thoughts by Karen Mains

Roethke was one of the great American poets. Toward the end of his life, James Dickey, another great American poet, wrote, “Roethke seems to me the finest poet now writing in English. I [say] this with a certain fierceness, knowing that I have to put him up against Eliot, Pound, Graves, and a good many others of high rank. I do it cheerfully, however. … I think Roethke is the finest poet not so much because of his beautifully personal sense of form … but because of the way he sees and feels the aspects of life which are compelling to him.”

One of the writer’s disciplines Roethke developed was to record his thoughts and impressions in a series of notebooks, some 200 in all. “I am always working,” the poet declared, and indeed, the jottings of striking ideas and conversations was constant for him. In his biography of Roethke, The Glass House, Allan Seager estimated that only three percent of the lines of poetry in the more than 200 notebooks were ever published.

In short, Roethke, though he also taught writing to college students, with whom he had a love/hate relationship because teaching kept him from writing, nevertheless achieved that envious condition known as “the writer’s life.”

This has been a dubious achievement for me. I too have a series of notebooks that record some of what a re-reading of them has convinced me are rather self-conscious efforts. The writer (me) observing the wannabe-a-serious-writer (me)! The difference? My efforts have gaps of years—sometimes five years or more. They’re interesting in a journalistic sense—to me at least—as I’m reminded that I have attempted but never been able to achieve that enviable state for the writer; a writer’s life.

In fact, my writing study at home is a neglected no-man’s land piled with disorganized order (I know where to find everything—HAH!). Every time I enter that room, I am reminded of Roethke’s words, “A mind too busy is no mind at all.”

In fact, I have two home studies—one for writing and personal involvements (speaker’s files, travel information, medical records, books on the creative process and pertinent devotional literature), archives of my prayer journals, and my own published materials.

The downstairs study is the household filing system. Gardening information and warranty records are here. The basement bookshelves hold volumes on fabric art, cookbooks, maintenance information, artistic endeavors, art criticism, and shelves of the volumes I loved in my childhood.

In addition, I think about our own Mainstay Ministries; also the world-health organization where I now serve as a board member; the Global Bag Project, a micro-enterprise effort some friends and I started to help vulnerable women in Nairobi secure sustainable income; Hungry Souls, the spiritual-growth laboratory another group of friends and I designed to test tools with the participation and input of live bodies. There’s a whole office that exists to house the desks and drawers and files of all these enterprises.

Obviously, something has to go. Yesterday I picked up the black-and-white school notebook labeled “Morning Pages” and continued praying about those things I must pass on to other folk so that I can do the work given me to do. I open the page randomly to…

February 23, 2004 (Sunday not in church.)

This is a “being” day, not a “doing” day. Things for “being” include:

• Reading and copying out quotes from Robert Capon’s “Supper of the Lamb”—such lovely thoughts on being attentive.
• Walking in the garden in my knee-high boots—amazing green things sprouting; some beds almost ready for raking. Callie (my dog) dancing beside me.
• Listening (with notes) to Bach’s “Mass in B Minor” (the Credo); lovely.
• Reading Adam Zagajewski’s “Without End.”
  

  A Flame

  God, give us a long winter
  And quiet music, and patient months,
  And a little pride—before our age ends.
  Give us astonishment
  And a flame, high, bright.

• A walk on the prairie path with David and Callie—a beginning.

Obviously, I have too many “doing” days in my life with lists and desks and files and drawers. In order to regain the writer’s life I desire and do what God is placing on my heart, I must have more “being” days. I must attempt to achieve a mind not-too busy. And I must make sure there are no more ten-year gaps in my writer’s notebooks. This is the work of this next year, 2015.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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This Christmas was full of the older grandchildren coming and going. The difference between young-adult grandchildren and the grade-school grandchildren is that the older, college-age kids bring their boyfriends and girlfriends along. Our granddaughter, Caitlyn Mains, came before Christmas along with Jake Vogel, her steady. Then Landis Mains arrived at O’Hare at 5:00 a.m. on Christmas morning, having taken the red-eye from Phoenix. His girlfriend since high school, Caitlyn Bell, accompanied him.

I find it is important to me to put myself out when these kids come our way. What I am doing is warming a glow on their memories. This year, my adult children and I decided we wanted a quiet Christmas. But I made sure the Christmas table was set, the tubs and pots outside were filled with greens and winterberries, and the red Coleman lanterns were hung along the walk to the front door. I spent a mild afternoon (one that was supposed to receive the three to six inches of snow, but was 45 degrees instead!) making sure the wooden stars and more evergreens were arranged beside the mailbox across the street.

And I made sure the velour sheets (a luxurious sleeping experience, believe me) were on the guest-room bed, and that the plaid flannel sheets were on the twin bed in the spare room in the basement.

On Christmas Eve I served our traditional crab and cheese fondue.

Christmas dinner was English rib roast and Yorkshire puddings with brown gravy, white root vegetables—turnips and rutabagas and small white potatoes and round onions and parsnips—boiled slightly then browned in the oven.

After several leftover meals, all the remaining roast and vegetables were turned into a meat-and-potato hash and an egg-and-cheese strata. Delicious. The dirtied dishes, glass and silverware get washed and put right back on the table. Fortunately, I have enough cloth napkins to replace those that have been used. I’ve even discovered that Orange Greased Lightning removes the stains on the cream tablecloth. This way, we are ready for the next festive meal. The centerpiece stays on the table the whole month, and the work of setting the table after each meal is expedited—clear; wash; clean; dishes back on the placemats.

Why is this so important? A hallway table filled with the glass crystal collection. Greens in the pots. Wooden stars made from pallets by the mailbox. Red Coleman lanterns lit on the walks. It is important because beauty massages the rough places of the soul. Lights say, “Welcome, we’re glad you’re here.” The set table says, “We’re ready for you, and we’re glad you’ve come.” Velour sheets on the guest-room bed say, “Rest and be still. Sleep deeply.”

Well-cooked meals say, “Be fed. Nourish your body and your mind. Know that we care about your well-being. Be healthy and flourish.” When beauty is created and made available for the sake of others, it not only blesses, it is God-like. We are replicating His lavish, extravagant, gasp-inducing ways in the world. And we give it away, like He does, to the ones we love.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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I can’t count the number of angel wings in my lifelong collecting that have been broken—there are so many. Through the years, most of the angels have been gifts from my husband. So breaking one is doubly disappointing to me. The beautiful white bisque angel—part of a duo—lost a wing, which was stored away until David (who has become a Master Gluer) could repair it. Unfortunately, the wing also disappeared, so I have a beautiful angel now woefully hiding in the tissue paper of a Christmas box.

When I set the angel Gabriel (which David gave me) on the coffee table beside the Advent wreath, I thought, Well, here’s one angel at least with two sound wings. Usually, he is stored carefully in the china cupboard. Most of the angels are safe in their protective environments, but that is not what beautiful things are for—they are to be seen, to be enjoyed, and in the case of the angels, to act as reminders of the unseen real.

When I placed Gabriel on the upside-down crystal bowl, I felt that slight nudge—Better make sure that is secure. It’s in a place it could be easily bumped. Gabriel survived the Christmas festivities, but not because I paid attention to this inward nudge. The game night was a different matter. Everything had to be removed from the table. The next day, when I put the Advent wreath, the basket of Christmas books, the filigreed-cut metal lanterns, the candlestick AND the angel Gabriel on his crystal tower, the same nudge came again: Better make sure that is secure.

This time I actually thought of a scheme to do so—a glass plate on the upended crystal-bowl stand would give Gabriel a more secure place to rest.

But before I could do so, I jogged the wreath, which jogged the crystal bowl, which jogged the angel who went falling/flying toward the fireplace. Sure enough, one wing lay broken in two pieces on the carpet.

Before Christmas, I had another nudge. We need to replace the downstairs windows; they no longer open and close, and some of the glass is cracked. Anderson Windows ran a promotional campaign that if there was a snowfall in the Chicago area (as measured at the weather station in O’Hare airport) of 2.5” or more by Christmas Eve, the windows (some $7,000 worth of them) would be free.

I have FREQUENTLY been sorry (as in the case of angel wings) when I didn’t pay attention to such nudges, so I went ahead and signed up for new windows (which will be replaced on January 17—what are they thinking?—in Chicago?). We forfeited the $230 for signing up that day for a very lengthy contract spelling out the terms of receiving free windows if it snowed in Chicago on Christmas Eve. Anderson had covered themselves by taking out insurance so if it snowed, everyone would win. I reasoned that I would rather regret losing the $230 sign-up fee less than the $7,000 replacement cost.

Praying for this felt difficult since Christmas Eve is a high travel day on roads and airports and in buses and train stations. If the nudge was from God, then it was simply a prediction of what the weather would be in the days ahead, so I left the outcome to Him. I must admit, when the weather reports indicated there would not only be snow, but a snowstorm, I felt vindicated. What a great story about obedience this would be. Weather watches and warnings were issued and ran in orange banners across the bottom of television screens and in the online weather reports. The prediction was for three to six inches.

Sad to report, there was not one single snowflake that fell in West Chicago (where we live) or at the O’Hare Airport regional weather station.

I still haven’t come to a conclusion on this. Did I do the right thing?—was the nudge I felt more of a gambler’s guess? Then what about the broken angel wing warnings and all those other times I’ve been sorry I didn’t pay attention?

Perhaps one day I’ll have a firmer feeling about all this. It may not be important when I reach heaven, but I would like to have a serious conversation about the ephemeral nature of interior nudges. For right now, I’m certain that angel wings are perilous things. Pay attention.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Cranberry door with red berry Christmas wreath.

For decades, the Mains family has honored the tradition of celebrating Christmas together on odd years, and having the even-year Christmases free to visit with other in-laws without feeling torn between family systems or to just stay home and honor your own traditions. This is the year 2014, so it is a non-Mains family Christmas celebration year.

Generally, David and I plan to go away on these even years, but one of our sons will be alone, and since we all are still reeling from losing Jeremy Mains, son and brother, age 41 in November 2013, we are settling in for a quiet gathering.

Angela, Jeremy’s wife, has made her own plans with family and friends, so the littlest grandchildren will not be with us. Our eldest grandchildren, ages 22, 20 and 19, are in Phoenix, AZ. Our daughter, son-in-law and their two kids, 17 and 14, are happy to follow their own traditions.

So the three of us (the leftovers) have consulted and plan to attend a Christmas Eve candlelight service performed at the reasonable hour of 5:00 p.m. We’ll prepare crab-and-cheese fondue at our son’s house. Christmas Day we’ll serve the traditional English menu—a rolled roast of some sort, Yorkshire pudding, a platter of white braised vegetables, and something flaming for dessert. The request has been made that we play Scrabble (my request), do a puzzle together and sit by the fire.

Frankly, it sounds lovely. In some ways we are grandparents in search of grandchildren—we have eleven grandchildren, but none of them will be with us for Christmas. (Lest you begin to feel sorry for us, our 19-year-old with girlfriend in tow is flying into Chicago the day after Christmas—that is when the festivities will truly begin!) So instead of getting blue about this potential emptiness, I’m going to anticipate what God has in mind for us. What kind of gift in this quiet is He preparing?

The grandchildren will not be here, but there are three of us and isn’t the promise the same for Christmas as it is for the rest of the year?—“Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of you.” This could be, if we will let it, one of the best Christmases ever.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Handel “Messiah” scores beside Advent wreath.

Every Advent I pull out the five scores I purchased for what I hoped would become an annual Christmas tradition—listening to the whole Messiah, the score on my lap, turning the pages as we moved through the extraordinary lyrics this master composer has set to the oratorio format. I read music, although without the lyrics to act as clues I definitely get lost in all the black circles and bars on the pages.

For years, the scores were used as one of the meditative tools we provided during Hungry Souls’ annual 24-Hour Advent Retreat. The five scores were set out on a table in a quiet room, a tape recorder was provided, iPods were available for privacy, and women were allowed to read and listen to the Messiah without being interrupted. Sometimes we just don’t have the time for such an event in our busy lives.

This day I was determined to practice this listening discipline myself—hopefully with some friends, but I just couldn’t see my way to getting a time when we could pull something together. When the leader of our book group cancelled our monthly meeting (via email) because things had become too frantic, I grabbed the opportunity of inviting everyone to our house. The December meeting is set aside for catching-up with one another. I suggested we listen to the Messiah with scores in hand, then share with each other where we were in our individual lives.

I didn’t realize that for some this would be a daunting invitation. In total, four people canceled (busy schedules), David had to go to bed with heart arrhythmia (chronic problem), but seven of the rest of us enjoyed cookies, hot cider, then gathered around the fireplace to listen to just the first four songs with our scores in hand.

I realized as we debriefed this 20-minute experience that one of the men had never heard the Messiah before. The other young man was ready to excuse himself to the washroom, then slip down into the basement to watch the football game! (He confessed this to me himself.) My friend beside me couldn’t read music. The other four of us seemed to be wondering at the majesty and creativity of the event, the richness of the music, the score in our hand heightening our enjoyment beyond our expectations.

After twenty minutes, we turned off the CD and talked about the listening experience. One of the women who has her Ph.D. in dance told the story of how Handel created this piece—24 straight days in which he felt he was overpowered by the Holy Spirit and couldn’t stop until the work was finished. I shared how the first concert was performed in Dublin, Ireland for charity and that Handel had been poor and impoverished himself. We began to talk about how listening proficiency in many things comes over time. We acquire a taste for classical music. One of the women, an ESL teacher, told how the same is true about languages: The nuances of tone and words and conjugations are often overlooked because people are struggling just learn the basics. In time, however, they begin to hear things they couldn’t hear before. The world of that second language opens to them, doors beckon, the learner begins to step through with delight.

The same is true with listening to God. This spiritual exercise also takes time before a proficiency comes. When we begin, we may consider it a dull occupation—nothing happens! We certainly aren’t hearing the whispers, not to mention the shouts of the divine. We’d rather be down in the basement watching the football game rather than trying to “configure these black marks on the page.”

One of the classic words of advice that comes to us from people wiser than ourselves regarding listening—to music—or to that mostly quiet Word of God that speaks to our hearts is: Even when you don’t quite get it, just keep listening.

Open the score, put on the music, light a fire in the fireplace, follow as best you can, catch up on the score when the words are printed matching the voices you are hearing (don’t hide away in the basement), but expect—just anticipate—that something eventually will open up in your soul and you will hear and know what you have heard and you will understand.

You will no longer go through life “never having heard the Messiah”!

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Who says the Lord doesn’t speak loudly enough? For instance, I am in a dramatic struggle to break a television habit.

Actually, I hate most of what’s on television. It’s inane, often boring, sometimes disturbing and predominately offensive. The news channels are not objective, do not respect my intelligence, and give only one side of the argument. Commercial drivel drives me batty. Apart from a few bright lights of exceptional programming, we are paying for what looks like a passel of reality shows with extraordinary opportunists grabbing their brief moment in the limelight, for endless infomercials, and for outrageous talk shows that demean their participants.

So why do I have a television habit, in that I watch too much TV? It seems I have a television habit when my mind goes into a fog about 6:00 at night. For six months last year, I was on an intensive nutritional program, working with a clinical nutritionist. I felt the best I had felt in a lifetime, and went straight through the day from 5:00 in the morning to around 9:00 at night without brain fog, an aching afternoon back or any physical lassitude. During this whole time, I watched barely any television.

It appears my television habit is more a health problem than it is an addiction. So why don’t I get back on the nutritional plan if it did me so much good? Simple answer: It costs a whole lot of money—around 800 to 1000 dollars every month and a half. Insurance, of course, doesn’t cover anything that keeps you healthy; only the things that cure your ills.

So one morning (no brain fog early in the day), I finished a book I’ve read before. It is Sacred Reading by Michael Casey and deals with learning to develop the habit of a deep reading of the Word. It was so good that I read all the endnotes, often highlighting excellent quotes.

Then I read this endnote on Thomas Merton, the Catholic priest/contemplative:

“Thomas Merton was fierce and extreme on this point. ‘The life of the television-watcher is a kind of caricature of contemplation. Passivity, uncritical absorption, receptivity, inertia. Not only that, but a gradual, progressive yielding to the mystic attraction until one is spellbound in a state of complete union. The trouble with this caricature is that it is really the exact opposite of contemplation. Contemplation is the summit of a life of spiritual freedom. The other, the ersatz, is the nadir of intellectual and emotional slavery.’”

Thwacked!—and by the endnotes at that. So after some careful prayer and consideration, I am not attempting to break my television habit. Instead I’m working hard to set aside the funds, get back into the advisement of my nutritionist, and become healthy enough again that I feel great and active and lively for the whole day.

Looks to me like God speaks loudly enough.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The “Make Your Own Snowman Kit” ready to deliver.

I can’t bear waste, so the few times I’ve shopped at discount shoe stores, purchasing items that are 40% or 50% or even 60% off, I hate to bring home shoe boxes only to throw them away. Most of the time, I leave the boxes at the counter in the store—but a few times I’ve hauled home some boxes, particularly those that store boots—to see if I could find a way to recycle them.

Yesterday, I went to pack a “Make Your Own Snowman” kit that a friend had given me for our younger grandchildren. It contained a felt black hat with a jaunty ribbon band, a felt carrot (better than a corncob pipe), some coal for the mouth and nose, buttons for the eyes and a book of instructions. Also included was a plastic bag of sundries, some of which I could see were jingle bells.

What to pack this all in?—wait, wouldn’t that shoe box I’d stored in the gift wrap center in the basement be just the right size? Everything fit—perfectly. But that color. And those price tags stickers on the sides. And the brand name imprint. I could wrap it. Or—or perhaps—perhaps I could spray paint it.

Sure enough, there was a can of Christmas green paint in my garage storage cupboard. So, I took my shoebox, sprayed the sides bright green, tucked the “Make Your Own Snowman Kit” into red tissue paper and tied it with seasonal ribbon. I signed a card, “To children who love snow. Nina and Papa.”

It’s amazing, isn’t it, what it takes to make some people happy?

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The mittens on display.

In an effort to provide work for women who live beneath the poverty line, many of them members of the immigrant community, some friends and I began to experiment with sewing mittens from recycled sweaters. In time, I had invested some $400 in resale sweaters (most of which sell for four or five dollars, and if you’re lucky and find a half-off sale, for two or three dollars).

Wool sweaters make beautiful mittens—warm and sturdy—but they need to be felted, washed in hot water, and shrunk. This is a stage that adds time and work to what we were hoping would become a cost productive process for any sewer. It is one thing to be a part-time crafter, another thing to be attempting to make or supplement a minimal living existence.

Since the crafters were grabbing up the wool resale sweaters anyway, I began to wonder if the wool blends—plentiful in second-hand shops—would also make sturdy, washable, attractive mittens. College students joined us in our process—gave input and stood at cutting tables to see if we could hasten our mitten-making tasks by establishing an assembly line process. I began to notice when they chose fabrics, they took delight in combining random patterns. Sewing friends stitched up samples. We lined the mittens and made cuffs with resale velour, sometimes from thin summer or stadium blankets.

Then 2013 intervened and interrupted all my plans—a beloved son, age 41, with a wife and three small children—succumbed to a rare and aggressive lymphoma. He died five months after the first diagnosis. I fell, dislocated my shoulder, and tore the rotator cuff. Surgery ensued and months of physical therapy. Then, another operation had to be performed when a long-needle biopsy on thyroid determined that I had suspicious papillary cancer cells.

The mitten project was organized and stored in large cartons in our attic. The patterns and instructions were filed. Donated buttons were color-sorted into glass jars and put away. The college kids graduated, their cut patterns labeled and sealed in plastic sacks.

One friend, however, used the mitten project as a section in her re-certification classes for renewing her teacher’s license in Illinois. She turned out some 16 beautiful wool mittens (none of them random pattern blends). My eight prototypes and hers sat unused in storage baskets. What were we going to do with them? Christmas gifts, I guessed.

This fall, however, our office manager, Heather Ann Martinez, and I visited a store in nearby La Grange Park where items like our reusable African-fabric shopping bags from the Global Bag Project, a small microenterprise we help to sponsor in Kenya, are made available to shoppers without a fee or share of the margin taken by the shop. This was amazing. We had not looked into retail marketing because the store cuts threatened our fair wage philosophy.

In the store, I asked if they would be interested in our recycled sweater mittens, since the winter season was creeping upon us. I explained that this would be a trial for the products and if they sold, we would see what kinds of sweater fabrics landed in the African flea markets, or we would follow our original plan of employing immigrant women who could sew.

Four days ago, I received a call informing me that all but two sets of the mittens had sold.

“The young gals loved the random pattern mittens. They just walked out the door. Do you have any more?”

The random pattern mittens were all made from wool blends—a good sign: availability, less processing, cheaper purchase prices. Sure enough, I found eleven more sets, all needing hemming and accent buttons. Let’s see: 24 sets of mittens selling at $25 each meant that we had cleared $600. I could repay a part of my original investment and write checks totaling $400 to my friend who had made 16 beautiful wool mittens and didn’t know what she was going to do with them.

Christmas is around the corner, but I am dying to get into the attic and open the boxes and find those plastic sacks of cut and random matched wool blend patterns all waiting to be sewn into mittens that will “just walk out of the store.”

As Martha Stewart (and my friend Walt Wangerin) says, “This is a good thing.”

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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The best Christmas gift I have received (early) this year is that about three weeks ago I discovered (in church) I was able to sing again.

After the thyroidectomy I had in July, I went around hoarse. I couldn’t yell at my husband—perhaps the words should be, I couldn’t call him. “David! Da-a-vid!” came out as kind of a croaky whisper. The nodule in my neck that the Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon removed was the size of a tennis ball. He showed me an iPhone photo to prove it. I will spare you evidence of the fact, but I did slip a copy into my prayer journal to remind myself.

The doctor sounded obviously relieved when he reported, “Good news.” What cancer I did have was small, slow-growing and would not require further treatment (since it and the whole thyroid had been removed). But I also think he was relieved that the node, being so large, hadn’t wrapped itself around my trachea and my vocal chords.

However, the hoarseness lasted for several months, and I gave up singing in church. Probably, I thought to myself, I will never sing again. As far as the world is concerned, this is no great loss. I am not the musician in our family. The list of true familial talent is extensive. The capability of the extended clans—mine and David’s—is remarkable. There are those that have degrees in music. There are orchestrators, studio musicians, record producers. No one—no one—is going to miss the fact that I might be permanently out of voice.

I don’t know when the hoarseness of my talking voice faded. I just realized one day that there was little strain left. But I did distinctly notice in church one Sunday morning around Thanksgiving that it seemed as though I was on pitch, reaching the higher notes, and slipping in and out of David’s harmony. I love to sing in church beside my husband. What’s more, surprise, there seemed to be no strain.

So just in time for Advent, just in time for carols and Christmas hymns I discovered I was singing again. “Sweet Little Jesus Boy” … “Adeste Fidelis” … “Bring a Torch, Jeannette Isabella” … “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” … “Break Forth, O Beauteous Heavenly Light” … “Lo! How a Rose E’er Blooming.”

To sing again—this is the greatest of all Christmas gifts to me. I sing thankfully. I sing gratefully. I am not silent.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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Rain slicker at the ready.

Last week, the temperature rose in Chicagoland, from the twenties to the forties—48 degrees to be exact. Now I have hauled more pans of boiling water than I care to count after a sudden freeze caught me with my Christmas greens outside their garden pots. In order to arrange Christmas decorations during those years, I needed to de-thaw the frozen planting soil.

Waking up in the middle of the night and checking the temperature outside, I discovered it was warm enough I could plod around outside without a coat while just wearing a sweatshirt.

I was in a race against falling temperatures. Somewhere about 5 A.M., I could feel that the temperatures were dropping—a couple degrees per half-hour. Stopping for a warming cup of coffee, I checked my iPhone—yep, it was now 42 degrees outside.

A damp drizzle began. I went inside, dug out my yellow sailing slicker, found some rubberized garden gloves, pulled on my wellies and kept working—no hauled hot water this year if I could help it! In a little bit of time, my jeans were soaking, and I was getting cold. “Better stop,” my husband warned. “You don’t want to get sick.” Instead, I went in, changed my damp stockings, peeled off the jeans and dug out the yellow slicker pants.

By this time it was light, a grey gloomy growing colder November morning, and any passersby would have seen a yellow-clad figure frantically hauling greens, clipping and cutting, half muddy now in her yellow sailing slicker, protecting herself from what might be an approaching Nor’easter (what is a Nor’easter, anyway?).

However, I and my determination prevailed. By the time I ended my race at 9 o’clock in the morning, the temperature was 38 degrees, heading fast toward freezing. My walkway to the front door lined with evergreen boughs, however, and the pots filled with greens, and the wire baskets outside the garage were all neatly waiting now to be solidly impressed into the soil by the wind and the rain and the cold. The shepherd hooks were pressed into the earth and eagerly waiting for the red Christmas lanterns I hang so that their light greets people to our home.

It occurs to me that Advent, the season after Thanksgiving, that much of the church observes as the beginning of the church year, asks us to get ready, to watch for the coming of Christ, to be prepared.

My yellow slicker—pants and coat—and my race against the cold are what I call living metaphors, actions we take that are like a sometimes unseen spiritual reality. They point the way; they show us; they remind us of what we often forget. In this case, the first week of Advent asks us to get ready by repenting, to take some time for self-examination. This prayer is fitting:

Accept my repentance, Lord, for the wrongs I have done: for my blindness to human need and suffering, and my indifference to injustice and cruelty,
Accept my repentance, Lord.

For all false judgments, for uncharitable thoughts toward my neighbors,
And for my prejudice and contempt toward those who differ from me,
Accept my repentance, Lord.

For my waste and pollution of your creation, and my lack of concern for those who come after us,
Accept my repentance, Lord.

There is more, but you get the idea.

Observing Advent appropriately, getting ready for the coming of Christ, is like donning a yellow sailing slicker, pants and coat, and working hard before the climate 48 degrees turns to a frozen and chilling below-20. Be resolved. Be resolved to be prepared both outside and inside.

 

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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, “Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains.” In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This micro-finance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. They are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.

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