Apr 5, 2011 | South Africa, Travel..ling Tuesdays
A lot of places claim to be “a world in one country,” but I think Cape Town is one of the only places that can claim to be a world in one city. Travelling through the Mother City’s sweet streets, I often find myself reminded of other destinations halfway around the globe. I glance down a street in her city centre and it feels like Glasgow. Another street, it’s Paris, then London, then the winding slopes of San Francisco. Camp’s Bay is South Africa’s answer to Miami Beach, with the bonus of the incredible background of the Twelve Apostles.
Kalk Bay is a sweet little corner of Cape Town known for good eats, sweet bookshops, unique fashion finds, bright colours and lovely views. We took a stroll there last weekend to soak in some colour and sun (and get out of the house a bit!) We brought back some snaps from the feast for the eyes, to share!
I would wear this apron all day.
What’s not to love about this delightfully coloured wall??
Important memo: It’s not just about vintage clothing, accessories or cars anymore. We should now be looking for Vintage Kitchenalia. As you were.
Let’s stroll up Memory Lane together!
These beaded peacocks are amazing. But are they vintage?
Even outdoor columns deserve trendy patterns.
If it’s vintage-inspired, does it still count?
Vintage.
Inspired!
Could this stuff be vintage?
Much to this seller’s disappointment, the Bear’s attention to selecting the perfect beaded keychain did not mean the Bear got to *keep* said keychain. “Bear,” said I, “It’s not even vintage, my boy.”
You guessed it…vintage wall art!
Sorry, bro, you’re just old.
Which way to lunch, vintage stick man?
Vintage galore! And a great place for lunch.
We sat outside to enjoy our toasties…
{That’s a wee baby asleep in my arms. Only he’s not so wee.}
But you could have lunch in the vintage train carriage!
This place had a ton of vintage signage…
seriously, if you piled all this signage on a scale and weighed it, the display would read: One Ton. {No Pun Intended here.}
When is it safe to say this stuff is just… old?
Okay, let’s get back to beautiful and tie this thing off with the favourites. This must be the longest Travelling Tuesday ever.
See that lighthouse up there? It’s vintage.
Pretty church? Totally vintage.
HH’s favourite:
Score! It’s vintage!
And my two favourites, pleasedon’tmakemechoose…
Yummy colours!
What’s not to love? So much vintage!
Hope you made it all the way through this marathon Travelling Tuesday {and enjoyed yourself}. If I could sip it, sniff it, and swirl it in my glass, I’d say Kalk Bay was a good year.
Happy Tuesday!
xCC
Apr 4, 2011 | Stories, The Good Word
When I think back on the season where I worked in a Pawn Shop, I remember my time there with fondness. I remember the steep learning curve, beginning to try to think about reading people and not believing everything I heard. I remember marveling at all the important things that I learned that were not part of the curriculum of the Masters degree I’d just completed. It is easy to look back and smile — the season is over.
At the time, however, rainbows and daisies were harder to come by.
There were also those days. You know the ones. The days where you look at the clock and think your life is never going to change. The days where you feel a little bit like Joseph asking the Lord How did I get here? Why? I thought Your plans for me were different from this.
Mopping the floor of the store room in the back of the shop, I’d occasionally find myself fighting back tears. Magna cum Laude. Super GPA. Finished my undergrad a year early. So much promise. Now I’m cleaning chainsaws.
{Amazing how forgetting what’s passed to press on sometimes requires letting go of past achievements and successes too.}
After I’d been there a few months, when I was still learning the ropes, my boss called me into his office for a chat. He was disappointed with my performance. With my education, people skills and ability to speak Spanish, he expected me to bring some momentum to things. My performance was a disappointment.
A few moments later, I was in the bathroom weeping. What sort of failure was I — I couldn’t hack it at the Pawn Shop? Suddenly a question arose in my heart, and I directed it toward the Lord:
“Lord, what do you say about me? How do you feel about my time here?”
And I heard the Lord say He was pleased with me. In my heart, I heard well done.
That was all I needed to hear. I dried my tears and tidied my face in the mirror, and I walked out of the bathroom a different person from the one who walked in. I still had several months ahead of me in the furnace, but this was the beginning of a new season. Living in a way that would please God, even if it didn’t please others, became a part of my life on a whole new level. This somehow forged something in my character that I didn’t find in the classroom, or at the sandwich shop, in Media Relations or at a Bible study.
Though it was one of the most challenging seasons of my life, today I can look back and smile. Sometimes when you’re in the furnace, or the valley of postponement, hope isn’t easy to come by. But you can probably remember a time in your life where you were just ready for that season to end. And you can probably remember another time, when looking back on that season, you wish you’d given life a little more thought, made some decisions differently and treasured the good that was waiting to be found.
Every season will come and go. Some beautiful lyrics from Hillsong’s popular The Desert Song put it well. {These are two of my favourites:}
All of my life, in every season, You are still God I have a reason to sing. I have a reason to worship.
and
I know I’m filled to be emptied again. The seed I’ve received I will sow.
If you’re in the middle of the battle today, be encouraged. One thing we can count on is change. You’ll be out of the furnace when the timing is right. How you handle your time in the fire will determine what you bring out with you when the doors open.
xCC
Apr 3, 2011 | The Good Word
Things have been quiet around these parts of the web for the past few days. {I hope you still like me.} It was a busy week. Sometimes one was crying while the other needed to pee. This brother needs a snack, that brother needs a change. One day I struggled and rushed and hustled and bustled for twenty minutes…one crying, the other one needing help with shoes…one going potty, the other one crying some more…finally getting the two of them together and ready for a walk as the phone rings and then I look outside and it’s raining.
It’s safe to say I’ve had my hands full.
But God.
He has been so good and gracious. Meeting me in quiet moments, early mornings and late evenings. He’s even met me in opportunities to encourage others — in moments where I wanted Him to water me, He handed me a watering can. And in watering someone else, I was watered, and the Word became flesh:
The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered. {Prov. 11:25}
And we’ve been asking questions about life and His leading and the days ahead and He answers by saying, keep asking:
For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures;
Then you will discern the fear of the Lord And discover the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth {come} knowledge and understanding. {Prov. 2:3-6}
And just asking, finding hunger and thirst to dig in, enjoying opportunities to water and be watered, and sensing and hearing that still small voice…it seems that even when it feels like I’m busy with my hands full, I’m finding my heart’s full, too.
It’s funny that in passing on a glass of water, you might fill your own cup.
xCC
Mar 31, 2011 | Guest Posts, The Good Word
Ever wonder what football, poop and free will might have in common? Or want to hear a few thoughts about parenthood and living life out of control? Well this is your lucky day!
Click on over to Signpost Ministries where I’ve tied all those subjects together, in 1,000 words or less!
Look, here’s a slightly related photo of me five years ago, with a friend who’s coming to visit soon. YAY!
Happy Thursday!
xCC
Mar 30, 2011 | The Good Word
Thanks to a great question from an old friend, and another great question from a new friend, I’ve been thinking a good bit about prayer. I plan to do a bit more thinking and hopefully follow that up with some writing sometime soon. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few thoughts with you today.
A friend of mind was asking for help understanding the following verse from the Psalms:
For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favour and honour;
No good thing does He withhold from those whose walk is blameless. {Ps. 84:11}
My friend wondered if you could earn God’s favour, and if He was perhaps withholding a good thing from her because she wasn’t doing something she should’ve been doing. Perhaps you are also waiting for “a good thing†and wondering what you’re doing wrong and why you don’t have it.
The thing about the blessings of the Lord is, I don’t think we earn them per se. I think blessing is the natural consequence of obedience. This is a point of significance though at first glance it might seem moot — what you believe will inform your understanding of your circumstances. It’s hard to put this into context, but let me try to explain with some examples.
God explained to Adam and Eve the consequence of sin in Genesis 2, when he told them not to eat from the tree. If they stayed inside God’s will and didn’t eat from the tree, the natural consequence of that behavior would be that they would continue to enjoy God’s blessing. But if they chose to disobey and eat the fruit of the tree, the consequence for that behavior would be death.
Now it wasn’t that God was rewarding their obedience or even punishing their disobedience — the natural result of their decisions would take place. Obey God, stay in the Garden, disobey, and your decision has dramatically altered the world you live in.
A simpler example: I tell the Bear not to touch the oven because it’s hot. If he doesn’t touch it, he’ll be fine. If he does, he’ll get burned. The choice is his. I am not punishing him for disobeying me if he touches the oven and his hand gets burned. Though I will make efforts to direct him and avoid it happening, he may still make the choice to do it, and getting burned is the natural consequence of the action.
The Lord does bestow favour and honour, and I think blessings are the natural consequence of walking in His ways. He built that into the fabric of the world we live in. (For example, if we make healthy choices in our diet and exercise, we’re much more likely to experience the blessings of good health.)
The challenge might be for us to recognise that our heart is longing for something that we think is good. The Lord who knows all things might know that something we think is a good thing for us actually isn’t. The Bear would probably think getting ice cream for dinner every night is a good thing…but his Mom and Dad see otherwise, and don’t “bless him†with ice cream for dinner. See what I mean?
And while that may seem like a simple example, remember that we are children to our heavenly Father, and His understanding is so high above ours — like the distance from the stars to the ocean. And I think we often forget that our lives are just a blip on the map — a single frame in the motion picture of eternity. And eternal perspective changes everything.
As Second Peter puts it: But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. {2 Peter 3: 8&9}
Sometimes while we’re faithfully holding on for what we’re hoping for, I think God is busy behind the scenes orchestrating events to bring others to repentance, because of our faithfulness.
Have you ever heard the song, Unanswered Prayers? (by country singer Garth Brooks) I wanted to post the music video here but could only find remakes on youtube, so these are the lyrics:
Just the other night at my hometown football game
My wife and I ran into my old high school flame
And as I introduced them the past came back to me
And I couldn’t help but think of the way things used to be
She was the one that I’d wanted for all time
And each night I’d spend prayin’ that God would make her mine
And if he’d only grant me this wish I wished back then
I’d never ask for anything again
CHORUS:
Sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayers
Remember when you’re talkin’ to the man upstairs
That just because he doesn’t answer doesn’t mean he don’t care
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
She wasn’t quite the angel that I remembered in my dreams
And I could tell that time had changed me
In her eyes too it seemed
We tried to talk about the old days
There wasn’t much we could recall
I guess the Lord knows what he’s doin’ after all
And as she walked away I looked at my wife
And then and there I thanked the good Lord
For the gifts in my life
CHORUS
Some of God’s greatest gifts are all too often unanswered…
Some of God’s greatest gifts are unanswered prayers
The Sermon in a Nutshell: I think we would do well to be careful if we think God isn’t blessing us with something and it seems contradictory to a Scripture that says He won’t withhold something good from us if we’re walking in His ways. We are a bit like the Bear in relationship to our all-knowing God. And I can honestly say for the Bear and myself, sometimes we don’t know what’s good for us.
xCC
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