The Non Possessive Life

I have been receiving these fabulous daily meditations in my inbox from this site: Visit HenriNouwen.org  and this one below is perfect for the challenge of Lent.

The Nonpossessive Life

To be able to enjoy fully the many good things the world has to offer, we must be detached from them. To be detached does not mean to be indifferent or uninterested. It means to be nonpossessive. Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to.A nonpossessive life is a free life. But such freedom is only possible when we have a deep sense of belonging. To whom then do we belong? We belong to God, and the God to whom we belong has sent us into the world to proclaim in his Name that all of creation is created in and by love and calls us to gratitude and joy. That is what the “detached” life is all about. It is a life in which we are free to offer praise and thanksgiving.”

Visiting a friends house the other day and seeing all the lovely things they own, reading a magazine and seeing all the lovely things I could buy – there is an innate desire in me to possess. In fact, going shopping or surfing the internet for stuff is an easy distraction from dealing with real life. Once you ‘have’, then you want or think you need more. The advertisements demonstrate products that can enhance your life or people around you dress in a particular way and you want to look like as good as them so you buy more, more, more. What you own makes a statement about you. You then start to worry that you haven’t enough. Possessions can possess you and, when you find yourself in it, it’s a deep spiral to climb out of. I knew a girl on my degree course who eased her struggle with her study, her misery and lack of self esteem by maxing out her credit card. She never wore the same outfit twice but she wasn’t ever happy.Why do we feel the need to possess? As the meditation above says, it is our need to belong. What we are really looking for is a life-altering meaningful relationship with God. In last night’s sermon and in today’s thought both James and Jo talked about John 15 about the true vine. ’Remain in me and I will remain in you’  – being close to God. James used a clip of an actress performing a poem, based on the response of the woman at the well to Jesus, to demonstrate what this feels like. The key phrase from the poem reverberating in my head was ‘To be known is to be loved and to be loved is to be known.’ We crave to be known and loved but fail to see that God provides all we need and more. That is why we cling to the things of this world, be it our possessions or stimulants or friends, which bring us only temporary comfort. If we are truly seeking God, we have to loosen our grip on these things and return our self to the source of all that is good. When we have stored our life in his love, we can learn to live from that place of love. We can be joyful, sharing who we know and love with others who seek to belong, because we are known and loved. The non-possessive life is realising we are not our own. We belong to God

Restoration

Ash Wednesday 21st February 2007.

This season of drawing closer to God, returning, repenting, renewing is upon us. My grandad who is a vicar once advised me in preparing for Lent to not divulge what you are promising to anyone else as it is between you and God. I was reminded of the pharisees in the New Testament who stood on the corner declaring loudly how much they prayed and how holy they were.

Matt 6 v 5-6
“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

So I won’t shout too loud about what I am committing to do and only say that in their blogs Maggi Dawn and Christine at the Abbey of the Arts have captured my thoughts and feelings about Lent far better than I could.

At church, a c.d. of 40 ’thought-for-the-day’ 5 min talks has been produced (including a couple of days’ contribution from my lovely husband – see he actually does do some work!) Accompanying it is a prayer leaflet that even on the first day has proved to be an enormous help in making space for prayer and quiet time. The emphasis is on healing as this year, it was felt by the church leaders, we need to ask God for restoration for our land, our community and for individuals who have been suffering too long.

Finally today, our congregation is lifting up someone close to us who is undergoing extremely serious investigative surgery and their family. As I write, he is under the surgeon’s knife and we will find out later on this evening if there is any news.

I read all of Psalm 107 at lunchtime and it was a comfort to be reminded of the cyclical way we are taught and learn about God, how we grow in faith and how we falter yet the Lord is listening, he is faithful and holds us in everlasting arms. Here is my prayer for the patient mentioned above:

Some wandered in desert wastelands,
       finding no way to a city where they could settle.
They were hungry and thirsty,
       and their lives ebbed away.
Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
       and he delivered them from their distress.
He led them by a straight way
       to a city where they could settle.
Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
       and his wonderful deeds for men

Intimacy

James’s sermon on Hosea 2 last night was brilliant – talking about God the pursuer, the husband who longs for his errant wife and how we can prevent or allow that intimacy.

He mentioned 3 ‘l’’s – being lead, being a listener and being a lover.

In short, to summarise his talk, we need to allow God to lead us, letting go of our own will. Then we need to make space to listen to God speaking – God is always talking but we fail to stop and listen. Finally, we need to respond with love. As we allow God to lead and we listen to him, our only response can be to love.

Lydia from small group recounted a story that her mum had heard from a christian speaker named Beth Moore.

 Beth was at an airport waiting to catch a flight and in the departures lounge was a man in wheelchair looking a mess. She felt God say to her ‘brush his hair’ to which she thought ‘no way’ but the nudge was so insistent, she walked over to him and quietly said ‘Sir, please can I brush your hair?’. He replied ‘you’ll have to speak up because I can’t hear you’ and so taking a deep breath, she said loudly ‘Sir, please can I brush your hair?’. Everyone stopped and stared at the crazy lady offering to brush the gentleman’s hair. He said ‘yes’. ‘I haven’t got a brush.’ said Beth. He had one to hand and as she was brushing his hair, she felt God say ‘ask him if he knows Jesus?’. Having embarrassed herself with the whole hairbrushing thing, she didn’t really want to take risks but asked the man anyway ‘Do you know Jesus?’ The man said he did and turns out he’d just gone through major surgery, he was catching a plane home to see his wife and he had been praying to God about sorting out how he looked because he wanted to look good for when he arrived and met his wife. Anyway, the man, now groomed, went to catch his flight and as Beth boarded hers, one of the air hostesses caught her eye and asked if she was the lady who’d brushed the man’s hair. Beth said ‘yes’ and as the lady asked why she did such a kind thing, Beth felt the nudge again to ask ‘do you know Jesus?’ So she asked the hostess who didn’t know Jesus and they started talking.

Wonder if the air hostess knows him now?

So, here it is – I long for the intimacy with God where he leads me, I listen and I love him more each day. I want to be obedient as Beth was, as Jesus was, even if it means embarassing myself (I do it all the time anyway!)

Lent begins on Wednesday and I am in anticipation for this season of getting intimate with God. Already, in my meagre preparations for this time, I have learnt things about my relationship with him and about myself – which is great – bring on more!

Week of ideas

This week has been a week of incubating ideas, for now and for the future. Don’t want to give away too much because I know I’m pretty good at ideas but not with practicalities but needless to say I am inspired. I have spent too much money on Amazon buying books on poetry writing, art journals, labyrinths and simplicity.

Small group on Wednesday was excellent. We ate gorgeous nourishing celery and stilton soup which I have to get the recipe for from Maureen as well as homemade Cheesecake (thank you Anna), raspberry cranachan courtesy of moi and lots of pink drinks! Maureen was the ultimate hostess and had decorated the room with candles and hearts in celebration of St Valentine. Our discussion from the Cafe Theology book soared and circled round all sorts of thoughts about creation, our experiences, journalling, destitute asylum seekers, fostering, how good God is.

Valentine

 

Paris At Night
  
Trois allumettes une à une allumées dans la nuit
La premiére pour voir ton visage tout entier
La seconde pour voir tes yeux
La dernière pour voir ta bouche
Et l’obscuritè tout entière pour me rappeler tout cela
En te serrant dans mes bras.

(Three matches one by one lit up in the night
The first to see your face in its entirety
The second to see your eyes
The last to see your mouth
And the surrounding darkness to remind me of all these
As I hold you in my arms.)

Jacques Prevert

Happy Valentines Day to you all!

Melt in the mouth, crispy chicken

Another Jamie Oliver recipe from his very fine book ‘Jamie’s dinners’ – this is too simple not to do and great if you have guests, plus it’s cheap! It does require fresh basil and red chilli but as it is the heart of winter and there is no fresh available, I substituted the basil with a tuscan herb mix and the fresh red chilli with peperoncino or chilli flakes which worked a treat.

Crispy chicken for 4

4 chicken legs with skin on

2 small packets of cherry tomatoes

1 head of garlic, broken into cloves but unpeeled

1 tsp dried chilli flakes

2 tsp tuscan herb mix or dried basil or oregano

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven Gas4/180 degrees Celsius. In an oven proof pan, like Le Creuset, scatter some of the garlic cloves. Season the chicken and place skin side up in the pan. Tuck the cherry tomatoes in, around and under the legs and sprinkle the chilli and herbs over. Drizzle with olive oil and then put in the oven to slowly roast for 1 1/2 hours. The skin crisps up nicely on the top and the meat just falls off the bone….

I served my chicken with pasta that I had stirred some of the roasted tomatoes and oil from the pan into (v.tasty) and green veg such as broccoli or spinach.

Never sleeps

Psalm 121
A song of ascents.
 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
       where does my help come from?
 2 My help comes from the LORD,
       the Maker of heaven and earth.

 3 He will not let your foot slip—
       he who watches over you will not slumber;

 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
       will neither slumber nor sleep.

 5 The LORD watches over you—
       the LORD is your shade at your right hand;

 6 the sun will not harm you by day,
       nor the moon by night.

 7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
       he will watch over your life;

 8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
       both now and forevermore.