Cooking Yeast and Pharisees

It’s a little past 7 AM and as I was taking out the trash, a thought occurred to me. About the Pharisees.

Let me explain.

One of the things I do on a regularly basis is make sure there isn’t anything stale or past date in my refrigerator. If there is, out it goes. Today, that item was cooking yeast. Yeast I’ve only used three times in the last year and a half because I eat much less yeasted food these days.

And as I was tying up the bag and walking out to the trash can, suddenly I got a vision of the Pharisees. Old yeast. Pharisees. It seemed fitting; in fact, Jesus spoke of the yeast of the Pharisees at times… but this is a different analogy.

There is new yeast, and there is old yeast, but yeast is yeast. There were Pharisees in the day of Jesus and there are Pharisees now, though we call them by other names. They are the “don’t break any rules or else” crowd. Do you know anyone in that category? Anyone who feels entitled to tell everyone else how to run and live their own lives? Entitled to “decide for others” when in reality it is those others’ decisions to make?

Not all the Pharisees in Jesus’ day were mean-spirited and overly zealous in their “decide for others” mentality and the judgment that went along with it; and today, the same is true.

Some people stock it up to personality: I’m this or that on Myers-Briggs or The Big Five and so I’m not to blame. God made me this way, so why change?

Others believe there is no God and therefore nobody to be accountable for, and so why try to mind their own business when trying someone else’s business on for size is more fun? But there’s news for you who are in this camp: not only does God exist, but He cares about you and what you do.

There is something to be said for personality and something to be said for gifting, true. But these same gifting and personalities are never… I repeat never… to be an excuse for taking responsibility for our behaviors, words, attitudes. Yes, God made us a certain way, but that doesn’t mean He made us tell others what to do or judge others: those are between God and the person in question.

So as I threw out the yeast, I decided, once again, to not judge others; to not try to make their decisions for them. It is rare that I do either: I’m good enough at judging myself, why try a new tack at the skill? But for the few times that I have; that I do; I need a different approach. I need to decide not to be a Pharisee. I need to decide to throw the yeast of deciding for others and of judgment out like I threw the literal yeast in the trash today.

We don’t all have the same yeast to toss… but we all have something yeasty to remove if we are to live a better life and treat others in the way we would wish to be treated.

I challenge you to toss out the yeast!

1-      Figure out what your yeast is.

2-      Figure out if it is Pharisaical in nature or not.

3-      If it is, toss it out.

4-      If it isn’t, but needs replaced, what will you replace it with?

5-      That which needs replaced still needs tossed out!

Your Authenticity is Your Brand... Work It!

I've just got to be me!

What makes you authentic? What is it that sets you apart from everyone else in the world, past, present, and future? Your authenticity is your brand. Work it.

There are a lot of things that we can say about ourselves and that others can say about us. The truth lies in the middle of it all, some would say; others say it is only what God says about you that counts. I would argue it is a combination of the three.

Anyone who knows the Bible knows that God tells us we are wonderfully made in His image, and that He knew us before our great grandparents’ grandparents were a twinkle in their parents’ eyes. God says we are created from dust and spirit… that God breathed into man (Adam) and from the form of dust life was. From the breath – the movement of the Holy Spirit upon him – Adam became alive, Eve was taken from his side, and God called it good. Humanity was originally good; it was unique among the species of the earth… and these are both true to this day.

When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, it was the sin that was seen as bad and evil… the action to try to be more like God than He designed them for. And throughout the Bible and through history we can see that humanity is tinged with sin but that with God on our side, helping us, we are essentially good. Essentially. And each of us, from Adam forward, is unique.

To use myself as an example, I can say that my personality on the Myers-Briggs is INFJ and that my Style Statement is Sacred Femininity. In looking at my spiritual gift mix of creative ability, intercession, prophecy, and knowledge (strongest) with mercy, wisdom, faith, and exhortation as secondary gifts,  and tertiary gifts of discerning of spirits, hospitality, and healing, there is evidence of why INFJ and Sacred Femininity work so well for me. All of these things lend themselves to one another.

Aside from this, there are the gifts in the natural… most of which stem from the creative ability gift in the spiritual. Experience, relationships, and even geography…  all of it go into making me who I am, as God designed.

Most of the art in my apartment was designed by me. Five shelves of books that have impacted my life sit a few feet from where I type this, and there are many more that I do not possess which have changed, challenged, helped create the mindset and therefore the life which I now lead.

What makes YOU authentic? Your authenticity is your brand!

Families

Families

As diamonds shimmering
Upon deep midnight velvet,
So the stars sprinkled
Across the sky shine
With a glittering beauty,
Their light traveling through time,
Seen thousands of light years
In difference from actuality...

The moon hung in the sky,
An ever-changing, ever
Evolving painting by God's hand
Revolves at a different pace
From the planet who's tides
Ebb and flow in tune
To its waxing and waning...

The dance of communication
Twining us all together
Like a quilt by thread
Binds us to one another
Intricately, enmeshes us
One with the other
Until deep patterns form
And relationships establish...

Intimacies created
Through time, space,
Through communication...
Threaded together,
Yet distinct enough
For love to form, to alter,
To draw together
Groups and twos...
Families given and of choice...

Ride the Wind

Ride the Wind

Ride the wind…
Soar, float, drift…
Ride the wind
With wings as an eagle’s,
Soft as a silken stroke,
A cashmere caress;
Strong as iron,
Feathers beautiful as a peacock’s,
With speed ability like a hummingbird
And hang time like a seagull…

Ride the wind…
Soar, float, drift…
Ride the wind
To the highest of peaks,
To the lowest valley,
Over the ocean blue,
The desert red,
The gilded fields
And rainbow rainforests…

Ride the wind…
Soar, float, drift…
Ride the wind
With the wings of your mind,
With the dreams of your heart,
With the hope of your soul.
Ride the winds of love,
The winds of grace,
The winds of time…
Ride the wind…
Soar, float, drift…
Ride it anew each day;
Allow yourself to do something
That takes your breath away…
Every single day
As you ride the wind
Of your own choosing

A Rose By Any Other Name... Would Smell Less Sweet... Unless It's Honey

Have you heard the saying, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?

Thing is... that isn't true.

Let me explain...

All names have meaning; whether it is a banana, a barbecue sauce, or a baby... it has a name. And that name has a meaning. WORDS are powerful. What we call one another, and what we call our LIVES... these things shape us. They shape our futures and who we become.

If instead of naming your daughter Rose you name her Ingrid (both lovely names) that says more about her father than about her. It shows her father is her hero or that she is supposed to think so. Rose, this is a name after the flower and the connotations that come with it remain. Sweet but most of them have at least one or two thorns in their lifetimes. Ingrid means Hero's Daughter. This is nothing about her own personality which then, hopefully, will be in her middle name to help guide her.

Words have meaning. 
Names have meaning. 
ALL of life has meaning. YOU have meaning. 
Who ARE you and what is your gift to the world around you? 
How can you UTILIZE it for good??

Weaponry

During a recent few conversations with varying friends, I have noticed just how much people use both silence AND words as weapons. How sad is it that people cannot just communicate their true thoughts and feelings plainly, without any sort of manipulation tactics or ulterior motives otherwise? What are YOUR thoughts on the topic?

On Love and Being

Some more poetry to share... enjoy!

The Loved

Love is
Like hand-
printed paper
Made to
write poetry
On by the maker.
Love is
Like fresh-
milled soap
That caresses
The skin and
Perfumes it,
Changing the texture
Of life; the scent
Of one's attitude;
The radiance
Beaming from one
Who has found
True beauty
And learned
To live with its
Flaws because
The flaws help
Bring out the beauty
Of the loved.

Wholly

Love deeply,
Truly, fully.
Laugh with
Tears at
Your eyes.
Live wholly,
Richly, with gusto.

Becoming

We, each,
are much
more than
we'll know.
For we, each,
are much
more than
we see,
than we
hear,
than we
feel or we
sense.
We, each,
are much
more a mystery
than we admit.
What we know
is the iceberg's
tip, the seedling -
not the tree we are
and are becoming.

Ordinary

Why escape
The ordinary?
Why avoid
Who you are?
The ordinary
Within is what
Makes us extraordinary.

Day’s Beginning

Walk along the shore with me
Search out treasures,
Hand in hand
As we admire the beauty
Of the day, of the coast,
Of the moment together…
See the birds as they swoop
And they play,
Watch the surfers,
See the sandcastles
As they form,
The kites as they kiss the wind,
And then fall to the ground…
Dogs chasing the surf,
People playing Frisbee,
Other couples hand in handing
As they walk, too, along the shore…
What a wonderful day’s beginning.