Psalms from the deep 3

And our third 'Psalm from the deep' comes from Sharon McIntyre:

My 'Alphabety' Psalm

AWESOME God, You are so worthy to be praised.
The BEAUTY you have created through the mountains and the seas and in all creation is wonderful.
COUNSELLOR Lord who wants to and does listen to all our prayers and concerns - thank you.
DARKNESS may come but we have everlasting hope, love and joy which you offer and provide.
EVERYDAY you care and love us as your wonderful children.
FAITHFULNESS is core to you and time and time again we are reminded of all your Mighty works and provision.
GREAT is our God most worthy of our praise.
The HEIGHTS and depths of your love for us is mind-blowing. We are made in your image.
INTRICATELY and carefully hand-made to your specification.
JOIN our hearts together Lord for You are love.
KEEP us close Father and reveal more of yourself for You are amazing and Your name is worthy to be praised each and every day - all day.
LOVING God who created the stars and the sky - your handiwork is beyond belief, the flowers, the trees, the colours, the detail, all that You have made is wonderful.
MAGNIFICENT God - Your love is never ending. You are the rock on which we stand and it is solid and un-moving.
NEVER ever Lord will You leave us or forsake us for we are special to You.
OPEN our hearts Lord so as You can fill us up with Your almighty love and care for us.
PROTECT us Lord. You are amazing and we praise Your goodness and steadfastness. Praise Your Holy Name.
QUIETEN our minds so as we can be still and hear what You want to tell us.
RELATIONSHIP is key and Father You are a God who wants to have a relationship with each and everyone of us. You have time for each of us.
SURRENDERING our lives and giving You control makes sense so Lord help us to do just that.
THANK you for loving us, loving us whether we are happy, sad, angry, or whatever. Thank you for being the same whether it is today, tomorrow or yesterday.
ULTIMATELY Lord You are more amazing than we know. You are the amazing, awesome God who sent His one and only Son to die for our sins. Lord you are more than enough for each of us.
VICTORIOUS are we in knowing You and we have the ultimate victory by having You in our lives.
WORTHY is Your Precious Name - You are Holy. Holy is Your Name - You lavish us with Your love and we are truly accepted completely in Your eyes.
Thank you for being the solid ground we stand on and the anchor that keeps us here. Thank you for being with us always and for your amazing love. 

Amen

If you missed 'Psalm from the deep 1' by Hilary and the story of these Psalms, you'll find it here, and 'Psalm from the deep 2' by Chris here. 

Leave a comment if these Psalms have touched your heart, and I'll make sure your comments are passed on to the authors!

Psalms from the deep 2

Chris Wade is the author of our second 'Psalm from the deep'.  I hope it blesses your heart today!

Good Company


Just when I think I know you

You surprise me yet again
And Again I am Reminded
Of how childish I have been
To think that I could comprehend you
The creator of all things
Compared to you I’m a speck of dust
How childish I have been


But If I can be your Child and You can be my Dad

We can just hang out a lot – Yeah, I’d be cool with that
I wouldn’t have to figure you out - we can just sit and be
You’re just so great to be with – real Good Company


I often hear of what you think

Or words of similar kind
But I don’t expect a speck of dust
Would know what’s on my mind
At times I’ve thought “I’ve worked you out!”
Like some puzzle I defeat
Then realize a piece is missing
And I find myself deplete


But If I can be your Child and You can be my Dad

We can just hang out a lot – Yeah, I’d be cool with that
I wouldn’t have to figure you out - we can just sit and be
You’re a lot of fun to be with – real Good Company


Am I supposed to understand you?
I’m not the only one you know
Who’s asking “Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
( long silence )
Well.................. - I guess I’ll never know
But what a funny sight this must be
For one such as you to see
Here I am and here you are
How childish I have been


But If I can be your Child and You can be my Dad
We can just hang out a lot – Yeah, I’d be cool with that
I wouldn’t have to figure you out - we can just sit and be
I can be myself with you – You’re real Good Company

If you missed 'Psalm from the deep 1' by Hilary and the story of these Psalms, you'll find it here.

Psalms from the deep 1

I'm just home from a four-day retreat at Drumalis led by the lovely Tony Horsfall.  We were plumbing the depths of spiritual darkness - those times when you know God is there but the sense of his presence has gone.  Tony took us through some of the less well-known Psalms - ones that we probably avoid most of the time because they're not so 'happy' - like Psalm 88.

Some of my fellow retreaters wrote their own Psalms and shared them, and I asked them if they'd be willing for me to publish them on my blog because I thought they were just too beautiful not to share.

The first one is by Hilary McFaul.  As you'll see she's called it Psalm 1 - that means there will be Psalm 2, 3, 4 etc to come - right Hilary? :)

Psalm (1!)

Abba, Father
You alone are the source of true life
In my moments of darkness and despair
You hold me without words
You surround me without touch
You draw me with endless compassion

As a child, you take my handAnd show me your sanctuary
You place me in safety and enfold me with beauty

In stillness I know your presenceWhere pain is moulded into joy
And hope breaths life and strength
I praise you Abba that your love never fails

If you've appreciated Hilary's Psalm, leave a comment and I'll make sure it gets back to her.

Life is a roller coaster

Recently though I've been thinking a lot about life with God, and roller coasters.

I know lots of people love them, but I'm not so much a fan of roller coasters.  I hate the way they take away my control and cause me completely unnecessary fear and terror.  The thing is, although I feel petrified, nothing bad is actually going to happen to me.  In a few minutes I'll get off it completely fine but with legs shaking, adrenalin pumping, and stomach churning.

And this is what makes me think it's a bit like life with God.  When you walk with God, your soul is completely safe.  You're in Christ, and he's in you.  Nothing can separate you from his love.  Nothing can snatch you out of his hand.  But although these things are completely true, your don't always FEEL safe.  Life goes up and down: there's good news and bad news, laughter and tears, health and illness, birth and death.  And these experiences make our emotions go wild - joy to despair, excitement to complete terror.  But ultimately, no matter what happens to your body, your mind, or your heart on the roller coaster of life, your soul is completely safe with God.

I'm wondering if I should start embracing roller coasters and learn to enjoy the ride instead of hating the fact that I'm not in control.  I'm not in control of my life either, and the more I try to control it the more frustrated I get when my emotions go haywire.  Could it be possible to let go a bit and allow myself to respond to the ups and downs of life, and let God show me the rails of the roller coaster and remind me he's designed them and they will hold me?

I've been looking for an actual roller coaster to experience before writing this post, but I missed Funderland in Belfast so I'll either have to go to Dublin in January or wait for Barry's to reopen!

What about you?  Are you a roller-coaster-lovin' adrenalin junkie?  Do you see life as a ride to enjoy, or are you like me - hanging on for dear life, most of the time wishing you could hit the brakes and get off?  I love getting comments, so go on, leave me one!

(By the way, have you got that Ronan Keating song going round your head yet?  No?  You have now!  LOL!!)

Guest blog - 'Dear-friends-who-are-already-married'

I'm honoured to have one of my best and longest friends (who wants to remain anonymous) write a guest post for my blog.  You know who you are - thank you for joining in this 'relationship status' conversation!

Dear friends-who-are-already-married (or who-are-heading-in-that-direction) 

I am so pleased that you have found someone to share your life with and who makes you happy. It brings me so much joy my friend to see you smile; relax in the company of one who accepts you just the way you are; be looked after and taken care of, sometimes (though maybe not as often as you would like!) before you even have to ask. 

There is a little part of me that is sad... I will not be the first person you turn to anymore. I will miss the times that we have supported each other spiritually in prayer because you have someone else to pray with now. We have shared so many experiences but because I remain single I might not be able to give you the empathy or advice that you need in the challenges you face in your new partnered life.

When you tell me that, “God has good things planned for you”, I know you mean well. But it sounds a little like you don’t think my life is up to much right now. That somehow God’s plan for me right now, which doesn’t seem to include a ‘special someone’, is wrong. That somehow He’s messed it up. 

I believe His plan for my life is perfect. I might take some wrong turns every now and then, but I do believe, and know by His grace, that these too can be redeemed. Whether that means that He has a ‘special someone’ for me... well let’s face it, neither you nor I know that for sure. But He has promised that His grace will be sufficient for all my weaknesses, and while I often neglect Him and search for comfort elsewhere, I know He will never let me down.

Most of me isn’t sure that marriage will ever happen for me... a little tiny part of me really wishes that it would. So, just in case, rather than feel sorry for me... or imply somehow that I’m missing out... I would really love you to model it for me... how a husband could ever love his wife “just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her”... or how a wife submits to her husband as she does to the Lord... how as a ‘two’ you are able to serve God so much better than you ever could have as individuals... how you raise your family... how you continue to include those you hold dear in different aspects of your life no matter their marital status.

And perhaps we can continue to show Christ to each other, and grow together in faith, hope and love. 

With love from your friend 

 I can't help agreeing with my friend.  Singleness is so misunderstood and and mishandled, particularly by the church.  I think people who have been single for a long time can appreciate to some extent the challenges of relationships and marriage, because it is something that most single people are hoping will happen for them.  However people who have been married for a long time seem to forget what it was like to have been single, or maybe if they married very young, they never really experienced singleness.

If you are married and have single friends, please remember that you still need them and they still need you. They need you to be open to understand their lives, and to be open to share yours.  If sometimes your single friend seems a bit prickly, please show them grace and love because their heart might be breaking.  And if you are finding the going tough in your marriage, be honest with your single friend about it so they can support you and pray for you.

We live in a very broken world, and although some might argue that marriage is God's ultimate will for men and women, the truth of life here on earth is that it will not happen for some people, or it may happen but turn out to be a lot less than you dreamed it would be.  God is with us here in this broken world though, and our challenge is to walk well with Him in every area of our lives, whatever our relationship status.

"In a relationship..."

So, remember I wrote a post a couple of months ago called 'Dear Single-Man-Who-I-Like'?  And remember the other brave man who replied?

Well, turns out we like each other! :-)  This last couple of months have been the most incredible adventure in loads of different ways, but most of all in finding that this amazing guy wants to spend time with me and get to know me.  And it all started from a chance meeting, and me publishing most of my various personal struggles on my blog!

And so I find myself no longer 'single' but 'in a relationship'.  A friend asked me recently if I'm feeling relieved now that I'm not single any more.  My answer was, "No".  'Relieved' feels like the wrong word.  I'm definitely happy - REALLY happy!  And yes there is a certain angst about being single that has gone - the wondering why no-one wants to be in a relationship with me - if there's something wrong with me, if I'll be single all my life, if I will ever meet someone, and if so how long will it be before that happens?

But being 'in a relationship' is definitely not a fix for all of life's problems.  Don't get me wrong, it's a really good thing and I'm loving having someone to share life with, but if I let myself think being in a relationship is the only way to be really happy, I know (from experience, sadly) I'm most likely going to end up disappointed.  

Although we're both followers of Jesus, we're still broken people who carry the scars of past hurts and failures, and continue to sin and struggle with this fallen world.  So I can't for a minute ease up my grip on my relationship with God now that I have a man in my life.  I need God just as much whether I'm single or in a relationship.

I'm learning that relationships are primarily ministry to each other.  I have the awesome privilege of getting to know another human being very deeply - of being trusted with his heart and his story.  And I must also learn to be known and loved, and while that seems like a wonderful thing, it is really scary to open up a heart that's been broken before and risk it on someone new.  I'm not sure I could do it without faith that God is with us and in us.

I am hoping and praying for more open and honest conversation among Christians about our relationship statuses, because when you think about it every adult is somewhere on the spectrum of 'single - liking someone - dating - in a relationship - getting over a relationship - married - separated - divorced - widowed - remarried - etc', and no matter where you are on the spectrum, emotions run high.

Where are you on the relationship spectrum right now, and what are your learning about God, yourself and others through the experience?  And if you're brave enough to share your thoughts, join in the conversation by leaving me a comment!

My last Wycliffe newsletter

This is the last newsletter from me in my current role in Mobilisation with Wycliffe Bible Translators.  If you've been kind enough to follow my newsletters and you'd like to read this one, you can download it here.

And now the job hunt begins!