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Faithfulness of our Labor

October 9, 2014 by Asharae 4 Comments

A friend of mine shared this article by John Piper a few weeks ago and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Throughout the past several weeks I’ve felt the pendulum swing back and forth – from feeling like I’m exactly where I should be, doing exactly what I should be doing to then feeling discouraged, as if all the hard work we do each day is for nothing.

It’s easy to get so bogged down by other people’s opinions and the things we feel like we’re supposed to be doing to fit in or be successful.

After a particularly frustrating bout of discouragement the other week, I grabbed a sheet of paper and wrote a quote from Piper’s article to post over my computer – “The Lord measures the faithfulness of our labor, not our success.” (Go read Piper’s article, especially if that quote doesn’t make much sense to you.)

It doesn’t matter to God how many clients we have lined up for next year. It doesn’t matter how many Instagram or Pinterest followers we have. It doesn’t matter if we respond to emails in two minutes or two hours or two days if we must. God’s not keeping tabs on these things and labeling us as “successful” human beings if we meet a certain standard.

Instead, he “measures the faithfulness of our labor.” Are you doing what you do with care and creativity and a willing heart, whether you receive recognition or not? Or are you begrudgingly taking the next step, wishing you could just “be there already” – wishing “success” would just be handed to you? More often than not, I find myself in the latter category. I start complaining and whining that nobody else “gets it” – that they don’t see the hours of work we pour into the things we love (I’m writing this post at 1 in the morning, if you’d really like to know.) But when I get anxious and concerned about what people think, I lose sight of the goal. I lose sight of the Lord.

What if each day, instead of immediately opening my inbox to see what clients I need to answer to, I instead take a deep breath and say – Lord, what would you have me do today? How can these seemingly meaningless, mindless tasks of editing photos, answering emails, sorting receipts, and uploading files bring you glory? How can these things change from meaningless and mindless to meaningful and life-giving, both to me and to the clients we serve?

I ask this question over and over. I’m one of those people who believes at the depth of my soul that the lives we live should be meaningful. We shouldn’t while away our days wishing for something better. It’s hard. And most days I do it very poorly. But one day, one hour, one minute at a time I want to aim to be more mindful. I want to consider not “how can I be more successful?” but “how can I be more faithful in my labor?” How can I be more present with my friends, my family, our clients, with Tim? How can I use this place, this time, and the gifts that I have to honor and glorify and point back to the Lord, through each of my hesitant, faltering steps.

Photos are from our trip to visit friends in Arizona this summer – I’ll be blogging more of those here soon. That is, once I surface from the piles and piles of editing currently on my plate 😉

On Community

September 23, 2014 by Asharae 1 Comment

Over Labor Day weekend we drove up to Maryland to visit Tim’s family. They live toward the mountains in a gorgeous area of the country, surrounded by green rolling hills and pastures and farmland. Their area has a fairly high Amish and Mennonite population, and one evening we attended an event at a local Amish family’s farm. This family was hosting a fundraiser for their neighbor who had fallen off the roof of his barn back in the spring and has major medical bills to pay off.

Aside from the beauty of their farm with a gorgeous old barn nestled into rolling hills, and the warm evening light as the sun dipped behind the trees, the outpouring of support for this family was incredible. When we arrived, we waited in line on this narrow country road as they directed each car and tractor to park in the pasture across the street. There were huge gentle horses hooked up to wagons to give hay rides, and men roasting ears of corn by the dozens over an open fire. There was roasted chicken and potatoes and cole slaw, homemade ice cream and huge pans of brownies and chocolate chip cookie bars, cheese curds and tiny handmade pies. Even the kids were helping out – dressed in their flowery shift dresses or their little navy slacks – each helping carry buckets of corn or potatoes, or restocking the cheese curds.

We figured our way through the line to fill our plates and then settled into one of the many tables that were lined up inside the barn. It looked as if they’d cleared out the barn and decorated it, just for this purpose. As we were finishing up our dinner, a few Amish men got up on the makeshift stage (a pile of hay bales), and after a short introduction began to sing hymns. They let everyone know they didn’t want to be seen as performers – this, for them, was an act of worship. I was surprised that most of the hymns were familiar to me – the words at least were familiar from the hymnal in the church where I grew up. But the tunes were different. The melodies sounded older, more melancholy, as if they were steeped in history, and this family, and all the generations before them, had been singing the same tune. It was beautiful. And hard to put into words. But somehow I felt like God was smiling down on this little farm on a country road in Maryland – smiling on his people acting out what community is supposed to look like.

I wish we’d taken more photos, but here are just a few that don’t really do it justice. You can imagine the rest. Or see one more photo I took that day over on my Instagram of course.

26 Years and the Meaning of a Name

May 14, 2014 by Asharae 1 Comment

26 years.

26 years ago today, I arrived into this world and my parents named me Asharae. (More or less pronounced ash-uh-ray.) It’s an odd name upon first glance, but I love it. When I was a kid, people would always ask my parents where my name came from. I can still hear my dad’s voice explaining it the same way each time, “It’s a Hebrew word that means ‘blessed.’ It’s the first word of the first Psalm and the word Jesus used when he spoke the Beatitudes.”

I heard that over and over as a child. “Her name means blessed.”

My dad chose my name before he even met my mom. He was in a Hebrew class in seminary when he learned the meaning of the word asharae. He decided then that when he had a daughter, her name would be blessed.

It took a long time for me to realize the significance and the truth behind my name. I always liked that I had a unique name, but it was through hearing my dad explain my name over and over that the truth of it began to sink in. Her name means blessed. I have called her blessed. She is blessed.

Since today is my birthday and I’ve felt completely worn down lately, I decided to take the day off from photo-editing, email-answering, and all other business related things. Instead I’ve spent the entire day cleaning our house, doing dishes, and organizing our never-ending pile of boxes from storage. I laughed to myself that I really must be an adult now if an enjoyable “day off” means cleaning the house! I was lucky enough to get to chat on the phone with both my friends Lauren and Emily though – go check out both of their blogs! I’m so blessed by both of these ladies!!

Lately I’ve also been gathering artwork to create a gallery wall in our family room, and I spent the early afternoon trying to match frames to artwork. I had this one little square frame that I wasn’t sure what to do with. As I was digging through our office closet today, I came across a sheet of paper with Hebrew script on it. My name was written in English in my dad’s handwriting with an arrow pointing to the top right word. I decided to use the Hebrew lettering in the frame by photocopying it onto some old tea-stained paper I had lying around. (What? You don’t keep old tea-stained paper lying around?) I’m pretty excited with the result, and I can’t wait to see it up on the walls with the rest of our artwork.

Credit for our fabulous family portrait goes to the oh-so-talented Anne Thiele – go check out her website and Etsy shop! We commissioned her to do our family portrait a few months ago and could not be happier with the result!!

Tim and I painted the Spanish alphabet back when we were living in Seattle – as you can see we still haven’t erased our pencil guidelines from when we first painted it. Oh well.