Days of Auld Lang Syne

In the early hours of the new year, I found myself reading about a song I kinda know and you kinda know but until today, I had never fully heard the words. It reminded me of being a sixteen year old girl who was a lector in the church I grew up in and not being able to hear or understand the words I was reading. The song is Auld Lang Syne. Did you sing it or hear others singing it last night? Or perhaps you know all the words and you actually know what you are singing.

I was at a party last night and we raised a glass to ring in the new year (a non-alcoholic one for me) and then a few people sang the song and I listened. My ears were opened today as I read this article from yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Peggy Noonan. In essence the song says, Remember the people who have touched your lives, those you have met along the pilgrim highway. Often, I have wanted to write about those people who have touched my life and highlight how they have affected me but often it is far too personal to be specific. Let's just say that the blessings of friends and family have far outweighed the wounds that I have received in this life.

Happy New Year to all that I have encountered upon this journey in 2010. At the risk of offending some, I will list these dear people and if you ought to be included here please comment and remind me of our meeting on the road of life this past year.

Dan, Grace, Katie and Michael Mullaney: my immediate family.

Billy and Kelly Mullaney, Barry and Mary Mullaney, Bill Mullaney (dad), Jimbo and Karen Mullaney, Ellen and Paul Lippens, Shosh and Paul Babson, Smully, Paul A. MacDonald, Peter and Tammie MacDonald, Laura MacDonald, Paul and Joan MacDonald (dad and mum): our extended families.

Now I will got back in hopes that none will be forgot:

Becky and Cliff Mort, Mike and Kim Abendroth, Nancy Myers, Dave and Vida Farrar, Marie Steinmann, Fran Walken, Flo Paras, Marie and Tom Bertrand, Charlie and Elaine Crane, Cindy and Scott Farrar, Steve and Janet Cooley, Deb and Dana Peterson, Bruce and Lori Pelissier, David MacAdam, Joanne and Glenn Gray, Steve and Carol Gray, Elizabeth Kehoe, BonnieJean Wiebe, Kristen Neprud, Devan Wiebe, Diane and Clark Pitchford, Pam and Kenny Hopkins, Kelly and Phil Bower, Eunice and Au Au, Dina Webb, Cathy Creed, Misun Min, Helen Kim, Mary and Jeff Weix, Little Joe, Joe the Builder, Howard, Marilyn, Marcia, Charlie, John, John, Lorraine, Mr. Norton (Karen Mullaney's dad) Uncle Bill, Lorraine, Cousin Anna, Eileen, Elena, all the old men regulars at Endicott Variety, Sharon Scanell, Gail and John Lefferts (There are more I am sure but it has been a crazy 24 hours).

Again, I am reminded that people matter. It is in the context of human relationships that we continue to become who we are because we have been a part of one another's lives in big and small ways.

A new day and a new year is an opportunity for renewed hope.

To Be Known....some initial thoughts


Yes, my face and profile are on Facebook. As a general rule I don't "friend" people that I am not actually acquainted with, however, recently I invited everyone in my email address book and that was not intentional. So, if you got an invite to Facebook and thought "what is this?" hopefully you just deleted it.

There are different philosophies concerning Facebook and different people use it for different things. There are all these quizes that people create and take and share. Today I failed at one of the "How well do you know _____?" It was someone I thought I knew pretty well, so that was a bummer. Thinking over how well we know people, I believe there are people who we think we know but we really don't and vice versa. After having a conversation recently, I thought, this person really doesn't know me.

I don't think that Facebook is the place to get to really know people. It can be a fun place to look at people pics, check out their favorite books, movies and quotes and read people's notes, but to really know someone there has to be a type of sharing that can not really happen without a considerable amount of face time. There is something that transpires when you get together. Even the folks who meet online eventually want to meet face to face if they want the relationship to grow.

There are people that we want to know and be known by and there are not.......

"Who are you?"
What person with faculties intact has not asked this question? or these questions? "Why am I here? What is my purpose? There are many people who wrestle with the deeper questions in life silently or disregard them, leading a life of quiet desperation.

The past few days I have discussed, contemplated and listened to others bring "the meaning of life" questions out into the light. It is a painful. It is exciting. It is like a living organism. There are two words that have come up: identity and wholeness.

A good friend and I were discussing our identity. How do we find our identity in Christ? There is not a simple answer. We talked about the deadly game of comparing ourselves to others and coming up short and how perfectionism plaques us. Our worth is to come from being in Christ.

Then I heard a lecture titled, "What are people for?" The simple answer, this young man came up with comes from the Westminster Catechism question #1, What is the chief end of man? To glorify God and enjoy him forever. He said, "this is beautifully put but hard to understand."

My initial thought comes from the Scripture that says, "now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known."
In all of life, no matter how mature we are, knowledgeable we have become, the best we will get in this life is seeing in a mirror dimly, yet there is hope! We have hope because we have been redeemed! Everyone is broken and in need.

Please take note: A young friend of mine says, we must preached to ourselves.

There are so many ways to answer the question, "Who am I?" So many directions that we could go in. I would like to begin by rephrasing the question: What was I created for? Danny, the guy who did the lecture at L'Abri gave these three things: creativity, relationship and redemption, as his answer. This is what he found in the Good Book. Those are definitely things I have been tossing around in my mind.
God is our Creator and we were created in His image, so we too are all creative, no exceptions. It comes out in different ways. I just so an older woman walk by the house and I thought and wondered if she crochets or perhaps she is a retired architect, how does her creativity manifest itself? The man who weaves a story or the girl who dances for joy. The woman who does agility trials with her pure bred pup or the little boy who builds a ramp for his match box cars. Any of us could add to the list ad infinitum.
In questionaires about ourselves we are often asked to list our hobbies or interests, does this not make the point that we were made for creativity?
Birth. Death. Marriage. Divorce. Cohabitate. Love. Hate. Communicate. Live. Home. When we hear that a woman has had to deliver her child by herself. We think: aw, it is sad that she was alone to have her baby. The event of a child being born usually includes others. Our desire is for our loved ones not have to face death alone. In some cases, we want to be that some one or we want the one closes to them to be there as they pass from this life and into the next. It takes two baby! Or if you are a Christian, a marriage takes three: my God, my man and me. Although a house may become a home, it is the relationships between people that make it home.
I have a little framed saying that reads: Mother is the heart of the home. Those 7 words are both challenging and encouraging. It reminds me that I am not walking through this life alone, that I was indeed created for relationship.
Referring back to my list. I believe that God is the giver and taker of life, the One who created woman for man in marriage. The Word of God says, "God hates divorce." I think the only thing that God wants us to hate is sin. He has called us to Love people. Ours is to communicate effectively with one another and I believe it is one of the biggest challenges we face. Together we are to live among people. In all of these relationships God wants to have an influence in our lives and I believe the best way (and probably the only way) is for us to be in relationship with Him.
A mere human to be in relationship with the Creator of the Universe. On the screen, that looks almost ludicrous. When we try to look at ourselves among ALL that God has created, we are speck on the face of the globe. I don't think we can ever have even a partial understanding of who God is and the fact that indeed He is able to have a relationship with all of His creation, that He cares so deeply for each of us and is carrying on personal relationships with individual people.
Sinful, broken, imperfect, left for dead, this was the state I was in when my Redeemer invaded my heart and turned my life upside down. One of my favorite songs by Caedmon's Call is Thankful. My favorite part says:

'Cause we're all stillborn and dead in our transgressions
We're shackled up to the sin we hold so dear
So what part can I play in the work of redemption
I can't refuse, I cannot add a thing

so what does it mean to be Redeemed? I looked it up at www.dictionary.com redeem definition 9. Theology. to deliver from sin and its consequences by means of a sacrifice offered for the sinner. As I walk along this pilgrimage that leads to my Eternal Home, I am having a greater awareness of God's Grace in my life. The day of my redemption I knew one thing, that not only was I spiritually lost, I was dead and that the Lord in His mercy saved me from my sins, bought me with His blood, redeemed me from the pit, gave me new life.
I do believe that I am here on purpose and created for His good works. I don't have it all figured out. My lifework at the moment is to finish raising three young people with my husband for God's glory. It is for us to lead them in paths of righteousness. Making hard choices, doing the right thing, making mistakes and making amends, living and loving life together. Creatively speaking, we have chosen to live in lots of different places. It means adjust to lots of changes on a regular basis but having one another and the Lord as our only constant.
I believe a large part of my redemption was to provide my children with a counter-cultural lifestyle and I never would have dreamed of raising and educating children at home. My husband and I did not have a 5, 10 or 15 year plan. Let me emphasize that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that type of living, we are just not those type of people. We are living on borrowed time and doing our best to live it to the fullest.

Pax Vobiscum,
CM

Wise as Serpents
"Christian shrewdness must always be governed by dove-like innocence."
Dr. Tom Ascol

When I read this quote on this Sunday morning, my first thought was, "this is how we ought to go about resolving conflict especially amongst the family of God." We are indeed called to be wise and gentle. The Lord has given me wisdom in some very crucial times, but I still struggle with being gentle. I am blessed to be married to someone who has been fashioned with a very merciful spirit and he has definitely helped me in dealing with my very passionate bent toward justice.
If love is to cover a multitude of sins, then we must deal openly with the effects of those sins in order to strengthen and sure up relationships. I am coming to believe that relationships are above all the hardest things to maintain and keep in good repair and that the people involved in those relationships, especially among the family of God, are most dear to the Father in all that He has created. In the gospel of John, Jesus says, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." In Paul's letter to the Corinthians he states, "I show you a still more excellent way," which leads into the chapter on love. Finally, we are called to live at peace with one another.
What does "loving one another look like?" Some might say, "it is when we are being kind to each other," but I believe that there can be an appearance of kindness without any love. In First Corinthians, it says (and I paraphrase) I can have the tongue of an angel and offer my body to be burned, but if either of these things occur without love, it says "I am as good as a noise gong and it profits me nothing." These two actions, speaking well and laying down my life, amount to nil if they are not motivated by love. My conclusion on the matter is the way we treat one another needs to be motivated with a heart filled with the love of Christ.
Paul tells us that this love has several characteristics, but the one I am particularly thinking of when it comes to peacemaking is: "[love] does not rejoice in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth." For Christians I think one of the hardest things for us to do is to sit down and have a face-to-face conversation. We need to say things like "this is my wrong doing" or "this is where you wrong me" or "there is something between us and I want to work it out in order to restore our relationship." There are too many Christians who don't want to work it out. It ends up coming out in ways that are far more hurtful then the pain experienced in facing the truth. In the end I have found the people who are willing to go through it become some really close friends or at the very least know that the air is clear. This enables us to live at peace.
My concept of "living at peace with all men" was passed on to me as a child as "peace at any cost." This was defined as 'whatever you do don't talk about it' (at least not with the person involved), leaving no restoration of relationships, having those relationships in disrepair and acting as if everything was fine which created a false sense of peace. Meanwhile inside myself was an uneasiness, unrest and anything but peace. The result being that every interaction after that is not only stained with the unresolved issue(s) from before, but also continues to damage the relationship and all the other relationships that overlap that one. It also is very costly because more people get hurt as a result.

So with an aching heart I pray for wisdom, gentleness and a willingness to do my part in being a minister of reconciliation, not wanting to put a band-aid where the Physician’s hand is needed.

Pax Vobiscum, CM