"God, Why Do Birds Sing?"

By Joanne Hogg

"Get up , my dear friend, my fair and beautiful lover. Come away with me. The winter is over, the winter rains have been and gone. Spring flowers are in blossom all over. The whole world's a choir .....and singing. Spring warblers are filling the forest with sweet arpeggios........

Song of Solomon 2:10-12

I spend most of my life in the company of other humans. This is a good thing. I am not lonely. I understand that I was created for community and I love sharing life with others. But deep within me , I feel the pull of something much stronger than any of my instinctive desires to pursue activities which connect me to other people. Often, this creates a tension in me as I struggle and juggle to withdraw from external activity , to a place where I can truly be still....... And "know" God. Not a physical stillness, but more one of my soul and mind. 

Sometimes I experience this kind of stillness best when I am actually moving. When my feet wander, I'm better able to "still" soul and mind . When I sit still, often I find my mind wanders! 

Our days hurry by, one after the other, like pages of a book, turning quickly, unsure of what's coming next. In every day , there are opportunities to pull away and connect deeply with God..... We might just have a few minutes, but those moments can make all the difference in the world. 

It's like having a drink of the purest , most refreshing water, when you're really thirsty, and then carrying on with the day. But our ability to drink deeply when we just have a few moments of time depends on how deep and full our drinking well is, and that in turn is proportional to how well we have learned to "be still and know Him"....... When we know someone intimately , we can connect deeply in a moment. Truthfully , the connection is always there, but my awareness of it ,and my sensitivity to it can fluctuate to extremes and it's possible to end up "feeling"disconnected.

    And so , I find myself compelled to withdraw at times for longer than just a few minutes or hours. I sense Holy Spirit saying....."come away with me..... Know my presence, hear my voice, see with my vision ...", and I have to leave what is my normal,everyday environment, and get away to be alone with my Lord. It might not seem practical or even possible, but when I respond to that desire, He makes a way for it to happen...

    This is where I am today. I walked in a forest a long way from home...... And I listened. I could hear birds singing arpeggios with an intensity like I'd never heard before. I tried to count how many different "songs" I could distinguish but they all seemed to blend in such a rich cacophony of sound and I ended up just listening in awe and wonder.

God, why do birds sing ? ........ There are all kinds of scientific theories about why birds make the sounds they do, communicating with one another in this detailed and defined way, but there is still such an element of mystery in it all. I watched a blackbird high in a tree and listened to its song. It was intricate , delicate , passionate, and I could not hear any other bird respond to the long melodic phrases it produced.  

God, why do birds sing? I sensed Your reply...."...because I created them to. Because I delight in the sound. Because creation is singing praise to its Creator."  And as I listened I heard more......."but how much more I delight in the  praises of my children. You were created to praise. Everyone is. I've given you beauty for ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning........ And the GARMENT of praise instead of a heavy, burdened and failing spirit!!!!!!!!"

Oh Lord, oh Lord...... I felt like I had totally missed this.

For a moment it sounded like the birds in the forest were laughing..... At me! God, You have given me this gift but it's a garment. I have to put it on. I have a choice to put on the " praise hoodie" instead of wearing the "heavy hoodie" which will weigh me down, restrict me and is dull and uninteresting. It's one or the other.  And  the gifts that You, God, have promised in Isaiah 61:3 are a package. If I don't put on the praise hoodie, I'm not able to enjoy the gladness and the beauty.

Isaiah 43.21....... " the people I created for myself, a people custom-made to praise Me"......yes, yes I get it..... We are created to praise You! Why???? How??? 

Psalm 100:1 (The Message)......" On your feet now! Applaud God. (clapping) . Bring a gift of laughter... Sing yourselves into His presence.....". The rest of this Psalm is powerful!

God, You are omnipresent, You are everywhere. Surely we are continually in Your presence. 

I sensed His response to my why. " When you put on the garment of praise, when you posture your heart to praise Me, your awareness of and sensitivity to My presence increase and You are able to experience my Presence in an infinite number of ways. This is the fellowship of My Spirit. You are entering in "experientially". Joy and beauty intensify. " 

Psalm34:1

My soul praises You oh God. Let praise be continually in my mouth. My soul boasts in You oh God. Let the sad and afflicted hear the sound of our praise and be glad. Come on. Let us praise our God together .

A Journey Of Choice

by Janet Young

As a teenage girl I found myself quite lost and lonely in my struggle to try and figure out who I really was, what I was made for, and how to be happy with that. I had an incredible family, wonderful friends and an amazing relationship with God - who had been my everything since I was 6 years old. But even with that wonderful life, I struggled!

I was overweight by quite a lot in my mid teens/early twenties and because of that I felt inadequate, had low self-esteem, and severely lacked confidence and so often I wouldn’t even attempt to try new things for fear of failing. I believed that because I couldn’t manage to stick to diet plans and I easily gave up on exercise I was a failure and I began to label myself as a quitter at that time.

The problem was I began to ‘live up’ to the labels I had put on myself. I found it increasingly difficult to commit to things and very often I would pull out of things at the last minute (school courses, things I’d volunteered for, and even friendships) because I had myself totally convinced that I had failed before I’d even begun.

How I had chosen to view myself began to overtake every area of my life – and it was not a fun road to be on.

Thankfully, in my early twenties I heard some teaching that changed (and quite possibly saved) my life. I was sitting in our church (Causeway Coast Vineyard) and Alan (the Pastor) began to chat about choices. He talked about how the little, seemingly insignificant choices we make every day all lead us in a certain direction, whether negative or positive.

He went on to say that we can often let how other people view us or past situations we’ve been through dictate who we are…so for example…someone might say “I know I’m sarcastic, but that is only because my family were super sarcastic when I was a child”.

Now, this next part is what changed my thinking.

Alan just simply pointed out that that didn’t have to be the case! That as adults we can completely choose who we want to be and how we want to see ourselves – despite our backgrounds or circumstances – and if we’re not happy with where our lives are now we can change the small choices we make so that we begin to head in a different direction.

A light went on in me at that moment. God and His truth broke into my heart and from that very day I began a new journey of learning to love ‘me’.

My journey was one of choices; small, every day, sometimes seemingly insignificant choices.

I knew I wanted to become a confident person; someone who believed in themselves and someone I loved being, so from then on I began to choose to practice thinking the truth.

When I felt ugly, I stopped and made myself say that I wasn’t ugly, that God had made me beautiful and that that was the truth. I chose to stop reading certain magazines to help me stop comparing myself to other girls and every time I thought I was stupid or a failure, I chose to make myself say out loud (which was quite embarrassing!!) that I wasn’t stupid…until finally, day by day my mind-set about ‘Me’ began to change. I chose to ask God who He said I was and I chose to embrace His identity for me instead of the broken and painful identity I had given myself.

My journey of choice had begun.

I am so grateful to God for bringing me on this journey. I love what He is doing in me. I love Him for setting me free. My life today looks hugely different than it did as a teenager.

Today I know who I am and what I am made for.

Today I am blissfully happily married to the man of my dreams, and together we have the most wonderful son who we are both totally smitten with ;)

Today I can honestly say that I love being me.

Today I still make the small, every day, sometimes seemingly insignificant choices that lead me into freedom.

Freedom is available today to us all.

Freedom is God’s design for us all.

Freedom is our choice.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8v32 NIV) 

Real Women

Contrary to what some may think, I am not a typically ambitious person.  When I see other women doing amazing things….writing books, starting their own companies, running marathons, submitting their scholarly papers, speaking/teaching around the world….women who actually make their own bread, or even worse…those that make their own clothes, or re-upholster their sofas, and especially those who are “foodies” and write about food and how much they love to make it and say things like “when I really want to relax I just love to bake!" Don’t even get me started on those of you who love Pinterest and organise your likes and dislikes and creative inspirations…and then actually DO things with that creativity like decorate your house in stunning ways or sit together and make crafts or jewellery …the kind that you would love to buy at a swanky shop!

Honestly, I just view in awe from afar and wonder how in the world those women got all that in their package when they made that trip down from heaven?  As much as it might be easy to just go ahead and seriously dislike these women for just being so darn wonderful...I kinda do the opposite.

The truth is I am a huge fan of women and all that you/I/we seem to be able to do… for ourselves, for our families and for our friends, our communities and, lets face it… for the world.  

I confess. I am a Women Superfan. 

I mean, while I say I’m not ambitious, I somehow seem to be able to be incredibly ambitious for others.  I’ve even wondered why is it so much easier for me to see in others all the awesome stuff and potential in them, while I look at the ready-meals in my fridge and the receipt for those trousers I had to take to the shop to be hemmed and sigh?  But the truth is, I have to admit, I really don’t mind ME. 

Now, I’m never gonna be the MacGyver my mother is (you know the kind… the woman that can literally fix and make anything!) or the creative, organised genius my sister is, or the foodie so many of my dear friends seem to be… or even the scholars or the teachers that I follow and love to hear from, or the ones of you that seem to be able to lead 10 people to the Lord each week or minister to and heal those with broken hearts or bodies so much more and better than I hobble along doing.

I’m just not all that.  

But as I get older (ok, I’m gonna go ahead and say it...I’ll be 42 in July and so far I'm loving this decade, and I hope we continue to get along!) I have seemed to “warm up” to the package of skills, personality, etc. that I got.  What’s the point of wanting to be all those other women, when I figure I have a Father who knows exactly what He is doing?  (After all, I think we can clearly give Him 5-stars for the universe and creation and baby ducks and bunnies… clearly!)  

I think warming up to the idea of ME maybe has more to do with the fact that I’m increasingly impressed with HIM. 

He made me passionate and straight-up emotional about a BUNCH of stuff…. mainly things like social justice issues, and poverty and children and women and Africa and learning and physical disabilities and wanting people to connect with their Creator so that the part of them that’s disconnected gets connected to their true source.  And then I got the cherry-on-top stuff like… songwriting, worship and singing and a kind of obsessive admiration and love of all kinds of music (I’m a total nerd like that). 

I'm also a big nerd about historical documentaries and health stuff and other random issues that my family and friends are probably tired of hearing about.  And I love, love, LOVE my family and shamelessly dote on my incredible and darling husband who has never and likely will never fit neatly into ANY box and the two children I didn’t deserve but somehow won the life lottery and got.  Really… they are the best things I’ve done.

So this, my friends, is me. 

I decided to start this little blog because I really am a Women Superfan.  And I think it’s a good idea for us to be real with one another.  I think one of the greatest things we can give to each other is just the "realness" of who we are and who we were made to be.  And I think I’m ok with wanting others to know that it’s ok to just be whatever "package" we came with. We are, every one of us,  here at this place and time in history for a reason.  So we better get to being super OK with exactly who we were born to be. You know… "original design” stuff.

It’s no good for me or you or any of us to waste even a minute being jealous of all you amazing women doing amazing things out there.  We should just get down to the business of figuring out our own “amazing” that God gave us and start living our lives in light of that. 

In the words of youtube star, Kid President:

"A poem: ‘two roads diverged in the woods.. and I took the road less traveled..’ And it hurt, man! Really bad! Rocks! Thorns! and Glass! …waahh! Not cool, Robert Frost! But what if there really were two paths? I want to be on the one that leads to awesome.”

So yeah, I’m a Superfan of Women (in truth I'm actually a Superfan of Men too...why shouldn't we all be in on the mutual celebration... right?)  I love that my job is to oversee the Women’s Ministry at CCV because I really do want us all to be the women we were designed to be: women on the road that “leads to awesome.”

And I know this:
  

To get there, we have to be real.  

A real movement of real women who believe there is a real reason to live and a real source of love: a real Saviour with real power to change and heal lives and communities and yes, the world. 

So keep your eye out for this blog. Don’t fret, it won’t just be my ramblings!  I want us all to hear from other women on the road “to awesome.” But there is one thing it will be marked by… it will be real… because if I’ve learned anything along the way,  I'm convinced we are the best versions of ourselves and make the most difference in the world when we are just REAL WOMEN.

Cheering you on,

Tori Sheppard

P.S.  Foodie friends...I need your help! (and your brownies) 

Psalm 139:14-15  The Message

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;

    you formed me in my mother’s womb.

I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!

    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!

    I worship in adoration—what a creation!

You know me inside and out,

    you know every bone in my body;

You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,

    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.