374, not 24/7 living - and here's one moment of it!

Everyone and everything is hurtling toward 24/7.

food
banking
friendship
on-line living
work

Did you hear about the CEO who lives in the sky? He travels so much, he doesn't have a home. His life is string of transitory moments in hotels and peering out plane windows. Perhaps, a piece-of-real estate-in-the-sky. {watch here: the homeless CEO}


It is a world that spins on its own axis and goes round so that 'nothing is new under the sun', but also one bugeoning with hope and Newness; often coming out of strange quarters like this Ghanaian's who could be earning far more and putting his poverty behind him. Instead, he chose to return to the rural poor and give them a hand up with his design and manufacture of bamboo bikes!. Here is a man who knows what matters is a life that is self-forgetting.

Of self-forgetting. there is a lovely verse from the Psalm. This verse speaks of a Delight so massive and great that it brings with it the gifts of our heart's desires. A strange non-equation: getting what truly matters not by going after them, but by going after the Giver Himself.

Psalm 37v4:

delight yourself in the LORD

and he will grant you the

desires of your heart.

It's not a badgering for the goodies. It is enjoying the good that will come as we self-forget in the presence of Someone who occupies our attention, longing and imagination.

This is of course a constant turning over of our longings, distractions and frustrations over to Someone wiser, stronger and totally good.... and then, surprise, surprise: the 374 moment comes: like this one in the video.

I love music - and what a blast to see two of my favourite ppl make music together!!

Come on, live 374 with me! It's a New and Living way to go.

Foreign Corresponding...

Hey!
I am writing off a "20-minute access" computer at the town library in Fort Collins called the Purdue River Public Library!

Book and library lovers travel anywhere and still end up in these nests of comfort: Firestone rare books, Barnes and Noble, and yes, town libraries - why not?

So here's a piece about a local library in a foreign land:

1. It's a huge place with three floors. I easily spot "children's" to make a direct beeline for with two restless, sugar-filled boys in tow. More than a corner, it has several interactive panels which i am tempted to fiddle with myself but for the shelves of books everywhere! The rambunctious boys play war-and-no-peace among the panels, I interrupting when the noise level gets unacceptable...but so far, no one has thrown a disapproving frown  across my path.

2. Shelf-labeling is interesting: they have 'staff picks', 'seasonal' (it's nearly Thanksgiving), and shelves called 'Hot and Cold', 'Think Big', 'All in the family' and..the more common, 'Mystery'. I am amused and attracted --but know from experience Asians will have little patience for such obtuse labels!

3. So many PCs to use! They have a twenty minutes limit for most sets and I went eureka! I set the boys down to one and so here i am at another PC! [ i must mention a young male librarian worked very hard to get the sound out onto to headsets so the boys can tune in to www.pbskids.com and watch/play Curious George! Nice.

4. Music in the library - live! i got to go: Dana and Susan are about to perform with banjo, harmonica and guitar a suite they called 'Journey across America' - what a panaromic treat!

Not in a hurry to return to my Bishan library at this point. Grins.

[posted after i return as my twenty minute ran out and the music started so.. ;) ]

Lesson from a little bird

A welcomed distraction interrupted my ignoble thoughts (the poor me types.). from the window, a clear tweeting sounded. A little brown bird was sitting near the highest tree branch, looking around and letting out her beautiful, soul-lifting intones.

Bird sounds have always lifted me. As I took in her music and sense of equananimity, i recalled how as a young girl i would have said that God sent the bird to cheer me up. Did i believe that now? I hesitated – and then I asked why.

I did not hesitate because i doubted God’s love for me. Indeed, over the years and through many vales, my view and experience of God has widened and deepened. He is greater today than He was when I was twelve. Yet at the same time, I would not describe God and everything as if it revolved around me. I am content for the bird to be where it was simply because it was. I do not feel the need to explain it and lead the conclusion to my paltry self.

God no doubt made the bird and gave it its song. I am grateful for what the bird – one of God’s creatures – did for me, another of God’s creature. But there was no need for me to hack a fine trail insisting God sent the bird or something. In a sense then, i have matured. Children are the ones who see everything from the standpoint of self. It all begins and ends with self. But maturity means we accept that other people, and other dynamics count in a real and amazing way. 

The bird, me, and whatever else is bound up in God’s love and it is far greater and more beautiful that I can perceive. For me to narrow it down to myself – no matter how sweet and faith-filled it sounds – is a lesser vision of biblical glory.

St Francis of Assissi, once a rich young man, disavowed all his earthly inheritance and took vows of poverty and traveled sharing God’s love is famous for his song that praises the created world. He found such a huge and wondrous gift in God’s creation that he called the sun and moon his brother and sister!

Our modern take on life is really to use and discard things. Often what is not useful to us doesn’t receive our attention (and that includes humans alas). We have the ‘delete’ or ‘trash’ icon on our computers and ipads to help reinforce that.

With this mindset, we insist that things are good or useful or God-sent because it served us in some way. We have lost the sense of wonder that comes when we remember we are created beings and that God is going to restore the world.

The birds are still singing out there as I write. If they are grateful and excited about the world, i think i should take a leaf from them and be content and expect good things this day from my Father.