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Delight and Desire
Jul 22nd
A common passage. A treasured promise, for me and many others.
Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4 NIV)
Have you noticed the focus often placed on “… he will give you…”? Because we want the desires of our heart. I know I sure do.
But…
The other part comes first… “Delight yourself in the Lord and…”
They are not disconnected, as much as we try to do that. It is more like ’cause and effect’.
So, if I am sitting around expecting the desires of my heart to materialise without delighting myself in the Lord then I might as well keep on dreaming.
Placing our primary focus on God is ridiculously difficult because we really just want to focus on self. When we delight in the Lord there is no room to delight in self because God is just soooo big.
And what of the desires of our heart? He’ll place the best and truest ones within it, while we’re busy looking at Him most likely, and then He’ll delight in giving those desires to us.
You know, it does make sense. After all, it is the desire of His heart for us to delight in Him, to know and love Him.
Just some Thursday morning thoughts as I wake up… in more ways than one.
Overnight successes and dreams of all shapes and sizes
Jul 8th
Have you ever heard that overnight successes often take years to come to fruition? Usually accompanied by lots of hard work and hard knocks.
Tonight I was thinking that, even with all of that long and winding road of an experience, there must always come a point where it’s the figurative “night before”. What does that make it — Overnight Success Eve? I don’t know. Whatever we try to call or not call it, there is always that moment even if we cannot recognize it.
So, is it the same with dreams? Sometimes we wait an awfully long time wondering if a dream will come to pass or fall by the wayside. Sometimes we can “make our dreams come true”. A good friend recently said something to this effect: a dream becomes a goal only when we set the plan in motion to achieve it. I liked that thought very much. It puts the responsibility and the accountability to me to DO SOMETHING. Oh initiative…
But sometimes there isn’t much we can do with our dreams but wait. Watch. Pray. Be patient. Wonder. Worry. Forget. Remember. Dream some more. And sometimes we find out that our dream isn’t actually the dream we thought it was. Maybe we’re not fully aware of the dream yet. Perhaps it’s not fully formed in our mind’s eye. Or maybe God’s got something in mind that we can’t even handle yet, so that part of the dream is not revealed to our hearts until the time is right.
Whatever the journey is right now, whatever the dream – big or small, we can rest assured that (as another friend said, and I re-quote frequently) God wastes nothing. If you believe Him to be the God of all the details (and I definitely do) then you get this statement. He will put all our experiences to use – especially when we let Him.
And just think…
like with the overnight successes… one morning we could wake up to find a day where a dream or two will come true. The sleep might have been fitful or beautifully restful, but the morning brings word of His unfailing love. And with that the hope of dreams realised.
Remote control woes resolved
Jan 2nd
For much of the last day, I have been trying to figure out how to make the new living room “entertainment system” setup work all on a single remote. Part of the problem I’ll blame on the TV being an Olevia and reading tons and tons of negative stories about how the thing cannot be programmed easily with other remotes. I read and read, came up with other ways to approach the problem from, etc. Looked for seemingly non-existent remote codes for Olevia TVs.
Then… I turned the Rogers cable remote control over. www.urcsupport.com was listed under the instructions that did me no good. But I hadn’t been to that site yet, so I thought I would try.
BEST THING I ever could have done in this situation! Found out the Olevia TV code for my remote was 1610… promptly learned that I could control the power and volume from the cable remote, and rejoiced in my victory. Looks like a useful site for people trying to simplify down to a single remote. Hopefully it helps somebody else out there!
Cultivating a spirit of thankfulness
Dec 29th
Once upon a time when things were rough but blogging was something I had a lot of time for, I used to blog with spurts of thankfulness. I would make out lists of things I was grateful for or about, even in the midst of a cruddy day. I would write up amusing little things to cover the day’s highlights, the little surprises and the normal things – most often with a positive spin.
I may be some kind of master of spin. I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not… but if it is the case, I like to think it can be used for good…. seeeee? SPIN! 
Even so, one thing lacking in me lately has been a spirit of thankfulness. And what better way to get cultivating that again than to count blessings and give thanks to the Giver of those blessings.
Let’s give it a go… Great things from the last 24 hours.
> Going out to lunch with a friend I rarely spend much time talking with face-to-face.
> Knowing that I have 5 days off once I get through my current work assignment.
> Being smart enough to wear an extra layer or two today.
> Getting happy emails from good friends.
> Recalling happy memories and thoughts of good friends.
> Nice tunes to push me through the work before me…
Work… back to work… but yes, that helped.
Here I am tonight.
Sep 5th
The truth is that it can be quite difficult to blog after a lengthy absence. There are decisions to be made. Do I blog as though no time has elapsed or attempt to explain the blogging hiatus? Do I try to say something profound or timely or is it most important to just say something…. anything…. to get the blogging juices flowing once again? Do I promise to never leave the blogosphere again or opt to make no such indication of when I might create another post after this one?
The truth is that it can be quite difficult to blog at anytime. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say… or whether it really matters that I tried a curried egg experiment or saw the Houston space cow at the airport. Sometimes I figure I live in a virtual world too often as it is… should I really share oodles of thoughts virtually as well? Is there any value to those thoughts anyway? Sometimes I wonder if I should share personal experiences about things I’ve done or things I’m living through… if people in “real life” want to hear it any more than people in online life, or are they all the same people anyway?
The truth is that it can be quite difficult to figure myself out as it is. So should I really do that online? Should I stick to weather and music and the occasional computer geeky thing with a splash of theological thought thrown in? Should I dissect myself for all to see? Or does the weather and music and computer geeky and theological thought do that enough on its own?
I don’t know. Lately I have found out that I don’t know much, but a few folk here and there seem to have the impression that I actually do. And yet I know less now than I ever did before. And this isn’t just the rapid decline in my memory or fact retention that I’ve witnessed in the last year. (Funny how I remember THAT! Would be nice to not realise I used to be a better remember-er… even if I wasn’t that great at it to begin with!)
Things in life are overwhelming for me right now. Little things. Big things. Most every thing. I’m really hoping that it’s just a phase. And even if there is no hope of that, I keep hoping just the same! So, maybe I will want to blog about some of those things. Or maybe I will want to avoid all of those things completely and just type something that may be slightly of interest just because I enjoy words. Or maybe not.
But here I am tonight. In my home in Guelph. Dreaming of a great many things. Possibly worrying about a great many more. Definitely wanting things I should not have. And needing things that are already within my grasp, but I somehow forget to close my grip.
This is September. This is Donna. Still livin’, people. Yes indeedy.
Snack: Curried egg
Mar 30th
I was hungry. I wanted a snack for one. Here’s what I did:
Small fry pan on the stove top at a medium heat.
Add a bit of butter.
Add some chopped onion.
Add a healthy amount of curry powder on top.
Stir.
Add some broken up pecans, almonds.
Keep stirring.
Toss in a little bit of sugar.
Let it all blend together.
Crack a medium-small egg into a small dish and beat.
Add a splash or two of milk to the egg.
Combine the egg and milk.
Add the egg-milk mixture to the fry pan.
Mix all the ingredients, and allow enough time to cook egg to the desired consistency.
Tonight I pretty much creamed the egg, as opposed to simply scrambling or frying it.
I also chose to serve my crazy curried creamed egg along with one of my favourite egg accompaniments… don’t laugh too hard: cottage cheese!
This odd combination of eggs and cottage cheese was something I stumbled across on my own a number of years ago and it has remained a funny little favourite. It is especially good when the eggs are hot but the cottage cheese is cold. Although, cottage cheese works well as an omlette filling, either heated up or cold.
By the way, the egg experiment tonight? Very goooood. Mmmmmm.
Location: Guelph
Mar 20th
Tonight I am in Guelph. I am in my room sitting on my bed. Probably blogging and chatting online while I should asleep instead. Soon enough that will come.
I am reading a super great book right now. Normally I wouldn’t go on too much about a book before I finish reading, but I have no concerns about this one. The book is called “Springtime Of The Soul” and it is written by Carole Hamm. Carole’s book came into our possession after a stay at her family run hotel in Lewisburg, PA last summer. The name of the hotel is the Country Cupboard Inn and each room has a complimentary copy waiting for each new set of visitors.
My mom devoured the book while we were there and many months later I am making my own way through it. The subtitle of the book is “A season of spiritual renewal and growth”. It’s a well timed read for me. I need something that is restorative and retreat-like in nature, as I have had to skip two retreat-type weekends in a row this month due to an annoying and nagging bug that just won’t let go.
My mom also has turned into a major supplier of sorts, circulating copies of this book to a number of others. And I see why now. I might just be finding myself doing the same in the not too far off future.
I don’t intend this blog post to be a book review. It is not organised or deep enough in nature to be that. But I do recommend this book already. And maybe I will launch into a book review? Who knows!
As for life in general, no recent trips but a few things coming up. And hopefully some other things worth mentioning at some point. But regardless, I hope to keep writing. I need to be doing this again. If nothing else, it will help later on when I’m finding myself farther afield.
Until the next time… O Live, People!
