Psalm of the Kimberley

While I'm waiting for all those zillion photos to get sorted, edited etc, I thought I'd try and summarise my experience of the north-West Australian wilderness, and the almost palpable presence of God in all that beauty ..

Lord of the blood red rock and the turquoise waters
Who lifts the eagle’s flight and opens the crocodile’s jaw;
Lord of the many waters
The rushing, mighty tides, and the waterfall’s cascading
The deluge and the dryness, each in their season.

God who carved the sandstone gorges
And made a sculpture garden in the wilderness
Who engineered the mangrove, and shaped the egret’s wing;
Whose love sings in the seaspray, and whose laughter rings among the stars..

Thank you for your beauty.
Thank you for the sleek, pale turtle, gliding underwater
For the treasures of the rockpool, and the diligence of the osprey.
Thankyou for your sunsets, flung lavish across the sky
And the comedy of mudskippers and flame-hued little crabs.
Thankyou for smooth waters, and the rhythm of the waves
For tropic nights with stars of fierce white fire,
And the tenderness of early morning light.

These things do not need me, their anthem is for you.
But in them I see you afresh, my Maker, my Redeemer
I see you and rejoice, marvelling at largesse
The liberality that pours such beauty on the earth
For your good pleasure.

Shall he who wove the osprey’s nest
And causes trees to grow on naked rock,
Who painted the kingfisher, and taught the monjon how to hide
Shall he not also bring his children home,
Safe in his love forever?

Hallo!

I'm back, from a trip to North Western Australia, seeing the kimberley (the remote NW corner of Australia -- 10 days without access to phones, tv, newspapers etc, let alone computers!!) and some time in Broome. photos will follow.
I started my morning with a quiz:

You paid attention during 100% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
Create a Quiz

Well, I went to an Aussie school, and I probably did learn alll those things in school (though it was a dreadfully long time ago)

meme about me

sourced from Kansas Bob's blog:

1. WHO WERE YOU NAMED AFTER? - my first name is all my own, my middle name (Sylvia) was my mother's name

2. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU CRIED? - I cry a lot when I read

3. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? - I was a terrible writer as a child (poor motor skills) These days my hand writing is acceptable, but it will never be a thing of beauty

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCH MEAT? - Lunch meat?? a good leg ham is nice, but if I want to be wickedly self-indulgent, the ultimate is smoked salmon

5. DO YOU HAVE KIDS? - 2 (boy 28, girl 23)

6. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? - I'm pretty confident I can say yes to this

7. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? - I try to only use it for humour, not for put downs, but some people who know me would be surprised at how many painfully sarcastic things I think but don't say

8. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS - Unless they snuck off somewhere on their own ..

9. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? - I won't even go on a slippery dip!

10. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE CEREAL? - not a cereal person, when it's the only option I eat cocoa pops if I'm feeling naughty, and muesli if I'm pretending to be virtuous

11. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? - Never unless they're lace ups, and rarely then!

12. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? - Not physically

13. WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITE ICE CREAM? - Way too hard to call .. mango? berry? jaffa?

14. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE? - Their expression

15. RED OR PINK? - Dark pink please

16. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOU? - This could be a list: my weight? my very fair English type skin (very hard to live with in the Aussie climate)my procrastinatory tendencies?

17. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST? - no one particularly

18. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO RESPOND? - I hate putting pressure on people

19. WHAT COLOUR PANTS AND SHOES ARE YOU WEARING? - blue jeans (with embroidered flowers) black shoes

20. WHAT WAS THE LAST THING YOU ATE? - tinned apricots with honey yogurt and a little grated chocolate

21. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? - the hum of the computer

22. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOUR WOULD YOU BE? - purple -- a nice deep violet

23. FAVOURITE SMELLS - fresh bread, cinnamon, spring flowers

24. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU TALKED TO ON THE PHONE? - a lady from church who was asking me to pray for her

25. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? - I'm sure he's a great guy!

26. FAVOURITE SPORTS TO WATCH? - not very sporty, will occasionally watch cricket

27. HAIR COLOUR? - dark brown (artificially maintained these days)

28. EYE COLOUR? - Blue

29. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? - Nup. wear glasses part time and au naturel the rest

30. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDINGS - I don't like/watch scary movies, but I think sometimes a sad (or bittersweet) ending is artistically right

31. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? - the Kite Runner (great movie)

32. WHAT COLOUR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? - dark brown

33. SUMMER OR WINTER? - Summer

34. HUGS OR KISSES? - Hugs (but why not both?)

35. FAVOURITE DESSERT? - definitely too hard -- probably homne made chocolate cheesecake

36. MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? - no idea

37. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? - people who don't read my blog (most of the human race!!!)

38. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW? - currently re-reading through David edding's sagas .. favourite old books can be comfort recreation when I've got sermons etc to work through. Will take a bunch of new ones away with me on holidays next week

39. WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? - I have been delivered from mouse pads (use an optical mouse)

40. WHAT DID YOU WATCH ON TV LAST NIGHT? - didn't watch tv

41. FAVORITE SOUND? - running water, birdsong, beautiful music

42. ROLLING STONES OR BEATLES? - Beatles (but I'd rather have 60s folk music than either of that period)

43. WHAT IS THE FARTHEST YOU HAVE BEEN FROM HOME? - Phuket (on a cruise that went from Singapore up the coast of Malaysia. Phuket was the furthest north)

44. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? - how special? I can do a lot of things a bit -- write poetry, preach, tell stories . I'm a reasonably creative cook and have a good eye for colour

45. WHERE WERE YOU BORN? Sydney (in an inner city hospital

Fish and submarines

Another sermon illustration:

If you were to climb into a submarine you might think that, as long as it held watertight, you could glide on down to the bottom of the ocean. Sadly, if you tried to do this you'd soon discover how mistaken you are. Submarines can only go so deep before the pressure of the water crushes them like an empty soft drink can being crumpled by your hand. Indeed, a number of years ago submarine called the Thresher went down too deep. The water pressure rose to the point that the submarines heavy steel bulkheads were crushed. The sub was torn apart, leaving pieces of debris scattered across the ocean floor for searchers to find.
If you want to go down really deep you need a specially designed research vessel shielded by heavy steel armour. Now imagine you jumped into one of these heavily clad research vessels and headed down to the ocean depths. Guess what you'd find? Fish. Fish! Fish with skin just millimetres thick.
How is it that fish with just a thin skin covering can survive the pressure of such great depths, where a submarine with thick steel plates cannot?
The answer is quite simple: fish have equal and opposite pressure inside them. Submarines do not.

The world will try to squeeze us into its mould, to respond to hurts with jealousy hatred and bitterness. But if we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we will have the strength to resist.

Melancholy/ Phlegmatic

Well, at least according to this test. Hard to answer though, so I'm not sure how accurate it was..

Lynne,
Your personality is Melancholy Phlegmatic

Melancholy Strength:9 Weakness:8 43%
Phlegmatic Strength:5 Weakness:7 30%
Sanguine Strength:5 Weakness:4 23%
Choleric Strength:1 Weakness:1 5%

You may want to review the definitions

Your test results are available at http://www.oneishy.com/personality/results/2d2a32ce5

Thank you for taking the personality test. Pass the link on to your friends so you can learn about their personalities. http://oneishy.com/personality

This test provided by Jehiah

wifely submission

and here is another post I wrote on the same forum, commenting on the view that a wife's submission means she is to give up on her own hopes and dreams and only have her husband's hopes and dreams (I question whether, long term, that is even truly possible except by massive repression), I said:

There are several problems with the traditional assumptions, apart from it being a grand invitation to abuse (all good things can be abused, so we always have to tread carefully around that one)

** it is an invitation to idolatry, calling the wife to put her husband in the place that belongs solely to God

** It ultimately makes the husband mediator between God and his wife -- usurping the place that belongs only to Christ

** by creating a male-only 'priesthood' within the home, it denies the priesthood of all believers

** the wife becomes the husband's servant/employee/inferior instead of his true counterpart

** it denies any concept of the wife having any gifts, abilities, insights to be used in the Kingdom. Did all those parables about talents and service to the kingdom etc rerally only apply to half the human race?

Ultimately, while it sounds very spiritual, it does nothing for the sanctification of either husband and wife. The one is delivered from accountability, the other is stripped from true moral responsibility ..

Sometimes it's hard to wrestle through the fog of all this stuff, especially when you still carry some of those hierarchalist (is there such a word?) guilt trips inside your head ..

Her desire ..

On another forum, I just wrote something on the subject of Genesis 3:16 "your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you" Some traditionalists advocate that the woman's desire here is the desire to dominate her husband; I actually believe it's the opposite. This is what I said:

I agree (in fact i wrote an essay for college on this very subject once. I believe this is simply a prophetic description of what takes place in a fallen humanity that is no longer God-centred -- as a generalisation, men build their sense of security by being dominant and controlling, women are more inclined (and remember these are generalisations) to become co-dependent (= idolatrous) towards their husbands. Hence patriarchy, CBMW etc etc (there are many shades) -- it's a system that slots straight into our fallenness. It also explains why so many women are willing to ride on the patriarchal bandwagon -- not only because they've been taught/conditioned to believe this but because for at least some of us, there is this fifth columnist in our own hearts which makes us vulnerable to being dominated. Look at all the romances out there which show a woman being dominated (tamed?) by a strong (read bossy :( ) man. CBMW-types (if I can respectfully call them that) would say that is because God really made women to submit, and that is where we are to find our ultimate romantic fulfilment. But, apart from anything else, the sheer unhealthiness of many of those images/plot-lines, and the infantilising of the women, makes me question whether the appeal is not, rather, to our fallenness, and therefore the very thing we should be striving to overcome in the Kingdom of God?

I believe this dynamic helps to explain the abuse of women