Lockdown 380

Lockdown Day 380 - 10 April 2021

Yesterday's Lunch Bar advert I shared has 2 connotations for me personally. First, the " Maritzburgh" connection where Makatini said he came from.

Maritzburgh or Pietermaritzburg is where I lived my entire childhood straight through my primary and high school life. You could say it's my growing-up town. It was also known as Sleepy Hollow because of the valley it is situated in.

Lunch bar also reminds me of an evangelical story used to share the gospel by using chocolate bars as tools to get the message across. So I thought I'll try to do something similar using the punch lines and slogans from those adverts.

Here goes:

Feeling a little glug-gluggy  lately? Why not pump up your performance  and munch on the one bar (Jewish for 'son') that  gives lasting life- the son of God!

He is on top of it all and is the One who makes sense when the world doesn't, giving us strength when we need it.

https://youtu.be/f_teYa2iGk8

#Ggt

Lockdown 379

Lockdown Day 379 - 9 April 2021

While waiting for the Nike store to open at Atterbury Value Mart, I decided to get a Maverick Flat White to pass the time. While the queue was piling up behind me, I knew this was going to be a good one. And sure enough, Jason the barista delivered in spades. Definitely worth a re-visit.

After nailing the early-bird-find-walking-socks-and-go mission, I thought about the old advert I mentioned yesterday, and started looking for it on youtube. I discovered a few golden oldies and thought I'd share them today.

Do you remember the iconic Sasol "glug-glug"  and the Lunch Bar tug of war ones? I just love a good advert. Here they are :

https://youtu.be/NvK1ZXgHBKI

And of course there's the Cremora one:

https://youtu.be/tKcV4tqRNlA

More recently, the lost in translation King Price ad with Marijke van der Westhuizen has topped the charts and put a smile on our lockdown dials:

https://youtu.be/VT2izHKDhmo

And then there is one of my all time favourites, the airport Joko Gold advert, brilliant!

https://youtu.be/s9oRjneTIpY

Have a joyful weekend and make time to laugh! Pray for those who can't and share a lunch bar or two with a friend. You're stronger than you know!

God's got this.

Lockdown 378

Lockdown Day 378 - 8 April 2021

Following my fortnightly home help (whom I have known for years) informing me she will be finishing at the end of April, I was confronted once again with somewhat of a little storm inside my own head. One I think many women struggle with at some point in their lives.

As in 2020 I am confronted with a do I/don't I  tug of war.

I know I can do it all with one hand (remember that advert?) and cleaning is an incredible core strengthening exercise.

And this time I cannot find a good enough reason to hand it over to someone new, again.

ONE thing this little pandemic created are homes that have become sacred spaces for those working from home. Because of the blurred lines between work life and home life, we are there all the time.

Depending on the size of the space, the number of @home working bodies and who cleans, it remains a conundrum for all.

In a certain sense our lives have been made simpler and have we learned to uncomplicate and unclutter certain ways of doing things. How I wish this were true for our online lives.

It is as if the world went into overdrive, but it overtook our personal space, our walk with God and human contact. Little children are getting used to a de-personalized 'faceless' world with as little human contact as possible.

So let's think about how we will move forward and what we are presenting to the world as children of God. Let's go back to what He created us to do, even within these constraints.

Tonight I offer up a prayer for each and every one of us, asking God to teach us how to integrate our design with this new lifestyle so we are not  faceless to anyone who is lost.

#Ggt

Lockdown 377

Lockdown Day 377 - 7 April 2021

The life cycle of a hurricane has many stages, largely determined by the structure of such a hurricane.

From the outside in, the first structures are the rainbands where tornadoes can form.

Moving to the middle of the hurricane there is an eyewall. This is the part where the worst winds of up to 119km/h and rain happens.

And then, right in the middle of this giant moving spherical storm is the eye. The eye is generally 32-64 km across and  the weather inside is usually calm and sunny with a light breeze of 16-24 km/h.

Such are the storms of life, just when you think the storm has passed you realise you were just in the eye of it. The key is to always have your "gear" ready, keeping your spirit nourished and alert.

And then when it hits, make sure you go for the eye and then go up (hand it all to God) to get out of it safely, just like an eagle does when caught unexpectedly.

This abominable virus has brought all kinds of storms into all of our lives and we have a choice of how we handle them. Know that God has got this and hand over your storms into His hands, no matter their size.

Lockdown Day376

Lockdown Day 376 - 6 April 2021

One of the most difficult things in life is to keep on going when you feel you're stuck. To keep on believing when you don't see the light, to keep on walking with God when you don't feel worthy.

And then, when you've kept on going through whatever it was that made you feel stuck, and you look back over that time (it may be years), you see the golden thread of people in your life placed there to cheer you on, love you, pick you up, rescue you and just be there by your side no matter what.

Some of them came and went, others towed the line with you and others stayed, forming the fence along the road to keep you from losing your way.

The love of my life was everyone, he towed the line with me, he stayed close and protected me, rescued me and loved me. As our walk with God became closer and more intimate, our relationship grew as well.

As with all journeys, ours also had the uphills, floods and battles. But when I look back on the past 39 years together and 34 in marriage, the golden thread has been woven into our lives to form an unbreakable braid nourished by God.

So tonight I am grateful that God brought you into my life. And I thank Him also for the years to come.

https://youtu.be/j10B0eKixRc

#Godsgotthis

Lockdown 375

Lockdown Day 375 - 5 April 2021

Yesterday we celebrated the life we received through the life Christ gave. We had a family dinner, missing everyone in our families that are not with us.

Zooming out of our lives as humans to view our current situations in perspective, the abominable virus really looks small to God in comparison. In perspective, everything on earth is His.

This mere fact raises the question of how the world got everyone to zoom in on such a small thing, causing us all to lose perspective and the world to completely blow this out of proportion.

Although I don't have the answer, I do have God. And every time I find myself in a negative mindset over a little thing, I zoom out and remember He is bigger than all of this.

He is the source of everything, also the joy in my heart when I don't have any reason for it.

One of the characters in The Merry Wives of Windsor of Shakespeare said, “Why, then, the world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open.” Chris Gardner later coined the new phrase, "The world is your oyster, it's up to you to find the pearls."

How true these quotes are. The world is indeed our oyster, but we need to actually believe we can pick it up, open it with a little pressure and force, so we can extract the pearls that are hidden within.

In my own lingo: nothing comes easily, but if you keep on pressing in, you will find your pearl. Your pearl can be joy, hope, love, providence, peace. Your pearl is made just for you from Him because He knows you and what you need the best. Just never ever give up on God. Because He will never ever give up on you. He's got you. And He's got this.

Lockdown 374

Lockdown Day 374 - 4 April 2021

And so the miracle happened. Yeshua rose from the dead and is alive today at the right hand of the Father, where He intercedes for us.

Not only does this mean we, as His children, have received everlasting life, but we will never have to experience being left desolate without hope in complete eternal darkness. He paid that price for us. All He asks is for us to choose to accept it and proclaim He came in the flesh and died on a cross. And that He rose, collecting the keys from death and hades, proclaiming His Kingship over all.

No other 'god' from any other religion can claim to be alive and resurrected after being dead. No other religious writing has been read more than the Bible, because it is the Word, Yeshua Himself, alive and living, sharper than a two edged sword, dividing truth from lies.

So tonight I offer up a prayer for everyone who has accepted Him as saviour for discernment in the times ahead when the enemy will try to deceive by way of resurrecting so-called prophets and false messiahs.

Jesus said in Matthew 24:4b-5, “Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many."

And in Revelation 17b-18, He said to John, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last.  I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. "

He definitely has got this little pandemic. AMEN.

https://youtu.be/1pBeDoSlUnU