The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)

Photo Credit: Morgue File Design: Wendy van Eyck

I often forget that God is patient. This is probably what killed my goldfish.

My goldfish lived in ice cold water at the bottom of the garden with her (or perhaps his) two identical fishy friends. They hadn’t lived with us very long (less than 24 hours) when my husband and I ended its life. 

It wasn’t the cold that killed it, or lack of food, or one of the birds that is always prowling for a snack. My goldfish was killed by impatience. My impatience.

I couldn’t wait for the fish to feel comfortable enough to swim out from under the rock. In my urgency I urged my husband to lift the rock so we could see them better. 

Innocent enough. But then disaster struck.

I have God's more-than-enough, More joy in one ordinary day. Psalm 4:6-7 (MSG)

Photo Credit: Creationswap.com Design: Wendy van Eyck

I had an ordinary day. 

I woke up, took too long snoozing in bed, had to throw breakfast down and make it out the door on time for another work day.

Nothing special happened at work. 

I turned up, I switched the computer on, I answered queries and problems. Then I went to gym. Came back sat in my office and answered the phone, approved a few things and then headed home.

Later, it was just the same old, same old in my quiet time. I didn’t quite focus on praying. My mind wasn’t really there when I read the scriptures. When I tried to journal it was more about me then about God.

And then I realized that’s okay.

Not every moment of our lives has to be extraordinary. Not every quiet time has to be a revelation. 

Appreciation settled over me for the simple, beautiful day. And I realized that maybe this regular day was God’s extraordinary gift to me.

Perhaps it’s God’s grace that some days are just ordinary. (<- click here to tweet this)

What ordinary thing did you do today that you saw God in? Have you thanked him for it?

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“Come now, let us settle the matter,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)

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My friend has a theory that when you get married God gives you a marriage download. All of a sudden those household mysteries, like how to cook a nutritious dinner every night, and impressing your father-in-law with your sporting knowledge, just fall into your head and you become the perfect spouse. I don't know about you but when I got married I missed out.

I wish I received one thing in a download package when I got married. 

All I want is the ability to remove stains from the brand new white cotton linen my husband and I bought right after our honeymoon. I loved the fresh, crisp look of the white sheets and carefully made sure to wash them only with other white clothes. 

So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ—that's where the action is. See things from his perspective. Colossians 3:1-2 (MSG)

Photo Credit: Wendy van Eyck

The Tour de France is a 3 week cycle race. This race is the Super Bowl of cycling; it is the race every single cyclist dreams of winning. 

Each year, it follows a different route; most of it through France, and the winner is the person who has the least accumulated time at the end of it. 

While cycling is an individual sport it is raced as a team. Out of the 9 riders on a team, one is the leader, and the other 8 riders will turn themselves inside out to help that person win. They will drag their leader up a hill, they will fetch and carry food and water for him and they’ll give up the chance to win, because their job is to be second and let the leader shine. 

This year (2012) I’ve been fascinated by a guy called Chris Froome who has put his dreams of winning the tour aside so that his team leader, Bradley Wiggins can win. I’ve been thinking of how their relationship is a picture of the one we should have with Jesus.

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! Deuteronomy 30:19 (NLT)

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Every two weeks I’m reminded about how fragile life is. 

And how brave, beautiful and inspiring those who choose life in the midst of pain, suffering and illness are. 

My husband receives chemotherapy for his cancer once every fourteen days. We meet some of the most feisty, gutsy men and women on these days: fighters who are refusing to let cancer win for the third or fourth time, warriors who have lost breasts, bladders and colons but still refuse to let death win. 

I have learnt so much about life from these people. For starters I have realized that we can choose life.

I DON'T LIKE DEFROSTING the freezer. I will let it get to the point where ice is falling out in gigantic chunks like the Antarctic due to global warming before I do anything about it. 

There I was water melting round my feet when I decided that I would deal with the freezer. Even though it was 9 at night and I was already tired. It was time. 

I pulled out the draws, switched off the freezer and sat down with a plastic spoon, some hot water and a towel to get rid of months of accumulated ice.

Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. Matthew 14:19-20 (NIV)

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 I was talking to a friend the other day and she told me how she’d discovered her daughters’ first freckle.
Her two year old daughter toddled past and her mom pulled her into her arms, hiked up the leg of her flowered trousers, pointed at the back of her calf and said, “It’s right there!”
And sure enough there on her daughters otherwise perfect skin was the tiniest brown polka dot.
My friend’s daughter reached upwards and gave her mom a sloppy wet kiss, while saying the words: “I love you” and then hopped off her lap and returned to her play.
She reminded me that God knows me just as intimately; he knows where my latest freckle is and can’t wait to hoist me up on his lap and show off his knowledge of me.
I think we forget that when we were hiding in our mother’s womb it was his hands that were molding us, his hands creating delineations for our fingers and eyelids and knees.
God can tell who we are by the way our breath smells or by the pattern of our freckles on our legs. He knows every inch of us just like a mother knows and loves her baby’s body.
It blows me away to think that God (who raised up mountains and put boundaries in place for the sea) knows the exact positioning of the constellation of freckles on our bodies.
When was the last time you thanked God for creating you and loving you, for simply being you?

It’s 6:30am. I can hear birds singing in the garden and see light peeking over the horizon. In a few moments, I’ll sneak back into bed to be there when my husband opens his eyes to greet the day. I, on the other hand, have been awake for 3 hours. What have I been doing? Worrying, and then worrying about not worrying, thinking I should be sleeping, but mostly worrying. Sound familiar?

While tossing and turning last night I needed to be reminded of the simple truth in 1 John. I forgot that God is greater than our worried hearts, that he’s bigger than our anxieties and that he not only holds the future but knows more about it then we do.

Grand Designs

One of my favourite TV shows is the BBC series, “Grand Designs”.  In each episode the presenter, an architect himself, meets an individual or a couple who are embarking on a project to turn a run down property into an architectural masterpiece. 

Our Designs

Each couple have a grand design in mind for their new home. They’ve got plans and a budget and time scale they believe is achievable. Thing is, it rarely works out the way they plan and invariably the couple have to make a plan to fix something that doesn’t work, find extra money and live in caravan for a lot longer than they thought.