Crochet, Crazy, Chan

Today was the beginning of what will hopefully lead to the end of one of my '35 by 35' items.  I taught myself to crochet. Now I had to ask myself what 'Learn to Crochet' actually means.. and I decided it will be when I have successfully crocheted something (and you can tell what it is).  My first goal is a scarf. My first attempt failed seeing as it looks like a rainbow. The second attempt is going much better!

Years ago when I was a bible school student, my roommate tried to teach me how to crochet (I was really good at making the first row, so proceeded to do so with the entire ball of yarn). Needless to say, I never made it past the second row. I find it ironic that now that I'm no longer a Bible School student and no longer a staff at a Bible School, I am learning to crochet. Had I only done this a year earlier, I would have had endless people to crochet with.. I suppose I will simply have to start my own crocheting community here at home.

A few years ago, I was trying to get a picture for pain, loss and grief in my life.  The image that kept coming to me was a ball of yarn. But it wasn't a neatly raveled one.. it was hundreds of individual pieces of yarn all tied together, resulting in knots and a general mess and virtually impossible to unravel.  The picture God has given me over the last few years as I have intentionally grieved and healed is that He has been untying the knots and taking out each individual piece. He's unraveling the mess.  And today as I was struggling to crochet and find out where in the world the hook should go, I felt the Lord telling me that He is taking all those pieces of yarn and is creating something absolutely beautiful out of them. He is weaving my joy, my sorrow, my loss, my gains, my victories, my defeats into something beautiful. A beautiful image that I will continue to remind myself of. 

Finished reading the book 'Crazy Love' by Francis Chan today.  Enjoyed reading it but also was really challenged again to examine my life and look at how I am living it and looking at what the Bible says rather than weaving together what I would like to hear so that my life is a bit more comfortable and easy. 

Here's a couple quotes that have set me to ponder. And rather than comment on my thoughts, I'll let God speak to you as you read them:

"I wrote this book because much of our talk doesn't match our lives. We say things like, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me," and "Trust in the Lord with all your heart." Then we live and plan like we don't believe God even exists. We try to set our lives up so everything will be fine even if God doesn't come through. But true faith means holding nothing back. It means putting every hope in God's fidelity to His promises."

"Most of us use "I'm waiting for God to reveal His calling on my life" as a means of avoiding action. Did you hear God calling you to sit in front of the television yesterday? Or to go on your last vacation? Or exercise this morning? Probably not, but you still did it. The point isn't that vacations or exercise are wrong, but that we are quick to rationalize our entertainment and priorities yet are slow to commit to serving God."

"Lukewarm people don't really want to be saved from their sin; they want only to be saved from the penalty of their sin. They don't genuinely hate sin and aren't truly sorry for it; they're merely sorry because God is going to punish them. Lukewarm people don't really believe that this new life Jesus offers is better than the old sinful one."

"But the fact is that nothing should concern us more than our relationship with God; it's about eternity, and nothing compares with that. God is not someone who can be tacked on to our lives."

Happy pondering!