running away....

I've running away from having to put down in words what my new year resolution(s) are... am still thinking... what if I can't do it thru out 2005, would i be a failure?

Also, this has been an ozzie weekend for me. Have an ozzie house guest and 2 ozzie farewell dinners for friends who are headed there.... for good! sigh!

Don't like farewells. They seem so final. I am lousy at goodbyes cos it would break my heart if I thought that I would not be able to see someone ever again.... I usually just don't think too much about it so that it won't prick.

Speaking up/out without fear or favour vs speaking or keeping silent in love... I am all for the latter but speaking out without fear or favour requires a lot of strength. Mayhaps i should blend in a tad of tact and buckets of love. Think that would be easier to swallow for the recipient. My million dollar Q is will I be able to take it? I mean I should be able to receive the same stuff I dish out, no?

Not really able to articulate how I feel now. Even my thoughts are jumbled up. Maybe getting new car today... Wanna do some repair paintwork around the house.... want to re-do the stencil work around driveway walls. Need to re-do lawn, maybe convert it to a rocky patch cos of the dog and cat!

Also, do you notice that the air around church seems different? Can't really explain what I mean, just that it has changed some... Wondering about what it is exactly that is different? Service yesterday was something else. I just love to see the Lord work in and thru people. It is just a beautiful sight.

My heart is also troubled by death. Death of loved ones... How it is a true test for all of us when someone really special and precious is taken away from us. How we talk to God about it and what we say and do thereafter... tsunami, cancer, many or few at one time....

Keeping Promises

Writer and speaker Lewis Smedes says:

Yes, somewhere people still make and keep promises. They choose not to quit when the going gets rough because they promised once to see it through. They stick to lost causes. They hold on to a love grown cold. They stay with people who have become pains in the neck. They still dare to make promises and care enough to keep the promises they make. I want to say to you that if you have a ship you will not desert, if you have people you will not forsake, if you have causes you will not abandon, then you are like God.

What a marvelous thing a promise is! When a person makes a promise, she reaches out into an unpredictable future and makes one thing predictable: she will be there even when being there costs her more than she wants to pay. When a person makes a promise, he stretches himself out into circumstances that no one can control and controls at least one thing: he will be there no matter what the circumstances turn out to be. With one simple word of promise, a person creates an island of certainty in a sea of uncertainty.

When a person makes a promise, she stakes a claim on her personal freedom and power.
When you make a promise, you take a hand in creating your own future.

Citation: Lewis Smedes, "The Power of Promises," A Chorus of Witnesses, edited by Long and Plantinga, (Eerdmans, 1994)

I came across this article on the net (while looking for stuff on new year resolutions) and it started me thinking... how honourable am I and do I keep my promises? How important is it, even if it's only a simple, "Be there in half an hour!"....

What of marriage? Isn't that promise one worth keeping? Why some couples choose to give up on them. Should we then STOP making promises? Why or why not?

I have no answers just questions.....