see-through faith

When I woke this morning I was singing this song. It was a really wonderful way to start the day. It struck me then that somehow along the way I’ve lost the habit of listening to worship music at home, and the practice of soaking in the presence of God on a regular basis has slipped too. That’s something I want back …

A friend asked me what it is that I like about Beauty for Brokenness, or rather why it speaks to and ministers to me. I wasn’t sure how to answer that … I think it’s perhaps because it’s a very holistic song. It’s not particularly me focused, but rather contains the essence of mission-spirituality. It is a recognition that we are called by the mission of God to join in his mission … in works which bring justice and peace and hope to a broken world.

The chorus is lovely of course, but I especially like the second verse

Shelter for fragile lives, Cures for their ills
Work for the craftsman,Trade for their skills
Land for the dispossessed, Rights for the weak
Voices to plead the cause, Of those who can’t speak

It’s not enough just to sing this though, I want to live it.

A few months ago in my friend’s patch in London I heard what I thought was a rather radical sermon. The minster said something like ‘if you are buying fair trade products, that’s great. Keep doing it. But remember that’s only the start …’ I think that’s worth remembering.  We are to take baby steps, we are to begin practices that will help us in our walk as Jesus’ disciples … only in doing that, can we become mature enough to take bigger and bigger steps. Rome (London/Turku) wasn’t built in a day … but it started with a vision, and then one brick or stone placed in the right place, onto which other bricks and stones could be placed. Jesus is our cornerstone, (Eph 2:20) and our journey -our pilgrimage- begins with a small step.

…. no, not us (and not this blog either). Nonetheless this week is a week of moving nonetheless. Some friends of ours established what I best can describe as a Shane Claiborne type Christian commune. Five or six of them live in the same large apartment in Turku, only the lease has expired and they are looking for a new place.  I love what they have been doing there … they share life, and their door has almost always been open to anyone wanting to swing by and drink coffee (they make the best lattes in town) or in need of a listening ear and prayer.

Last night was the beginning of the end of an era as we helped one of the women from the palace move out.  It’s also the end of an era for us at home and TS will also move into a place of his own this coming week. He’s about to start studying at the university and managed to get a flat at the student village. Our house won’t be any emptier though, as a good friend will move into his room until she finds a new place of her own.

So, this week will be packing and unpacking, cleaning and moving furniture. But at least I get to spend some time with TS’s girl today … shopping for a new kettle, toaster and coffee maker. Yay.

Only three days until we start the eyes of faith challenge – a challenge for you to find the Kingdom of God amidst your everyday life for a year, take a photograph of it and post it.

You can still join our challenge if you want to. It’s already proving to be a lot of fun in the run up to it and because we want it to stay fun we aren’t going to be prescriptive. If you miss a day (or two or three) it honestly isn’t the end of the world, though I’m going to try my best to post a photo a day until the end of August next year.

What do these colourful mugs say to you about the Kingdom of God I wonder …? You can find out what they said to me over here.

Those of you who are familiar with facebook will know the concept of poke – or nudge – but have you ever thought of that as a tool God uses?

Nudge is the title of Leonard Sweet’s latest book, and I just had to write about it. (I will in due course write a fuller review for B&B Media who kindly gave me the book, but first I want to savour it – which is in line with the author’s wishes himself

There is no speed reading in art. When it comes to appreciating any work of art, you need to slow down, stare at it, and silence your soul … which is another way of saying that you need to look at God’s participation in the universe, not yours …

I bring all of these together in certain personal rituals. Here are a couple of examples from my reading life. Every few months, instead of speed-reading, I try to read a book like I would want my books to be read: slowly, every word, almost devotionally. In the Great Books Seminars I conduct … we try not to consume a book. We try to receive it as a gift and let it call to us. Every book issues a call. Hearing that call is another way of talking about reading, and answering the call is how you allow the boo to change you. And those boos that have changed me the most, I reread every couple of year. Many books are readable; only a very few books are rereadable. C.S. Lewis said if you have read a great book only once, you haven’t read it at all.

Most of you know that I’m a bookcrosser. I love reading and I have learnt to love giving away books too.The spirit of bookcrossing  lies in the fact that most books are not re-readable. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with them, but simply that there are many other books out there.  So, rather than books you have read (but are unlikely to re-read again) gathering dust on your shelves and taking up valuable space in your home … Bookcrossers let their books go. I embrace that.

But, (there’s almost always a but!) there are some books (novels as well as non-fiction) that I hang on to. Nudge is almost certainly doing to be one of them. I know I’m going to read and reread this book again and again.  It won’t be going anywhere for a long time, other than on loan (to responsible friends who return books!) Why? Because it’s good, very good … there’s so much in it … and it is challenging me in a good way.

The essence of Sweet’s book is that God is intimately involved in the lives of us all – the saved /unsaved or believers/not yet believers if you prefer. He argues that by sharing a hug, offering to pray for someone or enjoying a meal with friends (for example) are all opportunities that become active encounters with the living Christ. If we allow them to that is.

More to follow

There are some who don’t think I’m a very good wife. I suppose it all depends on what your definition of a wife is, and what the expectations are. Since hubby doesn’t have many complaints, and since we are still together after 22 years, I’m probably not that bad of a wife (all things considered), although occassionally (and for financial reasons) he threatens to confiscate my passport and change the password on my amazon account (grin)

I started reading an excellent book a week or so ago. It’s by a favourite author (Margaret Forster) and it’s entitled Good Wives? Mary, Fanny, Jennie and me, 1845-2001.

Forster looks at the lives of three wives, all of important, prominent men (David Livingstone (missionary and explorer), Robert Lewis Stevenson (author), and Aneurin Bevan (Labour MP, Cabinet minister) and compares herself to them. The theme throughout is, not surprisingly, what is a good wife? but what was most interesting (for me) was the way at the end of each biographical section Margaret Forster writes a reflection, and evaluates her own experience of marriage (to author Hunter Davies) against the experiences of the other wives. It makes for fascinating reading.

Forster is a feminist, but not of the die-hard variety. What was interesting was that she had to get married, not because she was pregnant, but because they couldn’t rent a flat any other way. Only she didn’t (at first) really get married, but bought a curtain ring from Woolworths and passed herself off as Mrs Davies. In otherwords she was to all intents and purposes ‘a mistress … though I didn’t like that label either’. (p. 5.)

The quote that resonated most with me, reads

It is an urge, surely, felt by almost every wife at some point in a marriage – to get away, to think of oneself for a change, to escape all the domestic routines, and, indeed, to escape the husband however must he is loved, not to mention the children. All completely understandable, and yet somehow thought not quite the thing for a good wife to want to do even today.

I can so identify with that. And consider myself to be in a marriage where my husband and I both recognise my need to get away, and both love it too when I return.

Interestingly for me Margaret Forster herself, although totally approving of wives holidaying alone, never actually does it herself … what she prefers is having the house to herself for a while … but what she does have (and will not give up!) is her Saturdays.

Saturday is my holiday day, my weekly day off and I don’t want him tagging along. I want to be a single woman. … selfish woman that I am. I want to wander as a free spirit, changing directions as I change my mind, without having to discuss where I’m going and especiallly without having to think about eating [I can so identify with that!]. I want to sit on my own in parks and observe others, I want to go to plays and films and feel isolated among the audience, I want to walk miles and miles along the river, over the bridges, through the squares, an oldish invisible woman. I emphatically do not want to be part of a couple, a wife. No one notices me and that’s exhilarating. I don’t speak for the whole eight hours or so that I’m otu, except to ask for tickets and so forth, whereas, together, we never stop talking.

The lives of the three women Forster looks at are all very interesting, and to my shame, I knew very little about any of them, even Jennie Lee who was an MP in her own right. I’m not sure I agree with all of her conclusions, but I really enjoyed the book, particularly her reflections.

At the end of the book there is an epilogue, where Forster looks at the whole question of matrimony, particularly the church service. Hubby and I got married in a church here in Finland. We didn’t have the whole white wedding and expensive reception, but we did want God’s blessing on our lives together, and today, 22 years later, I still wouldn’t have had it any other way. I didn’t promise to obey him, but I did promise to love him and forsake all others for him (and he me). I think that is well in line with the spirit of what Paul writes to the Christians in Ephesus and Colossee . And I do believe God has smiled on our marriage over the years … for better for worse, for richer for poorer and in sickness and in health. Amen.

One of the wonderful things about having visitors from abroad is that it almost always opens my eyes to seeing Finland – my adopted homeland – again.

Right now we have a friend from England visiting us, and it’s been lovely. She’s twenty – so the same age as our son – but nonetheless my friend, because we met while I was over at Cliff college doing my MA. I find it a real gift from God that I can – and do – have friends across the generation gap, but it’s also nice when it turns out that these younger friends also become family friends, as sometimes happens.

As already posted my friend and I were invited to the rotary outing to Seili last Saturday, and then mid week (after my working for two days) we skipped off to Sweden on a minicruise. Both trips were a lot of fun. At the end of the week though, hubby took a rare couple of days off, and we headed up to Merikarvia (about 200km north of here) to his parents’ summer place.

Very many Finns have a summer place. Almost all of them are really rustic, primitive even, with outside toilets, no running water etc. My in-laws’ place does at least have electricity, but all the water, for example, has to be hauled from the well, and well it’s hard work. I think that’s one of the reasons hubby and I have never wanted a cottage of our own, and of course we know we can visit Merikarvia.It’s a sort of haven in the background, no matter how seldom I -at least – visit. This week was the first time this year, and last year I only went up there once as well. Earlier in the summer the mosquitos drive me indoors, and to be honest we have a beautiful home here with a great garden, and so, when I am in Finland (and admittedly that hasn’t been much this summer) I’m usually really content to be at home, and do occassional day trips to see friends and new places.This trip hubby took my friend and I out to sea. There’s a little uninhabited island that we’ve dubbed ‘Jack’s island’ because my dad used to love going there. We go there in a small, fairly typical vessel, with a 4 hp outboard motor, and it takes the best part of an hour to get there down the Merikarvia river and archipelago, so the weather needs to be relatively calm, which Thursday was (although it was cold!)

Tyrni (sea buckthorn berries) are native to these islands. They are full of vitamin C. But they aren’t usually ripe until mid September, so we were very surprised to see the bushes laden with berries ripe for picking this time. Sadly, we didn’t have any of the gear with us  to pick them (you need gloves at least, and it’s best to harvest them using tiny nail scissors so as not to spoil the berries (or the plants themselves))… next time …

I just got home from a mini-cruise to Stockholm and back.  This is the view from the ferry yesterday evening (at about 9.45pm) … a full moon over some of the most beautiful Finnish scenery (the Turku archipelago). All that was missing – maybe – was a moonlit serenade!

Later in the evening my friend and I went down to the bar, where a fun Finnish band were playing and the Finns (mostly elderly couples) were dancing. REally dancing. Waltzes and tangoes, and the Finnish humppa. En route back to our cabin we stopped off at the disco which was absolutely deserted. Seems that the oldies know better how to have fun on these cruises.

This morning we enjoyed a wonderful buffet breakfast – cups of tea and apple juice, cereal, fresh fruit, wonderful tasty bread and cheese, sausages and eggs, and best of all a rare treat for me – crepes with fresh berries. Everything was so fresh and tasted wonderful! Only trouble was  that I was so full afterwards I had to take a nap when we got back to the cabin and only woke up again at noon! (Incidentally apart from some fruit we didn’t eat again until we got home this evening!)

We spent the rest of the day in the sky bar, which is a cafe on the uppermost deck which has the most wonderful views of God’s own water park – the waterways leading back to Turku through the archipelago.  The weather was really good (calm and sunny) and it was such a blessing to sit in the warm, sipping cola, and watching the world go by.

There’s so much to see. The sea, the skies, the variety of little islands, and houses …and then there are also the boats. We saw a flotilla of sailing boats, and also something I’ve never seen before …

… a tiny tug boat pulling an ENORMOUS load of logs on a raft.

I had  a really wonderful day today. And best of all it was full of God! (See also eyes of faith, to see what tool I photographed today, and where God was in that!)

Swimming continues to be something – forgive the pun- that fills my tank. And it’s always good! When I don’t get to go on a regular basis (at least twice a week) I really notice it.

Yesterday however was especially good. We are still able to swim in the open air, in a heated pool. And the weather was fabulous. What’s more we were treated to an especially good display of diving from the 3m spring board by two young(ish) men. What I noticed too was how well they encouraged each other.

The outdoor pool will be open for another five weeks, although towards the end of the September with reduced opening hours. After that it’s back to swimming in a smaller, indoor pool … and then I’ll be counting the days until it’s possible to swim outdoors in warm water here in Finland again. It’s always possible to do what’s called avantouinti (ice swimming) here of course, but that doesn’t really appeal. For a start it’s not swimming, it’s simply a dunk into the icy waters … and when the air temperature is zero or below, well as I said it’s not my cup of tea.

On Friday night, driving home from eija’s I swung by Helsinki-Vantaa airport to pick up my friend for her first ever visit to Finland. She’s staying with us until September 1st.

Saturday was an early start as we had been invited by the International Rotary Club of Turku to join them in an outing to Seili. We followed the pikku rengastie from Turku. Hubby drove us from to Hanka (via Naatali, Rymättylä,(with one very short ferry) from where we caught a larger ferry to the island of Seili, a small island in the Archipelago sea.  This was a first for me!

Seili island has an interesting history. Earlier it was a leprosy island, and later on it served as the location for the mentally ill. Since the 60s however, the University of Turku has had its Archipelago Research Institute located there. This was really interesting for me.

The Baltic sea is not very big, yet about 90 million people (half of whom live in Poland) are in its catchment area.  (For comparision, the ‘outer’ coastline of Southern Sweden, Norway and the tip of northern Russia on the North sea, and Norweigan sea – which is about the same length supports less than ten million people).

What’s more the Baltic Sea is rather shallow in many places (particularly near Denmark), whcih means that while it’s not landlocked, the water does not mix with the water from the North sea  very rapidly, and that is affecting its salinity (amongst other things). That in turn affects the species etc etc. And you can imagine the environmental consequences …

While on the island we visited the old church rebuilt in the 1700s (which is lovely), and there we were shown some very,very old grafitti (on a pew).

We shared a fabulous picnic. (I do like pot luck and in my experience it almost always ends up working out really really well.)  And afterwards we boarded MS Linta and then continued along the pillurengastie to Turku (via Nauvo and Parainen) in a friend’s car.

Meet my newest friend …  He’s a lot of fun, and is likely to travel with me quite a lot from now on. He was a gift from eija (promised months ago, but this is the first time we’ve met face-to-face in ages!)

We’ve been having a lot of fun, and I’ve been learning lots about taking and editing photos. My pc looks a lot cleaner too!!! And I’ve also been testing out the wii and after loads and loads of attempts, finally managed to complete the slalom course (beginners level) . Yay!

I had a lot of fun setting up this shot (using 10 sec delay so that I didn’t need a flash and thus avoiding being in the picture myself!). For a better shot of the venus fly trap see my post over at eyes of faith. There are still twelve days until we begin the eyes of faith challenge for real btw. All you need is a camera (even one on your phone will do) and a blog, and a willingness to see God at work in whatever you shoot. More info here.