Clean Hands

I was reading Psalm 24 this morning. It is one of my favorite psalms. I love the way the words sound and the beauty of the repeated phrases. I was concentrating on verses 3 and 4.
"Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? And who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart."
I looked up the Hebrew meaning for clean hands and found that it meant "unclenched." To have unclenched hands means you're not hiding something.  Unclenched hands are not formed into a fist, ready to stop an incoming blow. I clench  my hands when I'm in pain and am trying to endure it, I am definately not relaxed and at peace. To stand before someone with unclenched hands means:
 1) you have nothing to hide
 2) you are not trying to protect yourself.

Do I stand before God with clean, unclenched hands? I'm going to have to think about that. What a beautiful picture of absolute trust and transparency - unclenched hands.

Mother's Day

I was invited this past Mother's Day to speak at First Assembly Church in Calgary. It was wonderful to see my family and spend Mother's Day with my amazing mom. Here is the podcast of that talk on "What is Your Superpower?" <http://itunes.apple.com/ca/podcast/energy-part-1/id280583682?i=79971004>

The Beloved

I'm reading a great book right now - Henri Nouwen's "Life of the Beloved". In it he says : "The great spiritual battle begins - and never ends-with the reclaiming of our chosenness. Long before any human being saw us, we are seen by God's loving eyes. Long before anyone heard us cry or laugh, we are heard by our God who is all ears for us. Long before any person spoke to us in this world, we are spoken to by the voice of eternal love. Our preciousness, uniqueness, and individuality are not given to us by thouse who meet us in clock-time - our brief chronological existence - but by the One who has chosen us with an everlasting love, a love that existed from all eternity and will last through all eternity."  I'm practicing being the Beloved. It is hard to continually live there but I figure the more I practice, the more it will seep into the fabric of who I am.

Dancing with Daddy

Last night was the final Cotillion night for Vangie. Everyone got dressed up and went to the Broadmoor to display their new found social and dancing skills. It was adorable to see the fathers dance with their daughters and the moms dance with their sons. One of the songs they played was “I Loved Her First”. It is a song about a father watching his daughter and her new groom take their first dance at their wedding. Some of the lyrics go like this:         But I loved her first and I held her first
And a place in my heart will always be hers
From the first breath she breathed
When she first smiled at me
I knew the love of a father runs deep
And I prayed that she'd find you someday
But it's still hard to give her away
I loved her first

How could that beautiful woman with you
Be the same freckle face kid that I knew
The one that I read all those fairy tales to
And tucked into bed all those nights
And I knew the first time I saw you with her
It was only a matter of time
But I loved her first

Sigh. Dancing with your daddy.  Can you imagine yourself dancing with your Heavenly Father? Is that not what our life is? Through the heartache, joys, pain, and triumphs, our Father takes us in His arms and dances with us, if we let Him. I never had the opportunity to dance with my earthly father, though if I had it would have been sweet. I enjoy being twirled by my Heavenly Father as I surrender control and let Him lead. He is easy to follow and doesn’t mind the occasional misstep. And He can truly say that He loved me first.

What Super Power Would You Choose?

I spent 12 hours the other day with some really neat educators and parents choosing candidates for principal of an elementary school that is dear to my heart. During some down time I had a brief discussion with some ladies (hey Anita) about what super power they would choose. Two of the women said they would choose to be invisible, and the other said she would choose to fly. Being invisible. Hmmm. They wanted to have the ability to slip into rooms and listen in on others conversations without being detected. I said that I didn’t know what I would do with the information people would say behind closed doors. What if they talked about me unkindly, or had crazy views on things that would upset me? I don’t know how I would process that kind of information and think that it would be more trouble than it is worth. My other friend said she would fly, which makes sense because she has just overcome a fear of water and is now addicted to swimming. That is huge! She has just faced a fear, embraced it and defeated it. Fly on my friend, fly on! I thought my superpower would be something to do with being super brave, or super strong, or even better, super fearless. What would I do if I had no fears? Who would I be if I was afraid of nothing? I find the older I get, the stranger my fears are. I grew up in the frozen North and learned to drive in blinding snowstorms and skid successfully on ice. Now, I have lost, hopefully only temporarily, my mojo to drive in any type of precipitation. Weird. I never used to be like that. I don’t like to drive really at night either. It’s hard to see. So, I am choosing my super hero power to be fearless. How would that look given my relationship with the Lord? Would I be fearless to walk up to a stranger that looked distressed and ask them what I could do for them? Would I ask if I could pray for them? Would I do those things, say those things and be those things I feel Holy Spirit nudging me towards. Stay tuned.  What super power do you choose?

I am heavy laden

Ok, not so much the way you might think, but I carry a large purse that weighs me down. I remember going to see a chiropractor for an adjustment. He noticed my right shoulder was out and asked to see my purse (which I carry on that side). He told me it weighed too much. I got a smaller purse and downsized for a while but that didn’t last long. I upgraded to a good size purse and filled it with everything I thought I would ever need. If I was stranded somewhere, I could live off the contents of my purse. What does this say about me? I am prepared? I think of everything? In church the other day Holy Spirit pointed out my massive suitcase sized purse. I was reminded that Jesus told the disciples in Mark 6 not take anything with them when they went from town to town. They weren’t to take a bag, money, bread, or even extra clothes.  Seriously? How could I be expected to go on a trip with no luggage? That takes a lot of trust. Trust that God will provide everything for you – money, food, clothing, etc. I can’t even leave the house without all those things. I think the Lord is telling me to trust Him more. Trust that He will provide those things I need without me providing them for myself. Ouch. That’s out of my comfort zone. I guess I’ll have to trust Him, and get a smaller purse.

Dance On

On Friday, Evangeline and I had the privilege of watching as Hadley Rae McHugh put on her dancing shoes, left her wheelchair bound body and accepted the invitation to dance with the King of Kings. It was a holy moment. In a room filled with family, friends and angels the song played “oh Lord, You’re beautiful, Your face is all I see.” Hadley decided at that precise moment to slip into eternity where she no doubt twirled her way up to the Beautiful One and commenced to take her new legs and body out for a spin on the sea of glass.  She is free indeed. Her parents, brother and sister are brave, beautiful and transparent in their sharing of the bittersweet journey they walked for 12 years. It was such a privilege to see Hadley graduate. Heaven just got sweeter. Dance on Hadley, dance on.