"Rather, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins."
Luke 5:38
I'm sure I've confessed my bewilderment at this reading before. I never felt I had a grip on it until I attended a closing mass for a men's Cursillo a million years ago. I watched the men come in, disheveled and tired, looking rather like the "undesirable" prize in a Mystery Date game. But there was something unmistakably wonderful about them, too. They were in new wineskins! They sure didn't look new but what had occurred over the weekend for them made them new creations, beautiful to behold even in their exhausted state. So, I got the new wineskins thing a bit better after that. Today, when I heard the reading, this sentence caught my eye, "Rather, new wine must be poured into new wineskins." I likened my move to Boise and complete new way of life to a new wineskin...it is so different than what I was doing and where I was living. My life has completely changed. I'm in a different stretch of water and a brand new wineskin, both metaphors for the new life God has been preparing me for and preparing for me for the last several years. The new wine God is making in my life had to have a new wineskin, a new container, if you will. My life had to be pared down to be much simpler, with much less stuff and much more time for God. I must say this new wine is delicious, too! What about you? Has God been fermenting a new batch of wine for your life? Do you need a new wineskin to put it in? Good food for thought to ponder and pray with this September weekend! Blessings and love from the treehouse, heidi
Friday, September 7, 2018
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Different water...
"Put out into deep water and lower your nets for a catch."
Luke 5:4
Have you ever felt asked to fish in a different sea, so to speak? The fishermen had worked all night to no avail and they were done, done, done. Jesus comes along and suggests a different stretch of water and they are rewarded mightily with a huge catch of fish. Sometimes we just need new water, a new venue, or a new place to do our thing. Maybe we even need a new "thing" altogether. I'm at a place where everything seems new to me but the other day I was asked to switch from working mornings at school to working afternoons...a bit different water. I was torn, but thankfully was able to remember the Margaret Rizza song, "You Are the Center Of My Life" and turned to God, there at the center. "Do what they ask you to do," the Center said to me. I'll admit I was fussing and fighting a bit on the end of the line, but I knew what I had to do. It's another stretch of water, another learning curve. Many more kids and names to learn, but I know it will be fine in the end. So the next time we are beckoned to a different bit of water, or even dry land, let's remember Who-it-is doing the beckoning and let's acquiesce as eagerly as Peter, who said, "Hey, we've been fishing all night and caught nothing, but if you say so" (v. 5). Love from the treehouse, heidi
Luke 5:4
Have you ever felt asked to fish in a different sea, so to speak? The fishermen had worked all night to no avail and they were done, done, done. Jesus comes along and suggests a different stretch of water and they are rewarded mightily with a huge catch of fish. Sometimes we just need new water, a new venue, or a new place to do our thing. Maybe we even need a new "thing" altogether. I'm at a place where everything seems new to me but the other day I was asked to switch from working mornings at school to working afternoons...a bit different water. I was torn, but thankfully was able to remember the Margaret Rizza song, "You Are the Center Of My Life" and turned to God, there at the center. "Do what they ask you to do," the Center said to me. I'll admit I was fussing and fighting a bit on the end of the line, but I knew what I had to do. It's another stretch of water, another learning curve. Many more kids and names to learn, but I know it will be fine in the end. So the next time we are beckoned to a different bit of water, or even dry land, let's remember Who-it-is doing the beckoning and let's acquiesce as eagerly as Peter, who said, "Hey, we've been fishing all night and caught nothing, but if you say so" (v. 5). Love from the treehouse, heidi
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
You are the center...of my life
"You are the center of my life!"
Margaret Rizza, "You Are the Centre," Fountain of Life
The opening song on Pray-As-You-Go this morning was this beautiful song by Margaret Rizza. I'm afraid my meditation didn't get much further than that! I thought about what my day would look like if I really lived with God as the center of my life? What would that look like in my Tuesday-that-feels-like-Monday? Well, I'm sure I would be more loving toward everyone I encounter if I operate out of my center, God. I could look at people with God's eyes, seeing how beautiful and magical they are, with all their gifts and talents. I would generally feel more at peace about stuff with God as the center of my life, knowing that God freely works within the hearts of people to heal and make whole the things that we see as broken and messed up. Maybe I could feel less desperate and troubled about the world just knowing that? I think living with God as the center of my life I would be able to do my job to the very best of my ability--realizing that I'm not perfect and that perfection isn't realistic or expected. I only need to show up at my school with willing hands and a loving heart for everyone. (In other words, I don't need to be an expert in sixth grade math! Hooray for that!) And finally, living with God as the center of my life, I will speak words of Truth, Life and Love. I will speak encouraging and positive words, but also the truth that God is beckoning me to say from God's place in my heart. So, today, this first Tuesday in September, with a wee chill in the early morning air, I will live today with God as the center of my life! And it will be a fabulous day! Love from the treehouse, heidi
Margaret Rizza, "You Are the Centre," Fountain of Life
The opening song on Pray-As-You-Go this morning was this beautiful song by Margaret Rizza. I'm afraid my meditation didn't get much further than that! I thought about what my day would look like if I really lived with God as the center of my life? What would that look like in my Tuesday-that-feels-like-Monday? Well, I'm sure I would be more loving toward everyone I encounter if I operate out of my center, God. I could look at people with God's eyes, seeing how beautiful and magical they are, with all their gifts and talents. I would generally feel more at peace about stuff with God as the center of my life, knowing that God freely works within the hearts of people to heal and make whole the things that we see as broken and messed up. Maybe I could feel less desperate and troubled about the world just knowing that? I think living with God as the center of my life I would be able to do my job to the very best of my ability--realizing that I'm not perfect and that perfection isn't realistic or expected. I only need to show up at my school with willing hands and a loving heart for everyone. (In other words, I don't need to be an expert in sixth grade math! Hooray for that!) And finally, living with God as the center of my life, I will speak words of Truth, Life and Love. I will speak encouraging and positive words, but also the truth that God is beckoning me to say from God's place in my heart. So, today, this first Tuesday in September, with a wee chill in the early morning air, I will live today with God as the center of my life! And it will be a fabulous day! Love from the treehouse, heidi
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