Five Minute Friday – Broken

The prompt for this week is…

Broken

GO

Most people like to remain whole and unbroken, me most of all. I don’t like people to see the chinks in my self-made armor, because then they will see who I really am, that I’m not perfect. Not the perfect mother, not a perfect wife, not a perfect anything. In fact very far from perfect, but instead weak and flawed and broken. The problem is that this self-made armor, though it might protect me from the gaze of others, also keeps God from coming in to deal with those weaknesses and flaws and the parts that are broken.

When Jesus came He had no desire to remain whole and unbroken. Instead he fell into the ground as a grain of wheat. He broke the bread and said to His disciples, “Take, eat, this is My body which is being broken for you.” He knew that if He remained an unbroken grain or a whole loaf, there would be no hope for any of us. Only broken grains can release life and bring forth many grains, only broken bread can nourish someone dying of hunger. He let the shell of His humanity be broken so that His divine life could be released. As the rock He was cleft and out of that breaking came rivers which flowed and flowed and are still flowing today.

As I enjoy these rivers of life and rivers of grace gushing out of the One who was broken for me, I realize God has no desire for me to be a perfect person. A perfect person can’t minister grace and life to anyone. A broken person, on the other hand, can flow those very same rivers into others. Ironic, isn’t it? The more broken we are, the more useful we are to God. Maybe that’s because He only has broken people to work with.

STOP

http://lisajobaker.com/2013/03/five-minute-friday-broken/

Read Full Post »

Five Minute Friday – Remember

The prompt for this week is…

Remember

GO

My husband finds it funny that even though I was a History major in college, I’m terrible at remembering dates. It’s true. I can remember trivial details, but dates just don’t stick in my head. Maybe it’s because dates are composed of numbers and I equate numbers with math and all things mathematical stick in my brain about as well as a fried egg on a new teflon pan. So I’ll be the first to admit that in this marriage I’m the one who has to be reminded of birthdays and anniversaries. Sometimes I forget how long we’ve been married, what time exactly our two children were born, sometimes I have to think hard to remember how old I am.

But there are things that I do remember with extreme clarity. Like how I wore a green blouse from Indonesia and a white skirt on our first date. I ordered a tuna fish sandwich. I remember drinking horchata at a Mexican take out place for our second date after driving around looking for a Starbucks and not finding one. That’s when I found out you liked playing Scrabble. I remember the first time I told you it wasn’t going to work, on the cell phone in the middle of Albuquerque. I remember the tears and prayers. I remember the second and third times I told you it wasn’t going to work, wandering around Cambridge, walking along the Charles River and more tears and prayers. I remember my text to you five months later and our conversation later that night in the stairwell of my apartment building because I didn’t want my housemates to hear. I remember you doing crosswords with me over the phone and that you brought a stack of crosswords cut out from the Daily Cal with you when you visited. We worked on them together in a cafe in Providence. In the midst of all the tears and prayers, long distance phone calls, scrabble games, crossword puzzles, walks along the river, I remember somehow falling in love. The rest, as they say, is history.

STOP

Read Full Post »

Letter to the Sanitation Department

Dear Garbage men,

I feel like I owe you a letter of appreciation for the wonderful job you do. Actually I’m writing it on behalf of my three year old son who I’m convinced is your #1 fan. He anticipates your coming every week and no matter how sound asleep he may be, he will always hear the distant rumbling of your garbage truck. I never figured out how it’s possible that he can sometimes sleep through the screaming of his baby brother in the crib next to his bed, but yet not through the faint sound of you wheeling dumpsters into the street, even when it’s a whole block away. It wakes him up every time. Every time. Thank you for that.

Actually, maybe I can understand it, because now it happens to us too. My husband has developed a knee jerk reaction to the sound of your trash dumping. No matter how dead tired he is, it still makes him bolt out of bed like the house is on fire. That’s because we know if CC misses your coming, the day will be off to a bad start. Thank you for doing what no alarm clock has been able to do in this house.

Thank you also for taking time out of your busy work to wave at the little boy sitting atop his daddy’s shoulders looking out the second floor balcony window. Like I said, he’s your #1 fan and that means a lot to him. Videos of you working on youtube is what got him through the sleepless nights when he came down with hand, foot, mouth disease. Do you know that some of those videos have reached a million hits and counting? You all really should consider hiring a publicity agent.

So thank you again from our whole family and keep up the good work. I know it’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it, right? But if it’s not too much to ask, just once in a while, would it be possible for you not to come at the crack of dawn? The parents of your #1 fan would really appreciate that.

Sincerely,

Sophia

Read Full Post »

Five Minute Friday – Rest

Prompt for this Five Minute Friday is

Rest…

GO

“Come to Me all who toil and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28). Most Christians love this verse. I’m sure it’s framed and hung up in many a home. Isn’t it sweet that God cares for our rest? When we’re weary from all our toils and burdens, we just have to come to Him and He will make us lie down by the waters of rest. Yet I never really paid attention to the verses right after that until recently. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” What? I thought after I came to the Lord, He would say, “Take a week vacation from the kids and just go veg at the beach with your husband.” But take My yoke? That doesn’t sound too relaxing…isn’t a yoke for working oxen?

But I have to admit that is often my experience. Real rest for my soul doesn’t come from lying on the beach doing nothing (although that is needed once in a while). It comes from me learning from the Lord to do the Father’s will, whatever that may be. Yesterday I was tired, weary, wallowing in self pity because this will be the third weekend in a row that my husband has to be out of town leaving me home with two kids. I complained and whined to the Lord (and a little to my husband). I convinced myself that I needed, no deserved really, a vacation right NOW, pouting like my son does when he wants his way. But then that night we had a Bible study in our home. I grudgingly took on His yoke and surprisingly I found it to be easy and light. Sometimes we find rest for our souls in the most unlikely places. For me that day, I found it in opening our home to others. I found it in the Word, in fellowship, in sitting around the table with college students eating brownies and drinking milk. That’s where the Lord gave me rest.

STOP

Read Full Post »

Five minute Friday – Home

I stumbled upon this writing challenge while blog surfing. My biggest excuses for not blogging more are 1) I don’t have time and 2) I don’t know what to write about. Five minute Friday seemed like a good solution to both. For more details, go to this link.

The writing prompt for this week is…

Home

GO

Home sweet home. Home is where the heart is. There’s no place like home. Home, home on the range, where the deer and the antelopes play. For me right now home is a small two bedroom apartment in Berkeley, filled with second hand furniture acquired from craigslist five years ago when my husband and I first moved in as newlyweds on a budget. But it’s sweet…and there’s no place like it…and it’s where my heart is…and sometimes when my son and his little friends play here, they sometimes do sound like herds of deer and antelopes. It’s the place where I can put my feet up, usually on the dirty lego table while sitting on the couch with milk stains and the ripped pillows. It’s the dusty glider where I sit in the mornings to pray and read the word while CC is at school and the baby is napping. It’s the carpet well worn by the footprints of so many who have come into our home for Bible studies, small groups, prayer meetings, or just to hang out for some impromptu fellowship. It’s the rickety dining table with chairs that have screws falling out where I’ve served so many meals made with love. Home also brings to mind Ephesians 3:16 – That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith. Even though my heart may be filled with old dilapidated furniture, I hope it’s a place where Christ can put His feet up and have the full freedom to invite others into.

STOP

Note: It took me a little longer than 5 minutes to write this post because half of it was written hunting and pecking the keyboard with one hand while holding a baby and bouncing on a yoga ball.

Read Full Post »