My mom wanted a Debbie. My dad wanted a Jeanie. They compromised and named me Debra Jean, but I was called Jeanie from the moment I was born. My mom’s dad, my Grandpa Allison, called me Debbie Jean to make my mom happy.
But I was always Jeanie.
My dad said he knew who I’d be when he saw the Northern Tissue ads on billboards in 1959. “There is our Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair,” he’d tell my mom. She bought the set of posters by Frances Hook, an American artist whose friendly depictions of Jesus with children you would recognize.
The Northern Baby with light brown hair and blue eyes. And me. With the light brown hair.
The song.
So, a few times during my life, people have burst into song when they’ve lerned my name. The song is an oldie, written in the 1800s and has some quaint words. My parents chose the actual spelling of my name, which could have been spelled a bunch of different ways, from this old song. And though I have heard a gazillion renditions, I only just learned of this one. And I really like it. I finally feel like some one sang it like they meant it.
Having had red hair 18 out of the last 25 years and even brown-black hair for a year, I have been feeling a little frumpy with my return to a light brown (because I can’t stand the upkeep of red nor the constant attention to roots with dark hair). It is the least work. But it seems boring. Just plain old me again. Then Sam Cooke sings
I long for Jeanie with the daydawn smile,
Radiant in gladness, warm with winning guile;
I hear her melodies, like joys gone by,
Sighing round my heart o’er the fond hopes that die…
Aaah. I am in love! Thank-you, Sam Cooke! Suddenly ok with my hair color! O happy day.
Neither life nor busyness nor a “massive music festival” shall cause me to miss the best meal of everyday: The Word of God!
Your words came and I ate them.
Summer Bible Reading PLAN: read through the New Testament and the Psalms over the 14 weeks of summer. Ideally, about 4 chapters or 20 unhurried minutes a day. Meditate on them, internalize them, live them and be renewed and restored by them.
Ahem….right.
Reality and true confessions: I have “skipped” a few days and then can’t catch up on my-self-imposed “catch-up days,” AND I have zoomed through chapters, realizing later, I have no idea what they even said. So then, how could I possibly meditate on them??? Couldn’t. So, I must re-read…Am I supposed to confess this publicly? Well, I did.
Pray for me, friends and fellow-sojourners. And catch me when I slack.
I wish to be diamond-dripping RICH with the indwelling word by summer’s end. You, too, I hope!
As Kent Henry sings (and we sing along!)
Lord, I live by Your Word
Lord, I live by every word from Your mouth
And I’m like a tree by a stream
I’m bearing fruit, my leaf is green
All that I do is prospering
O, Lord, I live by Your Word.
Phillips, Craig & Dean supports Denver area church in spreading the gospel through their upcoming movie “The Prophet’s Son”.
Film Project
This film is rich in music, politics, and drama. It dares to reopen the wounds of Columbine, expose the heartache of homeless, runaway youth, and demonstrate the bold faith and love of Christian believers. In the ever-present longing of the main characters for each other, The Prophet’s Son models purity in the kind of love that lays down its life for others. The movie is at once romantic and prophetic, demonstrating the power of God to conquer in every imaginable situation, while preparing His people for impending judgment.
What is up with Leonard Cohen? He is really an incredible talent in a thousand ways, isn’t he? Was I just too young to get him before? Well, I have grown up and I get him now (also wildly in love with his “Hallelujah” and “Take this Waltz”).
I “discovered” this particular song (also covered beautifully by Madelaine Peyroux and the Civil Wars) about a year ago and it still just puts me in a mood! He has captured the sound, the rhythm, the heat, the passion, the imagery and the lyrics of Solomon’s very Song. Zowie! So celebrative, so sensuous. You can taste this melody, inhale it. I am so loving this song because it says everything, tells the whole story. It is love and passion, hot nights and low lights from beginning to end. From once upon a time to happily ever after:
I am a little behind on my schedule. Not woefully. Just a little.
I am about halfway through 2 Corinthians. There are moments when I am tempted to think: perhaps I should have just read the Psalms for summer. But since the Word of God is life-giving, living and active: wow, I need that in me. The more Word, the better!
More importantly, I still, with busyness of life and love, relationships and aggravations, the intensity of the exciting before and after of Heaven Fest over the next month and a half, wasted time and way-too-jammed-packed time, too – well, sometimes there isn’t a place for the Word to live, inhabit and dwell as it deserves. So it isn’t even the reading of it, just making sure it gets “done,”, it is the doing/the meditating on/the rich possession of the Word I must work on.
Like, you can’t just buy a packet of seeds and hope for a harvest. You must turn and prepare the soil. You must nurture it with rain and sunshine. And while it is still a tender shoot, you must protect it in your heart, for the strong winds and storms and the hail will come.
You can’t just read it and walk away – back into life without knowing that it needs a place to be rooted in your heart.
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. James 1.22-24 NIV
So, maybe, as I enter week 6 of 14 (are the rest of you hanging in there with me??), I will be able to give the Word of Christ the home it deserves in me. And what a benefit to me in the process.
When your words came, I ate them;
they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
LORD God Almighty. Jeremiah 15.16 NIV
They feed me, Your words do, LORD. They nourish my spirit.
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,so that the servant of God[ may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2. Timothy 3.16-17 NIV
Your Word, LORD, equips me, trains me, corrects me, gets me ready for all this fun, crazy-good Kingdom work You let me participate in. I mean – I NEED that! Thank-You, Lord!
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4.12 NIV
Alive and active? Then I want that in ME! Yes, please!
More than good life lessons and moralizing, greater than wise words printed on a page, not just historical teaching or religious guideline, His Word is an ongoing-active-sharp-surgical-white-hot-purifying-judging-healing-clarification-bringing double-edged sword. Cut me through, LORD!
THIS WEEK, God willing and the creek don’t rise (and I am pretty sure He is willing), July 10 – 16: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians; Psalms 59 – 70
Also known as the Go Eat Pop Corn section of the New Testament. Years ago some one told me the way they remembered the order of these Pauline Epistles was to give them this acronym. Thus Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians became Go-Eat-Pop-Corn, or for some people “God’s Electric Power Company.” It is funny because I think it is really just easier to remember Galatians-Ephesians-Philippians-Colossians. But I do still have to quick-sing the Books of the Bible song I learned as a girl when I am trying to get to a minor prophet in the O.T. super fast. *smile
May the Word of Christ dwell richly in you this week, and in me, too!
Hopefully it is true what they say when they say :: Better late than never. Because, this is late.
Gavin turned 8 over a month ago and I just got his video finished, for a whole slew of really valid and extremely interesting reasons. Yeah, right. It just took the Gav and I awhile to sync our schedules.
LOVE this boy. Wrote about his birthday HERE. And now, for the movie we made together using, yes, songs from the 60s and 70s because that is what I do (he wanted rock -n- roll, for sure). Gavin loves life and embraces it with abandoned fervor. That is what I hoped to capture in a few photos and a little video:
OK, yes, I would like to sing martini music. What of it?
After we checked in at Midway Airport on our way home from Chicago (btw, I am in love with Midway and was thrilled to avoid O’Hare!!), we grabbed lunch in the food court where we had the sweetest entertainment by a very gracious and beautiful, Greta Pope. She did standards and pop hits and oldies and jazz and I was enthralled.
Tredessa was not one bit surprised when I told her that this is the next direction I hope my life takes. And Dave knew the second he saw her that I would want to be her. Lovely.
We Pentecostals have this thoroughly unusual phenomenon sometimes called being “slain in the Spirit.”
Oh, it takes getting used to, this thing of seeing people being in a prayer line and when touched, they fall, usually backwards. And I have seen it “done” so badly, as an attempt to get the Holy Spirit moving. I feel sorry for evangelists and preachers who feel the need to push that, almost demand it.
The Bible doesn’t even use the term “slain in the Spirit,” that experience in which a believer senses such a strong Presence of God the Holy Spirit that they end up flat on the floor. But there are implied passages of scripture, here are a few
Numbers 22:31
Ezekiel 1:28; 3:23
Matthew 28:4
John 18:6
Romans 8:17,18; 10:17
Acts 22:7
Revelation 1:17
For pragmatic, non-Charismatic-types, wow, they love to hate this. And it is very ethereal and mysterious, to be sure. But I have been there, yes me, on the floor. I have actually been “pushed” by preachers who needed to prove they had power and even pulled backwards by a zealous “catcher,” whose name I would love to reveal, but will not, because that isn’t very Christlike. And I have also seriously been “caught up” so much in a nearness to Jesus that I somehow was on the floor in worship, the most rested possible state, I tell ya. And there is something there, in spite of those who get weird with it or take advantage of freedoms.
This morning in the beautiful sunshine, I saw my flat-leafed sedum, the variety of which I cannot recall, after a nighttime rain. Heavy with sparkly drops-like-diamonds, there it was, stretched out flat and wet. Usually quite upright and full, round and puffy, it was looking for all the world healthy and revived, and just blessed, so very blessed – and flattened, too. And we need that sometimes, ya know? We need a Paul-on-the-road-to-Damascus encounter that knocks us off our high-horse and a washing with the water of the Word, a rain like grace, to just flatten us, cover us, for our own good!
I am willing to pray for you to be flattened, knocked right down for a good dose of God’s life-changing Presence (it happened for Paul!). If you want. Let me know. 8)
That’s right. This is the centerpiece as of late. A crystal bowl full of sidewalk chalk. A container of every-SPF known to mankind. Bug spray and after-burn potions. And a basket full of left-behind swimsuits and trunks.
It’s what’s on the table and even flowers would not be more appropriate.
Another interesting part of the season is the bathroom just off the kitchen when everyone leaves. For there I usually find tiny pairs of underwear and little socks and flip-flops and shoes, hair ties and other misc. clothing…in very small sizes. If their mamas are looking for something, I may have it.
Nonna and Amelie. A Sunday afternoon nap. On the swing. In the shade. After a swim.
Good sign.
This is what I found when we arrived home from Chicago. The sweetest message ever!
We were SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO sad our Kelley family didn’t go to Moslander Family Reunion with us this year (they are very busy and important people!), but they so kindly gave the dog room and board and took care of the house and garden for me. In fact – they took such good care of the garden it grew like a jungle and is so much more the blessed for me having been gone! THANK-YOU Steph and Tris and the 3 adorables! Love you so much and we want to tag along when you go to Chicago, soon! Pretty please?? We were thinking about you and missing you the whole time!
Gemma on a Saturday
cen·ter·piece, n.
1. Something in a central position, especially a decorative object or arrangement placed at the center of a table.
