Tag Archives: Daily Prompt

My Sanctuary

Posted on by under The Stories

The daily post has challenged us,

A sanctuary is a place you can escape to, to catch your breath and remember who you are. Write about the place you go to when everything is a bit too much.

You can learn about other oases at

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/oasis/

It’s funny I live in a world of sanctuaries. A minister, after all, is never far from a church and every church has a sanctuary.

The sanctuary of St. Bavo’s in Haarlem
Cornerstone church’s sanctuary VBS
The Sanctuary of the Nieuwe Kerk in Delft

But for all that I would not say I find sanctuaries particularly peaceful places. Perhaps it is in the quiet of a church sanctuary that others find peace. But in these places I go to work. It’s in these locations I wage my war with the souls of men.

There are moments, for all that, when I find the sanctuary a quiet sanctuary. Early on a Sunday morning before anyone arrives for service, for instance (though that has to be pretty early) or late at night after everyone has gone home. But if I am going to speak of an oasis, a place of refreshing, a location of constant quiet and peace I would have to say that is my bedroom. I don’t work there. It’s my space and no one else’s. I can read. I can pray. I can recreate. Beyond that the world’s expectations do not encroach.

The Change I’d Like To Make

Posted on by under The Stories

The Daily post has asked us today…What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?

Almost a decade ago I wrote my life mission statement. That was to create around myself a culture of worship. The method I felt led to use was the arts. To that end I have tried several things, my blogs Reinventing the We’ll and Lillie-Put being two of those chosen methods.

I would like to see the readers of Lillie-Put encouraged ina positive direction and challenged toward knowing and worshipping God as a result of what I write. Many of my blogs are not directly related to the ideas of worship but are artistic in form and relational in nature. Blogging is a connective art form and I hope in some small way through those connections to draw people into the joyful and loving presence of a living God.

Be blessed!

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Find other answers to this question at:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/be-the-change/

Who I Would Choose To Be!

Posted on by under The Stories

Today the Daily Post has asked us… If you could spend the next year as someone radically different from the current “you” — a member of a different species, someone from a different gender or generation, etc. — who would you choose to be?

I wouldn’t choose a different gender and probably not a different species although being my dog for a day might not be too bad. But I would choose to be part of a different generation if only for a while. I would choose to be someone who actually made it all the way through a great conflict like World War II or maybe the American Revolution just to see how they did it. Maybe it’s just because I saw the movie Unbroken the other night and something in it resonated with me.

Louis Zemperini, The hero of Unbroken

I can’t help but feel our own generation is on the precipice of some great conflict and that we are about to walk in an emotional space we are unfamiliar with. I would like to know what to expect and maybe that whatever is required of me is actually already inside.

Do you sense something huge is coming for our generation?

Check out who others would choose to be at

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/new-skin/

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The Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy Prompt

Posted on by under The Stories

Today the Daily Post has asked us… We cry for lots of reasons: sadness, pain, fear . . . and happiness. When was the last time you shed tears of joy?

You can find other answers at

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/happy-happy-joy-joy/

My answer….

I am not much of a weeper. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually wept outright. Heart of stone this one…really. But I do have to admit that I teared up walking my daughter down the ailse at her wedding rehearsal. By the wedding I had fully composed myself. I had to after all. I was singing and there is nothing worse than crying to ruin a good wedding song, but as I walked my little girl down to meet her groom on that rehearsal evening it suddenly struck me this was me walking with my baby girl on her last night as a single woman. I suppose some choose to look at that as sad but I think of it as a moment of poignance and wonder. She chose a good man. She chose a good future. Some day I may even be a grampa and they have suggested the name Bopa for me. I guess I could be a Bopa. What do you think?

I walk Melanie down the aisle.

I walk Melanie down the aisle.

The Daily Prompt and All Grown Up

Posted on by under The Stories

The Daily Post has asked us…”When was the first time you really felt like a grown up (if ever)?”

I can actually remember this one quite clearly. I did not feel grown-up at eighteen when I registered for selective service or to vote. I did not feel grown-up when I married at nineteen just before my twentieth birthday. The grown up feeling did not arrive with the birth of my son or my daughters. I really expected to feel like an adult at these major junctions of life but somehow they just left me feeling more like a kid than ever. The sense of “am I ready for this?” And “Wow! I have no idea what I am doing.” really popped out big in each of those moments and made me feel decidedly un-grown up.

All those years I wanted to feel “grown-up”. I hungered for the feeling but no matter how hard I tried I just could not drum it up. I worked. I provided. I acted like a grown-up (mostly). I just never felt like one. Then on my thirty-fifth birthday it hit me. It came unbidden without fanfare or any kind of life-changing event. I blew the candles out on my cake and just knew. “I’m a grown-up” or maybe it is better to say I just knew, “I’m not a kid anymore.”

Strange to say, from that day forward I have wanted nothing more than to return to childhood. Funny how that works isn’t it?

The Daily Prompt And Hindsight

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

 

The Daily Prompt has given us what I consider a huge challenge today!

Now that you’ve got some blogging experience under your belt, re-write your very first post.

Holy Cow! That was four and a half years and a whole different blog ago. Still I suppose certain truths are timeless even if most words are momentary.  I am choosing to rewrite my second blog since that was actually about something other than my personal story.

I remember the first piece of blogging advice I ever got. It was from my daughter… “Dad be brief.”

So in brief here it is:

Hearing And Listening:

God doesn’t listen to everyone. Does that shock you? I have to admit it jars me a little. No matter how disconcerting it might be, though, it is the truth.

There are  some people who think that as long as we pray to any god, rock, tree bush or lightbulb the real God will somehow hear and answer by proxy…. BUT…  The whole idea that it doesn’t matter who you believe in, only that you believe in something, is absolute drivel.

I do believe that God does hear every prayer that goes up  from the mouths of humans. But there is a grand bit of difference between His hearing and His listening. You don’t have to look very far in Scripture to find this truth:

God said these words to the prophet Jeremiah when the children of Israel had sinned grievously against Him. “Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.” Jeremiah 11:14 NIV

AND

Peter warned the men of his day that there was a condition of heart which would stop their prayers dead cold. “Husbands in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.” I Peter 3:7

More examples could be given but in this short space let me just say that God Hears every prayer but He only Listens to some of them. According to Scripture, the way you live affects how effective your prayer life is.

Now that is shocking!

 

Gosh I was a little flame thrower back then. Even edited this is a little “Ravenhillesque”. I am not sure I would write this piece today and honestly I cannot decide whether that is good or bad thing. It certainly has me thinking.

To view hindsight through other eyes go to:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/hindsight/

Daily Writing Prompt: The Life In My Hand

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

Today the Daily Post has challenged us to:

 Tell us about the last time a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush for you.

See how others answered by going to:

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/clich%c3%a9/

The Life In My Hand

by JE Lillie

Another cliché jumps to mind as I consider what to write today, “If wishes were horses beggars would ride.”

I have spent so much time wishing things in my life had turned out differently. The life I am living is certainly not the life I considered when I was twenty. I had a certain picture in my head and it didn’t contain any of the pain I have lived through or any of the pain I have caused.

Mostly those wishes of mine are private things so I don’t suppose many people consider that I have even wished. Oh, but I have and in that I have had to hold myself tight sometimes to keep this life from spinning off the game board into a forfeit. The truth is this other little cliché, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”, has been the counter curse I have muttered every time I have gotten to wishing what life I have away.

Things may not have turned out the way I thought or planned but y’know what? That’s OK. Maybe it’s even better than OK because I know God is not shocked by the way things have turned out. He knew the end from the beginning and He had a plan in mind for this life I am living now.

So a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush… or this life I am living is worth far more than any life I could have wished for because it is this life which has made who I am, who God wants me to be.

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge the Lord in all of your ways, and He will direct your paths.” Prov. 3:5,6

Daily Prompt: Getting Seasonal

Posted on by under The Stories

Today the daily post at

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/getting-seasonal/

has challenged us to write from this theme…

The holiday season: can’t get enough of it, or can’t wait for it all to be over already? Has your attitude toward the end-of-year holidays changed over the years?

 

My mother is an avowed “Christmasphobe”, always has been and as she is now in her late 70’s, probably always will be. My sister is mom’s foil when it comes to Christmas. She practically sneezes yuletide glitter out her nostrils. The resulting firestorm that comes in the spaces between these two ladies can be dangerous to navigate indeed. Whether to decorate the tree or burn the tree is a yearly discussion in our household.

I suppose my nack for survival  has made me a real middle of the road kind of guy when it comes to Christmas. We can neither deny the day nor can we celebrate and make merry like Fezziwig without causing caniptions in certain members of  our household. Balance is the key to a merry Christmas you see.

For myself I love the holiday. I love its true meaning apart from the trapping of lights and decorations, Santa and reindeer. I love the quiet cacophony of the Christ child born in a manger on a starry night lauded by angels and shepherds and kings. I would not hurry this sacred season. Neither do I want to lay myself low with over-indulgence and too much activity.

Our lead pastor asked this question in his sermon last week: “Why is it that the greatest celebrations bring the greatest tension in families?”

Perhaps it is because the people who can’t get enough and the people who can’t wait until it’s over are not willing to come to the middle of the road and accept that enough is as good as a feast until it’s over.

I have changed in my attitude over the years. I am settled into the seasons of life. I enjoy them for what they are and I do not mourn when they pass because they are all just a piece of the greater experience we call life and that is a very full thing.

The Daily Post: Sweet Little Lies

Posted on by under The Stories

Today the Daily Post has asked us…

As kids, we’re told, time and again, that lying is wrong. Do you believe that’s always true? In your book, are there any exceptions?

Check out how others have responded to this question at

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/sweet-little-lies/

Santa’s Dead And Other Things Not To Tell A Six Year Old.

Well I guess you can tell where this one’s going. I always wanted Christmas to be about the Christ child for my children and one of the things that has always gone up my left nostril is the commercialism that comes with the season. The American version of Santa Claus as the guy who plasters the Christmas tree with expensive electronics, jewelry and the newest version of everything just kind of irks me. Don’t get me wrong I take pleasure in giving gifts as much as the next guy but when I have to worry about paying the credit card bills or rent something’s rotten in the good ole US OF A.

Now we didn’t want to destroy the “magic” of Christmas for our children, just maybe dent it a little. We found this book called ‘The True Story of Santa Claus” And during the holiday season we began to read this story to our children and answer their questions about Santa. It was at this time that I learned about sharing only as much of the truth as a person can handle. I am not an advocate of lying in any way, shape or form but before a person is delivered the truth they have to be prepared to be responsible with truth. We told our kids the truth and I still think that was right. Where we fell off the wisdom wagon  was in not instructing them what to do with the truth.

So, picture this. We are on our way Christmas shopping at the mall. My six-year-old, very truthful daughter is sitting in the back with her five-year-old very sensitive cousin. And the conversation goes something like this.

Tyler: Oh I can’t wait to get to the store so we can see all the toys. I’m going to look and see and then I am going to write my letter to Santa and he is going to bring me…

Melanie: Tyler your parents buy your Christmas gifts. Santa’s dead.

End of story. If you want a peaceful Christmas season with your extended family let the lie about Santa live long enough for your children to learn to keep the secret…Santa is dead!

Ready, Set, Done

Posted on by under Pastor Wrinkles

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/ready-set-done-7/

The daily post has given us this instruction today…

As it’s been a while since our last free-write… set a timer for ten minutes. Write without pause (and no edits!) until you’re out of time. Then, publish what you have (it’s your call whether or not to give the post a once-over).

To see how others have spent their ten minutes click on the link above.

Here is what I have been thinking today.

Christ Came To Us So That We Might Go To Him

As it is the Christmas season I am preparing, per usual, a funeral service. It seems that every year about this time I find myself doing at least one or two of these funeral events. I suppose it is all part and parcel of being a pastor, and I suppose some would find that really sad. I don’t. Well let me qualify that I don’t find it sad if the funeral I am doing is like the one I am putting together right now. The man who has gone on before us was a Christian man, Not a perfect man, not a man who had it all figured out but a Christian man. He was one of the men who understood that he had nothing to offer God in himself but that God had everything to offer him. And this man chose to take God up on His offer.

I suppose some might think Christmas is a terrible time to do a funeral (like it would be less terrible at some other time of the year…trust me for those left behind there is no good time for death to happen). I think there is another way to look at death at this particular holiday season, though. You see, one way to understand the incarnation of Christ is to see it as God paving the road from Heaven to Earth through the first advent, Christ’s birth. Death at this season then can be seen as a man or  a woman taking the very same road in the opposite direction. Before Christ there was no road into the presence of the Father. The way was shut and those who died had no direct access to the kingdom of Heaven. Today because of Christmas or because of Christ’s coming the way is open and this man this imperfect man who didn’t have it all together but who knew and trusted Jesus has now taken the long road Home! Today  that man is singing “Joy To The World” in a different place and while that is sad for those of us who miss him, I find it hard to begrudge him the Christmas gift he has waited for all these many years.

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