Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

Starlight (A guest post by Angela Shupe, La Bella Verita)

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Starlight

Sleepless, I walked through the dark to my kitchen to peer out the windows at our backyard meadow cradled by woods. The strain of life had led me to feel things were more chaos than calm. Looking up, I saw the dark night sky speckled with tiny flickering lights. A moment of wonder turned into a half hour of stargazing. Stars carrying names from their Maker hung overhead. If that One, that Maker, could bring order to a sea of glimmering lights, surely He could bring order to my perceived chaos. I returned to bed, falling asleep in a room lit softly by starlight that soon gave way to dawn. Peaceful.

But, life is unpredictable. And I had no way of knowing as I gazed at the stars, that in a few hours, I would lose my closest friend. The one like a sister to me would wake up after dawn and breathe her last breath, only hours before I was to visit her. With her passing, a part of me died, as well.

Two months into my grieving, my husband decided it was time to take a trip. “I want you to get away…somewhere different,” he said. We drove five hours to a place we’d never been before, to be together, to mend a numbed and grieving heart. Get out into nature, hike along trails of dirt, dust and rock, deep into the woods. Years before, we’d backpacked into the wild, immersing ourselves in nature’s unspoiled beauty. His act of love and compassion moved me greatly. He was grieving, too, but watching me grieve deeply for one so loved, was difficult.

We arrived at our destination, a little inn perched on a hill with cabins scattered in the surrounding trees. On our first hike I stood breathless from the scenery, the otherworldly beauty a shock to my senses. Trees shot up from emerald green moss-covered rock. Bubbling alongside was a creek lined with delicate ferns that led the way deep into caverns carved into towering sandstone. Waterfalls spilled over the highest edges.

After a full day of hiking, we walked from our cabin to the inn for a quiet dinner by candlelight. Everything seemed hushed and intimate, the quiet necessary for a heart in pain.

We walked back to our cabin, hand in hand, after dinner. The trail was rocky and we’d not brought anything to light our way. We walked with eyes fixed on the path, to not lose our footing. Something made me stop suddenly and as we stood, I looked up.

Above us, the dark velvet sky was overflowing with starlight. A blanket of lights spread thickly over us like a canopy. Every square inch was covered in stunning brightness. Lights hung so low, so close, I stretched out my arm, sure my fingertips could just reach. In our focus to keep our footing, we’d almost missed it – until that moment. Beauty poured forth in starlight. And we stood in awe, beholding its intensity in a silent act of worship.

My mind returned to that sleepless night months before, the flickering stars and the reminder that God is a god of order, not chaos. He most certainly could order my world spinning from grief. Stars that were called out by name, marched into position and shone vibrantly, warming my grieving heart and reminding me that my friend is not so far away.

After arriving back at our cabin, we stood on the tiny deck trying to capture the night sky on film. No picture could do justice to those stars now shining brilliantly in the not so far recesses of my memory.

Although I wouldn’t choose the pain of great loss, it’s a part of life on this side of the veil. After grief, we’re never the same. Perhaps out of the deep ruts of grief come understanding and knowledge that simply will come no other way. Joy after grief is deeper and richer, scars and all. We become more pliable, more teachable and the muscles of our faith are strengthened. We can stand on the other side of our battles with adversity, with questions yet unanswered, more certain of the goodness of a loving God, who stoops to intervene in the smallest of ways and sometimes brings the starlight to woo us.

 

Angela Shupe

Angela Shupe

Angela M. Shupe writes about life and faith on her blog, Bella Verita: Beautiful Truth at www.bellaverita.wordpress.com. Her writing has appeared in Women’s Adventure Magazine, Beliefnet.com, Today’s Christian Woman/Kyria, Relevant Magazine, Just Between Us Magazine and Radiant Magazine. Her writing has also been recognized by Biographile and Travelers’ Tales.

Blessed are the Meek — A Guest Post by Jo of Travelling the Circle Line

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Jo blogs at Travelling the Circle Line. Do visit her.

Thank you, Jo.

‘Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.’ Matthew5:5
Meek is not a word that is used much these days. When it isit tends to have a passive nuance: timid, mild, docile. In the bible meek is used to describe Jesus (Matthew 11:29,1Peter 2:19-22)) and those are not words that I associate with Him. I think that the Bible must mean something quite different by the word meek.
Biblical meekness is defined as patience when one has been slighted or injured. It is the very opposite of sudden anger, malice andvengeance. It is a quiet and gentle spirit rather than haughty highmindness.The English word comes from the Greek word meaning companion or equal; the meek person is willing to walk alongside others without judgement, superior to none,she knows that everything she has and all that she is comes from God. One commentator described the meek person as one who ’carry themselvescourteously’. I like that.
This is the person who will inherit the earth. Is this inheritance eternal only or can it be claimed here and now?
So much of ourfaith is bound by the tension of the here and the not yet – the piquant combination of current joy and patient anticipation. In the Old Testament, the land is clearly linked to blessing but also to just and responsible living.
The New Testament teaches us that we can aspire to another sort of wealth, even more precious. Godly living, we are told leads to benefits in this life and the next (1 Tim 4:8). Meekness produces peace too great to be moved by small insults and I suggest that leads to contentment. We are free to enjoy everything God has given without grasping,without ambition, without demanding rights. We are joint heirs with Christ of the earth and everything in it, both spiritual and physical, now and in what is yet to be, if we are prepared to replace retaliation with peace, anger with courtesy and vengeance with love.

A Guest Post by Jan Sassenberg: The Meek Shall Inherit the Earth

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I love this post in which my friend, Jan Sassenberg grapples with the statement that the meek shall inherit the earth.


Jan and Karoline Sassenberg, who were born Germany, have been serving for the last three years with WORD MADE FLESH in Freetown, Sierra Leone.


Find out more at www.wordmadeflesh.org or email thesassenbergsATyahoo.co.uk.

Jan and Karoline Sassenberg


Blessed are the Meek and the Great Commission

As a teenager, I was scared of the Beatitudes. Brought up in a conservative Free Evangelical Church, it didn’t make sense to me that Christ’s longest and best recorded sermon opened with words about the poor, the meek and the persecuted. Why not have the most important come first? Why not start with: “Surrender to me, Jesus, and you shall be saved!” Was Jesus perhaps more political than my pastors and teachers wanted me to believe? Too scared of becoming “a liberal” and of watering down the gospel I did not dare following this uncomfortable train of thought.


By now, 20 years later, without abandoning my love and complete trust in God’s precious word, I am not scared of liberals anymore. I sometimes rather enjoy looking at our faith from their fresh perspective.

Now, I can see the Beatitudes inspiring South American church leaders to instigate peaceful revolutions against dictators and drug cartels. I am humbled when seeing how liberation theology has given a voice to the voiceless and oppressed.

Now, I live in Sierra Leone, West Africa, as member of Word Made Flesh, a community that is dedicated to serving Jesus among the poorest of the poor of this world. We are reaching out into the slums and favelas of the booming mega cities in the majority world, or as I prefer to call it, the oppressed world. We want to be Jesus’ hands and feet, touching the untouchables, protecting the orphan children, clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, comforting the broken, sheltering the homeless.

Nevertheless, I still find myself puzzled over Jesus’ radical claim. What is it that Christ praises about the attitude of meekness? How can he promise the meek to inherit the earth? Does this reflect reality in a world ruled by social injustice, cruelty, and the survival of the most brutal?


Matthew’s third Beatitude is particularly uncomfortable as it is the only one with the promise of a reward in this world rather than in heaven. All other Beatitudes could be interpreted as finding their fulfillment solely in the after-world: being comforted, hunger being stilled, shown mercy, seeing God, being called sons of God and receiving the kingdom of heaven.

With the blessing of the meek, however, you need to bend the text far to say that “inheriting the earth” simply means inheriting the Christian’s promised land, our eternal home in heaven. I want to believe that this blessing as much as all of them have direct relevance to our identity in Christ now, on this side of the curtain. We know that the promised kingdom of Christ has already started to appear. We believe that we are not just having to wait it out until we reach the other side.

The word “meek” implies peacefulness although it does not only mean the act of peacemaking. The peacemakers receive their own promise later. With the word “meek” Jesus uses the same expression as in His self proclamation: “Come to me, all you who are weary for I am meek and humble in heart.” (Mat. 11:32) The NIV translates “… for I am gentle…”. Jesus is calling to himself the weary and a few verses later Jesus refers to himself as the one who does not quench the smoldering wick.


In Jesus’ own ministry, meekness and humilty are inseparably linked to ministering to the weak and broken. Jesus himself demonstrates his mild and humble approach when he kindly rebukes Martha’s busy bitterness towards her sister Mary. His loving gentleness is woven into his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well. But despite the softness of his gloves, Jesus is never a conflict-avoiding harmony seeker. He corrects in love.

So how will such a meek disciple inherit the earth? As with all Beatitudes, Jesus does not come up with new ideas but refers here to the Old Testament. Psalm 37:11 says: “The Meek will inherit the land.” From the patriarchs to Jesus’ day, the Israelites had been anticipating the fulfillment of this promise. Becoming again a sovereign independent nation was the ultimate Jewish dream.


But now that Jesus, who said he did not come to abandon the law but to fulfill it, announces his own mission, he goes way beyond that. He promises the whole earth but he does not refer to political power. Jesus speaks here of the new worldwide “Kingdom of God“. We see this wider perspective throughout all his teaching. Asked about taxes Jesus says, “Give to Caesar, what belongs to Caesar and give God what belongs to God.” He refuses to be made king. And nearly all his parables are starting with the phrase: “The kingdom of God is like…” (a mustard seed etc…) All Jesus cares about is to birth this kingdom. Jesus promises “the earth” because it is His declared intention to expand his father’s Kingdom to the very last corner of this planet.

So, how does meekness empower us to reach this world for Christ? Is global mission a question of converting souls, large stadium crusades, and efficient strategies?


Are we in our churches more interested in the message than the recipient? How often do we in our churches and missions run our programmes by means of superior knowledge, skills, finances and powers? And how much do we really achieve with that? Jesus invites us back to caring for the one in front of us. Investing our time, resources and compassion in the “hopeless cases”.

In our community in Freetown, Sierra Leone, we find ourselves often overwhelmed by the vastness of the suffering around us. Children beaten mercilessly and dying needlessly, young women forced into prostitution, hopeless unemployed men turning to crimes and drugs. But in all this we find that God can use us best, when we turn away from programmes and let God use us in our weaknesses and limitations. Where He brings us low we are ready to truly meet our friends in the slum of Kroo Bay at their level. And when we gently touch wounds we see God touch and heal and restore.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength: Guest Post by Dana Rongione

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Today’s guest post is from Dana Rongione who blogs at A Word Fitly Spoken

Why Wait?


But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. – Isaiah 40:31 KJV

Without a doubt, Isaiah 40:31 is probably one of the most famous verses of all time. It is quoted in books and from pulpits. It accompanies pictures on artwork and decorations. For it is a passage that offers hope, encouragement and strength. But within that promise is a condition, a contingency upon which the completion of this promise hinges. And at the center of that condition is a four-letter word that causes my knees to shake and heart to quicken—WAIT.


You see, what we often fail to realize is that this promise of strength and stamina is not given to all, but to those that wait upon the Lord. We tend to see the part of the verse that we like and ignore the part we don’t. But in this case, the part that makes us cringe cannot be ignored, for it is the subject of the verse, the center of the promise.

In a way, the verse reminds me of the old saying, “Good things come to those who wait.” Certainly, the things promised in Isaiah are good things. But who wants to wait? With express lanes, drive-thrus and automatic downloads, we are not accustomed to waiting. We want things when we want them, and that means NOW. How often we forget that God’s timing is not our timing? I’ve been reminded of this truth many times in my life, but never more so than when I felt the need to make a change in my career.
After eight years of teaching kindergarten, I was burned out. The days no longer held joy. I dreaded meetings with parents, the never-ending graduation practices and most of all, facing a colleague who had lied about me and gotten me into great trouble with the administration. Each day, it became harder to get out of bed and plaster a smile on my face. I was miserable and sensed that God was trying to tell me something.
Since the majority of my discontentment revolved around my job, I naturally assumed that God was trying to move me to teach in another location. The thought of leaving the security of my present job was terrifying, but no more so than remaining in my state of despair. I contacted schools and sent out resumes, but nothing happened. As time passed, I grew more nervous and agitated, but then I began to pick up on something. There was a common theme running through every song I heard, every sermon that was preached and every devotion that I read. The theme was “wait.”
After a particularly difficult week, my husband and I stayed after church and spoke with our pastor. I told him how I had been feeling. I relayed how I had thought that God was trying to move me, but that every move I made was countered with the reminder to wait. I asked him to help us pray that God would make His will known and that we would understand His directions when the time came. That same evening, we had a guest preacher at our church. As he began preaching on waiting, my pastor turned around to look at me. We shared a laugh.

My waiting was not over. In fact, it was another year before the Lord finally revealed His true plan. At that time, after much prayer, I left my teaching job to pursue my writing ministry. Had I made a change when I first felt the stirrings of my heart, I would have simply moved to another place of teaching. I would have never imagined that God would have called me to do anything else. And to be honest, if He had called me away then, I don’t know that I would have been spiritually mature enough to have obeyed.

I grew a lot during that time of waiting. It was difficult and uncomfortable, but God knew it was something I needed. He used that time of waiting to mold me and make me into what I needed to be in order to take the next steps He had for my life. Waiting time is not wasting time.


Now, when God tells me to wait for something, I try to remind myself of what God can do with me in the stillness. I try to put my impatience aside and instead focus on my longing to become more of what God wants me to be. It doesn’t make it easy, but it does make the waiting bearable.



Dana introduces herself:

“Having been a Christian for nearly 28 years, Dana knows what it is like to experience both joy in the journey and weariness in well-doing. Currently self-employed as a writer and speaker, she struggles (like many other women) to balance the demands of work, family, church, health, chores, etc.

Dana specializes in writing devotionals that will encourage and uplift the weak and weary Christian. Her blog, A Word Fitly Spoken, is currently read in over 15 different countries, allowing her the opportunity to spread the message of hope and joy throughout the world.
Her most recent book, Random Ramblings of a Raving Redhead, will take you on a journey of personal experience combined with heartfelt encouragement and fun-filled observations intended to lift your spirit, lighten your load, and comfort your heart.
You can find out more about Dana and her ministry by visiting her website at DanaRongione.com.“

Thank you, Dana!!

Those who wait upon the Lord will soar on wings like eagles: Guest Post from Jules of Apples of Gold

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Today’s guest post is from Jules Middleton, a mum and wife, Christian, artist, potential ordinand and blogger. Her blog Apples of Gold reflects her Christian journey in every day life.


Thank you, Jules!

Jules with her family

Those who hope in the LORD
will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:31)
When Anita approached me about doing this post, at first I thought ‘why me?’ Amongst the amazing people who have already written, I don’t have much to offer. But then I saw the verse she had chosen: Isaiah 40:31.

This verse has been central to my life over the last year or so, in both a literal sense, as I have been coming to terms with chronic exhaustion, and a spiritual one as I find my faith dramatically renewed after years of being a bit vague about it all!

I come from a church going background. My family were, and still are involved with their local church, we did Sunday school, they rang the bells. We did church. But I’m not sure we really did faith. The result was that I got more and more confused, and in my early 30s walked away from church completely. Disillusioned, fed up, hurt. But by contrast I felt completely happy with me.

I knew who I was, where I was going, I was running my own business, and being a mum to 3 and a wife. I felt proud of who I was, what I had achieved, I had fought through some tough stuff to be where I was and I knew it was down to me and me alone. I was confident, outgoing, did not suffer fools gladly, had very high standards and I was probably a bit rude and obnoxious too.

Then our marriage began to suffer, my husband developed anxiety issues, I was stressed and working every hour God sent. Looking back, starting a business with 3 kids, one only just 2, was foolish. The pressure of having a young family is huge in a marriage and to add that into the equation was insane. But as I said, I was headstrong and I knew what I wanted. I wanted something for me, something other than being ‘just a wife and a mother’.

Then God appeared in our lives. Well, I say ‘appeared’: what happened was a builder working on our house, a committed Christian, appeared in our lives, bringing Jesus with him.

The story is a long one but, in brief, he finally helped us to understand what Jesus did. What it is really all about. All the stuff we had missed in our years in church–well, he filled in the blanks. And bang, it all fell into place.

I welcomed Jesus into my life wholeheartedly. I felt called into ministry almost instantly. I knew I had been in the wrong place. Everything I had known, had been comfortable with, been confident in, particularly about myself, just fell away. But instead of being anxious about this, I loved it. I felt the freedom of not being in control of my life (of course there have been moments…!) of trusting in a higher being, and knowing that I was loved completely. That everything I had ever done, thought or spoken in anger and hate was forgiven. It was an amazing time.

Then just two weeks later, I came down with a virus which basically never went away. Although the main symptoms went, I was left feeling tired all the time and still trying to continue running my own business. Over the next 12 months I had various blood tests and examinations; I had to scale down my work where I could, and eventually sold the business.

Throughout that time this verse from Isaiah kept me going. It may be a cliché and an obvious choice, but when I first came across it whilst reading Isaiah, it literally leapt off the page.

Whilst I never doubted God in my illness, I read that and just knew he was absolutely there, in it with me. I am a strong person by nature, or perhaps thanks to what life has thrown at me, but there have been times over the last 18 months where I have just sat on my bed and cried. Crying out to the Lord, ‘How long will this go on? Why am I not being healed?’ (despite copious prayer).

But this verse reminds me to trust in my Heavenly Father and that my strength will be renewed. It’s interesting that various translations use either: wait on, trust in, or hope in, the Lord. All of which have different meanings, but they all require patience. If I have hope for my healing, I wait for it patiently; if I trust in him, I trust patiently that he will guide me and heal me; If I wait on Him, spend time seeking Him, I will know his will for me.

And the second part of the verse just paints such an amazing picture doesn’t it? It doesn’t just say, you will be okay, God will be with you, or things will improve. No. It says everything will be fantastic! You won’t just fly, you will SOAR. And not just that, but on wings like one of the most majestic, strong and powerful birds. What a picture!

For me, that gives me hope in my illness, in my every day life, but I also think it refers to life after this earth, life in heaven with our King, when the troubles of this world will fall away. We all get weary with life, we get weary with the daily grind, we get weary with God. But in heaven, we will soar! We will run and not be weary. All we have to do is Hope, Trust and Wait on the One who knows our trials and troubles. The one who has the answer to all things. The one who is Lord.

The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith Within by Erwin McManus: A Guest Review by Shaun Turner

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From Anglican to Barbarian in 141 pages
or “How I learned to stop waiting and start doing…”
Erwin Raphael McManus
Purpose. A word that has driven many a Christian to distraction (aside from Rick Warren, he’s done OK writing about Purpose), anger and even tears. What is my purpose? What is my mission? What am I called to do to preach the Gospel? What can I offer God? How can I serve Him using my talents and gifts?
We can all, I am sure, relate to some of those in one way or another, at some point in our journey and I can put my hat on two of those at least. For 10 years now I have been striving to walk humbly yet speak boldly, to love and care with the Gospel as my salve, but it was not ever thus…
* * *
Nine years ago I was invited to a leadership seminar with a few people from my church in West Bridgford, Nottingham. Some small church called “Willow Creek” was running the show and scanning the list of speakers I came across the name “Erwin McManus” (EM) which did not mean a lot to me at the time but was someone who would have a big impact on my life over the next few years.
After the seminar I went back to my church but something was happening inside, my spirit was restless for something. A while later (2006) I bought a copy of McManus’ new book “The Barbarian Way: Unleash the Untamed Faith within.”  This radically changed my perception of what it means to serve God and take risks for Him.
By his own admission, McManus had an interesting upbringing, a “pot-luck” of faiths and religions ranging from Buddhism to Catholicism up to Evangelicalism and, whilst you may not agree with every one of his exegetical positions, the Trinitarian backdrop to his overall theology renders a lot of his arguments compelling, to say the least.
In a nutshell, his argument in “The Barbarian Way” as I understood was this:
Don’t wait too long for God to tell you what to do, if you are a passionate believer in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins and your zeal for His glory burns within you, do SOMETHING. God will offer clarification when you need it.
Like all authors of his type (he describes himself as the “Lead Pastor and Cultural Architect of Mosaic Los Angeles”… a “reference point for the future church” and he “collaborates with a team of dreamers and innovators”[1]) he makes great use of the sound-bite statement. In fact on every page you could highlight at least two that essentially convey the message of the chapter or element. My copy which has been read and re-read is replete with highlights and notes – every time I read it I connect a few more dots and that is part of what makes it so compelling. That said, it’s not for everyone – my Catholic friend said “Meh!” in response when I asked her what she’d thought of it!
McManus essentially strives to do two things with this book; to strike at the heart of a complacent western religion that values unity above service and to re-ignite the fire ignited within each believer as they came to Christ. Ultimately he’s not saying anything new, but he does say it in a new way! The cultural relevance of his message means that its time will come again, indeed, perhaps it is not yet over. His passion is for movement and momentum, for an opportunistic, spirit-led, even chaotic response to the missional imperative, all in the name of the God we serve.
In some ways this was (and is) a manual for its time, a book that seeks to shake us up and remind us that the Great Commission involved the word “Go” not “stay”.[2]The simplicity of the message within, broken down as it is into four chapters, belies the passion that he clearly feels for the lost but also for the Christian that has yet to connect with a person-specific mission.
McManus goes to great pains to break down the construct of a happy Christian, content with a life of normality. He surrounds himself with creative, fidgety and passionate, artistic people so it’s natural that this should be evident through his writing and perhaps this is why it connected with me. It gave a voice to the disconnect I felt as a creative person within my Anglican setting.  It allowed me to see beyond the façade of smoothness and look at the church below the waterline and crucially, to connect with people and to develop the Volte ministry as an expression of creativity.
If I had to find one quote from his book that sums it up it would be this:
If you are a follower of Christ and you have allowed yourself to be domesticated, you have lost the power of who you are and who God intends for you to be. You were not created to be normal. God’s desire for you is not compliance and conformity. You have been baptised by Spirit and fire.
There is so much within this book that will ignite, annoy, infuriate and change you that to not read it would frankly be a mistake in my opinion, but I must warn you, to read it is to be changed, again.
Many a ministry or project has I am sure been born from the encouragement found within the pages of this small but ultimately big book – many a Christian (me included!) has found the missing piece of the puzzle that enabled us to create something in our community space that reaches out, preaches the Gospel and shares Jesus with others.
McManus has written many books since, have a look on Amazon to see his output.  However, I feel “The Barbarian Way” is by far his most potent, mixing as it does a missional imperative, a desire to serve and a call to arms whatever those “arms” may be.
                                                                             *******
Shaun Turner
Shaun Turner is a co-founder of “Volte” – a ministry dedicated to helping the Church discover new streams of creativity and to nurture the creative within, by developing new expressions of the faith journey, encouraging the visionary, and finding imaginative perspectives that stimulate discovery, renewal or a deepening of a relationship with God. They also work with schools to deliver innovative, fun and challenging faith experiences to help stimulate and develop the young enquiring mind. www.volte-tbf.com
[1]    The Barbarian Way – hard back edition – pp 145m – paraphrase
[2]    The Barbarian Way – hard back – page 5