Epiphany in an egg

I have been Journaling regularly each day since Creative Call suggested it and today God gave me an epiphany in an egg.

I cracked open an egg this morning and noticed the white clinging to the inside of the shell. That thin layer contains everything that the growing chick could possibly need till it is ready to emerge, moisture, nutriments, all essential fluids. It is like the inside of the human womb only more so. A human baby gets nourishment from its mother an egg is totally self contained . All the egg needs that it gets from its mother is warmth and an occasional jostle to turn. It gets no nutrients or even air from the outside but God provided everything It could need.

There is a bubble of air in each egg for the young chick to breathe on that last day on the inside of the shell. That is when starts to need things in the outside world. Face it God packed the baby chick's lunch-box with all his meals. As an egg it was on its own in the world with everything carefully thought out. There are people who doubt God, could anything but God explain the egg?

More from the study of Creative Call

I am behind in posting to this blog I have let the first two blogs go this one seems to b working. Perhaps that is because I’m working through a book. It started as part of a class which was supposed to have lessons posted at least weekly, the last post was a month ago so I’m going on alone.

I finally got the point, my answers were to grounded in reality on these questions I tried to remember back to my childhood. Lets start with a few questions from Exercise 4: Pg 62.

"When I was a child, I had a specific dream of what I wanted to become when I grew up. If this is true for you, what was that dream?"

.....As a child I pretended (dreamed a fantasy) that I was a fairy princess, like Snow White or Sleeping Beauty.

"I remember at least one teacher who encouraged me to be more or do more than I believe I could do or be."

.....For me that would be Miss Caudine D. O’Brien, she taught English and Latin. She was old enough she taught several of my other teachers when they were in School. She was nearing retirement an taught the way they did a generation ago. She looked at what I wrote not just the spelling. (Face it, spelling isn’t something that comes naturally to everyone, very few teachers are forgiving of that.) When Miss O’Brien gave a writing assignment she would correct it and give you a chance to correct your mistakes to improve your grade by one letter. I will always remember one paper she made me redo to eliminate an "and" in favor of a semicolon. She instilled a "can do" attitude and was the first person to tell me there was anything good in my writing.

"To some extent, I prusued my youthful vision into adulthood."

.....When spell checkers were indented I was no longer crippled by the bad spelling, and started to write. Whoever came up with spell checkers should be put in for sainthood.

There were other questions in this exercise but let’s skip ahead to chapter 5, Exercise 4 again, Pg 87. "If only..., I would..."

"If time & money were not an object, I would take myself for..."

.....I had several answers to this. Some were dealing with many others dealing with time.
1. Time: I’d go to Washington D. C. Ands visit the Smithsonian, the museums & historical sites.
2. Money: I’d go to a spa for the works
3. Both: Travel around the world to see, Paris, Rome, Venice, Athens, Egypt, Israel, the great wall of China, Australia, and a lot of points of interest in this nation.

"If time & money were not an object, I would learn how to..."
1. Fly a hot air balloon...
2. Ballroom dance with my husband...
3. Build custom made furniture like my dad did...

"If time & money were not an object, I would buy myself..."
1. A complete wardrobe to replace what I have now.
2. A new house with hardwood floors, lots of shelves and closets all new funature and drapes and carpets

"If time & money were not an object, I would give myself the gift of..."
1. A sub merged hot tub you enter by walking down steps into the water.
2. I would like to find and buy the large P. Buckley Moss painting of a stallion I saw at a craft show when I was in collage before anyone ever heard to consider them while she was unknown, I turned a corner and as looking into the face of a nearly life sized horse a fierce proud animal. I wanted it but it would have cost a full quarter’s tuition. It would cost well over twice as much now.

God's strange choice (from church devotional)

Has someone told you you're not Qualified? If so, read on:

"Dear Paul the Apostle: We received your application for service under our missions board. Frankly we're amazed you've been able to pass as a missionsry. Here's why: (1) We're told that you're afflicted with eye trouble. We require 20/20 vision. (2) We hear that you have to make tents on the side to support yourself. How come? (3) Is it true that you have a prosion record? Think how this would reflect on our organization. (4) It's reported form Ephesus that you made so much trouble for the local business comunity there, that they refer to you as the man who "turned he world upside down." We deplore sensationalism in ministry. (5) You refer to yourself as "Paul the aged." Our new pension policies don't anticipate surplus of elderly recipients. (6) Doctor Luke, the physician reports that you are a frail little man, frequently sick, and always so agitated over your churches that you sleep very poorly. He indicates that you pad around the house praying half the night. Our ideal applicant has a clear mind and a robust body. We believethat a good night's sleep will give you zest and zip so that you will wake up full of zing. So, we regret to inform you, Brother Paul, that in all our our experience we've never met a candidate so opposite to the requirements of our board. If we should accept you, we would be breaking every principle of current missionary practice Signed, Most surely, J. Flavius Fluffyhear, Secretary, Foreign Missions Board."

Kind of makes you think you might be a bit more qualified than your "friends" tell you that you are.

Chapter 3 Exercise 4: What I Need

This exercise was a list of what you need to begin practicing your art.

- I need time to read various books that I have been putting aside.

- I need time to write from ideas and prompts.

- I need courage to put what I write before others.

- I need confidence to believe what I write is worthy to be read and of the time it took to write it.

- I need to trust editors etc that accept or reject my work.

- I need the belief editors have my best interest in mind.

- I need the ability to withstand rejection.

- What I really need is days with as many waking hours as I have now and 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep between.10:30 PM and 2:15 AM. I’m pretty sure those extra four hours are not going to be added just for my wishing for them.

- The hours of sleep are worth sacrificing when I end up spending them journaling and doing a longer bible study than I had time for before.

Writing Before Dawn

I am learning a lot from the Creative Call Book. One of the things they suggested was journaling first thing in the morning. If anyonehad told me I would get up between 2:00 and 2:30 to write in my journal every day I would have said it would never happen. I would have laughed at the very idea of getting up that early, let alone liking it.

Now my day starts when I wake up between 2:00 and 2:30. The alarm rings at 2:30 but God usually gets me up earlier. I get a cup of tea to warm me up and get the creative juices flowing. With my steaming tea on my right side and the keyboard out of the way I pull out my paper journal, and write whatever is on my mind. I have written about the book Creative Call, and about my new shoes and what my civil war history professor had said about shoes of that period, I have written about many things.

After writing I start my Bible study with all the stray thoughts out of the way I start my Bible study. I was doing one kind of Bible study now I am doing another kindwith a friend. The new study takes more time so I have to stop midway through to have prayer time with my husband than fix his lunch and breakfast, we dine together than back to the Bible study. Only the journaling first is new but it is such a powerful freeing way to start the day.