Friday Quick 5

WARNING: this is a pretty random Quick 5.  I could probably only lump it together under the heading "Notes from my life" or something like that.

1. Greetings from the Land of the Criminally Disorganized.  Seriously.  Of course, I have all kinds of excuses valid reasons for such mess/disorganization.  We are still in the process of taking over the first floor.  Things upstairs need to come downstairs.  In the midst of an incredibly busy schedule, progress on putting what is downstairs away has slowed to nearly  nonexistent.  I have small children who like to "help".  That's a valid reason all in itself: I have small children.  Add to that illness, exhaustion, and did I mention the busy schedule?  They're all valid, right?  Yes, I continue to take steps towards banishing the disorganized, the mess, the clutter.  It's an ongoing quest.  Sometimes it feels more like a war, one I'm losing.  The latest attempt is to actually check out what FlyLady.net has to say.  Have you heard of the Fly Lady?  Apparently, she has an entire system to keep your house clean.  I'd been too intimidated to try it.  Her first dictum is to have clean sinks, always have clean sinks!  I didn't make it to the bathroom ones, but I did have a clean kitchen sink last night.  And countertops.  And worktable.  I wanted to know if it felt as good as everyone says it does to come down to a clean kitchen.  (Truthfully?  On first coming down, I didn't even really notice a difference.)  I'm trusting that the effect will be there when I start looking around for everything I need to do before we have friends over today.

2.  I started reading The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn.  I won't be able to finish for awhile: it had to go back to the library and time for reading personally selected material is quite scarce these days.  But what little I read has me really thinking.  At one point in the book she discusses how the idea of what cooking has changed: that many people consider opening a box or can or jar and stirring in a pot constitutes cooking.  That people are forgetting what words like braise mean.  I'm finding this to be true.  I see it a lot on Pinterest.  One acquaintance whose boards I "follow" seems to be particularly fond of this type of cooking.  Every day I see at least one recipe from her stream that has a description something like this: "Lemonade bars: only three ingredients and 45 calories!"  It's a matter of mixing a cake mix, a vanilla pudding packet, and a can of diet soda.  Dump, stir, bake.  I shy away from those types of "recipes" as I become more interested/committed to the real food movement: nothing in many of these packages and packets remotely resemble the food they are supposed to represent.  Many are filled with chemicals that trick us into thinking we are tasting carrots and tomatoes and cheese.  Yet I had never thought about how these things are changing the landscape of cooking.  Is it really cooking to open a packet, dump it into some water, and stir over medium heat?  What happened to braising, roasting, blanching, poaching...?  If you get a chance, I recommend The Kitchen Counter Cooking School.  Even if you are diametrically opposed to the whole real food vs. processed food debate, even if you could never give up your Kraft Mac and Cheese, it's good food for thought.  I definitely intend to put it back on reserve at the library soon.

3.  The kids are loving the new space downstairs.  There is a seemingly odd staircase in the living room.  I say seemingly odd, as it ends in a closet.  Originally it went up to a landing shared by the interior staircase that runs to all three floors; they built the closet to "secure" the first floor apartment and limit traffic.  Someday, when we have the entire house, the closet will go bye-bye.  For now, we've moved our baby gate to keep the kids off the staircase.  However, it doesn't keep them off the two steps not blocked by the gate or from climbing all over the bench built into the side of the staircase.  We've moved a majority of their random toys into the closet of the guest room, and they spend zero time in there.  Instead, they clamber over the stairs, the bench, the additional furniture that has now found room outside of the basement, and playing "hide-and-seek" with the curtains by the front door.  Needless to say, they are having a lot of fun.

4.  This morning in my prayer time I read Galatians 5:19-23.  Here is what really struck me: that among the sins of sexual immorality, impurity and drunkness were also included anger, dissensions, and divisions.  They were followed by this warning: "I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (v. 21).  I'm slightly speechless when I think about what that really means.  Those who take part in fits of anger and divisive behavior in the body will not inherit the kingdom of God.  Do we as believers really take that seriously?  We all know that though we are saved and no longer slaves to sin, we still sin but that we have a God who is faithful to forgive  (Romans 5-6, 1 John 1).  I don't want to get into an entire discourse on whether or not the church takes sin seriously these days.  But do we take divisions and dissensions seriously?  I have seen what these things can do in a church body.  And I'm not just talking about fights over worship music or the color of the carpet.  I have seen how one person getting hurt and refusing to associate with certain people in the church has hurt a body and an entire ministry.  I have seen how cliques in churches exclude others, hurt people, and the ones in the clique never seem to notice that the others are there at all.  I once heard a woman say that she flat-out refused to forgive someone, that she knew it was wrong, but she really wasn't hurting anyone but herself.  I think she was wrong on that last score as well: she was hurting the body of Christ.  As believers we are part of a whole.  We cannot believe that our sin, our grudges, our hurts are only for ourselves.  When you stub your toe, isn't your whole body affected?  When there is a cut on a finger, doesn't the rest of the hand have to compensate?  What about when we have headaches, stomaches, etc.?  Isn't the whole body affected by that discomfort or pain?  These verses really reminded me that God takes the unity of believers seriously.  Divisiveness, dissension, these things are as serious to him as sexual immorality.  These things are serious.  My heart hurts and grieves as I think how often we believers can fall into these traps.

5.  But contrast this with the following verses: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law" (Gal. 5.22-23).  The sins above are the works of the flesh.  These are the works of the Spirit.  Praise be to God, that though we were once strangers and aliens in Christ, now, "in Him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory.  In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory."  (Eph 1.11-14)  I could go on.  Ephesians 1-2 is an excellent reminder and affirmation that when we believe, we are a part of Christ.  But we have been given the Holy Spirit, have been sealed by Him.  That means the fruit of the Spirit can now flourish in our lives, instead of those works in the flesh.  It's such a contrast, isn't it?  Instead of dissension it is love and joy and peace.  Instead of anger, it is patience and kindness and self-control.  Instead of divisiveness, it is goodness and faithfulness and gentleness.  Isn't that beautiful?  Talk about exchanging beauty for ashes!  The works of the flesh tear apart and destroy, but the fruit of the Spirit is life-giving, life-changing!  It was with a renewed sense of purpose and love for the Church that I prayed this morning.  So often people, the world, denigrate the Church for when she fails. But God loves the Church!  She made me made up of imperfect people, but that doesn't mean she isn't capable of great and beautiful things; true of any human being, especially when the hand of God is present.

6. Bonus: If you're interested in hearing more about God's love for the Church, I encourage you to listen to our pastor's sermon from Sunday.  It truly reminded me that for all the flaws the Church might have, God has a deep love and a purpose for His body.  This sermon only scratches the surface of this truth.  It's worth the gander.  Click the link and look for the sermon entitled "Jesus Built the Church as a Shelter from the Storm. from 6/24/12.