Celebrating Reformation Day

When I discovered that October 31st is the day protestants celebrate Reformation Day, that was the end of trying to come up with a Halloween alternative. Not only is there something else to celebrate besides the “harvest” or the “hallows”, it is something so important that it is the foundational to our faith as believers! For the last 5 years we have thrown a Reformation Day party and celebrated the important truths of Scripture that were re-discovered during the reformation. This year we focused on the truths that are found in the 5 Solas : Sola scriptura ("by Scripture alone") Sola fide ("by faith alone") Sola gratia ("by grace alone")Solus Christus or Solo Christo ("Christ alone" or "through Christ alone") and Soli Deo gloria ("glory to God alone").

Our carnival style games were centered around 5 questions and answers about these Solas:

Where can we find the good news? ~Only in the Bible

How can we be saved? ~ Only by Faith

How can we be accepted by God? ~Only by Grace

Who is our only hope? ~Only Jesus Christ

Why does God save us? ~Only for his Glory

We transformed our church building into the White Horse Inn, which was a place in Cambridge where the early reformers met to discuss the ideas of Martin Luther. His books were smuggled into England hidden in bales of cloth.

The kids had fun with our “horsey” theme this year!

After playing games to earn coins, the kids traded them for candy.

And a good time was had by all.

Stay tuned to find out what happens to the candy my kids brought home!

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The Battle is to Rest

I woke up this morning with anxiety about money. My fear is large and looming and eats up any hope that I had. Already though, I sense God directing me away from my fear through an email this morning of how He has used me in a friend's life. He is still at work. As I flipped through the pages of my journal to start writing, some words jumped out at me.

I have a lot of guilt mixed in with my anxiety about money. From my notes on some of John Pipers sermons, he says that the biblical criteria for guilt or shame is radically God-centered. What I should be ashamed of is anything that dishonors God, not ME. My feelings of guilt are often rooted in self-centeredness and it is my unbelief that feeds it. Have I dishonored God by not having enough money? No. Have I made spending choices that did not honor God? Probably. But as I confess and pray for more wisdom, I know that my anxiety about money is not coming from that one area of true guilt. My self-centeredness in wanting to feel good about myself because my financial ducks are in a row is unbelief that is feeding my fear and shame. I want to be honored for being thrifty or for having a budget that works, even if it's only me honoring myself. God is not honored in any of that. In fact, in my life, God seems to delight in bringing honor to himself through very difficult financial situations that He faithfully brings us through. I look back and praise him for his provision. His timing has NEVER been on my schedule, and yet he has amazed us with his goodness in giving us what we truly need.
John Piper also talks about fighting for joy. He says that joy is a gift that cannot be strived for. The fight is not to grab onto joy, the fight is to relax in God and not__________. Today I will write "financial security" in the blank. The battle is to rest. To see God. To desire to honor him.

I flip over a few more pages in my journal to my notes on "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldridge."Do not give way to fear" (I Peter 3:6) . This is taken from a passage of scripture written to women (from which "Captivating" draws out many gems of truth), and speaks of the kind of beauty that is valuable to God. I Peter 3:4 says that it is the "unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit"; that is, a heart of faith. A woman of beauty is a woman who is not striving. Beauty flows from a heart at rest. My fear (and my anxiety about money) keeps me from being a woman of true beauty. Fear, misplaced shame, and selfishness are ugly and heavy burdens to carry. It is easy to "give way to fear" and when I look at my situation I see many reasons to fear. But the battle is to rest, to find God to be enough, to allow him to bring honor to his name through my situation.
Lord, give me a heart of faith.

For those of you who might be dealing with this same issue as a wife or mother, When Queens Ride By is a story that is one of my all-time favorites and never fails to renew my focus. I highly recommend that you go read it here. Pin It

Normal

I went to see my doctor for a check-up on Tuesday. The miscarriage was complete with no complications and he sees no signs of any problems that require future intervention. I did ask for some blood tests which he agreed to although we don't expect to find a problem there either. It is hard to accept, but miscarriage is normal. Even recurrent miscarriage is normal. Research shows that even after 3 or 4 miscarriages most women will go on to have a healthy pregnancy without any intervention. Do we plan to try again? Well, there is something about having a miscarriage that makes us want to fight all the harder to bring another life into this world. To do that we have to get back on the roller coaster, but hey, that's normal around here. It's hard for us to say that we "plan" to have another baby. Early in our marriage we asked God to give us children as he saw fit, and then began waiting on him to give us a baby. You could say we have experienced infertility at various times, but on the other hand, we have two children and we were serious when we put our family in his hands. Even when we make decisions regarding our family, God is always reminding us that he is the author of life. He gives and he waits to give, he takes and he gives us himself.
In the reading that I have been doing since the miscarriage, I have been awed by the mystery surrounding the beginning of life. I had no idea that we know so little about why life begins and why it doesn't or why it ends so quickly. The sovereignty of God is nowhere more vital and powerful than the sacred beginning of the smallest embryo. This intersection of the physical and spiritual is holy ground, the miraculous "normal", that we take for granted... until it's gone.
Of the three miscarriages I have had, this one was the hardest. I don't imagine they get any easier, and I realize that if I do become pregnant, I could go through this all over again. But it's just as likely that I could go on to have a healthy baby. And we're back to the sovereignty of God. I cannot trust in statistics, no matter how favorable they may be. They tell me nothing of the story of my life that God is writing. I have no idea whether we will have more children, and I will not pretend that I am in control of it. I have been reminded of the fragility of life, and my place in the hands of the Creator. Pin It

Healing

As the song says, I am being held. By love and prayers and really tight hugs.
I am healing, but I am not, as someone told me, "amazing". You might like to know that I too screamed at God in the night. Those words that came when I could not form any others, when anger was my first and all encompassing emotion. But as I came to the moment when my baby slipped away I felt the grace of God melt all of that anger into a sad acceptance. I don't know how He did it, but I know it wasn't me. He gives life, and He takes it, and he caresses my rage into gentle tears. He takes my chin in his hand and gently turns my head.
My girls are beautiful. They are happy and full of the promise of spring. They are muddy and sunkissed and stomping the last pile of snow, barefoot in bikinis. They are giggling in the bath and ask "Mom, what is that animal with a squarish nose that likes to go in the water sometimes, but lives on land? It's a something-bara". "A capybara.", I said. "Yes! We are capybaras and we have to wash our fur now." They are playing baseball and floating boats and drawing fairies and birds. All is right with girlhood at this glorious moment of spring. This, too, holds me. Pin It

Brushing Off the Ants

It's very quiet in my house right now. Which is why I'm still up and have the desire to write. I love nighttime quiet, but not morning quiet. There is a difference. At night the silence feels like a blanket settling over me, a tent that gives me a place to think. In the morning, it feels like a blanket weighing me down with a heavy, sleepy promise that the day can wait just a little longer.
One of the reasons I am enjoying this quiet is that Acadia is quite frankly driving me nuts with her constant motion and sound. She's so squirmy and fidgety and nothing is right. It's like being next to a person with ants crawling all over them, you really would like to run in the other direction! Sounds are too loud (or too quiet), the stuff sticks out of the sandwiches too far, her teeth feel like something is stuck in them, her pants are too loose or too tight, her hair is too frizzy, her skin is too itchy... you get the point. Of course I'm supposed to fix all this immediately, but without speaking. I can only say about 5 words before she cuts me off and talks loudly and rapidly over me so that I will not finish my sentence and thereby say something that she already knows. Heavens, it might be redundant, unacceptable to her, or completely uneccasary and we can't have extra words floating about willy-nilly in the air. Sigh...tonight she told me she feels awful all day long and that she needs more attention from me. So I promised it, but right now that is really not what I want to do.
But tommorow I will get up (with a giant heave of the morning heaviness blanketing me) and start again. And the Grace will be there, that is my comfort. I will brush the ants off my daughter, the cobwebs from my mind, and the snarls out of fine blonde hair. I will read and pray and ask Him what my kids need from me today, and for the grace to let go and give it freely, as I have received. Pin It

Time to make a quilt!

For generations, the women in my family have made quilts. We have made baby quilts, and quilts to pay the midwife for delivering babies. We have made cozy comforters and beautiful wedding quilts. We make quilts to show our happiness, our gratitude, our acceptance and love, our compassion, and prayers. It is an all out project, something you must throw your whole self into. Something you ignore the housework to finish, and hurry to meet the deadline. You feel like you are doing something, even when there is nothing you really can do. When we finish, we vow not to do that again for a long time. At least until our hearts are full or breaking again. Then we will pour them into the washer with the new fabric and soap. We will wash, dry, and iron out all the wrinkles that we don't understand. We will cut them into pieces that make sense, that follow a pattern. We will piece them together to express our love and our hope, and feel like we are beginning to arrange our deepest thoughts and feelings. When all is done and sewn we oooh and ahhh and show everyone that comes in the door. We did something, and it's beautiful. Then we fold it up and take comfort in the bigness of it, the weight of it in our arms relieves the weight in our hearts. We give it away, the way we give our love to those who will cuddle up in the quilt.

This is Acadia's quilt. I helped make it, but it wouldn't have happened without Alan and Reita's help. They stepped in and became my quilting family this time, and I am so grateful to them for doing this with me.

The Psalm 139 Mermaid Quilt has verses from Psalm 139 illustrated by a little mermaid stick figure who is thinking about the presence of God as she "makes her bed in the depths", "travels to the far side of the sea" and "numbers the grains of sand".

Here is the quilt on Acadia's hospital bed ready to comfort her and remind her of the presence of God no matter where she is or what she is feeling.

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Reformation Day Faire October 31, 2007

We went all out celebrating the Grace of God at our Reformation Day Faire this year. It was a lot of work but I do love to throw myself into a big creative project, and it was great to watch the kids having so much fun! They played games related to the life of Martin Luther and earned coins to trade for candy at the marketplace.
Some of us dressed up in medieval costumes, but we had some fairies and spider(men?) too. Acadia was an archer, and Lily was a princess. Unfortunately I erased the pictures I took of my girls in their costumes. Arggh! Sometimes our memories have to come from something other than pictures, right?

Celebrating Reformation Day is so much different than trying to ignore Halloween, or having a "harvest party" instead. We are not saying "Yeah, everyone else is doing something fun tonight, but were not doing anything because it would be evil". Instead we are telling our children "We have something important to celebrate tonight, and it's different from what the world is celebrating. The Grace of God is so important that people gave their lives to make sure that you could know and understand it."
The Bible and Jewish culture are full of feasts and celebrations and the Lord wants to celebrate with us! I think it is no coincidence that Reformation Day has been hidden behind Halloween for so long. October 31st was the day that Luther posted the 95 theses on the Wittenberg door. The ring of that hammer has echoed through history as the reformation was born. But as Christians we tend to focus too much on the evil we want to avoid, and not enough on the fullness of all that we have in Christ. "The just shall live by FAITH" was the simple truth that changed Luther's life and then the whole world. And it's a very good reason to PARTY! Whoohoo!






The little bumble bee was fascinated with the "fire".



























No, it's not Snow White's wicked stepmother. She doesn't have that evil white complexion. It's a medieval queen of course!


















This was the guy you were supposed to avoid. John Tetzel. He went around selling "indulgences" which were pieces of paper that said your sins were forgiven. Yep, you could pay your hard earned coins to BUY God's forgiveness. Sound kind of twisted to you? Good! Martin Luther thought so too and this was one of the things he spoke against in his 95 theses. Of course you can't BUY God's forgiveness, but many people in Luther's time did. And I'm sorry to say that many of our kids fell for it too! We had to start warning them not to buy anything from that man with the papers! ( I drilled my own kids at home later, "No Mommy, we didn't buy any!") Pin It

“The greatest ignorance is to reject something you know nothing about”

I have an idea. It's an assignment for everyone who has an opinion: Define mental illness. That's it. But here's the catch; it's a closed book, closed screen test. You do have a life line.... a phone-a-friend who has a close family member with a mental illness. Don't know anyone? You probably do, but you don't know it yet. Start asking questions. Start with depression. Does anyone you know live with someone who is depressed? No, you can't open your Bible and see where your finger lands, and you can't raise your hand and ask your pastor who has all the answers. You have to ask someone who is hurting. The person who's been there, done that, and wears the T-shirt, because it's the only one clean.

If the subject comes up before you get around to this, you don't have an opinion. Period. You can tell us about the moccasins after you've worn them for awhile. Until then, please just keep your mouth closed. Once you do get a chance to ask someone what it's like, then you may open your book, The Book, and read about Jesus' compassion for people who are sick, lost, and rejected by those around them. Write your definition on tear stained paper only, please. Put it in a folder labeled "someday", and review it if mental illness ever comes to visit your family. One in five families in America deal with a mental disorder of some kind.

After you use your phone-a-friend, you might find that the person on the other end is someone who needs a life line too. You might even find that by talking about the struggles of life together, it doesn't matter anymore what kind of struggles they are. Only that there is grace for each of us in this moment. Not because mental illness doesn't exist, but because God does. Pin It

Kissed by Blackberries

My dear friend Anna reminded me of this experience I had this summer, with one of her blog posts. This came out of reading "Captivating" by John and Stasi Eldridge. I'm posting my comment to Anna here:

I read this chapter you were discussing. I was quite moved by it myself. The author challenges us to invite God to romance us, and then to watch what He does. When I finally had an afternoon without children, I grabbed my bible and journal and went for a walk through the woods. No sooner had I stepped from the edge of my everyday lawn, into the rare invitation of the woods, I saw a few beautiful ripe blackberries. I gasped, prayed and ate them. They tasted like love. Sunshine, sweetness, providence, satisfaction, tender love. God kissed me with blackberries and I walked with Him for awhile, praying, crying, writing, being romanced. So it was true. He was waiting. Why are we so uncomfortable with that? Why do we take Him up on His offer so rarely? Pin It

The Sovereign Surgeon

I was starting to worry this morning and turned those thoughts into prayers. I was praying that God would guard and protect my daughter's hearts from emotional trauma and pain, and then I realized... that was not really what I wanted to pray for them. We all need experiences of pain over the course of our lives to make us deep, feeling, knowing, and loving people. And yet, some kinds of painful experiences can be be so devastating in a young person's life. They can be disabling and haunting. As I prayed for my girls, I asked the Lord to be the heart surgeon in their lives. That every cut that must be made, would be made by His expert hands; precisely, lovingly, for their good, and for His glory. Amen Pin It