Lori Cartmell

Posted on February 17, 2022February 8, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Shift Your Perspective

Mallard duck. Image by Ralphs_Fotos from Pixabay

Among the most spectacular aspects of nature for me are its colours.

I’m continually wowed by the vivid colours found in nature, such as the brilliant red plumage of the Northern cardinal.

The cardinal’s red feathers, which come courtesy of pigments, look the same when viewed from any angle. But there’s another source of colour in nature that is even more mesmerizing:

Iridescence.

With iridescence, the hue of something changes when seen from different angles. You’ve probably experienced this shimmery optical phenomenon yourself when looking at certain insects, butterflies, birds, or even soap bubbles.

A good example of iridescence is the head of the mallard, a common duck found in the northern hemisphere. Its head appears to be a bright emerald green at first, but if you shift your angle of observation, it can appear green-gold, blue, or indigo.

It all depends on your perspective.

Maybe there’s a little lesson here for us.

If we shift our perspective about our own situations, we can see beauty that we didn’t know was there.

Posted on February 14, 2022February 4, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not

Did you ever play games with flowers as a child?

Perhaps you squeezed the “mouth” of a snapdragon flower to make it “talk.”

Or maybe you held a buttercup underneath the chin of a friend. If it reflected back a yellow colour, it meant that they liked butter (apparently, everyone does!).

Probably one of the most famous flower games involves the daisy: it’s considered the oracle of affairs of the heart. The daisy supposedly has the ability to tell you if your sweetheart truly loves you or not.

It goes like this: you pluck off each petal of a daisy in turn, and as you do so, alternately say, “He loves me,” or “He loves me not.”

The final petal tells you which statement is true.

You’re left in suspense the whole time, and worry about what the last petal will reveal.

I know this is just a children’s game, but even as adults we sometimes worry if we’re truly loved, don’t we?

Human love can be a fickle thing, and we can often be unsure about the commitment and loyalty of those we love.

That’s why it’s so good to know that with Jesus, we’re never left wondering whether He loves us or not. He never leaves us in suspense as to whether He cares.

He always does.

And He always will.

Posted on February 10, 2022February 4, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Forward Guidance From God

1890s image of banker from Picryl, Library of Congress collection, Public Domain.

Central bankers can be inscrutable folk.

They issue statements regarding the economy that can sometimes be a bit enigmatic and vague.

Economists and journalists pore over every word of each press release, trying to read between the lines and guess at what the central banker is thinking and planning.

At other times, however, central bankers are more forthright.

They issue what is known as “forward guidance”: clearcut statements about the likely course of future monetary policy.

They may plainly state that at their next scheduled meeting, interest rates will be going up (or down). People are able to make decisions about mortgages or loans based on that foreknowledge.

Don’t you wish that God offered “forward guidance”?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if God let you know in advance what’s coming down the pike in your life?

Posted on February 7, 2022January 29, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Following In His Footsteps

In winter, it can be fun to decipher tracks left in the snow.

I sometimes make a little game of this as I’m going for a walk.

You can usually tell by the size and spacing of bootprints whether they were left by a man, woman, or child.

Tracks going to each house in turn clearly belong to the mail carrier.

Human footprints next to smaller, clawed ones indicate that a neighbour was walking the dog.

Dainty, single-file paw prints show that a cat was making its rounds, whereas a repeating W-shaped pattern of impressions indicate that a squirrel was hopping across the lawn.

And small bootprints that meander crazily like a butterfly are a sure sign that my four-year-old neighbour Noah passed this way!

What tracks are you leaving in life?

Will people want to follow in your footsteps?

Posted on February 3, 2022January 24, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

How To Pass The Baton

Have you ever run a relay race?

If you have, you’ll know that how well your team passes the baton matters just as much as how fast you all run.

I participated in a few relay races during high school when I was on the track team, and learned that there’s a knack to it.

When passing the baton to your teammate, you have to make sure that they’re up to speed first: at a sprint. You can’t hand off the baton at a standstill or even at a jog or your team will fall behind.

Therefore, we were taught a method to use at track meets when coming up behind the next runner on our team. We would shout out the name of our particular school, then say, “Go!”

Our next runner would immediately start sprinting with one hand behind them, ready to grab the baton in the passing zone. They wouldn’t look back at us, but simply keep running and power forward once we’d put the baton in their hand.

I think some these tips can apply to how we “pass the baton” to the next generation of believers in our spiritual race.

Posted on January 31, 2022January 23, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Fear Of Missing Out

Do you suffer from FOMO?

No, it isn’t some dreaded disease.

Rather, FOMO stands for “Fear Of Missing Out.”

It’s a natural human tendency to worry that we might be losing out on something that others are enjoying or acquiring.

This trepidation can sometimes filter into our spiritual lives, as well.

We might be afraid that if we do things God’s way, we’ll somehow miss out on something.

Perhaps we won’t get to do the things we really want in life, or we’ll have to give up some things we’re already doing. We fear we’ll miss out on all the fun.

We fear God might withhold something crucial from our lives, and our “cake” won’t rise without it: our life will feel diminished.

But we needn’t worry. God only withholds things for our good, and He won’t deprive us of things we truly need.

Our cake will still rise as believers, but on God’s terms.

Posted on January 27, 2022January 20, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Help Is On The Way

When you’re in trouble, hearing the sound of help coming can be music to your ears.

If you’ve been involved in a car accident or have been the victim of crime, the sound of emergency vehicle sirens approaching gives you a welcome sense of reassurance.

If you’re in a jam and need help from a friend or family member, it’s such a relief to hear the sound of their voice on the phone saying, “I’m on my way.”

If your city was brought to a standstill by a massive snowstorm (as mine was last week), hearing the sound of municipal snowplows entering your neighbourhood to finally clear the streets can almost bring tears to your eyes.

It’s good to know that help is on the way, isn’t it?

The Bible tells us that when we’re facing difficulties, we can count on God to be there for us and help us.

Posted on January 24, 2022January 15, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

If We Could See Our Words

Photo of a lion on a cold day by Tambako the Jaguar on Flickr CC BY-ND-2.0

If you live in a warm climate, there are a few things you’re missing out on.

One of them is the ability to see your own breath.

(You’re also missing out on high heating bills in winter, backaches from shovelling snow, and frostbitten fingers, but I think you can do without those things!)

Why can we sometimes see our breath in cold climates?

With the combination of cold outdoor temperatures and the right humidity, your breath condenses as it is exhaled. It then appears as a misty cloud being emitted from your mouth.

It got me thinking: wouldn’t it be helpful if we could see our own words, too, and not just our breath?

By that I mean, if only we could see in physical form how our words affect others, we’d think twice about what we say.

If words came out of our mouth visibly shaped like the weapons they often are, we’d probably be horrified. If we saw what appeared to be daggers or fists hurtling toward the other person, we’d want to take back what we’d just said.

Posted on January 20, 2022January 11, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Winter, the Great Leveller

Photo by Mark Evans on Flickr, CC BY-ND-2.0

If you live in a cold climate, as I do, you’ll have noticed that winter has a way levelling us out.

It shows us we’re all in the same boat.

Let me explain:

No matter how rich or poor you are, you’re going to have to deal with snow one way or another. If you live in a cold climate, there’s no escaping this fact.

Whether you drive a snazzy, expensive car or a modest runabout, winter has a way of making all vehicles look rather crappy. No matter how much you paid for your car, road salt and slush will cover it with an ugly grey-brown film.

And despite searching high and low for the most fashionable winter parka, you’ll still end up looking like an Arctic explorer, indistinguishable from everyone else.

Winter has a way of humbling us.

I think sin has the same sort of levelling effect.

Whatever walk of life we come from, we’re all going to have to deal with our sins somehow. There’s no escaping it.

No matter how wealthy or poor we are, when sin sticks to us, it makes all of us look rather stained. Whether a pauper or a prince, the muck of sin covers us all.

And even if we try to gussy up our image and paper over our sins, it simply doesn’t work. We’re fooling ourselves if we think we’re any better or different than anyone else.

When it comes to sin, we’re all in the same boat.

Posted on January 17, 2022January 10, 2022 by Lori Cartmell

Happy In-Between

A few weeks ago, I heard a lady say, “Happy In-Between!”

It took me a moment to figure out what she meant.

I finally realized that she was referring to the time after Christmas but before New Year’s. We don’t really have a term to describe the awkward period between these two holidays, so this lady settled on “In-Between,” and hoped we’d have a happy time during it.

It got me thinking about the other “in-between” times in our lives.

Many of us go through times when we’re in an awkward phase of waiting for something to happen.

Perhaps we believe God has given us a promise about something He will do in our lives, but it’s taking a long time to come to pass.

Maybe we’re trusting God for a healing, a new job, the restoration of a marriage, or the return of a prodigal child.

It can be hard to stay happy during a time of limbo, when nothing seems to be happening in our situation. As the months go by, our prayers don’t seem any closer to being answered.

So what do we do when we’re having trouble staying upbeat, faithful, and patient during the in-between times, when life just seems to be a hard slog?

The Faith Cafe

Author: Lori Cartmell

Chief blogger and bottlewasher at The Faith Cafe, a Christian blog about everything from baking to nature, but mostly about our relationship with God.