An Extra Day With God

Imagine living in the year 46 B.C., it lasted 445 days. What would you do with extra 80 days?
Think about it, New Years would end up being sometime in March but it would still be January 1st.
School would resume, but students would still be in last term of 0045?
Women who gave birth to children would still have to claim the previous year, i'm not even sure what month they would use.
So for 80 days babies would be dateless but born in year 0045
Credit cards and bank machines would of course FAIL us.
This would cause mass histeria.
The more I think about it, the more thankful I am that I live in the 21st century.

So why the elongated year?
I'm glad you asked.  (LOL)
In 45 B.C., Julius Ceasar's astrologers discovered that earth orbits arounds the sun 365.242 days and so in an effort to get us back on track they lengthened one year by 80 days. And every four years after that added a day to the month of Febuary and hence began the leap year.


Why is a year 365 days?
    Because it takes the earth 365.242 days to rotate around the sun
Why is a month 29, 30 or 31 days?
    Because it takes the moon that many days to rotate around the earth
Why is a week 7 days?
    Because ...


There is no astronomical reason for a 7 day week, none.

Jesus spoke light into existence on Day 1, and the 4 days that followed He filled the earth.
On Day 6, He could have chosen to speak man into existence, but He didn't
He got down on His knees and got His hands dirty with dirt,  formed Adam and breathed life into him

And then.... on Day 7, He was soo tired, He rested.

WHY DOESN'T THIS MAKE SENSE?

1. All He did was speak for 5 days, that's not hard, I can speak for hours and not need to rest?
2. On Day 6, he molded man and gave Him only ONE breath, He had countless breaths, it's like blowing one puff of air into a ballon, that's easy, right?
3. Okay so even if what He did wasn't easy (IT WASN'T),  He is God, tired isn't in the vocabulary of the pre-incarnate Christ, He isn't bound by time or space, sweat didn't exist to the Trinity, metabolism is a joke, tissue regeneration isn't even a concept, talk less of an act that requires rest.  Mercy, it's GOD, regneration isn't even a word.

So why did He rest?
Why did He add another day to the creation story?
Why did He elongate our week by 1 day?

   
WHAT DO YOU THINK

On days when it hurts ...

On days when it hurts

Take it all to Him

Each grim detail that makes life look so dim

Take it all to Him

Photoshop and I have this new affair so the picture above is offspring

Pre-flight Speech

Thank you for flying Turkish Airlines, in the seat pocket in front of you is a card describing the safety features of the aircraft, please take it out and follow along. To fasten your seatbelt insert the flat metal fitting into the buckle, pull on strap to tighten, and lift the upper portion to release. We'd like to draw your attention to the 8 emergency exit locations. 4 emergency window exits mid cabin, 2 emergency door exits in front and 2 door exits in rear …..
When was the last time you paid full attention to the flight attendant’s pre-flight speech?
If you are like me, the first time you flew on a plane you listened to every word.

But with each successive flight I listened less.
 It’s gotten to the point when I almost have their speech memorized so why do I have to listen when I have  important things to do (playing Angry Birds, Sudoku, Tetris on my iPod).

“…You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
they hardly hear with their ears,
and they have closed their eyes. ….”

Matthew 13: 14b – 15a NIV

Jesus loves you.

Heard it so many times and now it’s just another a pre-flight speech,
Preachers teach and try and reach our souls but we view them as spiritual flight attendants
           Our preference are the short feel good ones that lack substance
           Our reverance now a science - we mastered the essence of being godly

Oddly enough the rules fail to fill our souls, sin drillin' holes has taken it's toll and we can't be whole 'cuz  we are empty.

Gently? No,  I'll put it bluntly.
                           Churchtians hear but never understand.
                           Churchtians see but never percieve.
 

                         Jesus loves you.
                         Jesus is coming soon.  

is not another pre-flight speech                                

SuperGoldenBowlCalf

I used to live in Indy and now they are hosting the superbowl and Tom Brady is in town,
OH MY GOODNESS.

The Patriots CANNOT and MUST NOT win, just for the sake of all Colt fans out there.

Anyway I saw this and knew I had to share it.



Okay so maybe it is a bit extreme,
but when I think of Arsenal and Man. City and Man. U and Liverpool games and how some take it so personally when their teams lose, I wonder.

Could it be that our obsession is worship.

Now I'm not talking about people that watch the superbowl as a social activity to hang out with friends. I'm referring to those who never missed an NFL game and have spent the whole year waiting for this climatic event. 

Most ladies aren't as obsessed with football, but what about Grey's or American Idol or the X Factor?
Do you plan your evening around it and if someone should DARE to call you when you are watching it how do react?

Confession:
Spending a year in Nigeria was hard, not only because I missed my friends,
high speed internet and reliable electricity but also because in the
evenings, I couldn't drown out the weight of my sorrow with
TV shows. Now that I'm in Canada I have to make a
conscious effort to avoid the slippery slope that
is in the entertainment industry, and
this is hard

So ask yourself, could it be that the things that I look forward to watching, reading, and doing can become an idol?

HAVE THEY?

Work in Progress

He created you, uniquelly beautiful, wonderfully complex in His image.

Make no mistake, you are planted on this earth for a purpose.

So find it and live it.

So it's a new year and I'm in a new country.
Actually on the New's Year Day I boarded a plane and left sunny Lagos for freezing Canada
not the best day or time of the year to switch vocations and locations
but through it all God has amazed mii at each step.

The itch to write came last week but I wasn't sure if this blog still had a purpose
and so I scratched my palms and looked at the snow flakes until the yearning left.

I have issues with pride, patience and peace.
Most days I keep pride tucked away where no one can see it
but the nature of the beast is that it has a way of sneaking up on you when you are least aware and I've had moments this year when I've fallen flat on my spiritual face and had no one to blame but myself.

I broke up with Anxiety and married Peace but it seems like at least once a week I still crave the illicit relationship I had with anxiety and so I wallow in worry.

I'll leave the discussion of Patience for another day.

And so now I realize that I must write, not because I have it figured out but because I need to chronicle the journey, the process, the snippets of grace in a maddening world. Growing up in the church, as a Christian you knew the law and you chose to either follow it or ignore it. I'm the good kid, who knew the law and did her best to follow it and when i fell short, kept up the appearance of GOOD. But what I've come to appreciate in this new year is that He wants us to testify of our struggles and  triumphs, our mess and our mission, the things that make us scream and those that make us praise. Because at the core, we are all just a work in progress, that will be completed on the day Christ returns.

And so the theme placed on my heart is WORK IN PROGRESS. My aim is to focus on the reality of the Christian walk and not the feel good messages we are spoon fed just to loosen our wallets or the 10 second soundbites the religious right gives to score political points.

So welcome to the discussion, feel free to be honest because the prayer that precedes all prayers as C.S. Lewis says is "May it be the real me that speaks ..."