Puny branches and sufficient roots

I love, love, love this excerpt from a letter written by Hudson Taylor to his sister.

Thanks to Ron Block over at The Rabbit Room for sharing.

Now if I can figure out how to stencil this whole thing on my ceiling...

“…I felt assured that there was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was - how to get it out. He was rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak. I knew full well that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into my puny little branch was the question.

As gradually light dawned, I saw that faith was the only requisite - was the hand to lay hold on His fulness and make it mine. But I had not this faith.

I strove for faith, but it would not come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fulness of our precious Saviour, my guilt and helplessness seemed to increase.

Sins committed appeared but as trifles compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or would not take God at His word, but rather made Him a liar! Unbelief was I felt the damning sin of the world; yet I indulged in it. I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was I to do? When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter…was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before.

(I quote from memory):

“But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One.” As I read I saw it all! “If we believe not, he abideth faithful.” I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed!) that He had said, “I will never leave thee.”

“Ah, there is rest!” I thought. “I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I’ll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?” And…He never will.
Nor was this all He showed me, nor one half.

As I thought of the Vine and the branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap, the fulness out of Him! I saw not only that Jesus will never leave me, but that I am a member of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, but all-root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit.

And Jesus is not that alone - He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more than we have ever dreamed, wished for, or needed. Oh the joy of seeing this truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding too may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.

…it is a wonderful thing to be really one with a risen and exalted Saviour, to be a member of Christ! Think what it involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left poor? or your head be well fed while your body starves?

Again, think of its bearing on prayer. Could a bank clerk say to a customer, “It was only your hand, not you that wrote that check”; or “I cannot pay this some to your hand, but only to yourself”? No more can your prayers or mine be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (i.e., not for the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are His, His members) so long as we keep within the limits of Christ’s credit - a tolerably wide limit!

The sweetest part…is the rest which full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything, as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him to consider than for me, for in the easiest position He must give me His grace, and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient.

It little matters to my servant whether I send him to buy a few cash worth of things, or the most expensive articles. In either case he looks to me for the money and brings me his purchases.

So if God should place me in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in places of great difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trial, much strength?

No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me."

Introducing the "My Teacher Has a Life?!" Series

It all began with my homeroom class going on a kick where they wanted to ask nonstop questions about my personal life (few of which I actually answered). They asked if they could write a paper on what they think my life is like outside school. After a brief moment of hesitation, I agreed.


Who was it that said seeing your teacher outside of school is like seeing a cat walk on its hind legs?

Letting 7th graders write about what they think my life is like outside school has opened a massive and hilarious can of worms. There should be more studies done on the 13 yr old brain. It's like they're constantly in a state of being high.

This is really the kind of thing I should post on Don't Test My Gangster, but it's just too long for that, I think.


So for the next 3oish days, in between lists, I'll share a few of these tasty morsels.


Installment #1

"Have you ever wondered what your teacher might do after school hours? I have. My name is ***** ******** and I am here to tell you three ways I think my teacher lives her life outside of school. My teacher's name is Miss H and she is my English teacher. I never really thought about it until I saw a show called iCarly. Carly, Sam, and Freddie went into their teacher's house and stayed for hours spying. Then they found out she was just a regular boring teacher who was in love with Randy Jackson and she worked out all the time.

I always thought Miss H was a spy. She always seems to appear out of the dark like Batman. One minute she's in her room the next BAM she's in the teacher's lounge making copies. After school she could put on a black suit and become a spy who climbs on walls and walks on the ceiling. Does she spy on the president or spy on the government and see what they might be hiding from the world? How does she appear from no where like that? I think Miss H is a spy. From now on I will call her Miss Darkness.

Miss H could also just sit at home and drink coffee all day and knit. Miss H is always up and walking real fast like she has to use the restroom or like a thousand ants are biting her butt. Through the whole school day I probably see her sit down twice. I always laugh at the way she walks super fast with her black cup. She smells like coffee; I tihnk it might be her favorite drink. If I ever found out that Miss H sits and knits all day I would just die of laughter. I never wanted a boring teacher because that is LAME.

Have I been wrong about my guesses? I don't know but I have one more. My teacher Miss H could be a rebel. When you're at school teachers and kids are supposed to act in a great attitude. Walk on one side of the hall and don't talk without permission (we really don't listen or walk on one side of the hall unless there is a fire drill, and that's only once every two months.) or you're in big trouble.


You never know what she could do after school hours. Miss H is from Mississippi so she could have did some bad things there like rob a bank or murder someone. Miss H could have changed her identity. Who knows, her name might really be Holly or Amanda. She could have a tattoo of her name or of a heart. If Miss H is a rebel I need to change schools now because she might try to cut me.

There are so many things that Miss H might be outside of school. She could be a spy, a coffee drinker who knits all day, or a rebel. If Miss H is one of the three, then I told everybody so. If she's not any of those things, then I made good guesses and I will still think she is one of the three. But, who knows but Miss H what her life really is. She could be a normal person who goes to the mall and watches movies. (I really hope Miss H is a spy, spies rule!)"

30 Days of Lists: Day Three

Today's to-do list (or, my to-do list from two days ago):

I am the cat lady: I'm a little worried about my girl Pip; she has been throwing up. A lot. I stepped in it this morning. So add to my to-do list: Clean up cat vomit. Sorry. Just keepin it real.

30 days of lists: Day two

Today's list (and if you're going to the blog I linked to yesterday, you know that I am several days behind): Things I'm good at. I'm good at a lot of things - most of them things I wish I weren't so good at:

And an unrelated photo:

:)

30 days of lists

For most of my life I've been a pretty faithful journaler.

I'm not sure why the journaling has slowed to a near halt over the past few years, but it has, and that's the unfortunate reality. I'm confident my extensive journaling days are far from over. In the meantime, though, I discovered this blog and it seems like a really fun way to record a little snapshot of my life at least once a year, if nothing else.

There are 30 days' worth of prompts that each call for a list. I like lists.

You make a little listy notebook to keep them in. I also like notebooks.

I'm diving right into this one - you're supposed to make a list everyday for 30 days during the month of March, but in true fashion I'm not following the rules.

I just started it this weekend and while I do plan to share most, of not all, of my lists here, I can't promise a post every day for 3o days. I'm just keepin it real.

Here's my book of lists:

You can get downloadables for the title page and headings for each list - that's what I used. They're $3 to download, and I thought it would save time, but in hindsight they're really kind of unnecessary. You could probably make headings as cute or cuter on your own.

The first list:

A few things about yourself. That's easy!

Yes, the photo on the left is me dressed as Alice in Wonderland the other day at age 6.

I did two lists this weekend, but I'll save the next for another post.

Want to join me for this list-making endeavor? It'll be interesting to see how the lists change over the years, and won't it be fun for your children and grandchildren to read them?

Meet Shepherd

Meet my new baby nephew, Samuel Shepherd! Most people who read this have already met him or seen pictures, but I had to post a few of my own.

Here he is less than an hour old:

Mine and Shepherd's first meeting:

The classic looking-at-baby-shot (this was actually candid, though, let it be said):

The door sign:

And the proud big sister, who will have baby Shep marching to her beat in record time I'm sure:

She wanted to take a picture of me with my camera, so I told her she had to let me take a picture of her in all her beaded glory first - so this is her "I'm being bribed" smile. It might be my favorite.

Big sister on her tippy toes peering at "Bosh" through the nursery window:

Can someone tell me now how it is possible that Sammer is a father of TWO?? WHAT??!!

I sure do love aunthood.

Congrats, Sam & Katherine!! And Nita!!

Oh weekend, it's so good to see you again.

I'm craving quiet as though I'd just left a Nickelback concert.

This week falls under THAT kind of "irritating" category, only throw in some parent conferences that were comparable to bathing in a tub of warm mayonnaise. I know I overuse that comparison, but it's the (to me) most uncomfortable and gross thing I can think of most days.

I hope some of that made sense.

I left work today with four things on my mind:

1. Procuring more of my life-saving allergy medication since all day I've felt the ramifications of not getting more before I ran out.

2. Pepperoni pizza with fresh mozzerella and a glass of red wine

3. Season 1, disc 2 of Mad Men

4. Paper dolls

Re: #4, allow me to introduce you to the kindred spirit I never knew - Emily Martin of Inside a Black Apple. I regularly stalk her blog and when her book of paper doll projects came out I felt like I had struck solid gold. I have already given a couple of them as gifts- I just can't spread the joy enough.

In the not too far away future I'll make my own paper doll stop motion film (glory!!), but until then, PLEASE check these out:



Do you remember that song? Moment of happy silence, please.



These were made with her book of paper dolls!!! Everything about this has stolen my heart straight from my chest. The magician and the conjoined twins!!

Also her series of paintings, Oddfellow's Orphanage, and the whimsical stories that go along with them are noteworthy wells of enchantment.

Here are some of my favorites:

Ollie Onionhead

The Golden Rule Society Member

And my favorite orphan, AvaWhy is she my favorite, you ask, when there is an onion named Ollie in the group?

Well, read for yourself.

"Ava was sent to Oddfellow's after her parents, also albino, were fatally overrun by bandits while traveling with the unscrupulous Captain Marvelous' Sideshow. Ava escaped by pretending to be a pile of laundry, and, as she is very quiet, was quite convincing. The Headmaster himself accompanied the police to the scene, and found Ava folded up in an enormous quilt and whispering to the finches, whose cage had toppled over in the scuffle. In 1902, she was the first student to recieve the Ornithology badge, and with curiously little effort on her part. It seemed the badge-bestowing committee couldn't help but notice that birds, wild and otherwise, were always landing on her shoulders."

I dare anybody to tell me that Emily Martin and I aren't soul sisters.

And soon to come: A post about my new baby nephew, Samuel Shepherd, born Tuesday afternoon! Stay tuned!

Happy weekend to you all!