FUZE Week 16

There is no Aunt Jemima Syrup in Australia. My friend Allie, who is also from the US, and I made pancakes on Saturday morning. Rather than our beloved Aunt Jemima we topped our pancakes with Golden Syrup, which is kind of like a cross between American syrup and honey. On the front of the syrup tin, right under the brand name is the image of a dead lion with a swarm of bee’s hovering over it. In small type under this lovely image is the phrase “out of the strong comes sweetness.” Those of you who are better Bible scholars than I will know the reference here and why it makes since on a tine of some honey like stuff. However, Allie and I were thoroughly grossed out and couldn’t figure out why on earth this would be on a syrup tin.

Later in the week I was listening to a sermon postcast. The text was from Judges 14, telling the story of Samson. Imagine a light bulb going on over my head right now! Sampson was marked as a Nazarite. That marking came with certain requirements that any Nazarite had to keep… No fruit of the vine, including grapes, wine, vinegar and raisins. No death, Nazerites could not touch or be close to corpses or graves. No razors/hair cuts (No, Samson’s hair was not long because it made him cool, it was out of obedience to God). Samson’s marking as a Nazarite was evident in his appearance.

But in Judges 14 Samson kills a lion, by strength given to him by God. Then, “Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.” (vs. 8-9). Samson broke his Nazarite vow. He broke the vow again in Judges when Delilah cuts his hair.

Like Samson, I often fail at looking and acting differently, according the calling I’ve been given. Again, like with Samson, God used me anyway.

The theme fro this week was marks. This week I took a weeklong drawing intensive at Curtin University (drawing is often referred to as mark making within the arts community).

I asked those of you on my email list (if you’re not on this list and would like to be, let me know!) now that it was my desire that God would mark me as different, that grace would shine through me in such a way that I could might be able to make marks on others. I often struggle with being am introvert. I really do want to meet new people and make friends, but fear of rejection combines with extreme contentment in being alone often keeps me from doing this. On the bus going into campus Monday morning I prayed the whole way that God would either make me braver than normal or do the work for me. I admit it was a little “wet ground, dry fleece” of me. By the time we broke for lunch on the second day (a day focused on mark making rather than representational drawing)

all of the 17 other students had made a point of coming to me. Many of them commented on my accent first thing, asking me where I was from and how I had come to Perth. God had done the work for me. Not only that, He gave me an opening to talk about the internship and my work, neither of which I can do without speaking about grace.

In the days (and now weeks) following the intensive I have had the opportunity keep in touch with some of my classmates. Pray that as I continue to pursue these relationships I might look and act as one marked my the Spirit.