Where you can't go

There is a quote from a now rather old movie 'Paycheck' that often pops into mind. Ben Affleck's character finds a clue that reads, “If you only look where you can't go, you will miss the riches below.” He looks down and lifts the floor of the bird cage to find a winning lotto ticket.

How many times do we get so preoccupied with the things in life that we cannot have that we miss the true riches in life that lie right before us. That is how affairs are started. A man or women looks at the partner they have with boredom and consider the new person they have met with longing eyes. It all begins with innocent flirtation. Flirtation leads to confiding and confiding leads to intimacy and the damage is done..... for a lifetime! There is no recovery from that. Yes, there may be forgiveness but there will never again be trust.

But we do this in other areas of life too. The job we have sucks and we imagine that somewhere out there awaits our miracle career that will bring us wealth, fortune and fame. We forget that these are often wrapped up with the soul destroying traps of drugs and alcohol.

What are some of the treasures of life that we do have but often overlook? The gift of life, family, and friends. The gifts of nature and the companionship of pets. But far above all of these the treasure of Salvation, the power of the Holy Spirit and love of God our Father. God longs for us to treasure the simple things of life that make life less complicated.

Are you willing to look at the treasure that lies before you and give thanks to God for His love, grace and mercy?

Ripped out

On Saturday I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours of gardening. What I have figured out is that I seem to have a small injury to the tendons in my right elbow. It doesn't hurt during normal daily work but once the spade hits the ground it sends a shock wave to the affected area. Ouch!

After only managing to make small progress on digging open the new bed, I decided to start cleaning out the herb garden of all the beans and lettuce which were just giving me grief and then I pulled out all the marigolds from the other beds. I did so to check on the condition of the soil and also to help get some weeding done. I can easily reseed the marigolds once everything is checked.

While doing so I found some disturbing grey stuff around the roots of my roses and am guessing it was root rot. After all the grief I've had with the roses, I decided they needed to come out. I grabbed slips from my scented geranium to fill the gaps and also planted some elephant ears.

What did I learn from all this? There are times in life when we need to go and do stock taking of our situation. There may be areas of our lives where weeds have taken over or even others that have developed an unhealthy fungus. In those cases we need to be brave and dig in an get rid of the areas that are not producing the desired result.

I'm not saying it won't be painful, I have a long scratch under my arm to prove it. The result however will be a far healthier garden of life. If you need to do some cleaning out, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you and to give you the strength you need to make the right decision.

They don't just come in three's

Have you ever heard the saying, “problems always come in three's”? I beg to differ. That would just be the farthest thing from the truth in my life. I usually find that the boulders just get thrown at me constantly for a good period of time.

James 1 tells us that we should count it all joy when we fall into various trials and temptations because the testing of our faith produces patience. Huh????? Excuse me Sir, please explain!

I think that what this means is that when our faith is tested we learn to sift through the nonsense of life and learn to see what is truly valuable. God, family and good friends round up the top three for me. What's important to you?

Cafe on Malibongwe

Today's blog comes to you from the News Cafe on Malibongwe. My car has gone in for a clutch repair and I decided it would be less stressful if I just took a days leave and chilled for a couple of hours while I get it done.

I'm not usually the type to take the path of least resistance but one thing I've heard my mom saying many times is that we should learn to live a life of less stress. (Lol! Just as I say that a bee comes buzzing round my head.) Living in Jo'burg that is especially difficult but since I finished my studies I found that I at least can make full and useful use of my annual leave.

When we look at Jesus life what can we learn about stress? Looking at His ministry it would appear as if He did not shy away from stress. He faced the Pharisees head on, handled crowds of people on a regular basis and especially through His death and resurrection, faced persecution and ridicule. What we don't see in the pages of scripture is the bulk of the 30 years prior to going into ministry.

It is obvious through scripture that by this time in global history, documenting events and stories was well advanced and Mary could easily have kept painstaking details as to her remarkable child's formative years, but these are well hidden from our eyes. What I am sure of is that Mary would have seen the miraculous unfold before her eyes many times before her Son was thrust into the lime light at the wedding in Canaan when Jesus turned the water into wine. It is no wonder to me that Mary knew exactly what she was doing when she said to the servant girls, “whatever He says to you, do it!”

I think the message is that we need to pick our battles. We need to learn when to let things go and when to stand our ground. Sadly these things are only learned by life experience. We do have a secret weapon in this fight though, the Holy Spirit. If we lean on Him for wisdom and guidance we will learn how and when do this.

If you are facing difficulties today, ask the Holy Spirit to guide you as to the best course of action to follow.

MH370

The news broke today that the missing Malaysian flight MH370 has been confirmed as the crash site found in the South Indian Ocean. I feel it fitting that we take the time to pause and to grieve with those who grieve and mourn with those who mourn.

To the family and friends of those lost on flight MH370 I send out my heartfelt condolences.

Not quite there

This weekend I was supposed to dig up the final flower/plant bed for the year. I had every intention of digging it all up, but I just plain ran out of steam, which I am not proud of. Not being the strongest of ladies, It took, what felt like hours, to dig up the first third of the bed. I bet Angelina Jolie would have ploughed through the whole lot in 20 minutes, Lol!

A recon of my herb garden yielded less than satisfactory results as well. In the weeks of heavy rain some plants have moulded over while the weeds took full opportunity to sprout everywhere and needless to say the wonderful cut worms got tucked into my bean bushes. Needless to say, I was quite disappointed with my gardening weekend.

Once I got done complaining though, I had a sudden chill. Here I am bemoaning my minor disruptions when there are so many people in our recent floods that lost everything. Their entire world not only came to a standstill but got destroyed. How ungrateful I have been.

Disruptions come to us all, big ones and small ones and they all require that we get up and start again. Sometimes we can rebuild from these disruptions quickly and others will take years and others still will require and entire lifetime. It is at times like these that we need to dig deep within ourselves for the courage and strength to face whatever challenges lie ahead.

My prayer tonight is that as people we will find a way to help others to build their lives before we focus selfishly on our own needs. May God grant our nations leaders wisdom and empathy.

Progress

Today's lesson was a clear message. We can all change if we are willing. The only problem with that is that it still takes time. Time for your thought patterns to change, time for your responses to change in accordance with those new thought patterns and time for it to become a newly established way of life.

That is precisely the message behind Romans 12 that we need to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Paul did not say renewed, as in a once off event, he said renewing as in a constant, in motion activity.

If we make a conscious choice to change, we will see the results and progress. We will however have to have patience with the process of renewal, but each step forward will bring with it a small victory and proof that you are on the right track.

A good days work

If we are honest with ourselves most of us would agree that by enlarge we seldom leave the office with any sense of accomplishment.  That will most certainly hold true if we have spent the day delivering anything less than 100% effort.  Today I can honestly say that I gave it my all and it sure felt good.

In today's world people violently oppose regulation and the control of their work environment.  It is no longer the companies benefit that is placed first but the individual.

What does God's word teach us about our labours?  It tells us that we should do everything as unto the Lord.  This means that we should work as though Jesus was watching everything we do.

Would you change your actions if Jesus was standing next to you?  If so, maybe it's time for some changes.  Ask the Holy Spirit to work with you and to teach you how to fulfill God's call on your life to deliver your best!  He sure has helped me and I know that He will do it for you too!

How do you take your coffee?

Despite having a wonderful espresso maker I often find that I crave plunger coffee. Why? With different methods of preparing coffee comes different enjoyment. Different smells, different tastes and different intensities.

We all need variety in one way or another for with variety lies the spice of life. The same would be true of our faith walk. We need to experience the gospel in multiple ways in order to find the true riches of God's word.

When the word is displayed through preaching, teaching, music, film, or even the live arts, we encounter God in different ways. Seeing the gospel through another persons eyes brings a unique perspective.

I encourage you go out and find ways to spice up your relationship with God today!

Seat belt

This evening as I was driving home I was getting a little irritated with my car seat belt but after a few moments of thought I remembered why they are so important. You see like many people I have had the nasty experience of being in a motor car accident.

The horrid truth of it is that if it hadn't been for my seat belt I could have been concussed or even worse, but because of it I escaped major injury, but only major injury. I suffered a whip lash injury that moved two of my vertebrae in my neck out of position and it took a year of physio therapy to get my neck realigned again. Why do I share this?

Well in our emotional and spiritual lives we may at times feel as if living life by God's principles is restricting and difficult. The truth is that it can be, but like a car's seat belt God's principles are there for a reason. They are there to protect us. That does not mean they will spare us from pain but only that the pain we may suffer as a result will be less harmful than if they were not there.

It is tough to accept but Christian life is very much like a rose bush. There is great beauty to behold and experience but the thorns of life will still be there.

Rain rain go away

Oh dear! When its too hot, we moan. When its too cold, we moan. When its to windy, we moan. When there is drought, we cry out for rain but then when there is too much rain, we ask for it to go away. All we do is complain. Okay but in our defence I have to admit, mankind was made for the tropics, all these vicious changes in weather are just plain difficult to cope with and with good reason.

What can we do in converse to complaining? Develop an attitude of gratitude but also where possible learn from the seasons, what they teach us and try to find a way to make the most out of the differing conditions we face. Some things are out of our control to plan for but it would be really great if governments would build smaller overflow damns to capture excess rains to store for dry seasons.

We may not be able to control the weather and the results thereof but we can learn to implement the same principles to our finances and spiritual lives. It is best to save when times are good so that you will have abundance through the tougher times. It is equally good to build a spiritual stockpile to sustain us when times are tough. How do we do that though?

When things are good, find ways to record scriptures, life lessons and messages that we get from God like a squirrel gathering nuts. Keep your favourite books in a place where they are easy to find so that when you need inspiration you have quick access to draw from them again in the future.

If we have a storehouse of spiritual treasure they will form the backbone of our lives in the difficult times. Tails up! Time to go hunt for some nuts.

Monster's birthday

Today is the day I celebrate my cat's birthday's and I had hoped for a pleasant start to the day so that I could wish them well before going on my way to work but this was not to be. The rain has really messed up their routine and they have been waking me up at around 3am to go out. This happened again this morning.

After letting them out I collapsed back into bed but by some means of 'mental telepathy' they managed to get me to open the door for them again a short while later. When they came back into the house they were totally psyched up and playful so I realized that going back to sleep with them with me wasn't going to happen. I put them in the downstairs bedroom but the lock is broken to I tried to use a spoon to hold the door closed and then came back to bed.

My eyes were no sooner closed when I heard scratching at my bedroom door. Somehow they had squeezed through the small gap and got out. I covered my ears and tried to sleep for a few minutes more, but needless to say my morning was ruined.

All this mischief however is nothing compared to the trouble they caused me on Sunday. I had bought them some catnip along with some other items that I needed. When I got home I put the catnip in the cupboard and left the bag on the bed and came upstairs to have a nap. When I woke up, the bag was gone. Needless to say a half hour later or searching everywhere and having a panic attack, I looked under the sleeper couch only to find the bag had been nudged right off the bed. They had smelt the catnip trace on the bag and gone after it.

Lol! Sounds like I'm really complaining but that's really not it. All these little stories form the wonderful memories of their lives that I will carry with me always. It is so hard for me to accept that at 9 years of age as cats they are now entering their senior years even though today's events didn't look like it. On the one hand I am overjoyed at the blessing they have been but somehow I also always get sad knowing that one day I will not have them with me any more, but that is the unfortunate circle of life.

Something in our spirits tells us that life is eternal but when we consider our time on this planet it really is short. So tonight as I prepare for bed I am eternally glad for the gift of companionship I received from my cats but more grateful to the gift of eternal life that we have in our relationship with God.

Happy Birthday Honey and Ginger. You'll always be mommies little babies no matter how old you are!

Not just a story

To some the enormous attention being paid to the Oscar Pistorius trial may seem barbaric and unnecessary.  I'm afraid I beg to differ.  In a country that held the worlds first truth and reconciliation commission it is only right that the exposure of this case is necessary to move us towards becoming a more just and democratic society.  For a country with the highest rape stats in the world and a seemingly out of control crime situation it may well serve as a deterrent.  This especially considering that a prison sentence no longer seems to do the job of making people stop and think twice before committing such vulgar acts.  Maybe the threat of public humiliation would do the trick.

This also serves to educate the bulk of South Africans with no experience or understanding of court proceedings that should you be a victim of crime, pay attention to what is happening to you and with proper legal presentation that you can survive a trial.

Does any of this have any baring on our faith?  I think it certainly does.  Many people fear their spiritual state and simply feel that they cannot come to God in their sinful state.  The evidence that we have from scripture is that our God is a fair and just Judge.  Our spiritual Legal council has prepared our case fully before our court of law.  Jesus Christ paid the price for our penalty!  He bore our sins and paved the way for us to enjoy union with God!

Therefore let us come to God in faith, knowing and believing that He is the Alpha and Omega and finisher of our faith!

Sounds of silence

“And in the naked light I saw, ten thousand people maybe more, people talking with speaking...” The well known song, sung by Simon and Garfunkel brings to attention the breakdown of communication in our society. TVs blear in the background, music plays in shopping malls, people walking around with earphones plugged into ipods, all listening to communication of one type or another, but amidst all the noise, is there really a connection?

We experience breakdowns in communication in almost every sphere of life. Husbands and wives stop sharing their days events and loose touch with one another, bosses give orders to staff but never listen to their concerns, friends mutter on about their day but don't listen to each others hearts and hurts and children babble with excitement about their day while parents watch TV. Can we truly afford this breakdown of the fabric of our society? I think not.

The breakdown doesn't end there. We wake up, rush to work, rush back, finish dinner, collapse into bed and maybe somewhere in between the hustle, we sneak up a prayer and somehow hope that God is listening. Now I'm certainly not saying that God does not listen to every word we speak to Him, but what I am trying to emphasize is that the true heart connection is lost.

If you have been caught in this spiral, don't loose heart and don't feel guilty, God doesn't want that, but try to find time for quiet reflection and quiet communication with God somewhere in your day. When you do, the short whispers mean so much more, the beautiful sunsets seem so much brighter and even the ray of light from behind the clouds will bring a sparkle to your day.

Wireless

Over the last two days I haven't been able to catch as much of the trial as I would have liked too. It is such a unique novelty to us to be a part of this that it has become the basis for many office discussions and lively debates.

What fascinates me the most though is that with all the advances in technology the most widely used technology to tune into the proceedings is still the radio. This got me thinking about radio technology and how far that has come. I can't remember what age I was but I'll never forget getting my first hand held radio that I could carry with me anywhere.

Work on the study of electro magnetic waves seems to have really gained momentum during the late 1800's with a variety of scientists contributing to the study. By around 1910 the first radio's as we know them today were starting to take shape. Now across the globe there must be thousands of radio station's broadcasting every day, and they are still as relevant today as they were when they were first created.

I know in Jo'burg with the hours that many of us spend in our cars the radio is an active means of entertainment, information and communication. The odd extra long traffic stint, like today with our unusually heavy rains, was certainly made more bearable with the radio going. To be honest I doubt that the use of the radio as a means of communication will ever end, but I'll not put money on that one.

If we can see the amazing timeless relevance of the radio today, how much more does that not help us to understand the timeless relevance of scripture which is God breathed and truly eternal. The word of God is as alive today as it ever was and it will always be so.

So........if we tune into our radio stations on a daily basis, how about we make sure we tune into God's wireless, the word of God and receive God breathed entertainment, information and communication?

Breaking news

The world has turned their attention once again to our small country. The subject of the attention being the ground breaking trial taking place before us in Pretoria, that of Oscar Pistorius who stands accused of the murder of his then girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. This murder shocked the country and indeed the world on February 14, 2013.

What makes this trial so special? For the first time in South African history we are being given open access to our court of law. It has certainly made me wonder if our country's history may have taken a different course if say the Rivonia trial of Nelson Mandela had been open for all eyes to see. How many other guilty parties may have ended up in jail if their trials had been open, we will never know, but I'm sure hoping that this case will pave the way for a fully open judicial system in SA.

It is so interesting to listen to the trial and the tactics that are being played out by both legal teams. Today's proceedings saw a trick I know I've seen somewhere before. The defense attorney made every effort possible to try and re-direct the witnesses attention, claiming that her recollection of what she heard that fateful night was incorrect. Sorry Mr Attorney but a gun shot and a cricket bat definitely make two different noises.... I'll leave that there.

Back to my point, where have we heard this before? Ahh, yes, the garden of Eden. The serpent tells Eve that she will not die if she eats of the fruit but that her eyes will be opened to the truth. We know the rest of that story. What we may forget however is that this is the devils primary weapon, doubt and deception. We need to remember that for time immemorial the devil has not changed his game plan, which should give us armour with which to fight him.

Know this, whatever you are going through, God is not confused. His directions are never fuzzy. If there is doubt and confusion in your mind, God did not put it there. Allow your heart to be silenced and listen to the soft, small voice that calls to you gently and with clarity, that is the Holy Spirit talking. When we tune our ear to God's voice we will always get clear direction.

Looking forward to spade work

I had taken last week off gardening in honour of the completion of the garden path round back but knew that this week I would have to start doing the digging to lay the final bed for the year. As autumn has arrived I know there is only limited time now to get the final bed dug up, planted and settled before the cold winter months set in.

Sadly for me it has rained the whole weekend so getting time outdoors was just not possible. For a few short minutes between rain falls I snuck round back to check on the garden. To my delight my granadela has its first flower so I may just get a fruit this year. Still being a relatively small plant I only expected a crop from next year.

Sometimes our best plans and best intentions just do not come to fruition at the time we expect. We should not loose heart when this happens as God has a plan for every day. He knows exactly how and when things need to happen in our lives. We need to rest in Him and know that every season will yield the exact results they should, to keep us on the path that God has planned for our lives.