Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Counting my Blessings on my Birthday

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In random order
1 Look at the beautiful flowers kind friends gave me
2 and the lovely new antique cherry mahogany table we bought, which I love.
3 Lovely Roy has been able to work from home in our family business this year, and look after most practicalities, freeing up SO much writing for me me.
He’s been able to do the things he always wanted to–read more, pray more, garden more, grow our own veg, and keep up with news, the house. He’s also enjoying exploring “hacks”–the most efficient ways of doing things.
4 Zoe did very well in her G.C.S.E.’s–all A*’s and A’s, and is enjoying her A levels–Philosophy, theology, English and French. She is a strong Christian, and goes to two youth groups, in both our old and new church.
5 Irene is doing brilliantly academically, receiving more enthusiastic reports than I ever, ever got!! She’s cheerful, bouncy, and very happy, with a very tight-knit, loving, supporting group of friends.
6 Peace, joy, and happiness. Yes, I am really happy.
7 Blogging has brought me great joy this year.
8 And twitter–what a revelation. Love it!
9 Travel–I’ve enjoyed a Dec trip to Granada, a Feb. trip to Rome, an April trip to Ravenna and Bologna, a July trip to Strasbourg, an August trip to Sweden, and an October trip to Devon since my last birthday.
We are going to Wales soon, and then London.
10 A wonderful cleaner and housekeeper, who keeps everything clean and running smoothly.
11 Taking up running, which I SO enjoy, though anyone of you could beat me at it.
12 Beginning to read again intensively, which I SO, SO love.
13 St. Andrew’s, Oxford, my new church, in which I am so happy.
14 My wonderful women’s group, which is THE BEST women’s group I’ve ever been in.
15 Our couple’s small group, which is so interesting.
16 A lovely birthday party at which I caught up with so many friends.
17 Good health all year.
18 Starting writing again after a break of 4 years. Slowly, but a beginning.
19 Our family are individually happy, and happy together.
20 My dog who’s always with me, and my rabbits and ducks
21 The deep, deep love of God into which I am falling ever deeper




Which strand of contemporary Christianity most appeals to you?

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Dreaming with God: Secrets to Redesigning Your World Through God's Creative Flow
My favourite Bill Johnson book

I was thinking about that this morning, as we’re choosing a summer conference for our family. We’ve decided on River Camp 2012.

So who do I most enjoy listening to and reading? Who opens the heavens for me? Whose teaching does my heart beat an enthusiastic Amen to? To which spiritual strand am I closest?
The answer, oddly–since I left a charismatic church in which I was very unhappy this Easter to move to a mainstream Evangelical church with just a twist of the spirit–is the Charismatic tradition.
I LOVE reading Bill Johnson’s books. The way the thinks, talks and experiences faith is similar to mine. Going to an ILSOM conference in Oxford led by John Arnott changed the way I pray. I learned soaking prayer there. I love listening to Heidi Baker, and reading her books. I am fascinated by the 24/7 prayer movement of Pete Greig. I am interested in the teaching of the father’s heart and the father’s love, as in Mark Stibbe, Arnott, Pioreck.

I also love reading John Piper, Dallas Willard and Richard Foster.

I enjoy meat, substance, things to meditate on. I love the places where theology hits life, where the Word and the Spirit meet. There one finds excitement for both mind and spirit.  I think wading in the shallows (as is the case with me)  or swimming in the depths of the Spirit (as I do occasionally, and want to do more of) is the most exhilarating experience there is.
How about you? Which strand of contemporary Christianity most turns you on?

A Cloud of SERIOUSLY Flawed Witnesses

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I mean, like, SERIOUSLY.
David, who despite Michal, Abigail, et al, saw a beautiful woman bathe, and indulged his primal instincts, embarking on a slippery slope that led to murder, and bitter sibling rivalry.
Paul, who stood as a witness to the stoning of Stephen, who thought castration was the best thing for his theological opponents (Gal. 5:12)
Peter, who quite simply lied, and denied he knew Jesus, three times in a row.
James and even beloved ethereal John, who manoeuvred to be the greatest in the coming Kingdom.
Moses, the murderer.
And these are some of the rocks on which our faith is built.
* * *
I once belonged to a church which gradually turned toxic. I watched a saga of clergy bullying, intimidation, sadism, manipulation, exclusion, power-seeking and misuse and all the attendant pain. I was appalled.
* * *
I found it hard to pray that those people would be blessed. That would only  give them power to cause more pain to more people, and continue to build their own little Kingdom–which was theirs, not Christ’s.
 * * *
When Elijah was disgusted at Ahab’s behaviour, being a magnificent prophet, and not a wounded woman, he said grandly,  “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years.”
And well, there wasn’t.
And guess who lived in Israel? Elijah the Tishbite did.
No rain nor dew fell on him either! He lived in seclusion by the barren Kerith ravine.
* * *

What I most wanted for myself was “rain,” spirit-borne creativity, and unblocking of the wells.

And in the mysterious way of the spirit-realms, wishing drought on others would cause a barrenness and parching in my own spirit, and prevent me from being “like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail” (Isaiah 58:11). For with the measure we use, it will be measured to us. (Luke 6:38).

We cannot ask for rain and blessing on ourselves, while gently advising God to withhold it from others. Because blessing is God’s very nature. He makes the sun shine and the rain fall on good and evil alike.

And while God blesses whom he chooses to bless, and has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, a sweet heart draws down his ultimate blessing, which is his presence. Which according to the laws of physics, cannot fill a heart already full of bitterness or idolatry.
* * *

A grudge is like a tiny little cancer  in one’s spirit. It can grow and grow.
And what can neutralize this acid? These claws?
Drop by drop of the love of the Holy Spirit. The ocean of the Holy Spirit to drown the little Atlantis of bitterness.
*   * *

So just let it go—the injustices committed against us?
Yes, of course. “Just and true are all your ways,” the saints tell God in Revelation, and he will deal with those who hurt us with his unique combination of justice and mercy.
(Though when you see the wicked prosper, it takes faith to believe this!)
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. It’s the most difficult thing that Jesus ever said, I think.
He advises us to BLESS those who have done us the most harm. Even people who have done wrong, perhaps evil things, and who might do it again, if given the power to.
·      * *
I finally found a way I could bless my enemies, and this gave me much joy.
If the ones who have ill-used you are Christians–or even they aren’t–the way they have treated you is not the whole story of their lives, or their characters.
They have most likely done many good things apart from the toxic conduct. which brought you grief.
In this case, in which I was unfairly and sadistically treated, I could happily ask God to bless them for the people who had received the Holy Spirit in a life-changing way through their prayers. For the healings they had brought about. For their ministry to the poor and to international visitors, which brought in no money. For their ministry which really blessed members of our family. For the prayers they had prayed aloud for me myself, which indeed were answered, amazingly and life-changingly; and the wisdom they had shared, which helped in me at difficult junctures of my life.
Ah, so that was how one could bless one’s enemies.
I stayed awake much of that night, and in delight, one by one, I blessed everyone I found hard to forgive, for all the good things they had done in their lives, quite apart from whatever I was struggling to forgive.
* * *
Back to the Scriptural great men of God. Is there a single one among that cloud of witnesses who has not at times messed up?  
Lolly Dunlap, a godly woman who mentored me, wife to the hyper-energetic John Dunlap,founder of schools, churches and Christian camps told me that she did not know anyone who has not looked back at his actions, and said, “I have really messed up there.” And she was the sister of Dick Woodward, the famous American Bible teacher, and the spiritual mother of Bill Warwick, Pastor of Williamsburg Community Chapel, and the real life mother of Don Dunlap, whom Dick called the most sinless human being he had ever known.
And so there is redemption. For the great scriptural cloud of witnesses, who have lied, murdered, committed adultery, betrayed the one they loved.
Peter, the most obviously flawed, the apostle most rebuked by Christ, also became the one the church was built on.  
And for us? I believe there is no sin (except, I suppose, the mysterious sin against the Holy Spirit) which disqualifies us for the race.
All sins and offences shall be forgiven men.  So matter how I have blown it, I can pick myself up, and continue following Jesus. As can my enemies and those I bitterly disapprove of.
Do not let shame paralyse you, no matter what you’ve done. Dust off those bruised knees, and get back into the race, jogging beside Jesus, your friend, right in there among that seriously flawed cloud of witnesses.

A Prague autumn

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Thanks, Roy Mathias, for helping me write up, and choose photographs for this record of our brief 5 days in Prague!
And now, over to Roy:

What is the best time to visit Prague?   I have no idea, but we had a wonderful five days in late October autumn.  The city, being so old, is very compact;  walking is easy and interesting.

  The Church of Adam and Eve

The Church of Adam and Eve in Stare Mesto (the old town)

  The two towers of this church are called Adam and Eve. The yellow buildings in front of the church actually touch the church, and so one can only enter the church through a small side door. Our hotel was only two blocks from the church so we frequently saw it.  From the back it looks almost like Hogwarts:

Silhouette of the the towers of the Church of Adam and Eve.

InterestingWalking

Marionettes are one of Prague’s souvenirs, and Irene ended up taking home a Pinocchio.

Demonstrating how “easy” it is to make Pinocchio walk.
Everywhere you look there is something of interest:
An attractive manhole cover.
A wall plaque.
Best friends

Prague Town Hall

Prague has enjoyed many artistic styles.  The most recent is Art Nouveau.  Here is the town  hall–which included a cafe.  The guidebook told us to stop for a coffee and pastry, and not to miss the toilets!

Prague town hall
Prague Town Hall cafe — well worth a look

 Alphonse Mucha

There is museum dedicated to Alphonse Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), a leading artist in his day.  No photography allowed, so here are some pictures from the web.  Much of his work was work was in the form of advertising posters; like this for Job cigarettes.

Mucha poster for Job cigarettes (note the lady’s hair swirls like the cigarette smoke.)

His images are still a source of inspiration:

2010 Austrian stamp featuring Mucha’s painting of Sarah Bernhardt
A Mucha-inspired tattoo

When the German invaded Czechoslovakia during the spring of 1939, Mucha was among the first to be arrested by the Gestapo. During his interrogation, he became ill with pneumonia, and died soon after he was released.

 Prague Astronomical Tower

This clock tower, with the world’s oldest working astronomical clock (1410) is across the square from the Church of Adam and Eve.  Every hour a crowd gathers, the clock strikes, figures move, and real live uniformed humans at the top deliver a trumpet call.

Prague lock tower by night

Two figures looking out o the little windows above the two dials of the clock.  Below one sees the massed tourists.

Closer view
The very top of the tower.  The trumpeteers appear in the turrets.

 The Jewish Quarter in Prague

There are two outstanding attractions in the Jewish quarter.  The  Holocaust memorial and attached  Jewish Cemetery and the fantastically ornate Spanish synagogue.

As always, the Jewish quarter was very crowded.  Here we see graves one on top of another, up to 12 layers deep.  The setting is a shady walled enclosure.

Prague’s Old Jewish Cemetery

The Spanish Synagogue is in the Moorish Revival style, and hence the name.  The intriguing, though bland exterior

in no way prepares you for the interior, completely covered in rich gold, green, red, blue and black decoration.

Spanish Synagogue – view of upper gallery and ceiling from lower level
Spansish Synagogue — front where Torah Scrolls are kept–there is no “altar”.

Spanish Synagogue — looking straight yup at a skylight.  The suspended lights form one of many stars of David.
detail showing unusual pattersn.

Just outside the Spanish Synagogue is a statue of Franz Kafka

 The Cathedral of St Vitus — Prague

The cathedral and castle are on the opposite side of the Charles river from the center of town and the areas above.   Here are a few pictures taken on the way

Gateway protecting the Charles Bridge — for centuries bridge across the Charles River.

Here are two view of St. Vitus from the Charles Bridge.

One of the many statues on the bridge.

The cathedral is still quite a walk from here — we took a taxi, and were greeted by a buskers

An areal view from a distance
The South entrance to the Cathedral is called the Golden Gate

and the whole of the South side

The West entrance is like many other cathedrals:

The central panes of the Much window

the lower part of the same window

An unusual stained glass window.  It’s not the result of a shaky hand–it is really like this.  I do not recall the story behind it unfortunately.

There were numerous details like this:

The nave

A view of the multitude of spires on the cathedral

The cathedral is inside the grounds of Prague Castle.  Here is a a garret window in a near by building

The Lord is my Literary Agent

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Original illustration by Jo Rosenblum

David, a shepherd, addresses the LORD as his shepherd. Hmm. 
And when Jesus invites Peter initially, and re-invites him again after the Resurrection, it is in the areas of his competence. You are a fisherman? Well then, fish men. 
You have laboured all night and caught nothing. Well, cast your net where I tell you to and be astounded. And Peter catches 153 fish.
It’s easy to recognise our need for God in our areas of weakness. But our areas of competence, if surrendered to him, can bring the most surprising revelations of how we can do exceedingly abundantly more than we imagined with his ideas, and his power.
Rachel Held Evans said mockingly, “I’ve often heard authors claim that God is their agent. Mine is Rachelle Gardner, and she’s excellent.)
Hmm. Whom would you rather have as a literary agent–the Lord or Rachelle Gardner (of whom I know nothing, by the way, so nothing personal)? Whose advice would be more helpful?  
Who’s more likely to have good ideas and inspiration? Who’s cleverer and more creative? Who has more power to open doors? Who can lead you by the quickest, swiftest way to reach as many readers as you can be a blessing to?
This is what Rachelle Gardner advises, 
  • “speak frequently to large groups.” Your proposal lists every speaking engagement for the last year, and every speaking engagement already booked for the future, including the date, the event, and the NUMBER of people you spoke to.
  • We want to know your Klout score, your number of Twitter followers, number of LinkedIn contacts, number of Facebook friends or fans on your profile page. We want to know how many visitors view your YouTube channel each month. If you use Facebook ads, Google Ad Words, or Wiki Book Summaries, we want the number of monthly impressions.
  • If you’re regularly on radio, what’s your audience size according to Arbitron? If you write for a regular newsletter or journal, what’s the circulation? 
And how might one have time to write, prithee, with all this relentless self-promotion?
And how much social media success does she expect you to have before people might read your book? Rachelle writes
As a benchmark, you could shoot for 500 fans on your Facebook profile page and 15,000 monthly page views to your blog. 
 Building a platform takes time—sometimes, a lot of time. Sometimes non-fiction authors need to set aside their manuscripts and focus on gathering their tribe for awhile.
LOL!
And if the Lord was my literary agent–which (thank God!) He is?
He advises me to spend more time with Him, so that what I write is drawn from eternal wells.
He advises me to keep my blog readership growing steadily, which it is, and suggests simple do-able strategies for this. He doesn’t suggest 15,000 page views, just growth.
He also tells me that if my blog blesses people, many of them will buy the reasonably-priced books that spring from the blog, whether self-published or conventionally published.
There is rest and joy and peace in what the Lord advises, no stress, none of the relentless push for more, more, more. His strategies and advice are do-able. And I do believe that books and ideas that come from God will last longer, and bless more people than market-driven ideas which spring from the brains of literary agents.
* * *
Whatever our profession is, the Lord knows how to do it better, and WE can do it better if we lean on his guidance and inspiration. 
The Lord is my muse and my literary agent.
I shall not want. 

He makes me down to lie
In paths of green, he leadeth me
By quiet waters…

Was your time, work and money lost or wasted? Or was it a seed?

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Look at these seeds. They will become mustard, barley, corn, wild rice, rice, red rice, wheat, lentils. And can multiply themselves indefinitely if their harvests are replanted.
Wouldn’t think that just looking at them, would you? They look hard and inert, as lifeless as pebbles.
* * *
I was thinking about an experience in my life into which I sunk much money, and much energy and effort and worry.
And what became of it?
Apparently nothing!
“Wasted” effort, wasted time, wasted energy.
Was it really?
Or was all I learned and did and experienced in the course of this experience, a seed which may bear fruit later.
·      * *
Rejoice always. In everything give things. Praise the LORD at all times (Ps 34:1)
We can thank God for everything, even experiences which seems flops, wasted, failures, because you see everything that has happened to us is just a seed.
It might look lifeless, hard, dry, with no trace of softness, or green, or fruit, or flowers, or vegetables, or millions of apples or blackberries.
But give it to God, put it in his hands, this seed of sad, wasted, apparently fruitless experience. Ask him to help it germinate
A 2000 year old Judean date palm seed, carbon-14 dated, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great’s Palace in Masada, Israel was germinated in 2005. A carbon-14-dated 1,300-year-old sacred lotus recovered from a dry lakebed in northeastern China was geminated in 1995. (Wikipedia)
* * *
We can ask God to bless our experiences of the past—the false starts, the abandoned projects, the failed relationships, the years we sweated over projects which failed, all the sub-optimal years. We can consider these things—the blurred years, the treasure hunts in which we never found the treasure– not as wasted, but as seeds, which can still yield a beautiful harvest. We can ask God to bless and fructify our past, as well as our futures.
For what is our past?
Seeds. Just seeds.
Place them in the hands of the Lord of the Harvest.
Take them, Lord, bless them, germinate them, and multiply them.
Amen.

Friend, Come Higher

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Peter, from Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth
  
“You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter, the rock). John 1:42

Yes, I do know you.
I see you
and know you better than you know yourself.
I know you are friable.
I know you can crumble,
though these things may surprise you.
But your strength shall emerge from the weakness
you shall thoroughly conquer,
and thoroughly renounce.
I am calling you
from being Peter, the impulsive,
to becoming Peter who unshakeably loves me,
who is built rocklike on the bedrock of me.
I am calling you from being a fisherman
to being a fisher of men.
Following my will
will always lead you upward and onward
to a higher place.
Friend, come higher.
Come follow me.

The complete Serenity Prayer by Reinhold Niebuhr

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Purple Serenity Evening Water
Image Credit

Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

This was written by Reinhold Neibuhr who wrote, the prayer “may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don’t think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself.”(Grapevine, 1950).