Happy, happy, happy weekend!
Serving up only the Good Stuff for you right here:
Round up of What’s Happening around the Farm
In which Aurora shares a photo of a painting she made of some of her favourite things…
And Levi takes a photo (click through to second one) of Aurora (who happens to be one of his favourite things)
taking her photo of her painting…
And Caleb takes a trip up to the Mennonites to see them casting the Black Nail Crosses he designed…
Check in next week to Keep following Along
Oh my! These pictures! All this glory!
Such a powerful testimony!
“That even in our darkest moments – God is still good”
Lessons from Martha, Mary,
and the Bike Shed
Earlier this week, Melba and I spent part of our evening watching an episode of a sharply satirical TV series called Utopia. It follows the office of an Australian government department that is supposed to help make sure that large infrastructure and development projects get both funding, and actually built.
The episode we watched had a sub-story where the start of construction on a very large development was being held up, because the conceptual video wasn’t what everyone wanted. I found it quite amusing, so I clipped together the storyline (excuse my poor video editing), so you can watch it for yourself.
Now, maybe the TV episode took everyone’s obsession with details in a merely conceptual video to an extreme to make a humorous point, but it illustrates a human behavioural trait to ignore the deeply important while obsessing over the easily accessible but irrelevant details.
The Story of the Bike Shed
This observation of this concept is not at all new, as in fact, over half a century ago in 1957, it was named eponymously by Cyril Parkinson, as “Parkinson’s Law of Triviality.”
The anecdote that Parkinson told is about a fictional committee’s deliberations on a nuclear power plant plans and the large (for the time) budget pf $10 million and a $2,3000 bike shed for the employees of the power plant.
The committee, who don’t really know much of anything about building a nuclear power plant, approve the budget and the plan in about three minutes, but then, given everyone is familiar with and has an opinion on a bike shed, spend over 45 minutes debating the construction of the bike shed — for that same power plant.
The bike shed anecdote brilliantly illustrates Parkinson’s insight into human behaviour. People tend to focus and work hard on issues that are readily at hand and familiar, regardless of their importance. This leads to focusing on trivial matters, while that which is truly important is ignored.
Cyril Parkinson, for all his brilliance, was merely a couple thousand years late in his observation though.
Why Mary Chose Better
In the Gospel of Luke, we find Martha and Mary hosting Jesus.
Martha busies herself with the details of hospitality, striving to ensure everything is perfect for their guest. Meanwhile, Mary chooses to sit at Jesus’ feet, listening to Him. Soon Martha expresses her frustration that Mary is not helping with the preparations, Jesus gently reminds Martha that Mary has chosen that which is truly better.
In this moment, Martha’s preoccupation with the details of hosting—the equivalent of the committee’s fixation on the bike shed—prevented her from recognizing the ultimate importance of Jesus and the gift of His presence.
In Mary and Martha’s choice, we are confronted with the choice between busyness and presence. Jesus’ gentle rebuke of Martha is not a condemnation of her service but an invitation to realign her priorities, reminding us that true fulfillment is found not in the multitude of our readily available tasks but in our attentiveness to God’s voice.
To choose presence over productivity, to choose being over doing, to choose Jesus over everything else.
It’s not about eschewing responsibility or shunning the act of service; it’s about anchoring our souls in the presence of the One who calls us to Him. It’s about finding our worth not in the perfection of our efforts but in His perfect love for us.
So let’s pause, amidst the bike shed committee minutes of our lives, amidst the myriad details clamouring for our attention, and let us choose Jesus.
Let us choose the beauty of being over the frenzy of doing.
For in choosing to be present with Him, we choose the real yearning of our existence; communion with our Maker and Saviour.
– written by Caleb Voskamp
“What’s the kindest thing anyone has ever done for you?”
People sharing their stories from around the world!
#betheGIFT
On The Book Stack at The Farm
Read Ann White‘s recent guest post:
How God-Given Dreams Do Come True
Caleb and Melba have both been loving
listening to this CS Lewis written science fiction!
Your guess is as good as ours as to what this would have been used for…
It’s just so lovely– come along with us & breathe in beauty?
Aren’t these just the most adorable baby photos?
Just the bestest hospital tradition!
This Lent, Join Us In Keeping Company
with Christ from the Cradle to the Cross:
Ready for a gratitude journal with totally new way to embrace the power of intentional daily gratitude — in a way like you never have seen or known before?
Black Nail Cross – Perfectly designed to fit within the central hole of your Cradle to Cross Lent Spiral
day by day through a one of a kind experience of the holy days.
Written to accompany the Cradle to Cross wreath, but equally rewarding as a study on their own,
these devotionals combine two daily scripture readings
and a brief devotional with a name of Jesus and a relevant piece of classical artwork.
To pause and contemplate and celebrate
the wonder of Keeping Company with Him…
Soul-truth for this weekend.
“There will be storms
That won’t move out of my way
And trials will come to only test my faith
Your mercy and Your grace
They go on forever and they’re sufficient for today”
[from our Facebook community – join us?]
End of the week, and no matter what hard thing you’re facing or how much it feels like God doesn’t hear your prayers, this is what you need to know:
Jesus is praying for you. (John 17:6-9)
The One who breathes stars breathes prayers for you,
the One whose words spoke the world into being uses priceless words over your being,
the One who made time, lives beyond time, controls all of time,
uses all of His time to pray for you, because you are priceless to Him.
Your prayer warrior is more than any warrior —
He is the king of Kings and He has already won.
Jesus lives to endlessly, relentlessly and flawlessly pray for you (Hebrews 7:25),
and your prayer partner is the One who possesses all power,
and what He is praying for is your protection (John 17:11), your interconnection (11),
your God-satisfaction (13), and your always-sanctification. (17-19).
Jesus is praying for your holiness because He knows holiness is your ultimate happiness.
Jesus is praying that you’ll be set apart from what threatens to take part of your heart.
Because He knows: When you just want Him — then you always get just what you want.
Jesus is praying that you’ll be brave when you’re about to break,
that you’ll turn from what’s tempting, that you’ll stand against what’s strangling,
that you’ll escape into Him instead of trying to escape in a thousand unfulfilling ways.
Hard times don’t need to understand what God’s doing —
like they need to know God’s standing with us,
that He’s kneeling in prayer for us at all times.
Nothing makes you more fiercely brave than knowing Jesus is fiercely praying for you.
That’s all for this weekend, friends.
Go slow. Be God-struck. Grant grace. Live Truth.
Give Thanks. Love well. Re – joy, re- joy, ‘re- joys’ again
Share Whatever Is Good.
