{"id":2082,"date":"2014-01-01T10:56:30","date_gmt":"2014-01-01T15:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oshetablogs.wordpress.com\/?p=2082"},"modified":"2014-01-01T10:56:30","modified_gmt":"2014-01-01T15:56:30","slug":"taste-and-see-theophilus-part-2-five-minute-reflection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/shalominthecity\/2014\/01\/taste-and-see-theophilus-part-2-five-minute-reflection\/","title":{"rendered":"Taste and See, Theophilus (Part 2): Five Minute Reflection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"taste.ow_300x125_custom_300x125\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The five-minute reflections will be my first few thoughts and a take away from my study, written in the Five-Minute Friday<\/a> fashion of setting my timer and letting my words flow.\u00a0 I had dreams of writing lovely 1000 word reflections for you, but isn\u2019t this the curse of New Year\u2019s \u201cresolutions\u201d? We see the perfected version of ourselves and we try to live \u201cas if\u201d.\u00a0 We alter our diets drastically \u201cas if\u201d we\u2019re used to living without sugar in our morning coffee and butter on our evening rolls.\u00a0 We alter our activity \u201cas if\u201d we\u2019ve trained for the Boston Marathon all year-long and not just in the quick run around the neighborhood before the 20 degree weather chased use back into the warmth of our house.\u00a0 We alter our voice levels, hoping this will be there year we stop screaming at the kids, to an unrealistic whisper or assume a creepy Stepford intonation \u201cas if\u201d we\u2019ve always had that peace that surpasses all understanding, and a wrath-wrecking gentle attitude.\u00a0 Why don\u2019t we tackle our resolutions \u201cas I am\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cAs I am\u201d a former morning person who has learned to stay up way too late and now cusses into the folds of her pillow,<\/a> I will amble down the stairs and guzzle coffee hoping to wake up enough to enjoy Brian Zahnd\u2019s poignant and wise words.\u00a0 \u201cAs I am\u201d just now waking up, I\u2019ll write from my heart, without worry of perfection or sentence structure, with one goal only: to remember the flavor of grace on my tongue by writing authentic words and sincere prayers.\u00a0\u00a0 So for five minutes, I\u2019ll swirl around the wine of the Words of God and let them stain my soul with hope and peace.<\/p>\n

So, here we go with today\u2019s Five Minute Reflection.<\/p>\n

Today I made: Egg in the Hole from the Pioneer Woman:<\/p>\n

\"1476185_10152120416674772_961882835_n\"<\/a>
(Click the picture for the recipe)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taste and See, Theophilus<\/a><\/p>\n

When Brian explains that he called this series, \u201cDear Theophilus\u201d because Luke uses this phrase as a literary device the same way we\u2019d use, \u201cDear Friends\u201d on our Christmas newsletters, that stuck with me.\u00a0 Theophilus means, \u201cGod-lover\u201d so Luke was in effect, widening the tent as a Gentile believer to all believers, it\u2019s like he said,\u00a0 \u201call people who love God, come and sit and hear the story of Jesus.\u00a0 Come and learn the way of peace and come and know that salvation is for you.\u201d\u00a0 I want to be that inclusive.\u00a0 I want to be that aware of the ways I\u2019ve been excluded to reject cliques and division and invite all who love to come.\u00a0 I also love that this is the first sermon of Advent. I\u2019ve missed Advent<\/a>.\u00a0 It flew right by me and here I am first day of January and I\u2019m like Cindy Lou Who, singing \u201cWhere are you Christmas\u201d, but instead, I\u2019m singing \u201cWhere are you Advent?\u201d\u00a0 I wanted the waiting, the yearning, the stillness.\u00a0 I really, really did.\u00a0 Now, here I am beginning my month with Jesus and breakfast recipes and opening myself up to \u201ctaste and see\u201d and I\u2019m back in the Advent story.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like God has redeemed the Advent the busyness has taken.\u00a0 While I\u2019ll stay in this Advent passage for only a couple more days, I trust that Jesus will meet me and show me that way of peace I needed in the waiting.\u00a0 And I\u2019m struck too that there\u2019s a waiting, a long-suffering to Zacharias, the old priest whose faithful and loves God, but hasn\u2019t arrived, he hasn\u2019t achieved the hallowed status of \u201cfather\u201d and his wife is left barren.\u00a0 I think about this season of change and how much I love God, but I haven\u2019t arrived, I\u2019m not yet the peacemaker I want to be or the \u201cStudent the Word\u201d expected of me after twenty-five years as Christian.\u00a0 But, maybe, that really doesn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 Maybe God is crazy enough to honor the small acts of faithfulness with gifts of new life?\u00a0 Maybe if I stay faithful and get my bum up every morning, make my coffee, fry my eggs, sit with my Jesus, he\u2019ll show up.\u00a0 Like this morning when I sat on my porch in my leggings and t-shirt, freezing but watching the sun rise over my trash barrels and I remembered how my Bible called Jesus the Dayspring who rises over darkness. The Light shining on the unattractive and the rejected.\u00a0 Yes, I will taste and see that the Lord is Good, he is bright and warm, he is accepting and aware, of this Lover of God, this Theophilus. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Still listening to Advent carols,<\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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The five-minute reflections will be my first few thoughts and a take away from my study, written in the Five-Minute Friday fashion of setting my timer and letting my words flow.\u00a0 I had dreams of writing lovely 1000 word reflections for you, but isn\u2019t this the curse of New Year\u2019s \u201cresolutions\u201d? We see the perfected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[312,314,283,258,316,21,318,320],"class_list":["post-2082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-advent","tag-boston-marathon","tag-christmas","tag-god","tag-gospel-of-luke","tag-jesus","tag-luke","tag-theophilus"],"yoast_head":"\nTaste and See, Theophilus (Part 2): Five Minute Reflection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The five-minute reflections will be my first few thoughts and a take away from my study, written in the Five-Minute Friday fashion of setting my timer and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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