October 2015 - Jacqueline G Wallace.com

October 31, 2015

Interlude for fun: There is a Twilight Zone and I know how to get there.

Several weeks ago Randy and I tackled the next painting project in our house. Having finished the kitchen and family room cabinets we started on the seven foot long built-in china cabinet in the dining room. All the cabinets in our house, which was built in 1979, are the original dark stained wood: kitchen and family room cabinets, china cabinet and the wall of cabinets in the hallway. We have so many cabinets we could rent storage space for extra cash. But they aren’t pretty anymore, hence the painting projects.

Anyway, back to the china cabinet. On the top there are four glass-fronted doors on cupboards which reach to the ceiling. The lower cabinet has two vertical rows of four drawers each (total 8 drawers) in the center, flanked by a door on the left and one on the right, with a generous seven foot countertop. We may fancy up the countertop later but for now it will be painted to match the rest of the built in cabinet.

First task was to remove all doors and drawers (and sand; thank you, Randy). That’s when the spooky part happened. Pulling out the top drawers wasn’t a big deal, just another empty drawer beneath each one. But the bottom two, oh my. Dust bunny graveyard. Fuzzy grossness personified.

And, what’s this? All this stuff coated with dead dust bunnies. Yuk. I pulled them out gingerly, vacuuming as I went, hoping for no scurrying eight-legged monsters (there were none). Papers and little round cd’s and an instruction manual for … something or other. And kids’ drawings that should have been magnetized to the fridge door. So much detritus.

But the jackpot prize of the denizens of the under-the-drawers-world was an 8 X 10 picture, in its cardboard stand-up frame, of a happy, smiling young man in his Mustangs Baseball uniform.

My heart sank. I felt so bad for the boy who loved baseball and was so proud of being on the team and who held his bat as he smiled for the camera, and who proudly gave that picture to his mom and dad.

And I felt so bad for that mom who must have looked all over her house for that picture of her son! The picture of the son she was so proud of, the picture she wanted to show to his grandparents, and in fact to anyone who, unsuspecting, happened by for a visit.

Where in the world had it gone?

I know where. Into the Twilight Zone.

It is those dark, hidden, unseen, never thought about places in our houses that are The Portals to the Twilight Zone, the place things go to disappear.

Until someone decides to paint the built-in china cabinet.

October 27, 2015

Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!

Well, maybe not tigers, but definitely lions and bears. That’s what he said, “When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.” He went on to declare, “When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.”[1]

Now, I’ve seen a bear close up. Sure, it was at night and all I could see was a big round, furry looking thing lumbering swiftly away from me (thank goodness it was going in the opposite direction!), but I knew it was a bear. We saw its tracks in the snowy yard the next morning and followed the trail of garbage up the hill into our neighbor’s yard. No sheep, just garbage. Hungry bears apparently are not fussy about their meals. From the size of that behind and the paw tracks it left, I’m glad it hadn’t run toward me!

A lion and a bear. Running after it. Grabbing the sheep from its jaws and then grabbing the beast by the hair and killing it. That is an amazing feat. Done not once but twice. All in the line of duty. Just part of the ordinary life of a shepherd.

David was responsible and dependable. He could be trusted to take care of business, in this case, sheep keeping: guarding and guiding.

David was faithful to fight and do what he had to do; he did the right thing, even at great cost to himself. He may have had the scars to prove it. He used the weapons of his profession—the sling and stones and staff—becoming adept at their use. In the process of fighting the lion and bear he grew skilled and strong. His faith in God grew as well, for David knew he didn’t do his fighting alone. “The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear ….”

David was faithful in his everyday, ordinary life.

We all live ordinary lives. We all face our lions and bears, those trials and difficulties that come into our lives, perhaps threatening our livelihood or even our life. These are the enemies that come to snatch away our lives, enemies that threaten to destroy us. Are we being faithful to fight them with the weapons given us—prayer and praise and the Word of God? Are we becoming adept in their use and growing in strength, growing in our trust in God? Can we say as David did, “the LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear …”

It is only in our ordinary, everyday lives, faithfully facing the enemies that would destroy us—our lions and bears—that we learn to fight, becoming skilled and strong in spirit. Ordinary life is where we learn to trust the LORD.

What bears or lions are you facing today: Health issues, fearful job or financial challenges, death or disease of a loved one, divorce, addiction? So many beasts about that would tear us apart and destroy us. Only by wielding the weapons of prayer, praise (yes, praise) and the Word of God, in the power of God’s Spirit, can we successfully defeat such enemies.

But that’s not the end of the story. Fighting lions and bears has another vastly important function in our everyday, ordinary lives. For only in being faithful in ordinary life will we, like David, recognize and be fit to face the giant Goliath, who defies the Living God.

Hidden creativity to light

Tomorrow Maria comes to continue work on her first ever mosaic. She saw some of my mosaics and wanted to learn how to make them and I said come on over! I get to work on my own mosaic project while she is working on hers. I’m looking forward to that creative time making a mosaic. Though there is always a struggle in the creative process, making the mosaic satisfies a deep need in me to express myself artistically.[1]

Wallace Shield mosaic on Tray by Jacqueline Wallace

Though I’ve downplayed my own creativity, I find ideas rising to the surface, breaking through to my conscious mind like air bubbles breaking the surface of a pond. I have ideas for making a mosaic house number plaque or a mosaic headboard, but then I don’t follow through on those ideas because, well, you know, I have to do this other thing I promised, or I’m too busy because of this responsibility, or the house needs cleaning (when does it not?). Ordinary life gets in the way.

Just as with writing, though, I have to make time to create mosaics.

I read a blog post by another Christian woman writer who, for years didn’t answer her inner desire to write, didn’t even realize it was there because it was buried beneath all the layers of the “I have to do” of her life (boy, can I relate). They were good things, but things that pushed aside her inner “voice,” as she put it. I made a copy of this one paragraph from her post to tape onto my desk so I will see it every time I sit here:

“We’ve been made creative beings, to help bring order out of chaos. When I give myself the time and space to create, even in little slivers of time stolen from sleep or “productivity,” I’m fueled for the ordinary. Then, all of (a) sudden, the ordinary has a sheen around the edges. The ordinary becomes part of a narrative of creativity.”[2]

Her words resonate within me! It took me a long time to learn and accept that I am an artist at heart, that I am creative and that I have a need to express that creativity visually. That was an important discovery.

And so it is for each of us; it is part of learning the way God made us as individuals. We are creative beings, made in God’s image, each capable of manifesting God’s creativity in different ways.

I’m not talking about spiritual gifts here. If God had chosen to never give gifts of his Spirit to Jesus’ followers, we’d still have within us the creativity given us by God because he made us in his image. He is the creative, Creator God.

It reminds me of the quote I use in my email salutation: “To be human is to become visible while carrying what is hidden as a gift to others.”[3] I think he is saying the same thing as I’m trying to say. We need to express the creativity God gave us as his human creation. We have the capacity to bring glory to God through our creative expressions, especially when we give ourselves back to God to live for his purposes and glory. [4]

Have you made the discovery of the creative spirit God put into you, and the ways you can express that creativity, bringing it out as a gift to others and to God?

[1] My mosaics website: http://www.expressionsofthelight.com/

[2] By Ashley Hales, from “Don’t Give Your Voice Away,” posted on Redbud Writers Guild http://www.redbudwritersguild.com/dont-give-your-voice-away/

[3] David Whyte, “What to Remember When Waking”

[4] “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2, (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. https://www.biblegateway.com/

October 1, 2015

The In Between Place

This post from one of the blogs I follow, said what I have often said myself. She is saying things I’ve written into my own book, Brokenness to Beauty. The trials I’ve learned from were not just for me, as hers were not just for her; they are to be shared with others, as Amy Carmichael said long ago. I hope we can learn from each other.