Fresh Start....

I guess this will be the cap on the Jubilee posts...
So, the surprise My Sweet Baboo planned was a night at the Really Big Fancy Resort Place in Nashville, TN. It was marvelous...so long as I don't think about how much it cost. ;) But, I've always wanted to walk through those atriums with him, and boy, did we walk. through. those. atriums.

We also walked over to the mall that's about a half mile away and ate dinner at The Aquarium restaurant. Very unique!


On Saturday, which was actually my birthday, we came home and took the kids to Macaroni Grill for my birthday dinner...and, no, I didn't let them request a birthday seranade!

I walked enough that my weight was down a pound on Sunday morning, even after eating a hefty slice of birthday cake:

All in all, I was thoroughly distracted from the facts of the day, and had a lovely time.

But now...what will I post about on Mondays? Hm....

Jubilee Monday #44- The Final Week

Well, this time next week my Jubilee year will be over. It has been a very interesting year...lots of introspection and some things learned. A few of them have even been applied and I feel like I've grown. The rest of those issues will be continuing education...for the rest of my life, no doubt!

Thanks to everyone who's hung with me for this year... I don't know if it *really* is going to make turning 50 any less painful than it would have been otherwise, but I'm glad I had the company and the occasional encouraging comment.

As to celebration...My Sweet Baboo just told me that he and I will be leaving town Friday morning and returning Saturday afternoon, and we'll have a 'family celebration' Saturday evening.

I won't find out what I need to pack for our night out until Friday morning.

I love surprises! ;)

(only 44 posts...I know I missed a few weeks, but I expected more than that. Wonder if I mislabeled something somewhere?)

James Lesson 8: Check Your Source (Jubilee Monday # 43)

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ok, I know this isn't Friday. But, since I skipped a day on the Retreat/Lock-in Weekend, I need to squeeze in an extra post to finish the study before my Regularly Scheduled Blogging Break on the third week of July. And, since tying up loose ends is sort of a Jubilee thing, I decided to make it my Jubilee post for this week, too. ;)

The Epistle of James: A Blogged Bible Study
The study to date:
May 1: Study intro
May 8: James 1:1 Intro to the Epistle of James
May 15: James 1:2 – 18 Make Quality Decisions
May 22: James 1:19-27 Make Real Changes
May 29: James 2:1-13 Live the Law of Freedom
June 5: James 2:14 – 26 Demonstrate Real Faith
June 12: James 3: 1 - 12 Discipline the Tongue
June 26: James 3:13 - 18 Recognize True Wisdom

June 29 James 4:1 – 10 Check Your Sources


I. Desires can come from the wrong source (4:1 – 3)

James segues from his discussion of true wisdom into some very practical teaching about relating to one another. It's interesting that he follows his statement that peacemakers harvest righteousness by observing that there are fights and arguments between the believers. This, he points out, is due to selfish desires that fight to control the body. This can be a double reference...not only do individuals struggle with selfish desires, but when an individual gives into those personal selfish desires, the corporate body suffers as an individual or group of individuals attempts to control the assembly.

Desires that fight within individuals are those desires which are mutually exclusive... trying to please God while satisfying one's selfish agenda... and are symptomatic of double-mindedness (see 1:7-8). Desires of the natural man are those that the individual will do anything to satisfy, considering that the end justifies the means. Someone who is maneuvering and manipulating to satisfy personal agendas does not acknowledge God as the Source; there is no humbling oneself to admit the inability to truly satisfy oneself and asking God to fulfill the desire (by the way, such a reluctance to ask God for something usually indicates that we know deep down that what we desire is not God’s will for us). Or, an individual does acknowledge God, but what is desired is not for God’s service, but for his/her own pleasure or to satisfy personal ambition, still not recognizing God's plan and authority.

II. Satisfaction will never come from the wrong source (4:4 – 6)

James identifies such folks as people who are unfaithful to God (lit. ‘adulterous’, as in a woman who cheats on her husband) by seeking a relationship with ‘The World.’


Here's a definition of 'The World': The system that places value on human achievement, favor, power, and wealth while devaluing godly principles and priorities. Spiritual things are valued only as a means to personal power.

Compare. Ex. 20:5 You shall not bow down to [idols]or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God.... with James 4:5 , which literally says that ‘to envy yearns the spirit which dwelt in you.’ It's an awkwardly worded passage, yes, but not a difficult concept. God will not – can not – bless anyone who tries to earn esteem from the system that is opposed to Him. One who is seeking anything from the world has his back turned to God. Yet God longs to bless us. So, if we refuse to humble ourselves, God, in His grace, will humiliate us in order to put us in the place of humility where we are blessable.


III. Blessing comes from looking only to God as Source (4:7 – 10)
As a solution to the 'desires that war within us', James gives us seven practical instructions in order to become the kind of people that God can bless and use:
1) Submit to God - recognize His authority and quit pursuing a personal agenda
2) Resist the Devil -his plan is to prevent you from submitting to God; we must actively work against allowing the enemy's influence in our lives.

3)Come near to God - just as we actively work against listening to the enemy, we need to actively pursue a relationship with God..because the very pursuit of God draws Him to us.

4) Wash your hands: Clean up your lives and get rid of ungodly activities

5) Purify your hearts: eliminate self-centered motives.

6) Grieve (be sad, be sorry, weep, stop laughing, be gloomy) for your sin; don't fool yourself into thinking it's not a big deal. Sin is either forgiven through repentance and faith, or it brings about death. 'Excused' is not an option.

7)Be humble before God. Recognize what He does in and for us and always remember that It is He that has made us, and not we ourselves (Ps. 100:3)

And then - notice the last half of verse 10: He will lift you up. He will see to it that we each walk in our destiny and calling; it is not something for us to manipulate. If we do those seven things, we will be aligned and positioned in heart and life to do what God has called each of us to do.



Things to think about 'bow down' means 'submit to' ; 'worship' means to esteem, honor, serve.
What is in my life, other than God, that I submit myself to, or that I give esteem, honor and service, that I see as a source for meeting my needs? What do I need to do to turn towards God and away from that source?

Jubilee Monday #42 :Oh, I'm Thankful!

Because The Princess told me that if I posted this photo on Facebook she would immediately unfriend me, I decided to post it here.

Because, y'know, I'm grateful for such fabulous people sharing my life. God is very good.


Father's Day 2009 - The Princess, The Artist, The Actor, The Flute Player and My Sweet Baboo.

Jubilee Mondays # 41 - Lighten Up!

Wow, I read back through some of my recent posts and, I gotta tell ya, it's been pretty heavy around here. Of course, a study in James is no lightweight posting and that's just the truth, but someone new to Beer Lahai Roi may think it's a pretty gloomy place.

And...geeminy, it's the Jubilee year! It shouldn't oughta be like that. Sure, there are things that need improving, walls that need breaking, wounds that need healing and all kinds of other stuff that I'm digging up because it's Jubilee and I'm looking, but I've had some fun, too.

One of the most surprising fun things has been my little foray into pottery; we did some more firing a couple of weeks ago and I've got a couple more projects to show off share:

The wreath is intended as a Christmas ornament; I made it from scrap pieces and just glazed it with white crackle, the raku-fired it. I'm gonna tie a ribbon around it and hang it on the tree in a few months. Commemorative of the new creative outlet, you see.
The bowl was another fun thing. I used the coil pieces to make a mug that is going to be high-fired, so I can actually use it for coffee and such, and I decided to try a bowl...graduating the circumferences of the circles. It looks very, um, well...to use the artist instructor Mr. S's term, 'organic' (asymmetric and primitive). I knew I couldn't get it perfect on the first shot, so I even squished it a little to emphasize the wobbly characteristics. It was glazed with 'flashed turquoise crackle', and raku fired. The picture doesn't do it justice...it has a bazillion different colors in it; a lot of shiny coppery color and just a bit of actual turquoise. That's what's so fun about raku; there are so many different variables involved in the firing process that it's impossible to predict exactly what the result will be. Actually, this looks really amateurish to me, but since I am a rank amateur, that's ok.

I had another pot glazed, but it suffered a minor mishap on entering the kiln and needs to have a large chip reglazed so it won't have a big black spot on it.

Nice thing about pottery...it waits well... ;)

This has been a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll keep doing it. I have an idea in my head for a wall hanging...a braided cross...that I want to do someday. Amazing that I assumed that I wouldn't be any good at this and waited so long to give it a try. But, who cares if it's good or not...I'm having fun making it!

Jubilee Monday #40 Flashback to Sweet 16

Forty. Wow. The End of the Jubilee Year is really coming fast now.

My Sweet Baboo asked me what I wanted to do for my birthday. I told him I didn't want a 'birthday party', as such...I don't want to be fussed over. But I would like to hang out with friends.

I could help him out and plan my own event. That way, I wouldn't be disappointed if he drops the ball.

But I'd take away any opportunity he'd have to delight me by putting something together himself (or maybe with the help of the older kids).

All in all, I'd rather risk disappointment than guarantee 'something -- anything!'.

I learned that lesson on my 16th birthday. I wanted to do something special, but there were absolutely no indications that it was even possible...my mom had to take my flat-footed brothers into Indianapolis for a visit to the orthopedist, which pretty much ruled out scheduling a party. But, a trip into town usually meant a bit of shopping while we were in the area. So, I decided I'd pick my own special and asked to take a friend with me.

Mom refused. Wouldn't even give me a reason why. Just said no.

Well, I flew into an absolute perfect example of almost-sixteen-year-old-agnst. It was my 16th birthday! Surely we could do something...ANYTHING!...to make it special! I wasn't asking for much! So, she finally gave in and said I could invite my buddy along.

Now, we're not talking about anything remotely resembling a celebration. We were going to the orthopedist (boring!), then we were going to eat lunch and do a little shopping at Lafayette Square and, if I was lucky, Cloth World. I don't remember where we ate, although I do remember the fabric I purchased at Cloth World...it turned into the outfit I wore on the first day of the next school year.

After the day was over, Mom told me that she and my younger sister had been in the beginning stages of planning a surprise sleepover party for me, but because I threw such a fit to have my friend go to town with us, that's what I got.

So...better to be disappointed than to be disappointed and mad at myself too. ;)

Actually, there's probably a spiritual application for that, too, but I don't feel like diving that deep today...

Jubilee Monday #39 :Convergence

I've got a CD of a message preached by Lance Wallnau in the player in my sewing room; I listened to it the other day while sewing the HMC mantles and I heard some things that I want to go back and listen to again.

Specifically, he was talking about transitions. And he mentioned something called 'convergence' which, if I'm remembering right (why I gotta listen again!) was when life experience meets talent and opportunity at the opportune moment for an individual to step into destiny.

The interesting thing was, he said that statistically that happens to most folks right at age 50.

Cool.

Jubilee Monday # 38: Divine Wrecking Ball Requested

I need a healing.

While looking through Facebook albums last night of orphans in Moldova, new grandbabies and other significant events in the lives of my friends, I happened upon a photo of a happy event that totally shocked me by triggering a response that I wasn't expecting.

People would never celebrate with me like that.

It wasn't jealousy...it was grief. And I was blindsided by it.

No, it wasn't grief over a lost loved one or anything so understandable and quantifiable as that...as best as I can describe it, it was grief that I am me and not someone else.

Schoolground rejection, multiplied by small odd hurts in random events, capped off by a still-raw wound from three years ago when I threw a party to which no one came, suddenly dumped back on me. I looked hard at it...was I angry at the people involved? Did I need to forgive?

I don't think I was. I looked hard at myself and I found that in my core, I believe I am a flawed person, and so rather chalked those things up to a legitimate reaction to an inferior, annoying person instead of an offense. I also found that I now keep an emotional distance from people, that has been increasing over the years, I think as a guard against being vulnerable to more hurt. I have to acknowledge that I can't have wonderful friendships if I don't let people in past a certain point. I've looked with amazement at other people who can arrive at a place and glide into meaningful reciprocal relationships with others with seemingly no effort. I don't know how they do that.

They perceive doors as open...I perceive all doors as shut.

But...I've been doing it unconsciously for so long that I don't know how to NOT do that. I can't just do away with it by an act of will.

This is a thing that God must heal.

Because, you know, He may not call me to walk in the footsteps of a 'popular' person. Doors that others walk through may not be doors I'm meant to use.

I've thought of The Seventy...disciples that Jesus had who followed him, but were not part of the Twelve. They were chosen for their task...but their assignment did not include being as close to Jesus as others. How did they handle that? What determined who was included in the Twelve, and who was relegated to the Seventy? Maybe in my spirit I am too selfish to make the sacrifices necessary to be close to others? I'm avoiding the responsibility of close friendships?

I don't know. All I know at this point is that there are walls in my spirit and I've got to throw myself on God's mercy to break them.

Jubilee is a good time for wall breaking.

Jubilee Monday #37 Lovin' Spontaneity

I'm a sanguine...I live in spontaneous.

But somehow it's gotten kinda buried under the gotta-get-dones.

So tonight, even though I had some chicken I could've cooked up, My Sweet Baboo and I took a night out. The Princess was in charge of dinner (I think she warmed up leftovers?), and we grabbed one of the giftcards we had courtesy of our Disc*ver Cash back bonus and had dinner at Outback.

Y'know, we couldn't even remember the last time we went out for dinner, just the two of us.

I'd say it was long past due.

If I could have one Jubilee wish, it would be for a long weekend off, just the two of us, someplace peaceful.

But I'll take dinner out...whenever we can manage...

Jubilee Monday #36

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I have exactly two months left in the Jubilee year, and I'm wondering how much of the needed change that I have identified in the past ten months will really get implemented in the remaining time.

Over and over in the past few weeks, I've been encountering the concept that I've got to move up to a new level in many ways.

Today, that was sort of confirmed by a word one of the associate pastors gave the staff in a meeting (have I said yet how amazed I am that I have a job in my church? And what an incredible place it is to serve? I'm just speaking for myself, but I got *taught* in the two most recent staff meetings...wow...anyway...). The word was something God spoke to him, but it caused sympathetic vibrations in my spirit too.

You will not get away with what you have gotten away with in the past.

Lack of focus and self-discipline; frittering away precious time; being selfish in my choices. It's gotta go.

Procrastinating away that time with Him...that's gotta stop.

I've gotten away with some rather sloppy stuff; but I think The Time Has Come for it to change.

Not at once. Babysteps. But it's gotta start now.

Jubilee Monday #35: Self-Analysis.

Confession: I've forgotten how to discipline myself. I'm not sure how it happened...maybe it's from working under a deadline that consumed all resources so many different times...stuff got behind and then, when the deadline passed, I didn't have the energy to put into getting things caught up. In the relief of 'making it', all the focus I'd used to meet the deadline just kind of dissipated for a while. When I'd caught my breath enough to refocus, another deadline loomed and the whole process began again. So things got more behind.

I know, I know. Flylady's emails have been arriving with regularity in my inbox. And, since the first of March, when the job and the costuming both hit at once, I started deleting them unread. I didn't have time to read them, and I couldn't do what they said.

Now, it's time to pay the fiddler. I have out of town company arriving Saturday and...well, it's CHAOS.

I have a plan to at least make things presentable...my question to myself is, do I have enough self-discipline to stick to the plan?

Answer: probably not. I know myself very well.

That's why I need God's grace. I don't have the self-determination...but He does.

So, I'm relying on Him this week. And I *will* find a way to implement those routines! Eventually....

Jubilee Monday #34: Sharin' the Love

A friend celebrated her 49th birthday yesterday, and I commented to her that it was now *her* Jubilee Year.

I got to watch the revelation hit her...and she lit up. 'Oh! It is, isn't it?'

It's a whole different way of looking at what is often a traumatic 'I'm getting OLD!' occasion. I'll be honest, I don't know if it makes it *less* painful, but it does provide something else to focus on so that the sting is maybe less noticed. ;)

Jubilee Monday #33- Jubliee Joke

If this is supposed to be a year of rest, anyway.

The High School Musical opens this weekend, so the Actor and I will pretty much be living at school this week. He'll be rehearsing; I'll be sewing.

Rest is not happening...this week....

But, in a year, some weeks will be like that.

Don't expect much posting this week. ;)

Jubilee Monday # 32 - I'm Not Doing This Right

Crawling home from a night of costume sewing, it hit me...I'm not doing this Jubilee thing right at all.

It's supposed to be a year of rest. If I were doing it right, I would tell people who want my volunteer hours that this is my year 'off.'

I would take a sabbatical from all non-essential duties and spend time tending to business at home and seeking God.

Funny that I just now realized this...with just about 3 months left in the year.

Not to mention already committed up to my eyeballs in stuff.

The High School Musical is hitting crunch time; there will be late night rehearsals (and late night sewing) for the next two weeks...IOW, it's going to get a whole lot worse before it gets any better.

But, I've only got to get through the next two weeks. I've got an out-of-town trip the second weekend of performances, so anything that needs doing for those shows will have to be done by someone else.

It's time for Wellington Boone's Kingmaker's Conference, and, if all goes according to plan, I will be there. That was a pivotal event for me last year; I'm looking forward to getting away for it again.

It's my reward for persevering through the costume crunch... ;)

Jubilee Monday #31 - Already blessed.

Y'all. Go look again at the The contest info I mentioned last week. Scroll down to the bottom to see links to all the contest entries... there are 132 that made it before the cut off date.

If you have time, read those links. Some of them are amazing stories. You'll laugh, you'll cry...wow.

Now, I am not fooling myself. I'm a rank amateur. But that's ok...'cause, you know, a few folks followed my link to my blog. One or two even left comments.

So I already feel like I won something. I don't know how many stayed and read the whole entry or how many just glanced at it and moved on, but I was encouraged just the same.

And I don't think I have to be scared of a five minute limit. ;)

Jubilee Monday #30 - Gulp!

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Ok, so I finally 'fess up to a dream of being a speaker/teacher to groups of women, and guess what shows up in my Bloglines list just a few days later:

A contest to win a scholarship to a conference to equip women writers/speakers/minstry leaders!

It's the eighth annual She Speaks Conference, which is hosted by Lysa TerKeurst and Proverbs 31 Ministries and is specifically intended to equip women in ministry, with different tracks for speaking, writing and leading. Wow. How cool is that?

And it's in Concord, North Carolina...that is, it's within a day's drive of the Rocket City. I could physically get there.

So suddenly I had a choice...I could follow the rules and enter the contest, just to see if God used it somehow, or I could pretend I didn't see it and continue to wonder how I might get the mentoring/training I feel like I need in order to go where I'm dreaming.

Now, for the few and the faithful who drop by here, can I just say the choice shook me up a bit? Because an entry is a risk, you know. Only one scholarship is being given away; and the entry is the blog post that links to the contest. So, yeah, the post you are reading now will also be read by People Who Are Evaluating It.

I've felt pretty secure in the anonymity of my little corner of the blogsphere; self-promotion was never really part of my vision for the blog. And, can I just say that the idea of writing for a grade (in which only ONE 'pass' is awarded) is pretty intimidating? But -- I *had* to write an entry, because I'd JUST said my dream was to speak to women, only I had no idea how to go about doing it.

Because, you know, this *may* be God's way of pushing me into it. According to the Speaker Track info, one who chooses that track will get great seminar information and also the opportunity to speak twice. The first talk will be three minutes long and be a personal story; it will be reviewed by peers. The second will be a five-minute 'teaching talk', and will be evaluated by a member of the Proverbs 31 speaking team.

Aaaiiiieee. Five minutes. My main speaking experience is a Sunday-school or Wednesday night pre-teens class type of setting in which I sometimes struggle to stay on topic well enough to cover all the material in 45 minutes. Giving a five minute teaching would be miraculous.

It scares me with the kind of scare that comes with something that is a new challenge to be faced.

In reality, it may be scaring me for nothin', because they are only giving away one scholarship. And there are LOTS of women who would be blessed beyond words to receive it. So I know that it's really a God thing if this crazy post should win any favor.

But, you know, sometimes obedience brings a different reward. I *have* to post the entry...it may not result in a scholarship, but it will result in something.

Because God is funny that way. And it *is* the Jubilee Year.

Jubilee Monday #29 - Goin' On Record

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I've really, really thought about dreams this week. I spent some time on the carpet at the women's conference this past weekend trying to figure out what my dreams really are -- what is God calling me to do?

I considered some ministry that I am doing now and wondered if that was it. As in, 'Is that all there is?' I wondered if I should just settle into that spot and pursue God with it. I am enjoying it, but it feels like the 'back side of the desert' in a lot of ways. I don't think it's all there is. I may continue to do it for the next umpity-ump years, but it isn't the end goal. I don't think.

Because when I thought about just pouring myself into that place, something in me grieved. And I realized that THAT's how I could find the dream -- I had to look at that place to see what it was that didn't want to die.

And, lo and behold, there it was.

Maybe 15 or so years ago, a guest speaker spoke in the little denominational church we were part of at that time. He was someone who clearly had the gift of evangelism, and he led people to Jesus on his mail route, in parking lots and checkout lines...wherever he encountered them. He exhorted us to do likewise. And I felt disappointed in myself...not only because I didn't do that, but because I'd never asked God to allow me to do that. So I prayed, "Lord, stir up in me the desire to be an evangelist!" Shortly thereafter...maybe even that same week...as I was walking through the den, I heard in my spirit, 'Do not despise a teaching gift.' I wasn't even thinking of anything spiritual at the time, so that word surprised me. But I wasn't sure what to do with it.

But there was another little nudge way back there in the past, too. I can't remember when it was, whether it was one or two years before or after that word. But I do remember the specific spot in my bedroom where I suddenly had a very clear mental picture of speaking to a room full of ladies sitting around white table-clothed luncheon tables. It was so vivid that I immediately felt panicked. 'God!' I said, 'Who am I to speak to ladies?' Immediately I was referred to Genesis 3, when Moses used that same protest.

That turned into one of the first outlines to go on the computer as a possible message to those unknown ladies. I've collected several others, but, as is the way of things, when years passed and nothing whatsoever happened that looked like it was leading to that place, I quit outlining.

I suspected that the idea of teaching was a personal ambition thing, not a God dream at all. One I was afraid to pursue because, you know, if it was just me, it'd be a flop and a failure. But, because it was in me, I found myself making attempts anyway. Oh, they were small toe-in-the-water efforts...and most every attempt WAS very nearly a flop and a failure. Or greatly appreciated by all of about 6 people. I decided that that *couldn't* be my God dream.

But, when I wrestled with the idea of finding the dream, I kept coming back to that. There's something deep in my spirit that doesn't want to give it up. It was that place that mourned when I considered pouring myself into an alternative vision.

Yesterday, as I was getting ready for church, I glanced in the mirror in the bathroom just before I left and saw myself holding a microphone. Teaching.

It shook me a bit, but I can't deny it.

I still have no idea how or when or where. But it's there. And it's not going away.

Jubilee Monday #28 Dare to Dream

I've mentioned dreams of the heart before in connection with Jubilee, and once again that theme has recurred. Sarah posted about dreams, then challenged her readers to articulate their dreams, even offering the opportunity to be a guest blogger to discuss it.

Which once again made me consider dreams of the heart.

It's one thing to cheer on someone else's dream, but it's entirely different to put my own personal dreaming out there.

'Cause, by and large, I haven't even been brave enough to define it to myself.

I read The Journey of Desire several years ago, then picked up the companion study guide/journal and began to seriously work my way through it. It's taken me literally years to get even halfway through because I keep stopping, finding it very difficult to actually write down what my dreams are. And I'm rather ashamed to admit that when I do finally write an answer to the latest question that stumped me, it is a beat-around-the-bush, vague thing that technically answers the question without exposing anything. (Does that mean I'd make a good politician?)

I tell myself I don't know, but I think the truth is I'm afraid to look. 'Cause then I'd be responsible.

So, maybe in my remaining few months of Jubilee, I need to be willing to risk admitting to at least one dream....

Jubilee Monday #27: Until I Learn the Lesson...

That's how many times I will keep making public apologies for letting my mouth get ahead of my brain...and out of sync with the Holy Spirit.

I confess, there are times when I just want to crawl into my shell and stay there. Not because other people are unreasonable, but because I seem to have a bull-in-the-china shop ability to smash things I'm not looking at without realizing it until later...or until someone points out the damage.

Over and over and over again. I soooo identify with Paul's lament, 'Who will rescue me from this body of death???'

And I echo his relief... 'Thanks be to God!'

So I'm visiting Jubilee and the forgiveness therein once again...not only needing the forgiveness of the people I seemed to disrespect, but also the forgiveness of myself...for being such a bone head. Again.

Until I learn the lessons 1) that what I perceive that causes frustration may not be the whole story; and 2) not EVER to let frustration provoke a response, and certainly not in front of innocent bystanders.

Sigh. If I can finally learn those lessons in the Jubilee year, I will have Learned Something.

Jubilee Monday # 26: The High-Fired Pot

At long last, the other one of my two pottery pieces arrived from the folks who do the high-firing. I guess it really is a 'flower pot'...(groan)


It'd been so long since I glazed it I'd forgotten what colors I used. Actually, there were only about four to choose from for the glazing, so it's not like I deliberately chose the colors to make an artistic statement. And I remember one of the glazes was mixed very thin and didn't want to stick well to my pot.

But, all the same, I'm pleased with it. It is unique; the colors kind of work, and it has the nice graceful, flowing look I wanted.

The reason it was high-fired is that the higher temperature makes a more durable piece, and since this had some very delicate parts the Artist Instructor thought it might be wise to high-fire it rather than do the lower-temp raku firing that I used on the the braid-top bowl. And, seeing the difference in the finishes, I'm rather glad I did that, even if it took longer to see the final product. The flower pot has a smoother, more even texture than the bowl. They're going to make good conversation pieces.

And I've been thinking about the high-firing process. Some things I've noted:

--High-firing took a greater investment of time, and I had no control over it at all.

--High-firing results in a stronger piece.

--A high-fired piece is useful; the raku pieces, while pretty, are not meant to *do* anything, because they are rather fragile and the glazes are not food-safe.

--A high-fired piece can hold food and/or drink. It can even be washed in a dishwasher. Hm...it can be a vessel for feeding folks, and it is easily cleansed.

Now, consider applying those truths, not to ceramics, but to one's faith: Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. -- James 1:2-4 NIV

Next time I feel like I'm in the middle of a really hot spot, I should remind myself that it's just the high-firing necessary to be beautiful and useful in the Kingdom....