Lent Words 2019 Day 1 ~ Sacred Time

Lent Words Day 1: Wander

I love the verse from the song Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing which speaks of our natural tendency for our hearts to wander from God. Today's Scripture passage, Romans 7:14-25, captures this struggle as well.

Oh, to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be.

Let that goodness like a fetter

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love.

Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above.

My word for the year is sacred. I'm using the season of Lent as an opportunity  to re-connect with the practices of Sabbath on Fridays, a day each week to focus on sacred time in a season of sacred time. So I'm practicing Lent Words with reflection and creativity, and joining Shelly Miller on #sabbathforlent.

I had this idea floating around in my head to make church windows out of collage, so I gave it a try today. The method I chose was quite time consuming, so I'm going to play around with it over the net few days of Lent Words.

My "D" page for our Living Your Word group A-Z inspiration challenge. I chose the word "do".  

Participate in Lent Words 2019

• Download the March words calendar here. The April calendar will be added in a few weeks.
• Join the Words Challenge Facebook group to share your art, your experiences and join the conversation.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/ref=bookmarks
• Participate on Instagram with the hashtag #lentwords2019. You'll also find a words list there.

OR

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group: Living Your Word of the Year

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I facilitate a Facebook group about Living your Word of the Year. In it we share insights through blog posts and connect with other like-hearted and like-minded people who want to live out a word focus throughout the year. We offer participants a bi-weekly A-Z Inspiration to help prompt reflection and creativity. as well as other inspirational ways to connect with your word of the year. If you would like to connect with others in creative ways about living your word throughout the year, explore new ideas, record thoughts, prayers, and events, you are invited to join our Facebook group.

 https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Please use #livingyourword2019 on social media.

Check out the other blogs:
Bernice: www.newlycreative.com
Valerie: www.valeriesjodin.com/blog

Preparing for Lent 2019

This year I am on a journey of examining my relationship with food and my lack of a relationship with exercise. I'm on a journey to getting healthier as I move from my 57th to my 58th year next month. I have also taken on a new challenge/opportunity in my job/ministry, which means I am once again facing the challenges of balance and time and energy management.

All of this feels significant for me as we come into the season of Lent. The season of Lent is also a journey. It takes us on a 40 day journey of examination, reflection, repentance, and preparation for Easter. It is a journey of connecting with Jesus' journey to the cross.

Traditionally people will choose something to fast from during this 40 day period. In remembering the sacrifice Jesus Christ made on the cross for us, we sacrifice by fasting. While our fasting is minuscule compared to His great sacrifice, it does help us remember. It also serves to help us look to God in dependence. On Wednesday, which is Ash Wednesday, those who participate in a church service will receive ashes on our foreheads in the shape of a cross to remind us that there, on the cross, Jesus paid the price for our sin to redeem us.

"For you are dust and to dust you will return." Genesis 3:19

A large part of Lent is about remembrance. Remembrance ushers us into examination and reflection as we remember who we are and what we are called to, as we remember our weaknesses and failings, as we remember God's grace to us through His Son, and His love for us in redeeming us from the bondage of sin. Over the past few years, in the seasons of Advent and Lent, I have engaged in a practice of reflecting on daily words and Scripture passages and then responding to them creatively in an art journal. It aides in my practice of remembrance and reflection, taking the Scripture passages deeper into my mind and heart as I add a creative, tactile experience.

I intend to continue this practice again this year with Lent Words 2019, and I'd like to invite you to join me. Each day during Lent there is a word and a Scripture passage to read and reflect on. You can then respond creatively in whatever manner you choose: art journaling, poetry, photography, calligraphy, collage, etc. You choose! The word prompts are designed to 1.) get us into the Bible each day with words that are significant to this season of repentance and reflection, and 2.) help promote creativity as another way (or spiritual discipline) to draw close to God and participate in the season. 

Click on photo to download a PDF copy

This year Lent begins on March 6 and ends on Easter Sunday, April 21. There are pause days on Sundays in following the traditional Lent calendar that excluded Sundays from fasting. One thing that will change for Lent Words 2019 is that I will not be doing a daily devotional Bible study post. As I mentioned earlier the new challenge I've taken on at my job is keeping me pretty busy and I am still working through adjusting my schedule. I also have two trips planned during the Lent season. So I will do a devotional Bible study post as I have time. If you are looking for a devotional, may I recommend Shelly Miller's "A Sabbath Journey for Lent". Visit Shelly's blog, www.shellymillerwrite.com, go to the bottom and sign up to subscribe to her blog by email and you will receive her Lent devotion free. I intend to connect deeper with the theme and practice of Sabbath during the Lent journey, which Shelly's devotion is focused on.

How to participate:

• Download the words calendar above. The April calendar will be added in a few weeks.
• Join the Words Challenge Facebook group to share your art, your experiences and join the conversation.  https://www.facebook.com/groups/Wordschallengegroup/?ref=bookmarks
• Participate on Instagram with the hashtag #lentwords2019. You'll also find a words list there.

I hope you'll join me for Lent Words 2019, a reflective and creative journey through Lent.

Lent Words Day 40: Hope

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."

1 Peter 1:3

At the beginning of the week I shared a quote from a book about Lent by Charles Erdman, which I left unfinished, to be continued today. As Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story:

"On Saturday His body rested in the tomb. With this the last day of Holy Week, Lent, strictly speaking, is ended; but no proper review of the Lenten season would be complete without reaching a climax by including the Sunday which follows and which, as "Easter," celebrates the glorious resurrection of Christ."

Today is the official last day of Lent. The end of a season of repentance and mourning over sin. Tomorrow we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our mourning turns to joy! This great event ushers in our hope. As today's Scripture verse says, God, in His great mercy, has given us new birth into a living hope THROUGH the resurrection of Jesus Christ through the dead. This verse is so theologically rich and meaningful.

• God the Father has given us new birth. He has caused it to happen and gifted us with it. There is nothing we do to make this new birth happen, it is a work of God that we accept by faith. This new birth makes us children of God.
• We receive this new birth as a result of God's great mercy. God is compassionate and rich in mercy. In His mercy He made a way for us to be restored to favor with Him through faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
• Our new birth is into a living hope. As Christ-followers we have a hope that is not wishful thinking, but rather, a hope that has power. Power that changes lives! That same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in us! (Romans 8:11)
• This hope is living because it comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Because He lives, we live! "For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:22

And so, as we look forward to celebrating on Resurrection Sunday, we can join Peter in His praise to God the Father for this new birth into a living hope. "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!"

Today is our last day of the Lent Words Creative Challenge. Thank you all for joining along with me as we read daily Scripture passages and responded to them creatively. I want to once again thank those who wrote guest posts for our journey:

Bernice Hopper @ http://www.newlycreative.com/

Ellen Etzler @ https://www.ellenetzlerart.com/

Valerie Sjodin @ http://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

Kris Camealy @ http://kriscamealy.com/blog/

Christine Hiester @ https://www.instagram.com/barebranchblooming/?hl=en

Christina Hubbard @ http://www.creativeandfree.com/

Thank you all so much! We appreciated your words and your art in the many different ways your creativity was expressed and shared with us!

You can continue following my journey through the year here on my blog and in the Everyday Journals group on Facebook. In April we are exploring Verse Mapping!

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I are using one journal to record events, experiences and relationships and  to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We are each blogging about our experiences and our art. If you would like to connect with others about creatively organizing your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one journal, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals – Living Your Word of the Year.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Hashtags on Instagram: #everydayjournals2018, #livingyourword2018

Advent Day 19 ~ Word

Today's word is Word.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind."

John 1:1-4

More than the Christmas story told in Matthew and Luke's gospels, my favorite Christmas passage is John's prologue in John 1:1-18. In this section of his gospel John shows us Christ incarnate - God in flesh. In these first four verses John reveals so much truth about who Jesus is. He is God, the Word, Creator, life, and the light of all mankind.

I stumbled on the blog of pastor Tim Deatrick (timdeatrick.com). I like how he describes the incarnation:

"The eternal, pre-existent Christ stepped out of the splendor of heaven, limited His glory, and became like us. During His brief time on earth, Jesus revealed God to us. His claim was, “If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father” (John 14:7-11). He was the “icon” of God, revealing God to each of us. He helped us know who God is and what He is like.

Not only did Jesus reveal God, He also communicated God to us. John’s gospel account begins with this affirmation, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God” (John 1:1). What is a “word,” other than a means of communication. Jesus was God’s megaphone to the world that He had and continues to have something to say to creation.

Finally, Jesus came expressing the nearness of God’s presence. One of the names of Jesus ascribed through his advent was Emmanuel, meaning “God is with us” (Matthew 1:23). He tangibly represented the presence of God in the world, and did so through his words and deeds."

Jesus reveals God to us...

"The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word."

Hebrews 1:3

My art journal pages for today:

The Advent Words 2017 prompts and Scripture reading calendar can be found in this post or in the Facebook group.

Blog Hop With a Difference

A few weeks ago my friend, Bernice, invited me to participate in a blog hop that is a bit different than a traditional blog hop. Each person participating is asked four questions about their creative life and then introduces their readers to a few other bloggers they follow and are inspired by.

Q1: What am I working on?

As usual, I have a number of projects I am participating in and September seems especially busy on the art journaling front. 

30 Days of Lists September 2014 - I wasn't going to join this time around, due to the other projects, but I'm a sucker for a list, so I caved in at the last minute. The cover of my journal is actually the back of a book but it has my initials on it so I made it the cover!

I wrote about the Made Course 2014 in my last post which you can see HERE.

Kingdom Come is a free online class offered by art by Shonna Bucaroff. Shonna is a new friend, who I was introduced to by Bernice, and participating in her class was a way for me to get to know her better. My first project from her class is still in process. Her class just started last week so it's not too late for you to join in!

I continue to participate in The Documented Life Project and, seriously, I'm so amazed I have kept up for almost nine months! Pretty good for one who loves to start projects but doesn't always finish them!

Q2: How does my work differ from others of its genre?

My "genre" is art journaling which includes so many genres: mixed media art, lettering, paint, collage, etc. Through art journaling I learned to make my own journals, and more specifically, altered book journals, and that led to the start of my Etsy shop {found on brighton}. I don't know how my work really differs from other art journalers, but at the heart of my art journaling is my faith. Art journaling is, for me, another way to express my journey with God.

Q3: Why do I create what I do?

In regards to art journaling, I create what I do because it is a way to recharge my emotional, mental and spiritual energy. I am an introvert who works in ministry full time. I work with people, meet with people, serve people, and help people all day long. Art journaling helps restore my energy, helps me sort out my thoughts and emotions, and helps me visualize and "incarnate" my spiritual journey. It is also a great creative outlet for me. I love doing anything with color and texture and I must use up the creative energy that is usually bouncing around in my head!

Q4: How does my creative process work?

Much of my creative process begins with my morning habit of prayer, Bible study, writing in my journal, and reading. This morning habit is often the kick starter to my pages. Fridays are my day off and the day I protect as a "Sabbath" day. Fridays offer me a day to extend my morning habit without time limitations and then I will spend a few hours recharging with art. I will often simply make background pages with paint and collage. This process requires no thought and I can get lost in it! It also sparks so much creativity. I will jot down and sketch my ideas for art journal pages while I "play". Then, throughout the week on my work days, I will spend time in the evenings making my pages - anywhere from 15 minutes squeezed in to an hour or so. A little bit each day, no matter how little, is so healthy for me!

Well, that gives you a little more insight into my creative life. Now let me introduce you to a few of the bloggers I follow. They will each post their Blog Hop With a Difference stories next Monday.

Felicia Aaron blogs about her art and her faith at her blog There's More To Me Than You See. I actually met Felicia through my blog and through comments she has left. On her blog you will see her art journaling, stamping, Zentangle, and water color painting.

Leigh Ann Lukens blogs at His Artist. Leigh Ann has great posts on her blog about Faith Art Journaling. I stumbled on Leigh Ann's blog and found a kindred spirit! Leigh Ann's combination of Bible study and art journaling drew me to following her right away!

I hope you will enjoy getting to know these two women of faith and creativity!

Come back and visit on Thursday ~ I have something to celebrate and share with you!

Something to Ponder

For a few weeks in August five ladies from my church got together with me to make art and listen to my ideas about being creative, our faith and identity in Christ, and self-care. It was fun introducing some of these ladies to art journaling. It was also a good exercise for me and testing my teaching voice. I have taught on various topics for different events at church, mainly in regards to Bible Study or mission, and I have used my voice here on this blog. But I have had a nudge in my heart and spirit to explore using my voice in other ways regarding faith and art. What I discovered over these weeks is that I have way too much inside me and it really needs more time to develop into something cohesive. But this time with these ladies also sparked some different creative ideas which I will share here on my blog in the months ahead as well as through some other projects I am going to be a part of in the near future.

In prep for our last get together to talk about self-care, I read a passage that is very familiar to me, and probably to many of you, but this time reading it brought to mind some different questions. Let me share:

The passage: "Jesus replied, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two verses." Matthew 22:37-40

Jesus had just been asked by one of the Pharisees in verse 36 which commandment is the greatest. The verse above give His answer. Not one, but two commandments are given as the greatest: loving God and loving your neighbor. Paul points to this last part, loving your neighbor, as a way of summing up all of the commandments in one (Romans 13:9) and as a way of fulfilling the entire Law (Galatians 5:14).

The part that brought about my questions was "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I think sometimes we view self-care as being selfish or self indulgent, but this verse makes an assumption: that you are already loving yourself in a manner that is healthy and good, and that out of that place you will love your neighbor/others in the same manner.To me loving yourself is about self-care. It's about taking care of yourself in ways that keep you healthy emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually so that you can be your best for others. Jesus modeled this when he withdrew and sought solitude, rest and time for prayer. He even did this at the expense of not serving others needs. He taught it and modeled it to His disciples. He was so in tune with His Father and the Father's will that he was able to discern when it was time for self-care and when it was time for caring for others.

So ponder these questions with me:

• How well are you doing at loving yourself?
• If you are not putting self-care/love practices into place that are healthy, then how well are you really loving others?
• Are you loving others out of something unhealthy? Such as co-dependency? Dysfunction? Facades? Trying to get your own needs met? Selfishness - to get something in return?
• Do you know yourself and your limits well enough to know how to fill your energy tank in the areas I listed above?
• Do you regularly take time to examine your emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental health?
• Do you regularly practice spiritual disciplines or habits that help shape you spiritually? Habits of rhythm such as rest, Sabbath, retreats that help energize you?
• Or are you spiritually thirsty? Worn out? Running on empty or burned out?

These are just some of the questions this passage brought about for me. 

For me, self-care is a way of loving myself that is healthy, not selfish. In fact, Cloud and Townsend in their book "Boundaries" call self-care stewardship of the gifts God has given us. The end goal of self-care is what determines whether it is selfishness or stewardship: Am I doing this to make me better for God and others or just to make me better. The answer definitely requires soul searching and listening to God in prayer.

I encourage you to make self-care a priority. Pray through the questions above. You may even want to use this as a topic to explore for art journaling! I do quite often!

Earlier this week I got a surprise in the mail. Elissa, who I know through the Documented Life Project sent me an envelope full of "Happy Mail". Thanks Elissa! Here's a small sampling of what was in the envelope.

Last weekend I spent some time painting papers for one of the exercises our group did. I noticed I  reach for The circle templates, stencils and stamps a lot!

And a recent non-Documented Life art journal page. 

My Sabbath Day and art are big parts of self-care for me. What practices are significant to your self-care?

July Art Journaling

In July I have been playing catch-up in my Documented Life Project journal.

Week 19 challenge: A random act of kindness

Once my June pages were finished my DLP journal could hold no more! With July's pages I began a DLP volume 2 journal for the second half of the year.

And in my everyday art journal this month:

Stencil Girl Products hosted a blog hop last week for the Documented Life Project and I won one of their stencils! It was fun opening the mail yesterday to see which stencil was inside. So, today, I'd like to share that anticipation and excitement with one of my blog followers. Simply leave a comment on this blog post by next Friday (7.26.14) and then on Saturday 7.27 I will draw a name from the comments and that person will receive a lovely package of vintage papers and ephemera. Enjoy your weekend!

Pause

For the past 5 months I have been immersed in studying and reading about Sabbath. I have been a part of a team who studied Sabbath in preparation of developing a theology of Sabbath for our church community.

We (our church congregation) spent six weeks in May and June on a theological journey through the Bible, and a little history, and discovered what it means to keep a Sabbath Day according to God's design. Sabbath is not something we hear a lot about in the Christian community. It has mainly been relegated to denominations such as Seventh Day Adventists or Seventh Day Baptists, or as a Jewish tradition. What we learned in our journey is that Sabbath is a practice modeled by God in the recording of Creation in Genesis 2:1-3. As beings created in His image, God's people model God. Sabbath is a gift from God where we can pause from work and find rest in Him. The other important thing we came away with from our time of study is that we cannot regulate Sabbath observance and practices for others, thus making it legalistic. Jesus had much to say about man regulating and legalizing practices of the heart in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7). Sabbath practices will look different for each of us. For example, yard work would be tiresome and dreadful work for me, but to my husband it is recreation and relaxation, and even a way in which he spends time connecting with God. Sabbath observance may happen on different days. Being in full-time ministry and working half the day on Sundays, I have practiced Sabbath on Friday for years. In response to our study, our congregation is going to stop scheduling meetings and classes after church on Sundays to free people up to practice Sabbath and spend time with their families.

For me, the thing that has spoken to my heart the most is that of leaning into God to create a rhythm of Sabbath throughout the week. The idea of taking mini Sabbaths each day with an extended Sabbath day once a week fits well with my practice over the years of keeping white space in my calendar. I really connect with the idea of receiving God's gift of Sabbath and pausing my day and my week to connect more with Him and to accept His gifts of rest, love, enjoyment, and refreshment.

We have a practice of ending each series with a Sunday devoted to celebrating what God has done in that series. I led our service that morning and below have included my call to worship that morning.

"Today is a day of celebration.

Over the past 6 weeks we have slowly unwrapped a gift –

A gift that helps us pause and take in the glory and the grace of God.

We are busy people.

We live in a culture that values busy-ness.

There are always things to get done – in our jobs, in our homes, our lists at times seem never ending.

But today is a day that has been set apart by God where we can pause-

We break the rhythm of everyday life.

Let’s practice that right now-

Everyone sit still for a moment, breathe in deeply. Let it out slowly.

We have paused the week,

we have stopped the hurry and the running around, the focus on worries,

The busyness of everyday life.

This morning we have gathered together,

In the tradition of our people,

And we enter into the rhythm God has for us, His people.

We breathe is His love.

We come together to celebrate who God is

And to celebrate who we are in Him.

We come together to worship Him.

We come together to enter into His rhythm.

We offer up to him all that we are.

We offer up to him the heavy loads of busyness, responsibilities, trials and suffering, the hassles of everyday life.

And today we receive from Him the gift-

 to pause, to breathe, to celebrate, and to remember who God is and who we are.

Sabbath is a gift from God and today we celebrate what we have heard through this series on Sabbath."

Rest and Creativity

Since Memorial Day life for me has been a whirlwind of activity with preparation for end of the school year events for our ministry to the public school we adopted as our community partner. Each year the school and Parent's Club holds a Field Day in the last week. The role of our church is to provide a bag lunch for each student and to provide two volunteers to supervise lunch in each classroom while the teachers get a much needed lunch break. Since I lead our school partnership ministry this makes for a very busy end of the year in addition to my other activities at the school. April and May are always very busy months at our church and for me in the roles I serve in on staff. I find, that when June comes and we have finished our events and activities at the school, that I have been operating on adrenaline, and my energy quickly leaves me like air leaving a balloon, and I deflate! So I scheduled a 10 day vacation for the week after school closed - a "staycation", a time to rest and renew.

On day one, I was amazed how quickly I felt re-energized just by doing some of the things that I know bring me energy and joy. This is where knowing yourself is beneficial. I know what drains me and I know what energizes me. Part of self-care is being in touch with these things and doing what is necessary to keep them in balance. Someone said, "Stress kills creativity" (sorry, I can't find who said it!), and I resonate with this from experience. When I get overly busy and tired I find I have a hard time creating. So, this week at home has been about restoring and making time for creativity, art and some of the other things that are enjoyable to me.

Some highlights from my past week:

• My pastor had asked me to share in a Sunday service while we are in our series on the Theology of Sabbath. He had asked me specifically to share how practicing a Sabbath Day has enriched my soul and to share some of the spiritual practices and "non-spiritual" practices that fill my Sabbath day. So I did that last Sunday. One thing that really stood out for me as I prepared for sharing was that keeping a Sabbath Day has been an instrumental part of getting to know how I am wired and what energizes me. It has helped me discover how much being creative energizes me. Sabbath rest is a gift from God and a spiritual practice I am very thankful for. Check out the Sabbath Society at Redemption's Beauty http://redemptionsbeauty.com/sabbath-society/ for more Sabbath practice information and ideas.
• I got on a roll making altered book art journals for my Etsy shop:{found on brighton}
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

I have already sold three! I participated in a course by Jeanne Oliver (http://www.jeanneoliverdesigns.com/) about how to have a creative business and this past week I have been catching up on watching the videos. I made a decision a while back that if I was going to have an Etsy shop I might as well be serious about it being a small business. So far I am enjoying my little business. :)

• I have done very little outside my home this week and have really enjoyed it! This is when I have no doubts that I am more of an introvert than an extrovert (another discovery made through practicing Sabbath!). The few things I have done were: attending the boys Little League baseball games. participating in my spiritual direction group, and yesterday my friend Rox and I went to two library book sales. We found a lot of goodies! They will be used for my personal journals and to make altered book journals and paper packs for my shop.
  
• I have also been catching up on my art journaling challenge projects, making art, and catching up on some movie watching (two I highly recommend are Monuments Men and Philomena). I post some of my art pictures in another post this weekend.

So, that is the start of my summer. I'm hoping for a slowed down pace - actually, not hoping for - I intend to have a slowed down pace this summer. How are you planning to spend your summer?