Month: August 2016

Mystic Quiet = Fresh Goals

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Recently my now-retired spouse proposed a fishing trip to one of his favorite spots with “would you like to go along?” attached. Inwardly I sighed and thought of all the things I wanted to do at home. But immediately my deeper desire not to waste an opportunity to spend time with him kicks in and I say, “sure!”

I pack my “art stuff” and he loads his fishing gear. We fill the camper with food and folding chairs—because coffee out in the early morning sun is a ‘must.’ As soon as we pull on to the highway a sense of relief sweeps over me. The ordinary—laundry, grocery shopping, meal prep, computer work, TV, even garden veggies needing processing—drops away and is replaced with a nearly mystic calm. The next two days will be an oasis of peace. As the miles pass so does the tyranny of the urgent.

Coffeepot lake

Ahh, quiet happiness! The solitude, beauty and peace of the lake is an emotional and spiritual elixir. As the day draws to a close the wind swirls and ebbs around me. The swallows and blackbirds glide and sit by turns. What a time of peaceful renewal that makes my heart overflow with gladness for this beautiful place.

After a deep, refreshing sleep, out comes the little notebook I grabbed as I packed. I reread the only entry—just one page—made over 3 years ago.  It sets out an ambitious plan for my writing and art.  I am stunned, surprised and encouraged!  Those goals have largely been completed! There wasn’t a fancy list, just some simple things written down that I wanted to accomplish. I didn’t put in any deadlines (though some motivational experts would say that is a critical need) I just wrote down—“said out loud”—what I wanted to do with my life.

It made me realize how truly valuable it is to set goals. To “say them out loud” (so to speak) by writing them down.

So, I am determined to use this delicious slice of quiet to ponder and make a fresh set of goals. Who knows? Three years from now I may have another book or two in print? Wouldn’t that be nice?

my goals

Question: Have you written your goals recently? Are you brave enough to “say them out loud”?

 

Wheat or Chaff?

Posted on by Karyn Jeffrey

Psalm 1

The time of wheat harvest is upon the Palouse here in Eastern Washington. The waving golden fields are being slashed into spikey rows as modern combines gather the grain and nearly effortlessly do the work that once was grueling, back-breaking labor for hundreds of men. The process of getting wheat from field to freight trains bound for bakeries all around the world is a mystery to most of us. But that was not so to the men and women who lived in ancient times. For most of human history, wheat was scythed by hand and carried to threshing floors. There the wheat stalks were flailed and flung high into the wind. The process dropped the precious grain to the ground while the wind carried away the useless outer husks—“chaff.” In other cases, the chaff would be gathered and burned.

If you were a grain of wheat, this process of “winnowing,” as it was called, would be traumatic. You would be beaten, tossed, and dropped. But if you were the chaff, not just trauma, but catastrophe. You and the wheat would be beaten and tossed and flung high. But as the wheat safely dropped to the floor, there you are, alone, to be borne by the wind to a nameless, useless end. The wheat will remain, valuable and useful. It will become food that will nourish and sustain many. You, the chaff, will be lost and utterly useless-flung to oblivion or burned with fire.

Life is harrowing and the current times seem much like a threshing floor experience. We are being beaten, tossed and dropped. The winnowing brings turmoil, trauma. The temptation is strong to become a spiritual chameleon, to blend into the world’s pattern in an effort to avoid the chaos. There is in our fallen human heart the notion that if we just go along with what the world says we won’t have any trouble. Being “righteous” in this context is scary.

But God is at work, separating the evil from the good. As John the Baptist said of Jesus at His baptism: “His winnowing fork is in His hand and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

QUESTION:

Are you wheat or chaff? Have you repented of the sin that separates you from God? Maybe you playing close to the fire, compromising with the world in an effort to avoid the scorn of others? Beware. Both paths are perilous.