IF:LOCAL

I am so excited to announce our 2015 women's retreat!!!!

February 6th and 7th, we'll be joining thousands of women across the country to take part in the IF:Gathering.  This teleconference from Austin, TX is in it's second year.  Last year, 150,000 women attended IF: in person and via simulcast.  This year, we get to be among those women!  Join us at Westside Christian Fellowship for our simulcast and be part of the experience.

Solitude: Spread Our Hands

Another Monday, another chance to be still.  Christmas is next week, so I know you won't have many more opportunities.  Am I right?

One of the things I love about this time of year is all the Christmas music.  Songs that have gone unsung for 11 months return, lyrics of joy and adoration rise above the noise and messiness of our lives.

Funny, though, how quickly we grow tired of them.  Maybe not without spiritual reason.  Advent is, after all, a season of waiting.  Waiting to rejoice.  Not yet.  We're still carrying our burdens.  In our house, the Mary and Joseph figurines are standing on top of the printer, still slowly making their way to Bethlehem.  Like us.  And the manger is still empty.

Honoring Spiritual Seasons: Solitude

This may seem like an odd time to talk about solitude.  December is the busiest month of the year.  There are concerts, errands, visitors, cards, online shopping, laundry, end of year accounting, open enrollment for healthcare (aghh!!!! If I have to talk to ONE more person at Blueshield...).  Whew!  Sneaking off to the Grand Canyon for a little alone time sounds fantastic.  In fact, yesterday I had to wait at the bus stop for 30 minutes for a ride home.  By myself.  It was beautiful.

Spiritual Seasons: Advent w/ Hannah Sorota

Enjoy this guest post from Hannah Sorota!

The church now enters Advent: our season of expectation. It is another season that teaches us about waiting. It is a season of anticipation and hope, in which we long for the coming of Christ.

Be honest. Is that what’s on your mind right now?

Are you excited for this season, looking forward to Christmas, but feeling pressured by your to-do list? Are you hassled because the days have started passing too quickly for you to get it all done in time? Annoyed because you’ll be spending time with extended family members who stress you out? Already tired of the Christmas music playing everywhere? Cynical of the culture’s materialism – and then unhappy because you see it in your own kids, and even more in yourself?

We all love Christmas, but most people are weary of the madness by December 26th. We all have that madness in our lives this season of the year: another get-together, your son’s band concert, your daughter’s dance recital, your husband’s company party and the church ladies’ Christmas Tea; decorating the house, putting up the lights, shopping for deals, traveling, hosting the open house, finding those stocking stuffers; the family coming to visit, more presents to wrap, more presents to buy, more baking to do. Always MORE!

Seasons: Extra/Ordinary

We've looked at Moses the last few weeks, at the many spiritual seasons of his life.  This week we'll take a look at his most ordinary/extraordinary time of life.  Does that sound familiar?  Extra/Ordinary?

God finds a man who shares his holy anger over Israel's slavery.  God sends that man out to a desert where his anger can be molded, refined and where rescuing skills are learned.  Then it's time, and God sends Moses back to Egypt.

You probably know the story: miracles, plagues, staffs that become snakes, a Hebrew man who speaks for the living God, a Pharaoh who finally says "Go", an Israelite hoard followed by an Egyptian army, a pillar of fire, a parted sea.

Extraordinary.

Seasons: Waiting and Preparation

We left Moses after he murdered an Egyptian.  As the story continues Pharaoh hears of the murder and tries to seize Moses and kill him for murdering an Egyptian.  To save his skin, Moses flees to Midian.

While a sin with life-long consequences, I suggested that Moses' life up to this point was a season in which God fashioned a man who would share his passion for the Israelites and share God's anger at their slavery.

But that wasn't enough.  Rarely is.

Seasons: Moses: Get Angry.

What spiritual season are you in? Did Saul's time in Egypt resonate with where you are? If not, maybe Moses is your guy. His story is written in chunks of very obvious seasons.

Walk like an Egyptian

Moses spent his childhood and adolescent years living in Pharaoh's house as an adopted son. If you know what's in store for him,  you see some obvious pluses, such as: later, when God tells Moses "go to Pharoah and say..." Moses will actually know how to go to Pharaoh. I mean, it might seem silly, but doesn't knowing what door to enter, what floor Pharaoh's throne room is on, how many steps to the podium, which person can notify the man in charge that you've arrived, where to park your camel - doesn't knowing all of those practical things remove a whole layer of fear regarding  "go to Pharaoh and say"?

Ready. Set. Go! ...to Arabia

We're thinking through spiritual seasons: chunks of time that serve specific spiritual purposes.  These seasons are not to be confused with pumpkin latte season.  That's where the spiritual discipline aspect of it comes into play.  We are often more willingly engulfed by the seasonal wares of the mass-market than by the spiritual seasons tenderly executed in our lives by the living God.

God may have you in a season of simplicity, trying to drive a few basic points home, trying to help you discover simplistic acts of worship and the simplicity of His love for you, but you will stop by Target and load up a cart with fall junk, make an impossible must-accomplish list, sign your kids up for that extra activity no one has time for, dive into a new friendship because you'll feel guilty if you don't make plans, and on and on.  God may have you in a season of loneliness - on purpose! - gasp! Perhaps He is trying to teach you to rely on Him alone.  Perhaps He is trying to correct false expectations in relationship, or to fashion you into a better friend.  Regardless, you'll fight against this season by joining a few dozen chat rooms, hammering down a friendship door that's been closed, insisting the problem isn't you and talking the ear off your barista while she's frantically trying to make ten pumpkin lattes simultaneously.  (Side note - What is it with the pumpkin latte?  Is there no other flavor of fall?!)

Spiritual Seasons

Slowly, I'm working my way through spiritual disciplines I usually shove aside, bury in a busy schedule, or simply ignore.  Disciplines that often slip our minds and rarely find their way into our routines.

Sabbath
Solitude
Seasons
Service

We've spent the last few weeks discovering how to keep an urban Sabbath.  Did you miss it?  Check it out here. Hopefully, we've learned what Sabbath is and what it isn't.  Hopefully we've enjoyed some best of the best.  Hopefully, we've started making some good.

I debated where to go next (in order?) and decided to tackle Seasons BEFORE we get into all the holiday stuff so that maybe we're a bit more prepared to handle them.  Plus, Seasons doesn't necessarily have anything to do with holidays - as we'll see, and I didn't want it to get murky.

A New Heart w/ Carol Bayliss

Speaking of Sabbath and how to properly celebrate - it seemed like the perfect time for Carol Bayliss to share.  If you don't know her, Carol is a long-time Westside gal.  She's stylish, spunky and surprising.  She loves travel, great food, theater - and her better half.  Carol's climbed many mountains in her time, but the most recent was a spiritual Everest.  It began with some health complications, and long story short, Carol found herself at UCLA waiting for a new heart.  And she waited, and waited and waited.

For 6 months she lived on the fourth floor, waiting for the heart that would save her life.

Sabbaths came and went.  As a church, we celebrated Sabbath without her present, but certainly she was heavy on our minds.  We visited her on Sabbath.  We prayed as a congregation for her heart, but mostly for her soul.  We learned new songs while she was gone, and I often thought of her returning and finding so much changed, so much new.  While she was gone, Oceans became one of our favorites.  Little did we know it was becoming one of hers as well.

Make Good

Did you stuff all the good you could into yesterday?  Did you drink up a day filled with the best of the best?  Maybe it was a small step in the right direction - a cup of coffee in the morning light, a snuggle with your littlest one that you truly savored, a drive to church with delight at all the awaited you there.

Last week I asked the question "What do we DO on the Sabbath" and wrote about the Genesis answer: enjoy the good.  Today let's dive into the Gospel answer: make good.

The Best of The Best

We've been talking about what Sabbath isn't.
It's not a day of nothing. It's not a day of relaxing in an any-old-way-we-want fashion.  Nor is it a day to catch up on what didn't get done during the week.  Rather,  Sabbath is the day when we're invited to enjoy the pleasures of the Kingdom in all their fullness, even while waiting for God's kingdom to fully come.  It's experiencing the joy of full creation, the rest of completeness in Christ.

Last week I suggested a few ways to make room for Sabbath.  How did it go? What did you try?

I failed to prep a meal,  but we did use paper plates. My DH was perplexed. "It's Sabbath," I said.
"Yeah?" He didn't get it.
"I'm trying to avoid some of the work I normally do,  so I can enjoy Sabbath."
"Oh...well its just two plates..."
"Yeah..."
"Not much of a difference."
"You know, if we were Orthodox, I wouldn't be able to make meals on the Sabbath."
"Hmmm," he said,  eyeing his homemade not-what-he-wanted tuna wrap. "Could you heat things up?"
"I don't know."
"So we'd have to eat out," DH concludes, suddenly a cheerleader of my Sabbath observance.

Making Room

Last week we explored the idea of Sabbath.  In summary, it's God-ordained rest from the world to live a whole day in God's kingdom here in preparation for our eternity.

Often we think of Sabbath as a day of relaxing.  Naps, movies, walks, etc.

I'm not saying you shouldn't relax on the Sabbath, but just "resting" begs the question - Resting from what?

Sabbath: Enter Rest

Spiritual disciplines can be difficult to put into play in a busy life.  The most difficult ones for me involve resting.  Can anyone else relate?

Do you live in workout clothes because it's easier to sprint from one demand to the next in spandex?  Does your weekly meal plan include a run through Del Taco because it is impossible to carve out 30 minutes to make dinner?  (Can anyone actually make dinner in 30?  If so - call me!)  Are your next 5 weekends already booked?  

Sabbath rest is hard.  In his book "Unity of the Bible," Fuller discusses the odd chapter and divisions in the Bible.  Genesis 1 ends after the 6th day of creation, as if the creation of man is the climax of the story.  Certainly we would like to think of it that way.  However, he argues, a better chapter division would be after Genesis 2:3:

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Where did the swimsuits go?

September is almost here.  Did you hear me?  September is almost here!  Agh!!!!!  Not ready.  Not nearly ready.  Our summer was a mix of quick-unpack-now-repack interrupted by change-the-sheets-the-company-is-here pandaemonium.  The cabinet door that broke in June is still broken.  The laundry pile is belly-button high.  My nightstand is littered with quarters, stray buttons, clothes that need mending, single earrings and half-finished crafts (you know, the kind you start because you think you have a free day and then you remember you have to go to the dmv, so you hunt down your sleeping bag because who knows how long that's going to take).

I'm not ready.  I have not made a new life schedule.  I haven't even started my summer reading list because I'm still reading the book I started in March.  Yes, March.  I haven't made a menu plan.  Mail is piled up on my desk.  Lucy still thinks her nose is inside her ear because we didn't study biology this summer, and pinterest is already displaying Thanksgiving crafts (can we all just agree not to pin those yet?!).  My ideal life is not in place yet!  September cannot come - and yet, it will.

Becoming A Mother in LA - Bethany Dirksen

We moved to LA when I was 5 months pregnant with our first child.  Although we were quickly becoming seasoned veterans at moving, this transition combined the nerves of my impending motherhood was daunting.  The only course of action we knew to take was: FIND A CHURCH…and stat.

We moved into a little one bedroom on Franklin Street and saw that two blocks up and one blocks down was a little community church.  It was in what seemed to be a warehouse, but we weren’t going to hold that against them, yet.  We went without looking at the website, researching other churches nearby, or even giving it a second thought.  It was nice.  The people talked to us, the music wasn’t like a pop concert, and they even did communion regularly.  We said to each other, “That’ll do,” and searched no further.  Westside Christian Fellowship had officially become our LA church home.

Meet Katherine

I hope you're getting excited about our night of worship.  I am!  Check out these videos and meet our speaker, Katherine Wolf.


KNOWN: Jay and Katherine Wolf from Catalyst on Vimeo.
www.hopeheals.com

Night of Worship

Gals,
Before you know it, the beach towels will be washed and put away.  You'll go whole days without popsicle stickiness in your arm hair.  The kids will strap on their backpacks and head to school.  Your coworkers will stop dumping extra work on you while they go on exotic summer retreats while you prep a corner of your apartment to accommodate your out of town guests.  When the sand finally settles, you might need help shifting gears, and I've got just the thing.

Dinner Time

I don't know what you have to do every day, but I have to make dinner.  Every day.  EVERY.  DAY.
Chicken and avocado enchiladas.
Fajitas with grilled onions, peppers and slices of lime.
Curried lentil soup.
Spinach salad with goat cheese and juicy peaches.

Sounds good, right?  Yep.  Until you've made them a million times - a million times! - and then you don't care if you eat enchiladas or ice cubes.

Occasionally, I get it into my head that we don't have to eat dinner.  We'll eat tomorrow, right?  Noah won't mind eating tortilla chips and apples, right?  As five o'clock and then six rolls around and I'm not in the kitchen, it seems like a REALLY good idea to skip dinner.  Then Noah arrives home and admits that no, tortilla chips are not a meal.  Bummer.  I look in the fridge.  Week-old hard-boiled eggs?  Oh no - wait.  There's just enough leftovers for you.  I'll eat cheerios.  Done!

Meatballs and Memorization

I hope you've been reading Darlene's book Evidence Not Seen (see link on right).  One of the recurring nudges for me in her story is how often memorized scripture is the way God speaks to her.  In trials, i suffering, when circumstances her off guard - different passages come to mind that speak directly to the peace and joy God offers in no matter what she faces.  The practice of memorizing scripture is a discipline common in previous generations of believers, but more foreign to mine - a generation that easily memorizes a thousand song lyrics but struggles to get one measly verse committed to memory.

I love a moment in The Long Winter when Laura Ingalls is at school.  The teacher announces she'll begin the school day with readying the 23rd Psalm: Laura knew the Psalms by heart, of course, but she loved to hear again every word of the twenty-third, from "The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want" to "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  Two page turns later, Laura's teacher is leading the children home through a sudden blizzard.  The snow is so thick, they have no idea what's two inches in front of them and the air so icy, the children already feel sleepy as their bodies quickly begin to freeze.  No doubt, this memorized Psalm and its promise that she would one day dwell in God's house forever gave her fortitude to continue searching for her own.

Community

Thoughts from Zabelle Huss:

I recently sang at a retirement tribute to Dotty Larson who has led Community Bible Study in Santa Monica for 49 years. I wrote personalized words to “Thanks for the Memories,” only to find out, after I’d agreed to sing, that I’d be singing for Marty Goetz who would be performing, too! All went so well, thanks to the prayers of so many of my friends in the audience.

I tell you this because something occurred to me as I sat in the second pew and watched many women get up to speak or perform. I looked at these women and, not for the first time, it struck me; “where else does one find such truly good women of such fine character, no gossip I’ve ever heard (in the 10 years I lead at CBS), a true love for each other, caring, concerned, prayer warriors for anyone who needs it?”

Then I thought about our wonderful WCF Retreat a couple of weeks ago and how I’d had the same feeling there. We understand each other, we share life issues together, we know our concerns are taken seriously and prayed for by our Christian friends.

Musings from Meredith...

I recently attended our church's annual women's retreat; the theme verse for the weekend was Exodus 33:14, "My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest."

Throughout the weekend, we were encouraged to remember particular times when God was especially present in our circumstances of life. Sometimes we are able to tangibly experience God's peace, His Comforting Word, and His provision. Yet sometimes we don't.

On Monday morning, as the retreat was already becoming a fading memory, I opened a devotional book given to us at the previous year's retreat and read the same exact verse: "My Presence will go with you and I will give you rest."

Introducing...

We just finished our church's women's retreat over Mother's Day weekend and it was a BLAST.  Some of you weren't there, and you were certainly missed.  Those of us who made it enjoyed 26 hours of meaningful conversation, began new friendships, deepened old ones and relished working out our faith together.

Then the retreat ended and we scurried back to our hoods, called our moms and dove into another busy week.  All of us thinking:
That was amazing.
I needed that!
The quiet.
The conversation.
The women.
The focus.
Can't wait to do it again...in a year or two...it depends...what's on the calendar?  Oh, ok.  I have a free weekend in 2023.  Let's plan on that.  Sound good?

No!