Dove tail joint!

We had a class in carpentry during Engineering and one of the joints we did was Dove tail joint. This joint is little complex and demands utmost precision. Both the wooden parts are pretty different. Infact they are completely different. But they have to be so, to make a strong joint.

Past few weeks, I was reminded of it along with a story I had read some 10- 15 years back ( in Guidepost!) . A lady was preparing to stitch a blouse, and was cutting the cloth into pieces for the arms. She was pondering in her heart why she and her spouse were so different from each other. She was so lost in thought, that she realised a little too late, that she had cut the left and right arms of the blouse as the same left side. Now those two pieces were completely useless and were unfit for the blouse. God taught her that day, that only 2 different - left/right arms of a cloth can make a blouse!


A dear friend of mine, commented once, that her spouse was custom made for her. Intrigued, I had asked what that meant as hers was a forced marriage, without her consent. She replied, God is good all the time, and he is in complete control of all his children's life, and that her spouse has been the kind that she had prayed for.

I am so glad, that God has full control of our life, and that though different as each block of the dove tail, he ensures it is a custom made joint. Strong and perfect for each other- specially and uniquely built by the master carpenter.

Yoked!

They talked about yoke at church. I have never seen a yoke closely( I guess). So here's the google version.






Yoke is heavy, hard and difficult to have around your neck! Imagine being tied to something like that. But in reality, we do have lot of things tied up in our minds. Worry, fear, anger, addiction, money, control, fame, power. Something that is tied so hard, that it actually takes a toll on us. They tie 2 bulls to the yoke. Mostly- 1 strong and the other weak, or 1 experienced and other new. The stronger experienced bull, leads and guides the way and the weaker one follows and learns.


In our life, we either have cares of this world, or God as our yoke. If we have cares of this world, they sure get stronger and lead u astray. But if we have God, he took away the worry, pain, all the sin, punishment on himself, and now the burden is on him, that the yoke he gives is easy and light.




All we have to do, is have his yoke, and follow him. A faith walk, without sins or burdens. and what do we get, the bible says, we are 'Holy' , ' Righteous', filled with fullness of Christ'. Isn't it too big a title for me!
I hope I don't get bull headed and pull to my own way!

Are you yoked? btw, to what/whom? What's pressing you now?

Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

The book I love!

Name a kid, who doesn't love comics? That's how I started my first Bible. It was a picture bible, with pictures and dialogues in comics style. I loved that Bible, read it from cover to cover. Even now, the images or visuals of many of the characters or stories in my mind, are those from that Bible.Dad was working on a picture bible for tribals, without any language so he had collected lot of picture bible for his drawing reference. So my next bible was a LARGE Children's Bible. That was the age, when my favorite books were Hardy boys, Nancy Drew and Enid Blytons. The children bible fonts were huge just like the story books, that I read them like a story! ( I was probably 9 or 10 )

Looking at the way, I was reading the Bible, my mom and dad gave me a Gideon's Bible to read. I found it very hard to understand. The language, the font, the format were all so different from the Bible I loved. To make it worse I dint understand a thing. So my mom told me to read the Tamil bible parallely.

It was this time, that I made a friend with a book lover. We exchanged Hardy boys, Nancy Drew. She was a voracious reader. She would finish the book in an hour, whereas I would take 3 hours. We decided to read the bible togethar, and boy oh boy it was fun. We finished completely in English ( KJV) and Tamil, again and again may be 10 or more times, that we lost count. To tell the truth I don't think, if I really understood the meaning, I read it like a story book. Enjoyed the History books; gospels, dragged through the prophets, skim read the epistles perhaps. But it was fun to read togethar. Many words in both Tamil and English bounced off my head, but I just wanted to finish reading the whole bible, from beginning to end.

Then dad bought me a study Bible and my brother a Student's bible. I loved it at first sight. There was no columns like a traditional bible, the font was big. Moreover the language was very simple- the story book kind. I understood the meaning, I enjoyed reading it, I underlined,took notes. I woke up at 4 everyday, and spent time with God. I was young, probably 12-14, and that's when I started having a personal relationship with God, and learnt the power of the cross, about HolySpirit, about God's love. During family prayer, me and brother asked a lot of questions to dad. What this means, why so, how did it happen. Hearing and then reading from the Bible, was an amazing feeling. I then moved on to a 1 year bible, and then I often got back to my big old study bible. It is so bulgy, and old, with lines all over the pages! But I love it! Its been more than 10-15 years since I used it, but still get back to it to find some verses, coz I know which page, which side, and what color pen i had used to underline a particular verse! My favorite verse was Gal 6:14 and my favorite book was James!

My friend introduced me to Philip Yancey's book. Oh, how I loved them. By then, my mom had restricted me from reading all novels ( it was school exam time) So I stuck to only Bible and a little of Christian books. In college, my craze was on John Grisham's book, but when I realised my QT was reducing, I decided to stop reading all novels until I bring my QT steady. The same rule applied for any spiritual book. So these days, only when my QT is full and overflowing, I read any other Christian books/magazines! Works well for me!

Just as left is to the right!

Some habits are ingrained in your mind, that you do it automatically, without any thoughts. I was bumping into people, while walking in the hallway/corridor at work. My client manager called that a lil Indian dance. The problem was, I was taught to walk to the left, and my manager was taught to walk to the right. So when we meet in the corridor, am undecided, and move to the left and then to the right. Total mess. Now you got the dance?

In India, and I think even in UK, people keep to the left- on road, walkways, corridors etc. I had to learn and make a conscious effort to walk to the right. It was hard, to unlearn something you have learnt from childhood. But human mind is adaptable. You learn things and then learn to unlearn things. I had to, once I reached India. I was bumping into people again! I was walking to my right in the corridors, hallway of our office, railway stations, on the roads. I consciously tuned my mind to walk to my left. My short trip to Detroit, made it even worse. I was doing the Indian dance.

I wrote this couple of months back. Now its even more clear. Certain things are different. Just as left is to the right. Its better we learn, adapt, unlearn, and adjust than to change the environment we are in. We cannot expect things/people/environment to change, coz its different! - Just as left is to the right!

Pine Cones!

My bro literally laughed out loud, when I opened my bag. I had blamed him, for the TSA had broke open my lock and had checked my bag after I had checked-in in Detroit Airport. ( I had got clay for Praveen, and I assume, they thought it was an explosive? Dono why, I have had 3 security incidents in the past 7 days in 3 different airports!)

My bro, laughed seeing all the pine cones I had brought. While going for a walk around my hotel, the lil pine cones fascinated me, that I picked few of them to my room. While vacating my room, hated to leave them and brought them along. In addition to that I got few from Cathy's home as well. Never realised that I had 15 pine cones! All the way from Houston, Detroit and now in the hot Chennai! ( and other cities on transit ;P)

If you had known me 20 years earlier, you wouldn't be surprised. Me and my friends collected stones 'precious stones' as we called, any pebble, colored stone or funny shaped stone was in our school bags. Yes, we also collected feathers. My favorite one was a greenish red parrot feather- a gift for my birthday from my friend. We stuck them in a collection album ( I did no stamp collecting!)

As my co-worker in Detroit, says, these days I have a thing for leaves and flowers. Every lil, big leaf or flower ends up pressed up in Bible. Everyday it reminds me of an awesome God who took time and care for such simple leaf, which is here today and gone tomorrow.

It also tells me that we don't have to go the Niagara or the Mt.Everest or the Swiss to be stunned by the beauty. All it takes is that we look down, on the grass and the teeny weeny wild flowers. So I got to see the purple crepe myrtle of Houston, the White Dogwood of Detroit, the pretty yellow tree in the sun scorching Delhi ( I spotted nearly 10 of them!) or the cotton puffed cloudy skies of Chennai! Seems God has put us in one HUGE BIG school. All we need are eyes of my 3 yr old nephew, whose eyes would light up, if he sees snow, or mine, when I get inside a huge icecream shop. But most of the times, we just shut our eyes so tight, that we miss all the fun!

Btw, bro said that I can find those pinecones in Ooty! I love them anyway. ( I still got no idea what to do with so many of them, if you have a bright plan, do lemme know!!)

Helpdesk

I called the helpdesk. I was in a hurry and was furious when I couldn’t check my webmail.They resolved it in few mins.

Few hours later, I had a question and was wondering if I should raise a request online or call the Claims desk. A 888 number. I dialed. After just 1 ring, a guy picked up. He not only answered my question, but gave lot more useful details. I thanked him and said how surprised I was to be responded quickly. I asked ‘where are you located?’. The guy responded Bangalore.

After the call, it made me wonder, how nice to have someone respond so quickly and clearly as if I were talking to a teammate who sits next to me. Its hard to believe, but I know for certain if I call now there will be someone to respond, across the seas, wide awake at the middle of their night, with a cheerful voice, and a great attitude.

If I am so sure and confident about man/a company/its policies ( which is now there and may not be tomorrow), how much sure I can be of a God who indwells in me, and is working in me. If only I would call him all the time!

Paid!

We got this badge this afternoon at work. Our client had paid off 7+ Billion dollars loans they had taken. Well, it was a time of celebration! We got more than 2 emails, there were couple of PA announcements, and the ceo talked at noon to all the employees. More than a 2000 gathered for that brief 15 min talk. There were hi fis, hugs and smiles all around. and yes we all got that badge.

Looking at that red 'PAID', I couldn't help myself smile, and imagine how jubilant we all should be everyday, for yes He paid in full with his blood, that I now have eternal life, an abundant life! What a relief! No matter, what we go through in this fallen world, it never matters! Coz, he has finished the deal. What hope, and strength and faith we can draw on that fact, to live inspite of all the struggles. Yippeee! PAID in FULL!

Ezekial's wife

'With one blow I am about to take away from you the delight of your eyes. Yet do not lament or weep or shed any tears ' Ezekiel 24:15.

And Ezekiel loses his dear wife! And he wasn't even allowed to mourn! 'Groan quietly, and do not mourn for the dead.' That took me by surprise, I never knew Ezekial wife died this way. When we talk about loss, we talk about only Job. But here is Ezekial, losing his beloved wife in probably 8-10 hrs. Just like that. He was made as a sign! (v 24) why? That 'then they will know that I am the Lord'.

This phrase 'then they will know that I am the Lord' appears 53 times in the Bible, and all of it from this book! In whole of Ezekial, God pours his love and passion on Israel in so many different ways. If only Israel would listen. It is just the same now. If only 21st century(we) would listen.

This story, also makes me wonder, will I be like Ezekiel and be ready to be a sign, no matter what that takes?

Let go

Mom thought I had real nice long fingers, fit to play the piano. ( I was a teen then) She made me go for piano class near home. More than learning music, I was eager to go to the class early and wait. Why? My teacher has a stack of Guideposts on her living room. I used to be a voracious reader then, and loved reading that magazine.

Below is a poem I read one day, that has stuck with me all these years. You probably have heard me say this as a story more than 100 times ( with exaggeration and a lil twist). But here it is again, believing that this lesson on trust that I learnt more than 15 years ago, which had imbibed in me ( inspite of my terrible memory), will also help you in your walk and that I won't ever forget again.

As children bring their broken toys,

With tears, for us to mend;

I brought my broken dreams to God,

Because he was my friend.

But then instead of leaving him,

In peace to work alone,

I hung around and tried to help,

With ways that were my own.

At last, I snatched them back and cried,

"How could you be so slow?"

"My child," He said, "What could I do?

You never did let go...."

Poem's called 'Broken dreams/broken toys/let go and let God.' Looks like my memory is not bad after all!

Jammed.

Thanks to my carpool friend, who took leave today, I had to take the train to office. Nothing had prepared me for what I experienced. I knew it would be crowded, but not to that extent. I did not have to ‘get into’ the 7.40 AM train, People behind me, just pushed me into it. The complete 60 min travel, was a sandwich of human bodies.

Fortunately I found a place to stand, leaning against the wall of the seat. But I quickly found it was a wrong place to stand. People getting in and out automatically, magically move in and out. And you have to be flexible yet be rooted like a wall, to prevent being swept away into the current. I could smell the shampoo of a girl in front of me. And what was that? Body lotion or deodorant? It smelt good. Her hair was brushing against my nose. I couldn’t blame her. She was sandwiched by 6 women, whereas I was by just 3.

With nothing to do, all you could do is observe. Curly hair, short hair, long flowy hair, big eyes, squint eyes, blunt noses, sharp nose, cute earrings, bracelets. Sad eyes, scared face, worried eyebrows, Tired faces, Anxious faces. There were college students, school kids and ofcourse, my fellow co-workers.
Learnt one thing for sure. When things corner you, against your will, it sure is hard, yucky and painful. But you get to see things you have never seen before. Especialy from someone's else shoes.
Heard this at church today, that sometimes God puts you in a pressure cooker. You know what happens to the chicken inside? The meat comes off the bones. Sometimes God gives us pressure cooker situation, for a total surrender to God. To humble and remind us of his might, power and love and beauty!