Confessions of a Note Taker

Last week I subbed a high school class where I was asked to teach note taking. The request solicited many dismissive gestures, eye rolls, slumped posture,slamming books, ripping paper. Their disdain was obvious. Students tried all sorts of variations and short cuts like taking pictures with their phones promising later transfer and highlighting on the computer.

I think I understand their position. Although my perspective was different the learning outcome was likely similar. I remember being in high school and making notes. I remember and taste the success of goal achieved. The key was efficiency and quantity. Quantity was as good an indication of being on the right track as anything. I added in neatness and organization for good measure - headings and under linings and a special spot for definitions. Colour coding was the ultimate bonus!

I stood looking at the kids in class desperate to find a way to pass along the importance of good note taking. Why was this so important to me?

I guess it is here that I should probably confess that I am an avid note taker. I love recording things. I love pens, paper and the thought of learning something new. However, like anything I have realized that it can become a goal in itself. After this many years of living, quantity and speed aren't great goals of achievement if the learning is peripheral.

In a book that I am completely engrossed in called, "One Thousand Gifts," by Ann Voskamp is the following quote,

"Hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur."

Reading that completely stopped me in my tracks.

I am an amateur in so many ways!

Is my note taking a pseudo learning shortcut? Is it an exercise in looking studious or a true reflection of taking in information? Do I take notes so I can refer to them and ponder them? Do I wrestle with the ideas by flipping them back and forth, frontwards and backwards? Do I think things through and persevere to gain understanding?

Do I come late for things because I truly don't know how long it takes to perform certain tasks?

Which situations do I need to discipline immediately? Which ones need an unhurried response?

Why do I misread so many instructions or recipes?...

Taking this quote along with me as I go about my living has made me more aware of the what's, when's, where's, why's, how's and who's of hurry in my life. It is making me aware of all that I am missing in the moment to get to where I think importance is waiting. Living for a destination just means that I regard only me - appointed times as important. If I remember to slow in the now, I can savour the gift that is right in front of me, the opportunity to most carefully help my child out the door, or the fun of enjoying a game with the kids while waiting in a vehicle for a dead battery to warm up. It is when we slow to work through something thoroughly and intentionally that the Spirit of God is able to meld together our note taking, theological ponderings and continuous prayers and make sense of them for us. Allow us to practise obedient living in the moment. To mature us into thoughtful people who prepare for action and obedience that in the end will result in glory to God.

Watermelon of Peace

I received the following letter in an email this week. I wanted to pass it on to you all to encourage you to continue praying for and supporting Dave and Louise Sinclair-Peters and their family in Thailand.

Hi Friends,

Last night at the Burmese worship service, the church was packed with seekers and worshippers of Jesus, enjoying God's presence. Suddenly out of the blue, our drunk neighbour became irate with the noise and started yelling and cursing at everyone, especially Sandy, telling her to stop the noise.

In a rage, the man went and got a gun and started firing it off into the air repeatedly!

Sandy quickly got all the kids and adults to go inside and shut the door. We felt very bad for all the Burmese inside, and their constant fear of being arrested by the police.

With everyone safely inside, Sandy stood outside the church all alone, guarding her people. With news of the angry neighbour, Dave raced back from the market to help Sandy. He boldly went over to the man with the gun and spent time listening to his complaints.

Then like a good Anabaptist, Dave said sorry for the noise and gave the man a watermelon (too bad he didn't have any roll kuchen with him :)! After that, the man calmed down and went back to his house.

So today I would like to give a medal of bravery to Sandra Fender for her courage shown protecting our Believers last night.

I would also like to give a peace prize to my husband, Dave, for bringing the "watermelon of peace" and so gently diffusing the conflict!

Please continue to pray for the Thai and Burmese church as we live and work in this "wild west" Thai community.

Please pray with us for God's favour and protection for all the Believers.


Thanks for standing with us in prayer!

Louise

A Habitude of Gratitude!

The past few weeks I have been desiring to make a habit of gratitude. My eyes have been hunting for opportunities to receive God in my moments. To know His presence and to be overwhelmed by it. To want Psalm 27:4,

One thing I ask of the LORD,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the LORD
all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD
and to seek Him in His temple.

Hurry and impatience have become triggers of ingratitude and a signal for a paradigm shift in thinking.

Here are a few of my thankful moments that have allowed me to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD...

While struggling with the immense task of zipping zippers of a grade one students, tying snotty scarves around exposed chins and curbing petty tattle-tailing I want to walk away and catch a moment in the restroom but am captivated by the gentleness of Mrs. "R" who is fully enjoying a moment of prolonged interaction with her grade 2 student, her little brother and her Mom. I am changed by her peaceful lingering, her honest smile and her sincere words.

Deciding that maybe it just was impossible to ring this little girl into the learning circle today. Maybe it wasn't worth the effort. Maybe she just deserved to be left to her own demise...but knowing that there had to be a way...maybe I just couldn't know it...
finding a moment of quiet...in that, realizing I was once again taking myself too seriously...my call is to love each one of them not to shoo them away...to take lessons from my husband and be silly with them...to entertain their silliness and their penchant for the moment.
She is engaged. She's had a change of heart. So have I. I am thankful for a sense of humour and a husband who broadens mine.

Hurrying home to tell the girls that their favourite song activity scored big subbing points in the classroom. Measured by student comments such as - "You rock!" Seeing their smile.

Some things come into view only because I want to notice them. Like the first light of the day. Our days are becoming longer.

A quiet moment.
A child writing letters on my back when I am tired.
A cozy blanket.
Watching our dog run wild somehow feeling in his winter fur that winter is losing its grip.
An impromptu date with my child.
Crunchy snow underfoot.
An afternoon nap.
A friends visit.
God loving a young heart to Himself.
A cup of warm tea with a new friend.
Knowing that a smile holds no language barrier between an ESL student and a teacher.

Receiving a video from my husband to watch with my son. Daddy knows his son so well.



Laughing with my boy.

Coming to cuddle with my boy at night and finding him with his knees up empathizing with the mini Darth Vader. Trying to use the force himself to raise the bedding. I say, "You use the force every time you ask me to cuddle at night!"

Seeing him smile.

Happy V Day Mom!

First thing this morning the kids ran up to me, hugged me with their sweet little arms while verbally exploding with excited variations of, "Happy Valentines Day! Happy V Day Mom!"
(Perhaps that is the new cool way to say it?)

As quickly as they acknowledged me with hugs and greetings, they stopped and did an about-face saying, "I haven't made a card for you yet!"

Knowing the importance of this gesture from my own growing up years said, "There's lots of time if you want to do that yet this morning."

Off they went.

I finished my quiet time and hurried off myself to make the morning a bit more special than usual.

They are such a gift to me.

When everyone was donned with pink and red and sitting together around the island eating breakfast and putting together our lunches - this is what made me so happy.

Unearthing the Murky

This past week I have been saturated with messages about being thankful. These messages have permeated my mind through printed word, radio, computer, and spoken word. The force of the repetitions were plentiful and diverse and very convincing. It felt like they were meant to wash away a bit of the murkiness I had been experiencing regarding the rhythm of my days. It has been refreshing. A miracle of the soul. Answered prayer.

It has been a Psalm 119:105 gift.

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path."

I have a stirring memory from my college days of working through a passage of technical difficulty with my wonderful piano instructor. She would encourage the hours of intense and deliberate practise. She would beautifully demonstrate what it could sound like, describe how I should wrestle with the keys and coordinate both body and mind to submit to the beauties and intricacies of the music. Her confident statement following this masterful teaching was unforgettable and exactly what a struggling musician needed to hear. "Keep going through the motions, keep rehearsing these techniques and practising your musical imagination and someday it will fly. Your music will soar!" She said it with flair and conviction.

She was right.
Practise.
Perseverance.
Hope.
Taking flight.

Ephesians 1:17-19a

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.

Thank you God, for your extravagant love.

With Eyes on Jesus

It was so good to be back at Bible study Wednesday night. I was reminded again, how we are created to do life with others. I am so inspired, so drawn to love Christ more because of hearing others' stories of faith. God shows up in mighty ways in each individual story.

Idols were our topic of conversation last night. After reading, "Made to Crave," Lysa TerKeurst's new book, I have been tuned into a deeper awareness of what it is that satisfies and what substitutions or idols I crave. I have experienced some amazing fullness from God on one end and complete frustration and defeat on the other. I have been wondering why some areas of life are so horribly hard. Why is it that some days we feel unstoppable? Any charge against us will fall, no word or thing or situation will knock us down. Then the next day, any little infraction or temptation trips us up, causing us to count the fateful steps backward. We end up in places we never wanted to see again.

Is it lack of faith? Is it lack of focus? Lack of discipline? Spiritual blindness?

Years ago in my late teens I kept a journal with columns for dates and prayers and dates of responses. I liked and still like checklists. Each had spaces for the appropriate information to be filled in. I anticipated this project with great hope. The idea has potential if you have any amount of perseverance and possibly a mentor or accountability. At that point in my life, I hadn't developed a very deep level of reflection or accountability so many answers to prayers weren't filled in if they weren't rather immediate.

I have been learning the art of long term reflection, of pondering and of not expecting to have immediate responses for all prayers. I think this may have been developed as a young mom studying through the life of David with a good friend. Most of our sleep deprived conversations were piecemeal around diapers and feedings and tending toddlers. But because we had each other asking questions and picking up conversations where they last left off, we grew in our ability to think over time. We processed the story bit by bit over a period of many months.

The working out of our salvation is that way. It is often a slow steady process like the tortoise in Aesop's' legendary fable of the Tortoise and the Hare. As one lady around the Bible study table discussion said, "faith happens step by step by step." It's also what Dave talked about in a recent sermon when he spoke of God desiring relationship over results. When the focus is off the big flashy results it is easier to rejoice in the slow, thoughtful, prodding steps.

The other morning I experienced the joy of light being shed on my next step. I was reading in Hebrews 13 from the Message.

There should be a consistency that runs through us all.
For Jesus doesn't change - yesterday, today, tomorrow, He's totally Himself.

If God is consistent and His power is at work in us then we too, although not perfect, should experience consistency. Or put another way - we will grow into maturity.

Earlier on in Hebrews 12 I read the following and my understanding of how to train my mind was broadened.

When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility He plowed through, That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!

The story we are to review is written right before this statement:

Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how He did it. Because He never lost sight of where He was headed - that exhilarating finish in and with God - He could put up with anything along the way: cross, shame, whatever. And now He's there, in the place of honour, right alongside God.

It would be overzealous for me to think I could merely take a mental walk through my remembrances of Jesus' story and the result be victory in areas of weakness. Kind of like assuming that filling in my prayer columns would bring about a better faith life. I think that might be what is meant by the term human striving - going through the motions trying hard to get a favourable response.

According to the Hebrews passage, consistency in our obedience to God comes by taking an item of His story and not just reading it but seeing it from every angle possible. Desiring it to become yours by learning it, knowing it, believing it, practising it and praying it earnestly so that your hope is securely in God's strength and perspective for every next step.

Where would you start? What area do you crave and find yourself caving? What story would you work through?

I believe I'll start at Matthew 4:1-11.