Category Archives: change

And Moving On…

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Hello there my WordPress friends,

When I started writing Reinventing the We’ll three years ago I was a very different man. So much has changed and that was the point of the blog really…change.

R.T.W. and the people who read it have been used by God as a great source of strength through some very difficult times…again times of change. I certainly didn’t see what was coming: My kids went off to school and now two are graduating and planning to go off to Master’s programs; Pastor Wrinkles was born out of a youth group joke. Then I promptly retired from youth ministry turning Pastor Wrinkles into a nomme de plume here on RTW; I started the chapter charts and Heaven posts and rediscovered my love for in-depth Bible study… and photography (thanks Cee!);  C.cada artist’s community was born; My sister moved to the Netherlands and I moved back to my childhood home; Certain things in my life died and though I miss them I realize dwelling on the past only helps if it informs the future against more idiotic mistakes… so I have said to myself , “Grieve…and move on…change!”

I come to the end of this chapter suddenly, it seems. I find myself  never alone and alone all at once in the presence of an extremely gracious God who has ridden the rapids with me and kept me in the boat! I won’t be stupid enough to suggest that all my changes are done or that the rapids are far- gone up river; But I know that “R.T.W.”  has taken me as far as it can go. 

So I am unloading this boat called “Reinventing the We’ll”  onto the shores of a new land (…err blog that is) called “Lillie-Put” 

http://josephelonlillie.com/

 (yes my middle name is Elon stop laughing). I am taking some of the most precious things from “RTW” along with me including: Jesus (I go nowhere without Him), Pastor Wrinkles, C.cada, photography, Heaven, and hopefully you!

We have whole new world to discover together. So won’t you come along for the walk? Here, grab a lantern and let’s go!

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Life-coaching Question Of The Week 1-26-13

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Sunset DIamonds by JE Lillie

Sunset DIamonds by JE Lillie

This is the weekly Life-coaching question sent to me from our church life-coach, Paul Hackett.

What would you be doing if you mustered the courage to do what you already know you need to do?

 
COURAGE
Many times we don’t step out because of past hurts or hang-ups and we don’t want to get hurt again.  What are you missing out on by not forgiving, or loving again or getting involved?  Sure there may be pain or hurts but if you can muster the courage to step out again, you can once again feel the joy that you once had.
Tell someone about the step you need to take and ask them to follow up with you to see how it went.
What is your step? Who are you going to tell about it?

 

My Grace Notes

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This post was inspired my good friend Lady Barefoot Baroness at http://barefootbaroness.org/. If you have not read her blog check it out today. She has lots of inspiration for you!

The premise here is to describe your life in 4 or 5 musical choices. Here is my musical description:

My childhood was filled with encouragement to imagine and think. My father often said “I don’t care what you believe but I won’t let you just regurgitate someone else’s beliefs. If your going to believe something,J, know why you believe it!”

While Dad wasn’t completely truthful with his statement about caring (he wasn’t thrilled with my choice to become a practicing Christian) I will forever be thankful that he required me to be able to defend what I believed.

Charlie Brown was my first musical role if you don’t count playing Joseph in school pageants (that was back in the day when the birth of Christ was still allowed in public school).  I was in eighth grade. I didn’t realize how this one song would set my course for the remainder of my school days.

I was the “Wimpy Kid” through most of my high school career. I was labeled “Jesus Boy” and “the Band Fag” (that last one was a name all instrument players got from our good friends on the football team). For the most part I didn’t mind the labels.  I took the comments as persecution for doing and being something that few others had the guts to do or be. I determined to just keep running kite in hand until I graduated. Then I hit my stride.

I learned about “The Piano Guys” just a week ago from Deb, another blogger friend of mine. Check out her work at http://theforkintheroad.wordpress.com/ and http://twominutesofgrace.wordpress.com/. Since I heard them I have been listening incessantly to their beautifully complicated arrangements.

The last twenty-five years have gone by in such a rush. I can’t point to one thing  that I would say is THE BLESSING of those years. So much has happened: marriage, children, four or five different career paths, ministry and miracles galore! God has done so many wonderful things for me and each blessing has played its part in making life a beautiful song for the world to hear Jesus through.

I have learned that the river of life cuts deep wounds into all of our lives. No one is exempt from the cutting. It has happened to you and it has happened to me.  While we have no choice about receiving the wounds, we can choose what fills them.The gorges of our pain can run with the waters of bitterness or blessing. God has helped me to keep my eyes fixed on Him in praise through it all.

I don’t know exactly where my life is going to take me. I don’t know what adventure lies beyond this morning’s sunrise.  But I’m secure in the knowledge that my ultimate end is Heaven. Between here and there and beyond even that this eternal life promises to be a great adventure!

Please! Please! Please! share your Grace notes in a post and link back to this site so I can read them!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Changing Seasons

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Summer Love

Summer Love

“One must maintain a little bittle of summer, even in the middle of winter.”― Henry David Thoreau

The Dunes

The Dunes

“Summer afternoon—summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language.”
― Henry James

Autumn Glory

Autumn Glory

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus

 

Fall on the Waters by JE Lillie

Fall on the Waters by JE Lillie

“I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.” L.M. Montgomery

Land Of Broken Ice by JE Lillie

Land Of Broken Ice by JE Lillie

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”- John Steinbeck

Broken Winter by JE Lillie

Broken Winter by JE Lillie

“My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt
away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.” George R.R. Martin

Doane's Falls Royalston

Doane’s Falls Royalston

“You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming.” Pablo Neruda

Ferns In Spring

Ferns In Spring

“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.”- Rainer Maria Milke

 

 

 

Resurfacing!

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Have you ever had one of those months?

I think I have just come through one of the busiest falls of my entire life! I finally hit the writer’s- block -wall this last weekend and got thrown right out of the blogging truck. You know it’s bad when you can’t even come up with a decent photo blog on the theme “green”.

Anyway, as I was laying there on the literary pavement trying desperately to come up with something witty to say to y’all, I realized I was going to miss a few days. I can’t tell you how hard it was to just stay silent  so my thoughts could catch up with me. I hate setting goals (like daily blogging) and not meeting them but now I am resurfacing!

I think this song says it all!

Have you ever been here?

Oh BTW how do you like the new look?

Autumn Colors Pt. 3

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Autumn Glow On House. by JE Lillie

Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.
— Elizabeth Lawrence

Walking By Leaf Light by JE Lillie

 

I cannot endure to waste anything as precious as autumn sunshine by staying in the house. So I spend almost all the daylight hours in the open air.
— Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Road To the Future by JE Lillie

October is a symphony of permanence and change.
— Bonaro W. Overstreet

Broken Sun Rising by JE Lillie

Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.
— Stanley Horowitz

Missions Conference 2012 Pt. 3

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On Sunday Sept 29th Brockton Teen Challenge came to share victory with us as part of our missions conference 2012. We baptized four new converts in the service and then BTC shared worship and testimony with us. Richard Washer a graduate of Boston Teen Challenge who has made our church his home shared the word with us.

If you know someone who needs help with an addiction:

http://www.globaltc.org/html/uk_wales.htm

 

…But God is

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In the last two years I have learned just how frail I am. If ever I had reason to be proud in my self that is all gone now. I have lost every illusion of personal strength…but then they were only illusions anyway.

I have learned that by myself I am not strong…But God is and that’s no illusion! My God is a strength that cannot fail. I  gladly trade all my illusions of personal strength  for the truth that I am only strong when my God stand with me!