Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

In which Irene Comforts Me

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 Irene, crooning to me, “Mummy, you’re a mummy, and you’ll always be a mummy, but I am an Irene, and one day I will be a mummy.” Me, “Well, I’m not just a mummy.” She, soothingly, “I know. You are a writer, a Mummy, and a chatterbox.”

We are changed as we think with gratitude, giving up unforgiveness and judgment

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People can be changed so thoroughly that what you now are bares no resemblance to what you were.

I have experienced this myself and seen it happen in others.

There is a call in Romans to “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Renew, to make new, a new, young mind.

Hey, who wouldn’t want this?

HOW are you changed? You interrogate your thoughts. Is this true? Is this the way God wants me to think? Am I thinking in the way Jesus especially commanded me not to think?–Am I worrying, being negative, unforgiving, fearful?Am I not forgiving aught against any?

We are changed as we think the thoughts God wants us to think–thoughts of gratitude, thoughts of love and positivity, and let go of the negativity which weighs us down!

Rhapsody on Learning

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I have a new hobby, something I really enjoy doing, which makes me feel fully alive, and that is learning.

I love learning new things.

I really feel I am springing to happy life during our Christian history course, for instance.

When we travel, I love learning the history of the countries and cities we visit, and love imagining the streets peopled with people of past ages.

I love learning languages.

I love learning facts, more about nature, more about history.

I love Wikipedia, and how it partially slakes one’s thirst for knowledge on any particular subject through its infinite series of links.

Dancing with the Lord

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Dancing with the Lord

Dancing with the Lord:
That’s the way to live;
Moving in so closely
 that I’m guided instinctively.
He doesn’t mind my clumsiness,
The obvious inexpertise.
And when exhaustion
 makes me stall, I climb
 onto his feet, like a child
on her father’s toes,
and the dance continues

While His music plays.

What do you Want? John Chapter 1.

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What do you want?                                                                                                           John 1:37


Come follow me.
And you will see
Clarity
Lucidity
I will give you.                                                                                                              John 1:39                                                              


You are called Simon,
But you will be called
Cephas, Peter, the Rock.

I call you
And I will keep calling you
From what you are now
To what you cannot yet dream of being
To a strength
Now beyond your imagining.

No longer will you catch fish,
You will use your skill
To catch men to my beautiful way of living.
Following me will always lead you
Upward
Onward
Closer to me
To a greater destiny
Than you can dream of. 

I Saw You

I saw you

While you were under the fig tree.


I had my eyes on you.
When you were angry, afraid and full of doubt,
And everything seemed to be unraveling
And nothing seemed to be working.
But I could see how beautifully
I was fashioning all things.

When you couldn’t see me
I saw you.

And today, I have my eyes on you.

And you will see greater things
Than you now imagine possible.

You will see heaven open to your prayers.

You will see its angels ascending and descending
From heaven to earth.

You will see my glory.

Walking around Oxford on a Dreamy Sunday Evening

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Zoe and I enjoyed a walk around Oxford at dusk on Sunday. It’s a funny place, all the colleges with their wooden doors, with an inset door half-open, offering a view of arches, doorways, secrets. It’s a place that both beckons, entices, and shuts out. The ultimate of snobbiness in many ways.

I noticed again that none of the colleges had their names on them. The theory, I’ve read, is that if you belonged, you’d know which College was which. And if you didn’t, you didn’t need to.

I suppose they were built in the days before cheap maps in every corner store. With the names of the Colleges on them.

A sweet beautiful dreamy city. I’d like to think it’s a prototype of an eternal, lovely, dreamy city, which welcomes everyone! The lovely city of God.

John and Carol Arnott of "The Toronto Blessing," come to Oxford

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Zoe and Irene have had a three word theme song all their young lives, “I’M SO EXCITED!” Though generally excited by life myself, I find there are fewer and fewer things I am REALLY, really looking forward to. Here is a link to a week Roy and I are really, really looking forward to.

www.occ.org.uk
We are asking God that this International Leaders’ School of Ministry (ILSOM) will be a life-changing week for anyone with a heart for ministry and revival.

Dreaming of Iceland

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I love the unearthly beauty of Iceland, its lunar landscapes. We had pretty much decided to go there last summer, then decided that Norway was higher up on our hit-list. Ireland is now top of the list (the kids’ lobby, we’ve been there), then Denmark, then perhaps, Iceland! It would have been amazing to have seen that volcano erupt!