Jono Miller

When I was a kid I used to enjoy reading books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The most well known being Little House on the Prairie. I remember one of the books being called The Long Winter. That is what this winter has seemed like. As mentioned above, totally unrelated, but I received the following quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder and wanted to share it with you.

“Things and persons appear to us according to the light we throw upon them from our own minds. How unconsciously we judge others by the light that is within ourselves, condemning or approving them by our own conception of right and wrong, honour and dishonour! We show by our judgement just what the light within us is.”

Too often I feel that we judge people who are different from us because we are trying to justify our own differences or points of view. I want to focus on love. If we look at the practical definitions of love in 1 Corinthians 13 we see that it takes the focus off us. I know I live a very self focused life – I challenge myself and you to be more outward looking. Remember the old adage, JOY = Jesus first, Yourself last and Others in-between.

HOUSE WIFE FOR RENT

A while ago I watched the movie Julie and Julia. I’ve discovered how therapeutic cooking can be. On the odd occasion that I don’t eat up the road at Ruth and Jon’s, I’ve enjoyed trying to cook with a bit of creativity. Last week I decided to make bread. It came out perfectly. Nice fresh homemade bread – it rose so high it nearly hit the top of the oven. So today I tried again. Igor and I ate a slice of the rocks I produced. What went wrong? I don’t know. I used the same recipe, same ingredients. I tried to copy exactly the same methods as last time – but this time it all went pear shaped.

WHAT CONSUMES YOUR TIME?

I ask this question to you and me – but not in a sense of what you do – but what you think.

Last night I was at a party and wrote down something someone said to me

“If you judge people, you don’t have time to love them.”

Not a new concept, but spoken in a fresh way.

TIME

Both judgement and love start as thoughts. What consumes my thoughts? For my spiritual family and for all my neighbours. Do I harbour thoughts of judgement, and how that person could be better if . . . . or do I store up thoughts of love – thoughts that will most likely spur me towards deeds of mercy?

Don’t let your time this week be filled with

WHEN I BECOME MAYOR OF RZHYSHCHIV . . . .

Last week I wanted to start a survey of the top 5 things you will do if you become Mayor of Rzhyshchiv. So maybe all Rzh readers (both of you) can give me your responses.

1. Round up stray dogs
2. Turn on the streetlights at night
3. Scrape the snow and ice off the road
4. Cable internet
5. Rubbish collection

So where does this come from? Occasionally something (usually small) annoys me enough that I have a spout off about it. Usually Ruth and Jon are the recipients of my bursts of indignation. I guess it happened again this week as I got splashed by a passing truck walking home on a dark unlit street, and I couldn’t get out of the way in time because of the metre high wall of snow and ice in the way.

7 AM

On Friday I thought about the story that Jesus tells in the Bible about a man who goes to visit his friend at midnight. And he keeps on banging on the door and eventually the friend lets him in, not because he is a friend but just so he’ll stop banging. Finding a friend whose house is open at 7 am in the morning is also difficult. I woke Sasha with a phone call but he said come over later. I rang the doorbell twice at Yura’s place. Eventually I ended up at Micah and Christy’s. I had arrived in Kaharlyk early but the building where my office is was closed. And when it’s raining ice and below zero you don’t really want to stay outside. Sorry to my friends to whom I was an inconvenience. I guess there is a culturally acceptable right time to call on people.

Isn’t it great to know that we can call on our God at ANY time. The God who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps. He is on hand watching, leading, guiding, comforting, protecting. That is a great thought to take into any week.