexpected; i was caught off my guard. [...] surely what a man does when he is taken off his guard is the best evidence for what sort of a man he is? surely what pops out before the man has time to put on a disguise is the truth? if there are rats in a cellar you are most likely to see them if you go in very suddenly. but the suddenness does not create the rats: it only prevents them from hiding. in the same way the suddenness of the provocation does not make me an ill-tempered man; it only shows me what an ill-tempered man i am. the rats are always there in the cellar, but if you go in shouting and noisily they will have taken cover before you switch on the light. apparently the rats of resentment and vindictiveness are always there in the cellar of my soul.
-c.s. lewis, mere christianity

no good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit
-luke 6:43

prepositional beauty

i kind of loved studying parts of speech in school. i still love when someone mentions a part of speech. like "hey, nice adjective." although usually if someone's talking to me about adjectives, they're saying "hey, why'd you combine those two adjectives?" but that's not where my mind is right now.

right now, i'm thinking about the sometimes crucial role prepositions play in scripture. i needed this today:

"I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him"
psalm 91:15

not, "I'll take him out of the trouble" or "I'm there after the trouble to debrief" but "I'm with him IN it."

as my roommate reminded me this week, that's what "counting it all joy" remembers- that IN the trial, He is present & He's doing something good & needed & only He can do it.

by the way, have you met my roommate? she's great. and i heard a rumor she'll be blogging again soon. you might love it.