inbetween places

We spent a few hours looking for a home again today. Nothing seems quite right - either they are in a bad location or too small or too much money or there is no parking or they already have an offer on them or they need a lot of work. Sigh. I love change and I get all excited about moving, but that slippery in-between time when I don't know where we will land and I just hope no one will break a leg when we do...well, let's just say I sometimes lose sight of the long term and become less than the incredibly fun and positive and faith-filled person that Matte can be.

Here are 2 exercises that have shored up my hope and helped keep the meltdowns to a minimum this past week or two.

1. I fast from the house search. Yesterday I did not research any properties nor think about houses at all. It is an exercise that plainly says to my soul, "Your effort is not the biggest factor in this equation. God is your provider. Period." Oh, and one is not allowed to fret or worry about the future on fast days as well. I am only allowed to celebrate all the good things in my life right now!

2. I regularly read the Biblical handbook on real estate, Jeremiah. Really, who knew there was so much good stuff about things breaking and being restored and buying property and moving and not worrying about it all in this book? Here are a few samples:

Make yourselves at home there and work for the country's welfare. If things go well for Babylon (insert your adopted place of residence here), things will go well for you. -Jeremiah 29

I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out - plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. -Jeremiah 29

Look. The time is coming when I will turn everything around for my people, both Israel and Judah. I, God, say so. I'll bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors and they'll take up ownership again. -Jeremiah 30

I've never quit loving you and never will. Expect love, love and more love! And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again...you'll go back to your old work of planting vineyards...and sit back and enjoy the fruit. -Jeremiah 31

Set up signposts to mark your trip home. Get a good map. study the road conditions. The road out is the road back. -Jeremiah 31

So I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I paid him seventeen silver shekels. I followed all the proper procedures: in the presence of witnesses I wrote out the bill of sale, sealed, it, weighed out the money on the scales...Life is going to return to normal. Homes and fields and vineyards are again going to be bought in this country. -Jeremiah 32

Stay alert! I am God, the God of everything living. Is there anything I can't do? -Jeremiah 32

Yes, people will buy farms again, and legally, with deeds of purchase, sealed documents, proper witnesses... I will restore everything that was lost. -Jeremiah 32

But now take another look. I'm going to give this city a thorough renovation, working a true healing inside and out. I'm going to show them life whole, life brimming with blessings. I'll restore everything that was lost...I'll build everything back as good as new. -Jeremiah 33

The motto for this city will be, "God has set things right for us." -Jeremiah 33

Look, the whole land stretches out before you. Do what you like. Go and live wherever you wish. Jeremiah...made his home with...the people who were left behind in the land. -Jeremiah 40

If you are ready to stick it out in this land, I will build you up and not drag you down, I will plant you and not pull you up like a weed....Your fears are for nothing. I'm on your side, ready to save and deliver you from anything he (king of Babylon) might do. I'll pour mercy on you. What's more, he will show you mercy! -Jeremiah 42

This is a photo I took on the ferry, travelling between Hudson and Oka.

Names of God

The Hebrew word "YHWH" (read from right to left) This past Sunday I gave a talk on the Names of God, the beginning of a series on this topic. This first talk was to be a gentle introduction so I thought it wouldn't take too many hours of preparation. Well, I quickly discovered that the research is almost bottomless; every time I thought I had a somewhat definitive list of names, I found another source which added a few more or gave a different twist on some of the names I had already come across. After several hours I was getting overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data (and that was only looking at the Hebrew Bible). I wondered how I could present this to people in an orderly and accessible fashion and within a reasonable time frame. Not everyone is up for a 3-hour lecture crammed full of detail on a Sunday morning. So I took a break and spent a bit of time meditating on this problem and asking the Spirit for guidance. And then I thought that being overwhelmed by Go

it's a mad mad mad world (of theology)

The mad dash for the end of term has begun. I have finished all my required readings and have jumped into research reading. One of my papers is on the madness of theology (the correlation seems more obvious to some of us than to others). Truly inspiring stuff, I am finding. Let me share a few quotes here: There is a certain madness in Christianity – in a desert God who is jealous and passionate, in a saviour who speaks in apocalyptic terms, in a life of sacrificial love, in the scandal of particularity. In principle, a confessional theology should bear the mark of this madness, but the mark or wound must constantly be renewed. - Walter Lowe, "Postmodern Theology" in The Oxford Handbook of Systematic Theology , 2007. “In the Scriptures the odd phenomena constituting the ‘Kingdom of God’ are the offspring of the shock that is delivered by the name of God to what is there called the ‘world,’ resulting in what I call a ‘sacred anarchy.’ Consider but a sampling o

comedic timing

Comic by Joel Micah Harris at xkcd.com One of my favourite jokes goes like this: Knock, knock. Who's there? Interrupting cow Interrupting cow w--- Moooooooo!! Timing is important in both drama and comedy. A well-paced story draws the audience in and helps it invest in the characters, while a tale too hastily told or too long drawn out will fail to engage anyone. Surprise - something which interrupts the expected - is a creative use of timing and integral to any good story. If someone is reading a novel and everything unfolds in a predictable manner, they will probably wonder why they bothered reading the book. And so it is in life. Having life be predictable all of the time is not as calming as it sounds. We love surprises, especially good surprises like birthday parties, gifts, marriage proposals, and finding something that we thought was lost. Surprises are an important part of humour. A good joke is funny because it goes to a place you didn't expect it to go. Sim

outWORD by Matte Downey

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