Archive for May, 2008

Lives are like Retractable Pencils…

May 13th, 2008

Ok, so a lot of people that I know and respect love The Flight of the Conchords and I feel like it’s the type of show that I would find funny. But, honestly I don’t really like it. I feel like I should like it but I don’t. I think maybe it’s just because my husband is obsessed with it and so I heard the songs over and over again… but I don’t know. Anyway, that being said… this one song of theirs was stuck in my head all night. Here are a few of the lyrics:

Lives are like retractable pencils
If you push them too hard they’re gonna break
And people are like paper dolls
Paper dolls and people, they’re a similar shape
Hmm hmm hm
Love is like a roll of tape
It’s real good for making two things one
…
Brown paper, white paper
stick ‘em together with the tape
the tape of love
sticky stuff

 

I hope that today you all feel the “stickiness” of love making two things one.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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I am not a Commenter…

May 10th, 2008

So, I read a lot of blogs. In fact, on any given day I may read anywhere from 10 to 60 blogs. I love reading peoples blogs I love hearing their thoughts, listening to what God is stirring up in them, learning from other peoples knowledge and experiences, etc. I read blogs because it helps me feel connected to the larger story of what’s going on in the world, and because it stretches me and teaches me things about the world and God that I may not have learned on my own. I read blogs to engage in community. But, I realized something recently about myself… I love reading blogs, and I love writing blogs and often the blogs I write are spurred on by the blogs I read, BUT, I don’t like to comment. I’m not a commenter. In fact I engage in the blog community in much the same way as I engage in the day-to-day community I am involved in. I love being a part of the community, I love hearing other people thoughts but I rarely share my own thoughts… Well, no actually I share my thoughts often and freely but ONLY on my own time in my own way in my own environment. I’m not a commenter but I am an active blogger. I have often in group settings shut up and shut down even when I do have something to say and only shared those thoughts later with a small group of friends or when the thoughts become so loud in my head that I can’t help but share them.

So, here’s my first thought… is that ok? Is that just how I’m “wired” and made? Or am I missing out on something by not commenting on the blogs I read or not engaging more actively in the larger communities I’m a part of? Are other people missing out on things that I could bring to the body of Christ by my lack of commenting?

And here’s the next though… Commenter’s seem to breed commenter’s. People who comment often on other blogs seem to get more comments on their blogs. People who engage more in the “real world” community and add their two cents to that community are better at getting other people to engage with them and give them their two cents as well. Commenting breeds commenting.

Those are my current rambling thoughts.

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

Photograph by Beth Stedman

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Pentecost – The Coming of the Holy Spirit

May 9th, 2008

So, it is common knowledge that this Sunday (May 11, 2008 ) is Mother’s Day, but what some of you might not know (especially if like me you grew up in a protestant evangelical church) is that Sunday is also Pentecost. It is the day that we remember and celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. After 50 days of Easter celebrations and remembering the resurrection of our Lord we now come to the culmination – the Spirit has been given and with Him we have purpose and mission. The celebration of the Easter resurrection doesn’t stop, instead it is transformed into a mission and calling to bring this resurrection joy to all the world.

“But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 8When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt[a] in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: 9in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; 10in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; 11and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

12“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

16“In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”

17Some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” 18They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”

19Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’? 20I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. 21A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. 22So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. 23In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 24Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.”

This Mother’s Day may we all remember the Mother of us all, the Bride of Christ – The Church. For with Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit Jesus breathed life into us all and the Church was born. She was not born for herself but for the world – to be a witness to all of the great Love of God. Oh, Bless the Church and reach out in love to her, for however broken or blemished she may be she is God’s and the Spirit of God lives in her! Bless the Church!

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

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Gotta Spend Some Time, Love…

May 8th, 2008

”How I wish you could see the potential, the potential of you and me
It’s like a book elegantly bound, but in a language that you can’t read – just yet
You gotta spend some time–love, you gotta spend some time with me
And I know that you’ll find–love, I will possess your heart (x2)
You reject my advances and desperate please
I won’t let you, let me down so easily, so easily”

Those are the lyrics for the new Death Cab for Cutie song. I’ve been a big fan of Death Cab for a long time now and to be honest I wasn’t all that impressed with this new song when I first heard it… but today God spoke to me through it. I know that sounds weird but as I listened to the (long) intro to this song on the way to meet my friend for coffee it was like God clearly said “Ok, Beth, listen up this is what I’m saying to YOU!” and then I heard the words “you gotta spend some time – love, you gotta spend some time with me, and I know that you’ll find – love, I will posses your heart.” It was like God was calling out right to me saying “Bethany, my love, spend time with me, I want to spend time with you, I am wooing you and calling you, you might reject my advances but I’m not going to give up, I won’t let you down…come… spend time with me.”

It was a really touching way to start the day. I spend the rest of the drive just talking with God – I can‘t really call it praying because it wasn’t really coherent all the time – it was more just talking. The last 2 and a half months of traveling have made it so that my normal routine has pretty much been completely lost and the things I usually do to connect with God have been pretty much none existent lately. I haven’t really been reading, I’ve had very few really deep spiritual based conversations with people, we’ve gone to church irregularly (and when we have gone it’s frustrated me more than it has drawn me closer to God), Bryan and I haven’t been doing the normal scripture readings that we usually do at night, we also haven’t been doing the prayers from the book of common prayer like we were, and I haven’t been doing yoga either (which for me is a form of deep prayer)… So, yeah, after a few months of that I’ve been feeling really weary and sort of like I’ve had no baring or solid ground or “constant” (I just re-watched the episode of Lost were Desmond is unlocked from time and has to find a “constant” which ends up being Penelope – it made me think about God being my constant…anyway, random tangent over now).

Anyway, today it was like God reached in and said, “Enough, Bethany, enough wondering aimlessly, enough floating adrift, yes you aren’t at home and yes you aren’t in a stable environment right now but just spend some time with me, you’ll see I’ll be your constant, I’ll possess your heart and love you… Come.” So, today God and I (and my camera) had a little date. It was lovely.

Here are just a few of the pictures from my outing:

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

Photographs by Beth Stedman

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Roundups from Around the Web: Thoughts on Church

May 5th, 2008

So, I’ve been blog hopping again… And found some blogs worth sharing:

I thought this blog was a very interesting blog about worship. As someone who was once involved in leading worship in high school and who has experienced a number of very life influencing and touching worship experiences but who has also become very skeptical and critical of typical church worship over the past few years I found this blog and the comments related to it very interesting. Here’s my question… so I firmly believe that we should worship God with our whole lives and with the unique talents and creative gifts that God has given us so what would/could this look like in the church? I feel like in the past we have often minimized worship to merely praising God in song, but what would it look like to as a community of believers worship and praise God with a wider variety of honest, authentic, and creative gifts? What would it look like to praise and worship God with our intellect? What if praising God through music became just one of many ways in which we use the creative skills of the community to communicate the greatness of our God? Ok, enough rambling soap box… moving on…

After that I read a few blogs on women’s ministry that also got me thinking…http://blog.christianitytoday.com/giftedforleadership/2007/08/why_i_dont_do_womens_ministry.html and http://emergingwomen.blogspot.com/2008/04/cleaver-conundrums-why-i-dont-do-womens.html#comments and http://www.ellenstevens.com/?p=149#more-149 – I found these interesting and the comments revealing. Personally by the time I was old enough to really be included in women’s ministries I had already made up my mind that I wouldn’t like them. Maybe I should have given them more of a chance but really I can’t imagine myself liking the normal women’s ministry type things for much of the reasons listed in these blogs. Really I think though that most of them women I saw in the church (especially the ones who were/are heavily involved in the women’s ministries) seemed so fake to me – I didn’t want to be a part of that fakeness. But, on the other side of things I have experienced in my life the power and strength, grace and beauty that can come from a group of women opening their lives to each other and truly befriending one another – and I can say that if more women’s ministry were like that then I’d be the first to jump in.

Ok, that’s enough for now J

Rejoicing in the journey -
Beth Stedman

 

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