Camping in the Comfortable

I like to underline passages of Scripture that have meant something "important" to me. My Bible is filled with highlights and underlinings - but it has come to my attention (as I am sure it would have to yours!), that the danger of this is that we can easily let our eyes go back to those passages when we begin to read - as opposed to allowing God to give us fresh insights in new places.

It's so easy to live in this place of wanting to experience God the way we did a year, 5 years or 25 years ago. In the same way as we "camp" at underlined passages, we can camp at past experiences. We compare how we experienced God then, and measure him up against what we are experiencing now - and sometimes we think He is not performing up to our expectations.  This can be so dangerous to us if we are not aware of it happening (I think), because we can completely miss out on today!

I downloaded the NIV Bible onto my Kindle for 2 reasons really - nothing spiritual, just practical: 

(a) I could make the print bigger and

(b) It's lighter in my bag!

HOWEVER, a third and possibly even better reason has surfaced - there are no highlighted passages of mine, no notes in the margin, no dates to remember events.... and so I am finding that I am reading passages I have not read in ages, I am "finding God in unexpected places" (to quote the title of Philip Yancey's book!) and it's good!

Don't misunderstand me, we must never devalue past experience since all of our experiences in Christ remind us of His faithfulness, they build our faith, grow us and shape us, but I do believe that if we are not careful and keep on camping in the same places, we can (a) become dissatisfied with God for not meeting us where we want him to (based on the past), and (b) become comfortable with what we (think we) know and lose out on fresh expressions and insights that this awesomely creative God can share with us if we are willing to move away from our expectations and spiritual comfort zones and just trust him. 

So, all that to say this actually... I am loving having my Bible on my Kindle!  :)

Sometimes we think we know what we see but with another look,
we could see the same thing, differently.

A Tribute to Winter

I was flipping through a lovely little book and came across this quote:

"Live in each season as it passes: Breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each". ~ Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)

Much like spiritual seasons, some being easier to deal with than others, we also deal with physical seasons. Being from Cape Town, I am used to 4 seasons in one day rather than 6 months of winter, and so I find sun and heat much easier to live with than grey and cold.

I thought it would be a battle for me in winter because of this - and aside for the odd "grey mood" that corresponds with same skies - I have found that I absolutely love the obviousness of the seasons here.

So we are almost through with winter - and for that last little push I have decided to list some of the things that I love about winter in Lux.  (In no particular order)

1. Soups and Stews!
2. Hot chocolate
3. Gluwein
4. Christmas markets
5. Dinners with friends 
6. Fires
7. Puzzles
8. Reading with my blanket and hottie
9. Scarves, boots and beanies
10. Warm coats
11. Thermal tights
12. Heated car seats
13. Cinema's
14. Coffee shops
15. The chilly air on your face when you leave your heated house
16. Forests of frozen fog and other lovely forest things
17. Long nights
18. Wine (although I do like that all year round!)
19. Snow
20. Not having so much dog hair to sweep up
21. Not having to shave every other day
22. Blowing warm air out your mouth and trying to blow rings! :)

So, like the quote says... I am happily resigned to another month or two and then I shall embrace spring with much celebration!

Onward and upwards!  We're nearly there...  :)

Just waffling about snow and gardens ...

After a few weeks of mild hysteria at the thought of the French exams, they are finally over and we proceed to the next level.  We breathed a collective sigh of relief since neither of us felt very confident when we walked out of the room. However, it is done.

We have had some snow which has been fun. We've enjoyed making an SA snowman, taking the dogs for their first "free snow run" on a field nearby, shovelling the pavements, and avoiding the icy patches on the pavements. It's actually an art avoiding landing on your butt alot of the time.

Our SA Snowman

I am wondering how the garden will manage. We love gardening and our FH garden was a source of great challenge (with snails, caterpillars, wind, sand, etc) but outweighed by a tremendous deal of love for it. We know little to nothing about what grows and what doesn't here, and I am sad to say that I have killed more indoor plants here than collectively in my entire life. I have always been able to grow anything indoors so it's a huge blow to my ego - I can only think that it has something to do with the indoor heating and I need to figure it out.

Outside, our new terracing which we recently did, is filled with snow, underneath that snow are the 100's of Euro's worth of plants we planted during our Spring/Summer - I wait with bated breath to see if any of it survives. Many times now when I take walks I look at the gardens of the locals and make mental notes of what they have, some plants I recognise, and others are a complete mystery - but next winter I shall be better prepared.

Snowy view from our balcony

We had one day of frost a few weeks ago which was absolutely just thee most beautiful thing ever. 

A frosty day in the city
Posted on FB by "Ville de Luxembourg"

My pic of what frost looks like up-close and personal.

This winter has been colder and wetter than last year, and I am dreaming of a long ice cold beer while sitting outside in a T-shirt and feeling just, hot!

In the meantime though, I am about to board a bus, head to the city for coffee with a friend and enjoy the cosyness of scarves, boots, beanies, coats and gloves. Yes, today there will be gloves because we are at a wonderful -5 today. 

Only about 10 days till the World Cup Cricket starts- that ought to heat things up a bit! 

Have lovely days wherever you are! 

No Retreat, No Surrender.

Remember I told you we had started our French Language Classes. Well, we are now at the end of the module and on Monday we have our Oral Test and Wednesday our Aural and Written Tests.

I feel like a piece of chewed string. It doesn't matter how much I look at the notes, eventually I realise I am just staring blankly at the page and feeling as though nothing else is going to majestically make its way into my brain, barring miraculous osmosis.

However, in spite of the blankness of my brain, I can't bring myself to surrender and put the books away, I want to fight back and show it who's the boss.  Except I just don't feel very bossy right now.

Maybe I will just put it down and surrender to the cricket against West Indies for the day, and I will don my red bandanna and Rambo my way into being more authoritarian tomorrow..... 

No retreat - No surrender!

Bonne Weekend.

Christmas Catch-Up

My Girl came for Christmas and since we couldn't be back with the greater family in FH, we decided we would head off by train to Paris for Christmas. It was a lovely few days, the rain held off and since we have been before, we didn't feel the need to rush to every tourist trap, but instead spent the days walking, eating, chatting and shopping. Of course the obligatory fly-by's to some venues had to be done!

Christmas Day was sunny! I wanted to shout from the top of the Eiffel Tower I was so happy! However, I am too scared to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower so had to be content to just WhatsApp my delight to our family group! 

At home we saw that it had been snowing. It was very exciting since we have never had snow "at our own house" before. 

We had barely put our suitcases down when My Girl and I took the snow shovels and began to clear our pavement and driveway.  My Man was quite happy to do it, but we insisted. We were like kids in a toy shop! It's a lot of fun while the snow is light and fluffy, but later we learnt it's not AS much fun when its become ice!

Our balcony was covered in a thick layer of snow and it looked so pretty I decided to leave it. 

Mistake #1. Within a day it was like an ice-rink and I nearly came short when I took a step onto it.  I realised then that we were rookies when it came to snow and I put out a Facebook SOS.

This was my favourite response and gave me a good laugh!  

We left it and admired it over a glass (or two) of wine and avoided the urge to taste any snow!

Some time later we were treated to frost. Oh my word. It was as though I was living in Narnia. I don't know if I have ever seen anything quite as lovely here.

Photo Credit: Luxembourg Ville Photography

Close up of the frost

So, all in all - it's been a lovely festive season, with lots of new things experienced! Now My Girl is back home and My Man is back at work and it's onward and upward into 2015!

                                                          Wishing you all a goodie!

2 Questions & 1 Statement

I went for a lovely long walk with Jack last week and my thoughts turned to how fast this year has gone and I suppose that triggered me thinking... what have I actually DONE this year?

Old habits die hard.  Especially the habit of working.

I found myself thinking that perhaps I needed to pick up the studies again, get back into that -

Do something. Be productive. Stop wasting time!

Immediately, and I know it was God, we've done enough mileage together for me to know his voice, said "No."  Then he quickly followed that up with two questions and a statement:

1. How do you measure your productivity?
2. How do you measure time?

then the punchline - Time with Me is never unproductive.

I was reminded of this post I wrote almost a year ago, and clearly I needed a reminder....!  My heart feels as though it's being prepared for a new season - the word I feel is.... "newness,"  whatever that may look like!  :)

Perhaps it means continuing this new adventure and savouring it all (which I do!) ... who knows?!  He does!

I have a commodity here that I had very little of before.

Time.  What a gift!

* * * *

Arrows and Messages

Years ago I was part of a group that did "The Sacred Romance".  I loved it. It was a breath of fresh air that I needed right back then.

One of the chapters was called "Arrows & Messages", I didn't really resonate with this chapter because nothing came to mind that had affected me.

Here is a small portion of what this was about:

"The Message of the Arrows:- There are only two things that pierce the human heart.  One is beauty.  The other is affliction.  Arrows have struck us all.  However they come to us, whether through a loss we experience as abandonment or some deep violation we feel as abuse, their message is always the same: Kill your heart.  Think of how you've handled the affliction that has pierced your own heart.  How did the Arrows come to you?  Where did they land?  Are they still there?  What have you done as a result?"  At the time, (and up until very recently) I still believed that there was no "hidden arrow" that carried a message lodged in my heart. When I was in school, I hated Maths, I couldn't do it. It didn't make sense to me - It still doesn't!  However, in Std 4 & 5, I had a Maths teacher who delighted in making me get up in front of the class, and work out a problem on the board, he would offer no help, no suggestions, and either stare at me like I was a fool, or hit me with the big wooden compass used for geometry.  I dreaded Maths every day. Every day I felt stupid and humiliated. Recently I was asked a question (not because the person didn't know the answer, but wondered if I did), but I didn't know the answer. I felt like I should know it, like I had known it once - but it just wasn't there. There were no hints or clues given, the person just looked at me with what I felt to be mild amusement. Usually, I would just have said "Hey, I don't know, tell me!", but there was something about those 15-20 long seconds, the silence, the waiting for me to answer, that just whisked me right back to Maths class, feeling humiliated in front of everyone, and suddenly I reacted.  I know my reaction was out of character for me. It surprised me and horrified me. So I guess there was an "Arrow" tucked away deeply with the message that says"You're stupid." It was painful to recognise, but it pains me more that I hurt someone with my little outburst. On the flip side, God showed me why I reacted that way (which was kind of Him!) and now I can face it for the lie it is, and move on.   The Maths teacher was an @$$ though.  The person isn't.  PS: I did apologise. Just FYI. * * * *