It is just a bump in the road

It was a Saturday morning and I had been a little lazy over the last couple of months, doing very little exercise and eating badly, so I decided today was new day.  Today would be the first day of a new leaf turned. I was going to get back into shape again. I decided to ease in by taking the dog for a walk.  It was a beautiful autumn morning. I was even clever thinking I had to drop something at my parents’ house, so I would take this opportunity to do this, as well as walking the dog (which was well overdue, I had been slack in this area as well). That was what I call “killing three birds with one stone”.  This was going to be a good day.

Well I get not 10 minutes down the track behind our house and clearly missed seeing “the bump in the road” and rolled my right ankle, fell onto the path hitting my left knee and gashed my left ankle in the process.  There was a lovely couple watching the episode and came running to help me. I am thinking... “Are you serious? I haven’t even worked up a sweat”. 

The man said, “that bump in the road! You should sue the council for that. It’s a bad one”. They helped me up and although my ankle was aching, I decided I would walk it out.  I hobbled a little slower down the track, trying to work out if I was being silly to keep walking, when my dog, who never does a poo while we are walking, decided it was time to do her business on the front lawn of someone’s house. Hmm ... seriously ... not a good time to stop and let my ankle cool down.  But when you gotta go, you gotta go.  I opened the doggy bag to scoop the poop to discover the bag had a huge hole in it. (Clearly showing that I very rarely have to use them as she never poos while we are walking). I tried with all my might to scoop while not getting anything on my hands and not bending too much as my knee was starting to hurt.

We set off again towards my parents’ house, when another 100 yards along my dog decides to do what she has never done in her life … stop to do a second huge poo!

Now I am starting to think she is punishing me for not walking her lately. But I have to tell you, getting the second poo into the bag with the huge hole was not going to happen without getting “poo” on my hands.

So, here I am hobbling up the hill towards my parents’ house with a full, holey, smelly bag of poo in one hand, juggling the lead and my water bottle in the other, when along comes a neighbour out walking who wants to stop and chat about what a beautiful day it is and to ask me how I am going!  I engage in the conversation as nicely as I can, but “pant” to give him the indication that I really must keep my heart rate up and need to keep moving. When I arrive at my parents’ house, wash my hands, stop to tell them what happened ... it becomes clear as I cool down that my dad will have to drive me home!

I spent the rest of the day on the lounge, with “ICE” oscillating from right ankle to left knee, watching movies and eating chocolate. Great start to “turning over a new leaf”.  Of course, I quickly saw the funny side to all of this and could laugh it off. Actually I could even make the most of it, seeing it as another excuse to simply relax for the weekend and do nothing, with all the justification in the world.

It is amazing how quickly your plans can be thwarted by just a “bump” in the road. It is where it all started and although frustrating, it won’t keep me down for long.  But it started to make me think; if only I could see some of the serious things that happen to me as simply “a bump on the road”, laugh it off, make the best of it and then keep going.

There have been so many “bumps” over the years that have knocked me right off my feet and I have never been able to recover or keep going. I have simply given up, got discouraged and never tried again. So many plans and dreams that I would have liked to see happen and because they haven’t come to pass, they have rocked my confidence and my ability to keep going. There are scars I still carry, which shape the decisions I make today, the way I view myself and at times the way I have viewed God.

Yet, the scar I got from that fall that Saturday, is now a good story to make people laugh. The series of events that happened after the fall is so typical when you are feeling down. It is never just one thing, yet the dog and the poo and the neighbour just made this story funnier.  Why can’t I view all the bumps in the road like that? Sure, some are more serious “bumps” than others, but in the end I still have a choice to allow the “bumps” to make me stronger or weaker, to let them stop me or make me more determined, to make me bitter or more compassionate, to make me sue someone or worse, blame God. Or I could stop, rest, recover, see it for what it is - the “bumps” that life throws at you - get up and keep going.

It is just a “bump in the road”. It may not be fair. It may not be nice. It may not be easy, but it is a “bump in the road”, and in this life they will happen no matter how wonderful your plans are.  The question is, what will we choose to do about it WHEN the bumps come?  Will we let them define us or will we choose to get back up, dust ourselves off and keep moving forward.

I envy those who can “easily laugh off” or “let go” of the serious “bumps” in life, but hopefully each day I am getting better at it.  I hope so because as I get older, I am sure there are many more “bumps” to come!

What do Spring Rolls and Playdough have in common?

I wonder how you eat spring rolls? I have always loved spring rolls, but I had never tasted spring rolls like in Hanoi, Vietnam, until this year. I think I have been spoiled for life now. They are quite a delicacy in Hanoi and nothing compares to them anywhere. I also learned a lot about how they eat them. That was very inspiring.

In Vietnam culture, the spring roll is something that is shared with the community, it is something they do together, using the same dips for everyone. Where in Australia, we have a rule of NO double dipping, in Vietnam, it is an essential part of eating them to share the same dips and to dip together.

The spring rolls “dips” are also very symbolic of the experience of doing it together. The dip is a mixture of lemon (sour) , garlic ( smelly) , capsicum, chilli (hot) , Pepper (spicy), fish sauce (sugar) , water that joins it all together.

The ingredients of the dips represent all types of tastes and combinations, coming together and being blended to make something special. This is a symbol of community. There are all kinds of people who should make up community and it is the variety that makes it TRUE community. What a beautiful example of what community should look like. We all get to be together at the banquet sharing it together. It reminds me of the great banquet Jesus talked about where all were invited and welcomed to share together. The sad thing is that, just as in the parable, there were many who wouldn't come. So it is with our culture, which has become so obsessed with having our own dips and making sure that we are separate so as to not share germs, and allowing everyone to have control of their own combinations and eat what they want to eat and not have to share.

I often do this excursive with all ages, where I give them a piece of play dough and everyone has a different colour. I begin by asking them to design something with their play dough and create something that represents them. Many enjoy this process but the next step is hard for them. Even though this is only a piece of play dough, it is amazing how attached they get. I ask them to share their creation with other people in the room and as they do they must share a piece of play dough, which means they give a piece away and gain a piece. As they continue to swap with people over and over again, they end up with different colours in their hands.

It always amazes me how the majority of people keep all the colours separate even when I am constantly asking them to massage the colours together as they go. When they sit down I ask them again to massage the colours all together in order to make a new colour. Many just can’t do it. They have either been conditioned to NOT mix the colours or they don't like the fact that their creations has been destroyed and it is no longer the same as when they started.

Again this practical exercise reminds us that to be TRUE community means that in the sharing process, what we end up is not the same as what we started with. Some people love this, but more than often our “isolated”, “controlling”, “self-focused”, “comfortable” culture means that we really struggle with this exercise. Sounds harsh I know, but there is no other explanation for this behaviour. If this is so hard in an exercise with play dough, imagine the sacrifice it takes for people to live in TRUE community. Like the spring roll experience, life is meant to be shared and done together. And through the combining and sharing we are all transformed to become something different..

How about you ... are you okay to SHARE your sauce dips and double dip your spring rolls? Can you MIX your play dough colours ... or does the thought of that make you cringe?

The bigger question is ... is life in your faith community truly shared and mixed together, and if not what are you missing out on?

You can always rely on the sun

On one thing you can be sure, the Sun rises every morning and sets every evening. I have to admit it is something I rarely see, as in the morning I am nearly always asleep and in the evening I am usually home making dinner or settling in the for the night. 

The last couple of weeks I have been travelling and as schedules would have it I have seen a few sunsets and sunrises. I said to my fellow travellers as we were looking at the sunrise..."I never tire of seeing that, it captures my attention every time". Now, having just admitted that it is not a regular occurrence, you may wonder how I could say that!  Over the 48 years of my life, I have seen my fair share of sunsets and sunrises, and not one has been the same. They are so unique and beautiful. I can only imagine this would never change. 

But it makes me wonder how different my life might be if I simply began and ended my day gazing at the sun?  Would it change my perspective on life, on creation, on my creator?

To daily gaze upon His consistency, His faithfulness, the beauty that is always the same and yet always different everyday...in fact two times a day. The bigness of the sun and the way it stretches so far across the universe that I could see it no matter which part of the world I am in. The intensity of the Sun, so much so that there are moments when you simply cannot gaze directly at it or you are blinded, and then as quickly as that it disperses into the clouds and allows you to see it’s far reaching effects. The fact that one minute it is dark and then in a moment light appears OR at sunset it is light and within a minute is it dark. The fact that as you watch the sky it continually changes moment by moment. It is a photographers dream to capture the moments, and every day it is a never ending challenge. The colours are ever changing and morphing before your eyes. 

It would only take an hour out of my day to see it and yet I am not prepared to make this commitment, even though I know it would be a great way to start and end my day. We are often not good at doing what it best for us. The sad thing is that there are many things that actually take more than an hour of my time each day that have no earthly or eternal value to my life. They can actually bring stress, pain or negativity and yet I continue to allow them to dictate the way I live my life. All the while the sun rises and sets each day, whether I see it or not. It is consistent, faithful, not demanding that I acknowledge it, yet it remains beautiful and inspiring. It is a message from the creator that I can rely on Him to be there every day and to remind me that just when we think we have seen what He can do, He amazes us with something new. 

The other day I had a really tough night and was feeling rather down in my spirit, so I decided I would get up and watch the sun rise to get a different perspective.  But this day it was very cloudy and I sat there thinking “great, I bothered for nothing; I won’t be able to see anything”. Funny how God does that … challenges you in ways you don’t expect. Here I am feeling more sorry for myself that I got up early to see the sunrise, but the clouds were in the way. And then a peek of brilliant sun burst through the clouds for just a moment, and then nothing much more for that morning. I realised that even when we can’t always see it, when the clouds and darkness of life fill our minds, the sun still rises and sets. Even if we choose not to see it, or let the clouds consume us, He remains consistent and faithful, still beautiful and inspiring.

I do believe I live each day differently when I begin and end my day with Him. The sunset and sunrise reminds me that it is always the best choice. And it IS our choice. He never changes. He has made his choice. We CAN rely on the sun to rise and the sun to set. Like the Sun, we can rely on the Creator of the sun to be faithful, consistent, colourful, life giving, ever inspiring, amazingly beautiful and one to be in awe of. The choice is… will I live each day with that perspective and see how that can change the way I live? 

From the rising of the sun to its setting The name of the LORD is to be praised

Ps 113:3