This past Wednesday, Dave and I had the privilege of attending the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra's opening concert. The guest artist was none other than the amazingly talented pianist, Marc-Andre Hamelin.
Again, I will say A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!
From the very first note, I was mesmerized. I have been living in that state for a few days considering the amount of thought, practise and complete devotion he must spend on knowing his instrument.
When he played, people leaned forward. No one had any desire to turn a page of their programs. People who brought their children switched spots to make sure they had the best sight path available to ensure visibility of the hands that made that delightful music. If you dared close your eyes you would have heard sounds and sonorities that were fresh and mind boggling. When he played you noticed conversations between his left and right hand and between oboe and piano and flute. His cadenzas (solos) were artful. They were daring. Not once did you feel nervous for him - they were simply wonders to behold and to enjoy.
It didn't matter that we clapped till our hands hurt, he didn't oblige us with an encore. I shouldn't feel begrudged as he did gift us with two entire masterworks!
As I was listening and as I left the building I was searching with Dave for adjectives that would best describe his playing. As hard as we tried, it couldn't be summed up in one word. There was just too much there. Words like seamless, effortless, smooth as...butter? Inspiring, beautiful, tasteful, thoughtful, comfortable, risky and thorough are a few words we came up with.
Suffice it to say, I am inspired. Inspired to play piano with more care and understanding, to teach piano with more care, to listen to more good music. I am also inspired by his example as a role model. He instills passion in other people by his playing. Not a word was spoken but we are all better for what we heard.
It begs the question; what kind of impact do I have on others? What adjectives would they use to describe me? What impact does the church leave on others? How are others inspired by what we do?
Well maybe the gift of no encore is the gift of wanting more. We know that no earthly "anything" will satisfy. One encore would never be enough. More of Jesus will allow the world to experience fulfilment. More of Jesus will leave all of us searching for adjectives that lead us into worship and a desire to follow with passion.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Being Missional
I am very excited for our upcoming Women's Bible study in October. I am excited to learn more of what God want's to speak to us as a group and as individuals through the book of Jonah and through His follower - Priscilla. I have been enjoying getting to "know" Priscilla Shirer a bit more through her blog. I want to direct you to her site and to one of her recent posts so you can get to know her more also. One of the things that has really attracted me to Priscilla is her missional attitude. She speaks to many women at any one of her gatherings and her philosophy is that the place where she speaks should be changed because of the gathering. The city should know that "1600" women met and worshipped and learned and responded!
For someone like me who loves to study and learn, it is so easy to go from service to study to event to retreat taking in over and over. God does call us to grow in our faith and knowledge of Him. He also asks us to be His kingdom on earth. To love as Jesus loved. To give up so we can give back.
In the post Priscilla asks the question, "How are you being the hands and feet of Jesus? How are you making an impact?"
Priscilla Shirer's Blog
For those of us anticipating involvement in a group Bible study this Fall; how we can be missional as a group. How can our Bible study gatherings make a difference? How can we let our neighbours know that loving and believing in Jesus is the difference in our lives?
For someone like me who loves to study and learn, it is so easy to go from service to study to event to retreat taking in over and over. God does call us to grow in our faith and knowledge of Him. He also asks us to be His kingdom on earth. To love as Jesus loved. To give up so we can give back.
In the post Priscilla asks the question, "How are you being the hands and feet of Jesus? How are you making an impact?"
Priscilla Shirer's Blog
For those of us anticipating involvement in a group Bible study this Fall; how we can be missional as a group. How can our Bible study gatherings make a difference? How can we let our neighbours know that loving and believing in Jesus is the difference in our lives?
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
An Opportunity of a Lifetime
This past weekend my eldest daughter had the opportunity to be part of a very special event. Her music teacher from school was getting married and had asked a small choir of students (my daughter included) to sing at the wedding and share in celebration with her. I was so thankful for this special opportunity and humbled by the importance that was placed on the children for this event. Megan's teacher thought of everything from loot bags for the kids, great song selection, to bubbles at the end. In my mind, I think it takes a pretty special bride to plan for, to rehearse with before school started, and to enjoy the students at the wedding!! The kids sang two worship songs with a worship leader and Happy Together for walking out. What fun!
I am very thankful that my daughter has this teacher as her role model and instructor. She gave the kids dignity and they lived up to that gift by being responsible and competent performers as they celebrated at a sacred event.
I am very thankful that my daughter has this teacher as her role model and instructor. She gave the kids dignity and they lived up to that gift by being responsible and competent performers as they celebrated at a sacred event.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Apple Junction
I think today I fell in love with Manitoba more deeply!
Over the past week I have spent a few hours each day with this view.
Growing up with apples in Ontario I wasn't sure how these worked. But since we appear to have a bumper crop both on the ground and in the trees I thought I should be a true to my heritage and get preserving. I am pleased to report that 6 quarts of crab apples soaked in water and cream of tartar made 5 quarts of juice! I also made crab apple jelly that turned out to be the perfect shade of clear pink. We were very pleased with both canning ventures.
On my first day of picking as high as I could reach with our ladder on the one tree, I moved on to the next tree. (We think we have about three trees with good sized apples on our yard but there are about 4 - 5 more in the woods with even bigger apples that we already missed.) But that tree was FULL of wasps. I could be way off but my guess was that the apples were sweeter. They even looked different. After my second sting I decided to take a break.
In the evening when the wasps were back at their nests we grabbed another bucket of apples then I took a few in to try.
THEY WERE AMAZING!!!
I NEVER would have guessed they could be the perfect combination of sweet and sour. The flesh was very white and the apples very juicy. The wasps have very good taste. I suddenly feel proud of our little crab apple orchard and am no longer annoyed at the mess of the fallen apples and the attraction they are to the wasps. I have even been wondering about pruning them next year. Hard core crab apple tree growers! (Pun intended:))
That evening Dave went out while it was dark and raked up a lot of the fallen apples hoping to keep the wasps away a bit more for future days. They really are crazy out there! I even saw a fight between a large wasp and a large black hard shelled beetle. They were really going after each other and all of a sudden the beetle froze. I thought maybe he was dead but he must have just got stung because all of a sudden he turned over and walked away! Interesting!
In sharing our preserving fortunes with friends we found out about a family who will juice apples and crab apples. Their business is called Apple Junction. They reside in Landmark and some of you may know them from the items they bring to the garden market in St. Norbert. They have that Mum's truck. After calling them I was booked in with an appointment for today at lunch. After making the appointment I spent a few more evenings up on the ladder collecting as many apples as I could. After two wasp stings I chose to pick in the evenings because the wasps aren't around then. I even wore garden gloves, long sleeves and long pants!
Today was the day!! I was giddy with excitement while waiting our turn for making the cider. I have such good memories of drinking home made apple cider in Ontario. The family was so kind and knew their way around the equipment very well. I have a special spot in my heart for these home stations because I grew up in a cucumber station. Anyways, while watching the apples get dumped, washed, crushed, strained and pressed, we tried to guess how many litres of juice our apples might give us. Megan guessed 18L, Lauren 16L and I 20L. Alexander had no guess. We were all way off! We got 40L of fresh apple cider!!! We were so excited all the way home and put Dave on speaker phone after we tried our first fresh glass. It was amazing!!! The kids have even offered to help pick next year! What a gift of Autumn God brought to our house the day before school starts.
Here are a few pictures of our adventure for the day!
How 'bout dem apples!
Over the past week I have spent a few hours each day with this view.
Growing up with apples in Ontario I wasn't sure how these worked. But since we appear to have a bumper crop both on the ground and in the trees I thought I should be a true to my heritage and get preserving. I am pleased to report that 6 quarts of crab apples soaked in water and cream of tartar made 5 quarts of juice! I also made crab apple jelly that turned out to be the perfect shade of clear pink. We were very pleased with both canning ventures.
On my first day of picking as high as I could reach with our ladder on the one tree, I moved on to the next tree. (We think we have about three trees with good sized apples on our yard but there are about 4 - 5 more in the woods with even bigger apples that we already missed.) But that tree was FULL of wasps. I could be way off but my guess was that the apples were sweeter. They even looked different. After my second sting I decided to take a break.
In the evening when the wasps were back at their nests we grabbed another bucket of apples then I took a few in to try.
THEY WERE AMAZING!!!
I NEVER would have guessed they could be the perfect combination of sweet and sour. The flesh was very white and the apples very juicy. The wasps have very good taste. I suddenly feel proud of our little crab apple orchard and am no longer annoyed at the mess of the fallen apples and the attraction they are to the wasps. I have even been wondering about pruning them next year. Hard core crab apple tree growers! (Pun intended:))
That evening Dave went out while it was dark and raked up a lot of the fallen apples hoping to keep the wasps away a bit more for future days. They really are crazy out there! I even saw a fight between a large wasp and a large black hard shelled beetle. They were really going after each other and all of a sudden the beetle froze. I thought maybe he was dead but he must have just got stung because all of a sudden he turned over and walked away! Interesting!
In sharing our preserving fortunes with friends we found out about a family who will juice apples and crab apples. Their business is called Apple Junction. They reside in Landmark and some of you may know them from the items they bring to the garden market in St. Norbert. They have that Mum's truck. After calling them I was booked in with an appointment for today at lunch. After making the appointment I spent a few more evenings up on the ladder collecting as many apples as I could. After two wasp stings I chose to pick in the evenings because the wasps aren't around then. I even wore garden gloves, long sleeves and long pants!
Today was the day!! I was giddy with excitement while waiting our turn for making the cider. I have such good memories of drinking home made apple cider in Ontario. The family was so kind and knew their way around the equipment very well. I have a special spot in my heart for these home stations because I grew up in a cucumber station. Anyways, while watching the apples get dumped, washed, crushed, strained and pressed, we tried to guess how many litres of juice our apples might give us. Megan guessed 18L, Lauren 16L and I 20L. Alexander had no guess. We were all way off! We got 40L of fresh apple cider!!! We were so excited all the way home and put Dave on speaker phone after we tried our first fresh glass. It was amazing!!! The kids have even offered to help pick next year! What a gift of Autumn God brought to our house the day before school starts.
Here are a few pictures of our adventure for the day!
How 'bout dem apples!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Do it Lord!
I'm not sure what kind of goals you have for yourself that no one else may know about. For the past couple of years I have had this idea in my head that I wanted to see how fast I could run a 5K...at my age. This past spring as schedules settled it was apparent that I could add some consistent speed training to my runs towards this goal. I wouldn't be able to surpass the three times a week that I normally run but I could make my runs meaningful, so to speak. So within those boundaries I set out.
My first two races in spring went well and although I met my first goal after 5 weeks of training I wanted to see if I could do better. I wanted to do better. Some would say I am competitive! In retrospect (as is so often the case) I realized that I hadn't planned certain aspects of the training very well. So the next 11 weeks of training was more specific. I had a few options for races that I could work towards but because of conflicts had to pass on the third. Now as our schedules for Fall are picking up I was having second thoughts about whether or not it would even work to properly train to run the upcoming race. So I decided to be creative and run a timed "race" of my own at the track (where there are no distractions - or so I thought.)
This past Tuesday morning I ran 12 and a half laps at the 400m track. I will begin by saying that it was the hardest run I can ever remember doing, even harder than the endurance run in elementary school with Ontario summer humidity! Although I had no physical distractions such as traffic lights and cars, the mental distractions would prove to be much more difficult!
I started my "race" faster than I intended but not out of my range. I went with it though as I realized that I likely would not be able to run that pace later on once fatigue set in (research has shown this as well in case you are interested). Well, fatigue started coming after 5 laps and the desire to stop for a break was enormous. I had guessed this would be an issue and worked to train for this but never thought the mental anguish would be this hard. I knew if I stopped to walk for any amount of time I would not reach my goal.
It was at this time that I really felt like a spiritual battle was happening. I started doubting that I could accomplish what I set out to do, that my training was bogus, that God wasn't honoured by this type of venture, that it didn't really matter if I reached my goal anyways. I was overly aware of the state of my body; the different breathing, dryness of mouth, the shoulder cramping, the continuous extra effort that was required to complete the race at the tempo I trained for and the need to stick to my plan. As the mental fight continued I prayed through all the self defeating thoughts. I was angry that a discipline I felt God had allowed during the summer was being threatened and was destroying my confidence at large! This fight raised my determination and I was made aware of the life analogy forming in my mind.
The book of Hebrews uses the analogy of running a race with perseverance, the race marked out for us. When I set out to gain victory in any area of my life the success of that "race" depends on whether or not I believe what God says about Himself, the situation or about me - about how much he loves me as one of His people. If when things get tough, the situation or pressures feel too hard, if I let up and give in to the moment of weakness or let my unpreparedness for the moment be an excuse, I will get caught up or entangled in the old way. I will believe the lies of the world around me and grow weary. See Hebrews 12:1 - 3. As I was running and processing all this I realized anew the importance of fighting through these battles to the end. The Bible says I have been equipped for for these through God's Word, through the Holy Spirit. God, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, 2 Peter 1:3. We have his resurrection power in us to reach goals of faith and maturity. He honours those battles. It is ultimately through His power that we have victory, consistent victory.
I am happy to say that by the grace of God I pushed through and won the mental and physical battle for this 5K. A really beautiful moment happened as I was finishing my last 200m. The song that came up on my iPod was "Do it Lord, Do it Lord, do it Lord, we are praying, do it Lord do it, that Your glory may be seen!" It made me smile. I was so thankful that God cared enough to be part of a living analogy in my life at that moment. Praise the Lord He speaks and moves through all areas of our lives.
In case you are curious, I ended up beating my spring run by 1:36 (that's minutes and seconds!). I had been hoping to knock off at least 40 seconds so this was good!
I'm not sure what battle you are facing right now whether it be; back to school routine, loneliness, a sense of purpose, parenting young children, feeling overextended as you care for your children and your parents, working in a job that you don't like or being in a financial crisis. Whatever the situation, God is with you and wants to fight alongside through all the sweat and tears. He wants to do it so that His glory may be seen.
My first two races in spring went well and although I met my first goal after 5 weeks of training I wanted to see if I could do better. I wanted to do better. Some would say I am competitive! In retrospect (as is so often the case) I realized that I hadn't planned certain aspects of the training very well. So the next 11 weeks of training was more specific. I had a few options for races that I could work towards but because of conflicts had to pass on the third. Now as our schedules for Fall are picking up I was having second thoughts about whether or not it would even work to properly train to run the upcoming race. So I decided to be creative and run a timed "race" of my own at the track (where there are no distractions - or so I thought.)
This past Tuesday morning I ran 12 and a half laps at the 400m track. I will begin by saying that it was the hardest run I can ever remember doing, even harder than the endurance run in elementary school with Ontario summer humidity! Although I had no physical distractions such as traffic lights and cars, the mental distractions would prove to be much more difficult!
I started my "race" faster than I intended but not out of my range. I went with it though as I realized that I likely would not be able to run that pace later on once fatigue set in (research has shown this as well in case you are interested). Well, fatigue started coming after 5 laps and the desire to stop for a break was enormous. I had guessed this would be an issue and worked to train for this but never thought the mental anguish would be this hard. I knew if I stopped to walk for any amount of time I would not reach my goal.
It was at this time that I really felt like a spiritual battle was happening. I started doubting that I could accomplish what I set out to do, that my training was bogus, that God wasn't honoured by this type of venture, that it didn't really matter if I reached my goal anyways. I was overly aware of the state of my body; the different breathing, dryness of mouth, the shoulder cramping, the continuous extra effort that was required to complete the race at the tempo I trained for and the need to stick to my plan. As the mental fight continued I prayed through all the self defeating thoughts. I was angry that a discipline I felt God had allowed during the summer was being threatened and was destroying my confidence at large! This fight raised my determination and I was made aware of the life analogy forming in my mind.
The book of Hebrews uses the analogy of running a race with perseverance, the race marked out for us. When I set out to gain victory in any area of my life the success of that "race" depends on whether or not I believe what God says about Himself, the situation or about me - about how much he loves me as one of His people. If when things get tough, the situation or pressures feel too hard, if I let up and give in to the moment of weakness or let my unpreparedness for the moment be an excuse, I will get caught up or entangled in the old way. I will believe the lies of the world around me and grow weary. See Hebrews 12:1 - 3. As I was running and processing all this I realized anew the importance of fighting through these battles to the end. The Bible says I have been equipped for for these through God's Word, through the Holy Spirit. God, His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, 2 Peter 1:3. We have his resurrection power in us to reach goals of faith and maturity. He honours those battles. It is ultimately through His power that we have victory, consistent victory.
I am happy to say that by the grace of God I pushed through and won the mental and physical battle for this 5K. A really beautiful moment happened as I was finishing my last 200m. The song that came up on my iPod was "Do it Lord, Do it Lord, do it Lord, we are praying, do it Lord do it, that Your glory may be seen!" It made me smile. I was so thankful that God cared enough to be part of a living analogy in my life at that moment. Praise the Lord He speaks and moves through all areas of our lives.
In case you are curious, I ended up beating my spring run by 1:36 (that's minutes and seconds!). I had been hoping to knock off at least 40 seconds so this was good!
I'm not sure what battle you are facing right now whether it be; back to school routine, loneliness, a sense of purpose, parenting young children, feeling overextended as you care for your children and your parents, working in a job that you don't like or being in a financial crisis. Whatever the situation, God is with you and wants to fight alongside through all the sweat and tears. He wants to do it so that His glory may be seen.
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