Destroying Your Enemies

Martin Luther King said:

“Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” 

"I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear."

Have you ever hated someone? I have. 

I could not go a day without seething inwardly about that person, my blood pressure sky-rocketing at their name, my heart burning in the acid of bitterness. My thoughts were a jumbled mess of snide inner remarks, dark imaginings of what I could say to hurt them, what I could do to prove that they were wrong. Then they'd see; yes, then they'd be sorry. 

This person hurt me once. But my choice to hate them hurt myself more - far more - and repeatedly, over and over again. Each bitter thought, like a vial of poison to my own spirit, killing me, turning me into an aged, empty soul, void of compassion and kindness. My inner world lacked beauty altogether, being gobbled up by the ugliness of Hate. I lost myself. Do I really want to be this??

HATE KILLS.

You can choose to love. 

There is nothing elaborate or difficult about love - don't let that be your excuse, it's a feeble one, and I'm not going to buy it. As hard as loving an enemy can seem to be, Love is actually undeniably simple:

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. 
(1 Corinthians 13) 

We've been given an actual step-by-step guide to love, and it is so easy to follow. The thoughts in 1 Corinthians 13 can be summed up and applied in any way imaginable...
When that person keeps you waiting, take a deep breath (not a huffy sigh!) and be gentle.
Compliment them, and enjoy their surprised reaction. 
Look into their eyes when speaking to them. 
Smile. 
Buy them a cup of coffee, or a treat, no strings attached. 
Stand up for them when you know it's right.
Don't count their mistakes - forgive, and never recall their faults... ever again. 
Start fresh every day.
Express sincere happiness for them, when something works out for them. 
Hug them. A genuine (even awkward) hug can melt layers of hatred in an instant. 

If you dare to love like this, you will experience the most remarkable thing: you will find yourself unable to hate. You see, hate is not about the other person, or "wrongs" that they've done to you. Hate is about you. When you choose to Love like this, nothing in the other person changes. YOU CHANGE. Love lights your inner world, bringing with it forgiveness, compassion and understanding, and an abundant supply of more love to dish out. Do I really want to be this?? YES!

Abraham Lincoln couldn't have said it better when he mused: "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

Will you step up to this challenge:
Destroy your enemy today.
Take no prisoners, annihilate them.
Be merciless with your mercy, hold nothing back.
Gun them down with love.

You can find this article, and others like it, at Above The Flame. Check out the Above the Flame Facebook page HERE. 

Simply DistuRbED

I can't sleep. It's 11.30PM and I've been lying in bed for roughly an hour feeling disturbed.

You know what it's like, when you have something troubling you deeply, and you just can't quiet your loud mind. I would love to confide in you about the screaming thoughts within my mind, but instead I have decided the path of denial for now, and will be accounting my sleeplessness to one harrowing incident that occurred today.

It all began when I discovered on my way home that, by some grisly misfortune, an entire album of Simply Red had found its way onto my iPod. How could this be? Is this some kind of morbid joke? What kind of psycho would do a thing like this??

I was driving on the highway, and so concentrating on the road inevitably forced me into enduring more than 30 seconds of a song - I reiterate: circumstaces forced me to listen, I swear it...! And that's where the really disturbing part comes in... I couldn't bring myself to skip the song. I just..... couldn't.

Some kind of dark magic must be involved in all this, for I have spent my life believing that Simply Red is creepy. Something about that man just makes my skin crawl... and here I was in my car... captivated. I may have belted out a note or two when the spell cast really took hold of me.

Come now, listen to this...

"For Your Babies" - Simply Red

Gosh, what a sexy song, the kind to which one could gaze adoringly across a candlelit table into the eyes of the one whom you love... despite the fact that the song has a distinctly creepy title!

And this...

"The Air that I Breathe" - Simply Red

How can you not melt at how he caresses each note, literally making you believe that you are the air he breathes... And yet, is it just me, or is the the notion that "Sometimes, all I need is the air that I breathe, and to love you" is a bit obsessive and... stalkerish...? Ok, ok, in Simply Red's defence, it's not his song originally... but he does a darn good (stalkerish) delivery of it.
And ok, admittedly the actual music video is quite compelling, and not stalkerish at all.

Oh my. And now I have just admitted to listening to more than one song. *hangs head in shame*

This new-found discovery that I am not only able to tolerate Simply Red, but actually like him is most unsettling. I fear I am changing.

And so here I sit. Midnight now, dark rings under my bloodshot eyes, eating caramel straight from the tin.

I am so disturbed.

GRATITUDE

Gratitude - The quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness. 

The word itself is derived from Anglo-French and Medi-evil Latin words, "gratitudo" and "gratus", which simple mean "grateful". Or, if you prefer: "thankful".

It really is such a simple quality, and a quality, indeed.

I had a bad day today. Or so I thought. Until I read one of my old school-friends blogs this evening, and realized just how easy my day was compared to what she is going through.

Meet Mandy:

Click here to meet Mandy

We went to high school together, like a million years ago. (ten years, if you must know) I haven't seen Mandy since we left school, but we have remained distantly in touch by the great Facebook. I've watched silently as she got married, started her life, began a business, faced some personal battles... One thing I've never forgotten about Mandy, from school, is her spunk, her perseverance, and her outright stubbornness  She was, without doubt, the most bloody-minded, headstrong girl in our class.

Which I believe is a quality that the Almighty must have given her, because if there's anything she needs right now, it's to be a headstrong, stubborn, not-taking-no-crap-from-nobody kind of lady. You see, never would anyone have dreamed that she would be faced with a battle as mortifying as the fight against metastatic gastric cancer. Her battle isn't going so well, at present. (read her blog)

And this has had me thinking for a few weeks now, about the nature of life, and how we experience it.

Today was one such day... I got up today, feeling fresh, healthy, maybe a just tad groggy from a wonderful, busy and extremely fulfilling weekend. I had a shower, washed my hair, had a healthy breakfast, popped a few multivitamins and went on my way. I got stuck in some horrendous traffic, and was half an hour late for work. I arrived to find that a crisis had invaded my work-space, and I absolutely lost my cool in a way that I seldom do. My morning was a myriad of up's and downs as I faced the day's events, and I was only too glad to call it a day when the clock finally hit home-time this afternoon.

I thought it was kind-of a rough day, you know? I got home, feeling weary and a little bit edgy. I powered up my laptop and it wasn't long before stumbled across Mandy's latest blog entry... and immediately felt so, so, so convicted. So cut to the heart. I had a rough day???

(Seriously now, read Mandy's blog immediately for the full affect of this statement)

There is a song that I listen to when I'm having a "rough day" (although I am in the process of re-evaluating what really constitutes to being a "rough day"). Rocking to this song, admitting that I'm Not Okay... well it makes me feel okay after all... It makes me smile, take a deep breath, and sigh. I dedicated this song to Mandy recently, and I dedicate it to all those out there who are being strong in their battles against cancers and other illnesses. I can't imagine how you do it. I take my hat off to you - you, who have every right to cry out "I'm Not Okay!" and yet you get up every day and fight.


I'm not sharing this to make anyone feel guilty. But I feel challenged, and so feel inspired to just share the following challenges with you:

1. BE GRATEFUL. Just do it. Stop whinging. Get over it. Find something in your life to say 'Thank you' for, even if it is simply "Thank you for another beautiful day to live". 
2. October is Cancer Awareness month - maybe you're not up to shaving your head to support the cause, but all you need to do to support the cause is to be aware, and create awareness. Wear a bandanna, purchase a ribbon, go get that suspicious-looking mole tested. Talk about it, and support the people that you know are walking the journey.
3. DO SOMETHING. Life is now, don't waste it. Apologize to those you owe an apology to. Similarly: forgive. Be kind to that person you have always been too shy to speak to. Take up that arbitrary hobby you've always dreamed about. Say "I love you". Say it to everyone that you really love! Everyone! 

Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet... JUST. DO. IT. 

Hurt

You have used me. For the last time, you have used me.

Like a sunflower to the sun, I have looked to you, waiting for you to shine your friendship on me. Smile at me. Notice me. Care about me.

But you don't.
Don't care.
Don't smile.
Don't notice.

You do not know friendship. You are too luminous for your own good, with so many victims falling over each other to try love you, and be loved by you. But you only know how to use and discard.
Use and discard.
Use and discard.

I am nothing but waste to you.
When I have done enough favours for you, I am left disappointed, empty. A byproduct of your needs. I have never truly possessed your friendship.

I still care, so deeply. But don't care to be used anymore. I hope someone else will step up for you, and look out for you the way I've tried.
Be your friend, without the let-down.
Maybe they will be good enough for you, the way I never was.

Farewell, bright one. I have missed your light from the moment I laid eyes on it.

~A poem for someone too beautiful to understand how  utterly powerful their "lovable-ness" is.  

Let's Catch Up...

There are few things as frustrating as really wanting to sit down for a good blog session, but having neither time nor inspiration to do so. A fellow blogger would understand.

So let's have some coffee, and catch up. I've got my coffee, where's yours?

It's been a hectic few weeks since my last post in August. I think the problem is that there is just so much going on right now, that I haven't got the time to really sit and think about one particular thing. My mind seems to be in a permanent race with itself, and I'm not sure I'm winning.

That was "Bubble Girl". You may have seen her before - she's one of those internet sensations. In reality, she is really just running away from bubbles, but if you Google search "Bubble Girl", you will find her photo-shopped into all manner of scenes. My favourite is her running away from Prince Charles.

So, back to catching up.

 The last time we chatted, I was telling you about boxing, and how cool I've become now that I have new boxing gloves. I'm still boxing, a few times a week or as often as possible, but I think the cool-factor has most certainly worn off. I'm back to being a bit of a nerd. I know this because I managed to trip over nothing this week, and I also walked straight into a table, inspiring a snort of laughter from a friend. When cool people walk into things, people look away and graciously pretend it didn't happen. When nerds do it, the world stops to point and laugh. Yes... I'm back.

It's Spring in South Africa, which means that people are whopping out their braai's (barbeques, for my foreign readers) and getting ready for the Season we all love. People complain about South Africa. The crime. The government. Taxes. Fuel prices. Corruption. Potholes in the roads.

Gosh. Take a look around Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet! That's why I don't listen to the radio anymore - we get so caught up in the bitching and moaning, that we completely miss the beauty of our immediate lives. We reside in one of the most exquisite countries, with what is notoriously the most beautiful Summer weather. And you want to let a few cents on the fuel price ruin your day?

No, thank you! I'm going to LOVE this Spring, embrace it, smell it, sneeze at it, and then smell it again. I'm going to wear dresses, and skip through the flowers. Carefully. I'm going to skip through the flowers carefully. Or maybe I'll just walk. I'm likely to trip over a tulip if I skip.

Gah! My coffee's gone cold. How's yours?

People have been looking at me a bit weird this last week because I'm on a diet of sorts. Now if you know me, you know that I am already rather slender. But here's the thing: I don't want to lose weight. I actually want to gain weight.  I just want to lose a few centimetres around the places that matter - IE, my hips, bottom and thighs - but I'm exercising really hard to gain some muscle to make up for it.

So, I'm having my Herbalife shake for breakfast and for lunch - to lose the wobbly bits - but adding some protein to the shake so that my body is equipped to build up some lean muscles. Something like this...

I'll bet she has no wobbly bits.

Ha ha! I'm sorry, that was uncalled for. Now you'll have to Google search "Puppies" and "Bunnies" to try get that image out of your head. With all due respect to female body builders, who work exceptionally hard to get where they are.... I guess it's just not everyone's cup of tea. Or coffee. Even cold coffee. To her credit, she does have a beautiful face, and she'd be an amazing addition to The Avengers team.

In other news... I've been listening to Justin Timberlake lately. (What?! That is news! When have I ever liked R&B?!)

Well, this is the point in the coffee date where the coffee is gone, and conversation is awkwardly silent. You've not said a word, and quite honestly left all the hard work up to me.

*Smiles*
*Hugs*
We really must do this again sooner!
*Smiles again* Gosh, my cheeks are hurting.
No I'll call you, I promise! Do stay in touch!

Ok, bye!
*Smiles*

Bye!

The Flying Scissors, and being generally flipping cool

Got new boxing gloves this week.

Golly, it's exciting. My old gloves were almost ten years old, and starting to cause a wrist injury. I used the new ones for the first time this evening, woweeeeeeeeee :) *happy dance*

So my gloves look kinda like this...

...Twins Special is a top brand in martial arts apparel, these particular gloves being hand-made from genuine leather in Thailand. They are used by professionals all over the world.

At one point this evening, I really felt like I had spontaneously become a more awesome boxer. I felt faster and stronger, my punches felt like they carried more weight, I thought my posture had improved and that maybe, just maybe, I looked as wicked-cool-dangerous as I feel when I'm boxing. Oh yeeeaaah, these gloves have definitely made me a more proficient boxer. Move out the way Ali, I'm about to float like a butterfly and sting  like a bee. 

So, I was well into my training this evening, and increasingly convinced that I have been transformed into the next Baby Jake. I've been working on a wicked combo for the past few weeks, one that I've nicknamed "The Flying Scissors". It sounds dangerous, doesn't it? Yes. I'm impressed too. My husband assures me that it is rather intimidating to watch as well. I don't care that he's biased and trying to win brownie points.

The Flying Scissors consists of a back-hand, followed closely by a some weird kung fu sweeping backhand by the other hand. I then use the momentum from this sweeping motion to perform one final, lethal, spinning backhand with the same hand that delivered the first back-hand. Ok, I know I've lost you, but essentially, it's three back-hands one after the other in a Tekken-style spinning motion, probably highly illegal in most martial arts, and very aggressive. And it feels pretty flipping cool.

This particular combo requires several things that I naturally fall short of...
Grace. (usually bestowed on those who don't habitually trip over their own feet)
Hand-eye coordination. (not the kind where you hit yourself in the eye - that's the kind I do have)
Balance. (Yeah, right!)
Aim. (There's nothing quite as awkward and humiliating as missing the punching bag at full speed.. Doh!)

Being the clumsy, nerdy girl I am, I was quite surprised this evening to find myself delivering the Flying Scissors with such grace, coordination, balance and aim. Such precision. Wow. If I were my punching bag, I would have been profoundly terrified of me.

If I had known that my intrinsic clumsiness could be cured with a new pair of boxing gloves, I would have acquired these a long time ago.  I officially feel kick-ass cool.

For now anyways.


Bruce Lee: Fear not the man who has practiced a thousand kicks once; but the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times.

If Looks Could Kill

I have once before mentioned that I am not a nice person without sleep. (read more about that here) I have been awake since 02h30 this morning. After a meager 4 hours of sleep, my brain decided it was time to tear my eyes open and start thinking. I had a long debate with my brain and fought over control of my eyes, but my brain, far more clever than I, won the argument, and so by 03h30 I was up and about, finding ways to waste time before getting ready for work.

It comes as no surprise therefore, that I am not my usual cheerful self. No, I'm not in a bad mood, per se, but I would venture to say that I'm just not ready for a civil conversation as yet. I may become ready after the tenth or perhaps eleventh cup of coffee. This, despite my 2012 resolution to give up caffeine. Hmm.

I don't know how many of you have watched Twilight (the first one, yes) and can recall the scene in which Edward Cullen appears just in time to save Bella Swan from a group of nasty thugs... If you're a man, you'll know it as the scene where he swings that Volvo around in the most impressive J-turn. For us ladies, we remember "The Look".

The Look is the expression that Edward Cullen wore when staring down the thugs - the dark eyes, almost burning a hole right through the thug's face with a smoldering blackness pouring out of his gaze. It's a look that says, "One more move, and I. Will. Kill. You."

I have always been fascinated by The Look, and have spent years trying to master it. Unfortunately, many failed attempts have resulted in me just appearing sulky. Or petulant. My husband tells me that I look about as dangerous as an angry kitten, and instead of being terrifying, i'm just adorable enough to pat on the head and say, "Aaah shame, she's angry!'

Anyways, back to today. I'm usually a very chilled person in traffic. Cut me off, I don't mind. If you don't endanger my life, I won't bat an eyelid. Do what you want, I'm a duck, and you're literally slipping off my back.
Not today. In my sleep-deprived state today, I happen to care. As a young gentleman in a polo discovered the hard way.

Two lanes of traffic, moving the same speed (slow). I leave a half-car length in front of me to be safe, and polo-dude decides to cut me off, just to see if my lane is moving a smidgen faster than his. Two seconds. He looks in his rearview mirror. Split-second. He's back in the other lane.

What.... just... happened...? Is it possible...? Yes...? I'd like to think that for the first time, I have managed to master The Look. I'd like to believe that polo-dude was utterly intimidated by the chilling, cold-hearted murderous-ness in my eyes... Oh, the power...!

Fear me, Fellow Inhabitants! Feeeaaaarrrr mmeeeeeeeeee.

TODAY

Feeling a bit rattled this morning. Was stuck in slow-moving traffic on my way to work which, as it turns out, was the result of a hit and run. Some poor dude seems to have been hit on the shoulder of the road, lying twisted in the dirt and bleeding. What a disturbing sight. It must have just happened, because there were no emergency vehicles on the scene, and one police car was just arriving.

There was a handful of people standing around. Just standing around, I couldn’t understand it. Why weren’t they helping him? Why weren’t they trying to check his vitals? Wasn’t there something they could do? Anything at all? My mind was racing, should I stop? Should I pull over and help? Even now I wonder if I should have, could have… just done something…?

I reasoned with myself that the police would know what to do, and drove on.

In hindsight, I realize that the only real reason why a handful of humans would stand by in idleness is that their fellow human on the road was probably already gone. Already too late.

It occurred to me how upset I was. I, a stranger, shedding a tear in my car for a nameless man on the side of the road. I, with nothing invested in this man, mourning his death. It made me think… How much more must God’s heart ache, break, be ripped open, for this man, whom he created, loved, died for, pursued, obsessed over…? How Big is the Love of Papa, for His Beloved!

Fellow Inhabitants of this beautiful, tragic planet, be grateful for your today, for someone else did not get to have it. Say “I love you” to the people you care about. Do something good. Be kind to people around you. Smile at others. Make today count. 

Say Hello...

I've been thinking a lot about Moses lately. The guy had an interesting life, to say the least.

The funny thing is that if you read about Moses' adventures in the Bible, he wasn't always such a pleasant or willing chap. I get the feeling that he was a bit of a short-tempered grouch, and prone to go off on his own little tangents.
When raised up as one of the most powerful men in Egypt, He got mad with someone and killed an Egyptian.
When God instructed him to simply touch the rock in the desert with his staff, he got mad with someone and hit the rock.
When he came off the mountain from a meeting with God, he got mad with someone and smashed God's freshly-inscribed commandments onto the ground.
He was always getting mad with someone and then doing something stupid in his anger. 

Anyways, it's an absolute wonder that God managed to reign in this wild man, and do something useful with him. Clearly it wasn't Moses' own eloquence and bravado that made him the great man that we know in history......?

No. I believe it was one thing.

Relationship.

I am fascinated by the relational encounters that Moses had with God, in a time where relationship with the Great Yahweh was not something someone sought after. In fact, the Israelites feared God,which is why they chose to have a mediator, instead of hearing God's voice themselves...... Moses was that mediator. (Exodus 20 vs 18-19) 
And I think to myself, why on earth would a person choose to put anything or anyone between themselves and God...? Remember, this was before the Ark of the Covenant, and before the Tabernacle, which are two concepts that only resulted after Moses' ascent up Mount Sinai. They still had the choice of hearing that Almighty Voice for themselves.


Moses must have had a terrifying time of things. Burning bushes. Blinding light while being wedged into a rock. Storms on a mountaintop. And yet, because of his relationship with God, Moses knew His Gentleness enough to be able to encourage the Israelites, "Do not be afraid...." (Ex. 20 vs 20)


I'm just rambling really, I just love the trusting relationship that this simple human being had with a Big, Almighty, Booming-voice, Glorious God.... I was listening to a special song this morning, and what I was really pondering over was the fact that Moses was instructed to remove his sandals at the burning bush, because he was standing on holy ground. And I know that it's generally accepted that removing one's shoes on supposedly holy ground is meant to be a sign of reverence or respect, even fear. But what if....... what if.........


What if God just wanted Moses to take his sandals off, and... connect. To be intimate with God Almighty. To touch the ground that Yahweh Himself is touching. What if it had nothing to do with reverence, and everything to do with relationship.......? 


Oh, I'd like to think so. I really would. In fact, I think I do.......


Jonathan David Helser sings...... 


"I've seen I Am,
And now I know I am loved......"

Listen to the rest of these powerful words HERE. And while you do, I hope you will allow yourself to dream, Fellow Inhabitant of this Planet: Dream that despite yourself, there is a Big, Almighty, Booming-voice, Glorious God who wants to meet...... with you.

Why don't you turn around....... Take your shoes off. Say hello.

Lighting the Fire

One recent Friday night, I went out with a group of friends for a "ladies night out".Those who know me well will know that I'm not a late-night party girl. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been clubbing, and for the most part, I'd rather be at home, curled up next to my husband reading a book or writing a blog. Nevertheless, ladies night was most enjoyable, and we had fun. 

On the Saturday morning after Ladies Night, having downed a strong cup of coffee, I had the pleasure of meeting up with someone to discuss a combination of future plans: a concoction of entrepreneurship, ministry, charities, initiatives, business... We talked for hours about what seemed like endless opportunities to reach the world, and I was astounded by the ideas and inspirations that was just pouring out of this person. I couldn’t help but walk away from this meeting with my head swimming in renewed passion for the dreams that God places in His childrens’ hearts, and had to spend that Sunday recovering from it all. And so it was, that I was struck by the enormous contrast between that Friday night and that Saturday.

Friday night was a night of self-indulgence, self-satisfaction, making ourselves feel happy with dancing and laughter. This self-indulgence was... well, just fun. But it left no lasting impression on my soul, no desire to change the world, and it rendered me more than a little bit tired the next day.

Now, I’m not saying that there's no time in life for fun – there definitely should be. But Saturday… Wow, Saturday lit a fire in my soul. I felt so uplifted, inspired, and hungry for more of that. Hungry to spend more time in the presence of people who share this love, this passion, this desperate desire to seek God and His Kingdom.  I felt as though I had been to the most anointed fellowship service, the kind that leaves a permanent mark on your heart. It made me feel alive.

What is this blaze inside me, that when it’s fueled, it threatens to all but consume me?

A fire for the lost.

For the broken and desperate.

For the sick.

And a fire for even those who seem to have it all together, yet deep down, they too wrestle with their own inner demons of discouragement and weariness.

How can I possibly live my life and ignore this burning?

  

Jeremiah 20:9 

But if I say, “I will not mention his word, or speak anymore in his name,” His word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.

My pastor recently shared the parable that Jesus tells of 10 virgins with oil lamps. (Matthew 25). In those days, the virgins were like the "bridesmaids". They were to help the bride prepare herself for marriage, and would also watch for the Groom's arrival. In this parable, it is said that the Groom was "a long time in coming" - he was delayed. And so the virgins lit their lamps, and waited for him. 

Inevitably, they fell asleep, and in verse 7, when a cry rang out that the Groom was nearby, we are told that "all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps." 

There is so much more that can be said from this parable, but in essence, I feel like I am waking up from a deep slumber. I'm a bit dazed and confused. I don't really know where the Groom is coming from, or where He wants me to be. I only know that He is coming for His Bride - and He wants me to help prepare Her for Him. What a humbling realization. In my heart, I am searching for kindred spirits who are also awakening to the Groom's call on their lives, people like me who long to serve Him. 

That Saturday that I spent in the presence of a fellow visionary, was like a voice ringing in my soul: He is coming! I must rub the sleep from my eyes, and light my lamp. Look for Him, seek His face, and receive His guidance. I don't know where we are going, and if I must be honest, that's an intimidating thought. 

But I have decided to go with Him. 

Will you? Will you allow the flame of God's love for His bride to ignite your insides, and burn so bright and so hot that you can't sleep anymore? 

I thought it fit to share this rocking-awesome track that kinda hit me between the eyes the other day. The words are so fitting, from start to finish, but one part really stands out: 

Come, spark the parts in me that all but died,

Jumpstart my heart, and wake the sleeper inside.

And here is the song for all you rockers out there, hope it inspires you. It's also a seriously awesome video, Fellow Inhabitants...

Ignition - by tobyMac

This article, and many others like it, can be found on the Above The Flame Blog page or Facebook page. Be Blessed. x

Steve Turner (who may or may not have been stoned) #3

Yes.
It is time for another moment of literary genius.
We are due for another Steve Turner gem.
Overdue, in fact.

SO. Here is a little something for a glorious Sunday like today...


Untitled - by Steve Turner

We say there is no God
   (quite easily)
when amongst the curving
steel and glass of our own
   proud creations.

They will not argue.

Once we were told of a
   heaven
but the last time we strained
   to look up
we could see only skyscrapers
shaking their heads
   and smiling no.

The pavement is reality.

We say there is no God
   (quite easily)
when walking back through
Man's concreted achievements
but on reaching the park
our attention is distracted
by anthems of birds coming
from the greenery.
We find ourselves shouting
a little louder now because
   of the rushing streams.
Our voices are rained upon by
   the falling of leaves.

We should not take our arguments
   for walks like this.
The park has absolutely no manners.


Peace out, Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet; may your ears be filled with the sounds of birds and falling leaves.

The Glass Half Full: Winter

These are my Winter pajamas...

I'm sharing this with you because I'm a glass-half-full kinda girl. (Most times.) We are now in July, more-or-less the heart of South African Winter. I despise the cold. Truly. But there are some things that I can bring myself to love about Winter. 

My pajamas, for one. Here, have a closer look - I took this so you could see just how soft they are...

Every night, I pull these out from under my pillow, I scrunch them up into my fists, and bury my face in them. It's like Winter therapy. 

There is always something to be grateful for. Always!

Stay warm Fellow Inhabitants! xxx

Rant of the Day: Existence Itself

Mundane. Mundane. It is all so mundane. 


We work to survive, only to survive so that we can work to survive. Fingers to the bone, we work, when do we get to live?
Fight, fight, we fight to have a place on this earth. Fight to pay our bonds, fight to pay for fuel to get to work to survive. Fight to eat, and fight to breathe, fight to wake up every morning. Fight, fight, I'm so tired of fighting. I just want to have the strength to help someone else for a change. 


There must be more than this.
There must be more! 


Ecclesiastes 1 vs 2
'Meaningless! Meaningless!' says the Teacher. 
'Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.'


So I dream. I dream of more. 
More time. 
More people. 
More ministry.
More peace.
More dreams. 


I dream of making dreams happen. I dream of leaving a footprint on this planet. Not a carbon footprint, a good footprint. 


Exodus 14 vs 14
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.


And then, when my dreams seem so far away, so unreachable, almost implausible... I feel frustrated, and I write depressing blogs that rant about the meaninglessness of every day existence. 


Existence, not life. 


Life is beautiful. 


Psalm 23 vs 5-6
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; 
My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me (pursue, chase, hunt me down)
all the days of my life (until the very last day, the day I die).
Forever. (Forever. And ever. Even after I die. Yes, even then.)


Where am I going? 
I don't know. 
But don't count me out yet fellow inhabitants of this planet, because I have a dream.

The Plans He Has For Me

I sat in church the other night, and I must have suddenly become tired or hungry or something. You see, when I'm tired or hungry, I become a very nasty person - anyone who knows me will testify to this. And as I sat in church, during the minister's sermon, I was just suddenly attacked by a seriously bad attitude.

The minister was giving a message on seeds, good soil, bad soil, birds and weeds - you may be familiar with the parable. But at one point, the minister asked the question, "Do you know what God wants you to do with your life? And are you doing it!?" 

Enter the Bad Attitude: "How should I know?! I don't know what He wants me to do, and I've been asking Him for years!!? How can you ask me that?!" 

Wow. My inner thoughts were like a slap in my own face. I'm quite sure that the Lord didn't fall off His throne in shock - He knows my heart better than I do - but I sure nearly fell off my own chair. Did I just think that?! Why haven't I been struck by lightning yet? 

Having recovered somewhat, I couldn't quite get my mind back on the pastor's sermon, and so I sat and chewed on the question for the remainder of the evening.

I have been feeling for quite some time now that something *B*I*G* is about to happen. In my mind, I see the Lord opening a door that I've dreamed of walking through, a door that I never thought would open for me. A door that I never even knew existed for me! I have no idea what is beyond this elusive door, but when I think of it, I'm filled with anticipation, excitement and gratitude. I can't wait to see how He's going to use me! But then... I get back into my reality, my daily life, and it all seems so... well... mundane. Frustrating. 

For a few months now, I keep being reminded of Joseph and his multi-coloured cloak. He was his father's favourite, and a dreamer. He dreamed of his brothers bowing before him. Then he dreamed of his brothers and his parents bowing before him. He dreamed of being a saviour and a ruler of the people. He knew that, despite being the youngest of 12 brothers, which already made him less significant as far as birthright goes, God had something huge for Him. He dreamed *B*I*G*. 

Ultimately, Joseph's brothers grew to hate him, and his parents rebuked him for his seemingly foolish dreams. He was abused and sold into slavery, and spent the next thirteen years of his life waiting for his dreams to materialize. Thirteen years! I'm quite certain that during those thirteen years of slavery, false accusations and imprisonment, Joseph must have grumbled about his destiny from time to time. Just the same way my heart did in church the other night. 

You see, I think that deep down I'm just afraid that my dreams are just that: dreams. And that I really will just live an insignificant life, leaving no legacy, making no footprint on this planet, having touched no lives, and perhaps scraping into Heaven by the skin of my teeth at the end of a very mundane existence. And that is why the pastor's question hit such a nerve last night: Do you know what God wants you to do, and are you doing it? 

Jeremiah 29v 11-14

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 YOU WILL SEEK ME and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”

People usually stop reading at verse 11, because all on it's own, that is such a "feel-good" verse. You don't really want to risk spoiling it by reading anything further. And yet, the first time that I read verses 12 and 13, I was absolutely floored. And then verse 14: "I will be found by you". WOW.

The minister's question made me uncomfortable, because I don't know what the Lord has planned for me, and until He chooses to reveal it to me, I am to wait, as Joseph waited. Thirteen years? Who knows. But what I do know is that the only way I will ever see my dreams come to pass is to look into His Face. It's extraordinary that He asks nothing more from us. No rituals. No demands. No animal sacrifices. Just for us to get to know Him. 

Seek My face. I will set you free. 

Seek My face. I will restore you.

Seek My face. I will make you a conqueror. 

Seek My face. I will unfold plans that you can only dream of. 

Seek Me. I will be found by you. 

And this is where it hit me: DO I know what God wants me to do? YES! Could it be that my ultimate calling in this life is to simply seek Father's face, and get to know Him? Everything else is secondary, and any *B*I*G* plans that come to pass are only the by-product of my relationship with the Almighty. That really simplifies things and takes the pressure off me, trying so hard to figure out what the Lord has in mind for me... as if I could dare read the mind of God.

It probably isn't the kind of answer that our minister was looking for, when he asked that thought-provoking question, but if I think about it: what an honour. If I spent the next thirteen years looking into His Face, getting to know Him, it could be the most adventurous, wonderful thirteen years of my life

Psalm 20v5:

Many, O LORD my God, are the wonders you have done. The things you planned for us no one can recount to you; were I to speak and tell of them, they would be too many to declare.

This article, and many others like it, can be found on the Above The Flame Blog page or Facebook page. Be Blessed. x

Nobody Puts Baby in a Corner

I just curled up on the couch for two hours and became a teenage girl again. 


As a young girl, I used to believe that somehow, by some irrational misfortune, I was born into the wrong era. Because I have grown up with the love of music deeply intertwined into my soul, and such a great part of this love was for the likes of the Righteous Brothers and the Beatles, surely I was supposed to be born into the 1950's and 60's? What went wrong? How on earth on did I land up being born in 1984?


Anyway, I've learned to embrace my era, the late 80's rock, the crazy 90's and now the ultra-cool 00's. But still... sometimes I still think about those golden years, at the birth of rock and roll. The greased back hair.. the puffy skirts... the dance halls alive with swing... Girls waiting to be asked to dance... Boys learning to be gentlemen... And I still wish, with a tiny part of me, that I'd been born thirty years earlier. 


Tonight I watched "Dirty Dancing" again. Admittedly, it's an 80's movie, but so well-set in the 60's era - it really made me smile. Now I'd never watched Dirty Dancing until I was around 23 years old, so you must know, it's still a novelty for me, even now after watching it a few times since then. You see, beforehand, even just the phrase "dirty dancing" might have made me blush, never mind the actual dancing itself. But from the first moment that I watched it, I fell in love with it, as have so many women before me. 

The idea that an innocent young lamb of a girl could fall so deeply in love with a troubled bad-boy, and with her wonder-filled, soulful eyes and unscathed ideals, pull him out of the pit of nothingness that has become his life. 
And likewise, the idea of this dangerously sexy man becoming obsessed with a naive, timid girl, to the point where he can do nothing but leave all his foolishness behind in order to dote on her, protect her, and teach her to dance. And to "let go".


You see, every girl wants to be Baby. And the thing that makes me love this movie so much is that I have always felt a lot like Baby did. As a teenager, I was always such a good girl. So well behaved, so well-meaning. So afraid of letting people down. I was geeky, nerdy, incredibly clumsy, awkward, hopeless at socializing, and I couldn't dance. I was nice, and people liked me. But I wasn't ever popular, and that's made me feel... forgettable. 


And that's what I've come to love so much about Baby, is that she changes from the girl that I've always felt like, into all the things a girl wants to be...


Brave.
The apple of someone's eye.
Someone worth fighting for.
Bold.
Sexy.
Self-assured.
Willing to stick up for others even at her own cost.
Loved intensely.
Desired. 
Someone who can dance without abandon.




Yes, every girl wants to be Baby. And it's got nothing to do with dancing with a ripped 1980's Patrick Swayze, although that wouldn't hurt. 


Just sayin. 


So anyways, I'm feeling all fuzzy inside, and thought I'd share two of my favourite scenes:


Of course the one is the legendary "Last Dance" of the movie, which is fun and heart-warming... and what a timeless song!


But even more so, I'm just crazy about the "Lover Boy" scene, which is simply adorable to watch. Over and over. And over. 


Anyways, wouldn't it be nice if we all had someone to be our Johnny or our Baby, someone who helps brings out the best in us? Someone who opens your eyes to all that you have to offer this world... and them. And that at the end of each day you could say... or sing...


I've had the time of my life...

Green Stuff and Grown-ups

  

I think I have officially grown up, as of today.

Strange things happen when you grow up. You stop colouring your hair outlandish colours, and you realize that goth punk is not suitable work attire. You stop mumbling and start speaking clearly.

Grown-up’s smile at people that they don’t even like, because that’s the civil thing to do.

Grown-up’s always announce their name when answering the phone, instead of just saying “Hello”, “Yo” or “’Sup”.

Grown-up’s cross their legs and sit up straight.

I’ve been showing signs of growing up for some time now. I’ve even shown symptoms of growing old.

But today, it finally happened. At the age of 27, I finally grew up.

You see, I have always had a desperate, deep-seated hatred of baby marrows. As a child, I even refused to learn the name of this repulsive vegetable, and only ever called it “green stuff”. It would literally make me gag at a dinner table, and my skin would crawl as I attempted to swallow it. In my mind, baby marrows were something that parents and grown-ups ate, for reasons unknown and unfathomable to me.

In fact, as a child I found it most fitting that my beloved, favourite book, Roald Dahl’s The Big Friendly Giant, had aptly captured a similarly despicable veggie in the form of the BFG’s most reviled food, the abhorrent “Snozzcumber”, which was shaped conspicuously like a marrow, and must have tasted much the same too. BFG had nothing else to eat, but Snozzcumbers, poor chap.

But today, I ate not only one, but a generous portion of mushy baby marrows, the loathsome “green stuff”… and enjoyed it. Savoured it. I think I even went “Mmmm!”.

A moment of silence for my childhood.

Yes.  I’m a grown-up now, for sure. 

Jonathan David and Melissa Helser Band

This "band" visited our church last week - I put the word band in inverted comma's, because they are so much more than just that: They are carriers of God's revelation. Revelation of His immense, heartbreaking Love, of His everlasting Goodness and Mercy... No words can describe the wonderful tidal wave of worship that Jonathan and Melissa Helser carry with them wherever they raise their music. 


I thought I'd share some words of theirs, which I've taken from Jonathan David Helser's blog - This is what the Lord whispered to Jonathan in a moment of worship. What a beautiful thought. What a beautiful knowledge. God is up to something. I just know it. 

Look at the nations

I'm gonna do something 

Great in your days

You wouldn't believe it

Even if I told you

Watch and be amazed

I want these dreams, Even more than you

Faith is when, you believe that I do

In these days, you will say, I didn't know God could be so good

Go ahead and try Me

You can ask

For anything you want

But I promise 

That I am gonna

Give you more than you ever thought

In these days, you will say, I didn't know God could be so good

-Jonathan David Helser

 - Check out Jonathan and Melissa's website for more info on their visions and ministry -

Rant of the Day: The Droids are Coming!

It's a Monday morning, 06h30, and a public holiday - Easter Monday to be precise. It's been a long weekend, consisting of Friday, Saturday, Sunday and today. And I have a serious bone to pick with the universe. We're talking a femur-sized bone, a big one.


I have not been able to sleep late, not once over this weekend, no not once. Technology, it seems, has raised it's ugly head, and all those people who have been prophesying about droids taking over the world... well, in my sleep-deprived state, I'm starting to believe it's true.


Thursday evening, it was with great glee and self-satisfaction that I turned off my alarm, and asked hubby to do the same - which he assured me he would do. And into bed I snuggled, might I reiterate with great glee and self-satisfaction, looking forward to sleeping in, and allowing my body to wake up naturally, no beeping, no twittering, no nothing. Sigh.


Friday morning, what should wake us up, but hubby's phone alarm - this, at 06h45, only an hour later than his usual alarm. There aren't many words to describe the internal inferno that took place in my heart, as the imaginings of boiling his phone alive as it screamed for mercy took over my mind. Once sufficiently cooled down, I managed to politely ask "What alarm was that?!" He responded as though stating the obvious, which I should have known, that "It's my public holiday alarm... you know, so I can get up and do stuff."


What....????? Is......?????? A public holiday alarm.......????????? Surely, something that defeats the whole purpose of a public holiday? Moving along, I couldn't fault hubby for his productive nature, and so I consoled myself that I still had three mornings of this long weekend, and I would surely get a nice lie in out of at least one of them.


Saturday morning. 04h00 AM. The house alarm goes off, signalling that a passive outside has been triggered by movement. To the panic stations!! Hubby is up as quick as lightning, running from window to window, huffing and and puffing the sleep out of his system. This window, that window, back to the alarm panel to check again which passive it was, back to the window. Of course, I was equally concerned for our safety, and so I chose to remain in bed and... well, pray. I'm not sure I prayed very much for our safety, because I recall praying more that the alarm system would spontaneously go up in flames leaving us in eternal peace forevermore, to sleep for as friggin' long as we so please...
As is custom with me when I'm woken up anytime after 03h00 AM, I couldn't really get back to sleep, so I lay, and had a staring-competition with the alarm panel, seeing the evil lurk behind those red little LED's... Quite sure I saw the hint of a sinister smile, it was at this point that I started to realize that perhaps technology has got it in for us after all...


Sunday morning, hubby had arranged to have a gardener come in for the day, and do some work. At 06h45. Sigh. Having been forewarned of this, I was neither surprised, and only a little bothered by the alarm going off. And as such, I was able to drift back into a light, pleasant slumber. Which was disturbed five minutes later by hubby's phone ringing, the gardener's way of letting us know that he was waiting outside our gate. I managed to maintain a exterior of absolute cool and calm, but if I must be honest, my insides were boiling and bubbling, and all but evaporating out of my ears, as I plotted the cell phone's demise once more. I've decided that boiling alive is too merciful for such an evil, it must be pulled apart piece by piece. By piece. By little piece. Yeeeessss.


So it was with gentle persistence that I informed hubby last night that there are to be no phone alarms on this, our final day of the long weekend. He wholeheartedly agreed, and together we gushed about how wonderful it would be to sleep in and wake up... naturally! On this united front, we went to bed....


At some point during the night, our house alarm started beeping in a frenzy, signalling not that there is an intruder, but rather that the power has gone off. Yes. The &@#* alarm wakes you up to tell you that the %^&@*$* power is off. Why, thank you Alarm, I can now lie awake and ponder the future of this country, and what it will be like when we all run out of fossil fuels and have to run to work on foot and rely on the sunshine alone to warm up our geysers and when we all go to bed when the sun sets and there's no more TV and wait.... NO MORE FRIGGIN ALARMS GOING OFF FOR NO APPARENT REASON.....


*deep breathing exercises*


Somehow, I don't know how, but somehow, through the hissing steam coming out of my ears, I managed to fall asleep again, and found comfort in the fact that I could still enjoy a lie in this morning... until 06h00. Which is the time that hubby's phone made a rather cute little chirp. It wasn't an alarm, nor phone call, nor a message, and the total length of the chirp couldn't have been more than three seconds. In fact, it sounded what I would imagine to be technology's equivalent of a little giggle.


As little as the sound was, it was all that was needed....

You woke me up... You better be on fire or something...

And so it is that I'm once again awake. And now that hubby's phone is laughing at me outright, quite certain that technology is making it's first advances on warfare with humankind, using the stealthy strategy of sleep-deprivation, until we are all nothing more than cussing, crazy-eyed, hollow people, having incinerated our own insides with fury and desperation....

Keep your bloodshot eyes open, Fellow Inhabitants of this Planet, they're coming for us!!!!