Up the Sunbeam

-- Are we THERE yet? The universal refrain of children on their way somewhere far away. Mile after mile, the wheels turn and turn and turn, but to them the destination still seems so far off. Yes Lord. Some days it feels a little like that. For now anyway, we live in the uncharted territory between the excitement of getting on the road and the thrill of getting to our destination. There's no telling what lies between. In the ordinariness of daily days (even good days), there is a slow grind of feeling never quite on top of everything, and knowing there's still a long way to go, a person can get a little weary sometimes. Obstacles, real and perceived, from outside sources and from within, can make it feel like you're getting nowhere fast. You can start fussing and worrying over bumps in the road you didn't anticipate, the funky looks you get from other travelers, and a thousand little burrs under your saddle that chafe and rub your nerves to an exaggerated frazzl...

-- I think this was about 1966 in Iowa getting my first riding lesson from my Mommy! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ If I had been a mother before I was a child    Oh what a different child I would have been. I would have gone to sleep at bedtime, no fighting    I would have only called “Mommy,” when I had something to say And I would have limited the number of consecutive “Why’s”    To three instead of three hundred I would have done the dishes without groaning    And I would have cleaned up my room without being asked I would have appreciated you so much more, and    Recognized your sacrifices, and your amazing patience. If I had been a mother before I was a child    I wouldn’t have been the child I was. I wouldn’t have missed the bus so you had to    Walk with me the two miles to school and back I wouldn’t have put off doing my term paper    Until the night before it was due I wouldn’t have tur...

-- Horses are not born tame. Neither are people. One thing I learned from Velvet, my beloved chestnut mare, is that horses have minds of their own. They know where they want to go, what they do and do not want to do, and if and when they want to cooperate with their human masters. If there is ever to be any partnership, anything of work or play accomplished, any joy or greatness achieved together, an untamed horse will first have to be taught how to surrender their wild and willful ways. In horseman's terms they call this "breaking" a horse. In this series, we've been talking about the spiritual concept of  brokenness  ( Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 ), and in my first post I mentioned that ALMOST all the definitions of the word broken were negative in some way.  Well, here is the single definition that, from my own experience with horses, does not HAVE to be negative. I remember the first time I saw the movie Black Beauty . As a horse-crazy kid, this was...

-- If you'd like, you're welcome to read Part 1 and Part 2 first.  =) Welcome (or welcome back) to my ongoing conversation on the popular Christian concept of brokenness . I am so glad you're here and look forward to your reflections and input!  I hope you will look up the scriptures I have linked to throughout this post so you can further your own exploration of what I have to share here! I have continued to study and pray and contemplate many things I have heard and read. It is a challenge to pin down a clear and particular definition and application of brokenness .  It is a word much-used by modern Christians and theologians, many with renowned names you would readily recognize with respect, but it isn't a word I've been able to find frequently in Scripture, and certainly not with all the meanings it wears now! This word bothers me . . . at least some uses of it bother me. Am I being rebellious? Stubborn? Obtuse? Unspiritual? Foolish? I hope not. ...

-- I will continue with the series on brokenness later in the week, but this weekend my heart is filled with Easter! Passover . . . God's foreshadowing of His plan to send Heaven's perfect Lamb to shed the blood of the final sacrifice. Passover was the picture that prepared Israel for the real deliverance that would come to all who would put the Lamb's blood over the doorposts of their hearts. In the Passover Seder is a joyous little song that catalogs ancient highlights of God's leading of His people, Israel.  After each remembrance of God's action on their behalf comes the Hebrew word Dayenu,  which means something close to "it would have been enough" or "it would have sufficed for us."  They say it again and again, Dayenu . They sing the song, with its repeating chorus Dayenu, Dayenu, Dayenu.   From the plagues He sent against Egypt to sparing their firstborn in the final plague, from opening the Red Sea to destroying their enemies, and ...