decision

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

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April 21 – Her Majesty, The Queen’s Birthday

Today marks Queen Elizabeth’s 88th birthday.  While her official birthday celebration occurs in June each year with the Trooping of the Colour, she will continue on with her Easter Court entertaining at Windsor Castle through the end of April.  Also marking this day is the unveiling of her latest photograph taken by renown photographer, David Bailey!  This magnificent capture of her vivacious spirit was taken at Buckingham Palace last month.  A new year in the life of this Monarch begins!

Birthday Portrait Of Queen Elizabeth II By David Bailey

Birthday Portrait Of Queen Elizabeth II By David Bailey via royalcentral.com

New beginnings and rebirth also mark today, Easter Monday

The egg is a universal symbol for Easter, almost more so than the Cross these days.  A symbol chosen as it represents new birth, new beginnings, and a fresh start.  This is just what Jesus accomplished on the first Easter morning with the Resurrection.  He rose from the dead in a fully healed body from the tortures and death three days prior.  This Risen Lord is the One who allows us the same new life!  John 3:16 says it most succinctly, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  He repeats this theme in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  John precedes this quote of Jesus by telling what you will find by following Him (Jesus), His way.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God; trust also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many rooms; if it were not so I would have told you.  I am going there to prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4)

Jesus sets the example, the way, to live on earth as fully human and resurrected.  He showed himself to the disciples after the resurrection to not only prove himself as the One Messiah foretold in scripture and in person to them, but also to instruct them to get out there and tell the rest of the world!  In other words, Jesus was telling the disciples to also live “resurrected lives” a certain way.  A resurrected life is how one decides to live like Jesus, and as instructed by Jesus (his way/the way), after meeting and accepting Jesus as Lord.  It is not the life one lives just on Easter Sunday, looking like the model Christian sitting in the church pew flanked by her beautifully appointed family members.  As our rector said at the conclusion of his Easter sermon, it is the resurrected life you decide to live on Monday after Easter, and Tuesday, and so on that matters.

How do you live a resurrected life?

Here are a few suggestions:

1. Ask yourself if you are living life your way, or Jesus’ Way.

2. When you get that nudge, funny feeling in the pit of your stomach, or cannot stop thinking about the person you just heard is in the hospital or in need, GO visit him or her!  And, in the name of the Resurrection, please deliver a meaningful message.

3. Start your day a little earlier to create, or extend your quiet time with God.  Even 15 minutes toward this goal will cause new life for the rest of your days, weeks and months.  Journal what changes occur to this new daily beginning.  Share your growth and change with another.  It will almost always encourage another to do the same.

4. Seek to enrich the life of another on a regular basis.  Choose your regularity (daily, weekly, monthly), make the appointment with the agency or person you aim to enrich, mark your calendar, and DO IT.  Think of it as a doctor’s appointment that took months to schedule.  You would never break this appointment.  Treat your resurrected life changes as unbreakable appointments.

mow the lawn, or pull the weeds from the garden of an elderly neighbor

take dinner and/or flowers to a widow, elderly person, someone lonely or a family with a new baby

call a local elementary school to ask to be a regular reading buddy for struggling students

join a new service committee at your church and serve with gusto

offer to take the altar flowers to hospitalized parishioners on set Sunday afternoons

start a Bible study in your neighborhood or community

5. As you enrich others, ask God to give you the words He would have you say to those you are helping.  As He directs, speak His Word. (“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.” John 1:1 Jesus is the Word.)  It can be as simple as saying, “Jesus loves you, and I do, too.”

Here’s to celebrating Resurrected Living Today!

Love is in the air!

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Love.  Valentine’s Day.  What a joyful, easy holiday to “do”!  We have license to buy lots of candy guilt free, we buy cards to verbalize different forms of affection, and we even buy gifts to display evidence of our love for another.  However, the Beatles song, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, is screaming through my mind right now!  Using your purchasing power on these things is by no means wrong, but is that where we stop displaying our love until the next “holiday” buying opportunity?  What do our daily actions, and even random purchases say about how we actively love another?  And, the big elephant in the room: who are we not loving and should be loving, but we “can’t”?  Here are some ways to make your Valentine’s Day happen every day, or at least more often.

1. Love is action and words.  What we say can either build someone up, or tear them down.  Read positive and edifying materials.  That which is on the forefront of your mind is usually what comes out of your mouth.  Biblical scripture is a good place to start.  There are other positive blogs to follow like http://www.dianegottsman.com and http://www.mustbringbuns.blogspot.com.  Read more!  Some edifying book recommendations are also on my home page.

2. Love is a decision.  Feelings come and go.   Communicate real reasons you have decided to love those in your life.

3. Whom do you love?  Whom should you love?  (ugh!)  The first question creates a list instantly.  The second causes my hand to write much more slowly!  We are commanded to “love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength”, “love our neighbor as ourselves” (Mark 12:30), “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:44), “love one another” (John 13:34), and “do everything in love” (I Corinthians 16:14).  Who is on your ‘hard to love’ list?  How can you decide to show love to this person?  It may start with forgiveness, and it may be a silent decision within you, which is how your action will grow outward.

4. Buy, write, say, or do?!  No matter how you choose to show your love, do with sincerity (Romans 12:9), do it with the receiver’s perspective in mind, and do it with joy, “Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have refreshed the hearts of the saints.” (Philemon 7).

Here are some ideas to commemorate the “big day”:

Tickets to a show, concert, sporting event, movie, tour, or exhibit.  Consider your mutual interests and create a memory.

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Plan a trip, in town or out, doing things you both enjoy.  Plan what you know you can do so time spent is not stressful in finishing the list, or disappointing because you did not get to a certain “favorite” thing.  Keep it simple and enjoyable.

picnic_CNT_9Aug10_b

cntraveler.com

Flowers!  Make sure the recipient does not have allergies to your bouquet.  Arrange the flowers yourself, or order from a trusted florist.  Even if he or she “likes” to arrange flowers, refrain from dropping off a bunch of floral selections which will need immediate attention.  Your valentine may not have time for this activity, thus causing annoyance rather than joy.

If floral allergies are suspected, send a fruit arrangement.

Write on paper.  Texts and emails are the norm these days, and the written word on paper seems to be fading to extinction.  A carefully crafted expression on paper can mean more than 100 roses, a five star dinner, or a trip to Paris.  Take time to write your thoughts, feelings, memories on paper to your Valentine.  This piece of paper may be what you find decades later in a treasured place to let you know, in return, how much your expression meant to your beloved.

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http://www.sugarpaper.com

In short, just do what Loves does.  “Love is patient, love is kind.  It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.  Love never fails.”  I Corinthians 13:4-8

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyday!

Mary Ellen