Thinking on these things . . .

I love email. And letters And chats And texts And phone calls Not in and of themselves but because they are all ways to be connected to the ones I love when I can't do what I really want which is to be with them - in person  (preferably over coffee)! But the reality is that I am here and they are there and in some cases there are hundreds of miles in between. So we chat and while that is good there are always plans being made to be together, in person. Why? Because when you love, words on a screen are not enough. You want more. You want to be in their presence - to hear their voice while seeing their face and being seen yourself - to be able to hug and hold and just be - all senses engaged - with them. We read the letter God's given us. We chat with Him in prayer. We send our love with our worship and how we live our lives. But it's not enough. I want more. I want to be in the presence of this One I love. All because of a love affair that started when a yo...

I would love to do great things. To have, someday, a obituary that was a full fat paragraph of the profound life I've lived. Leader of this, influencer of that, and that there would be so many great accomplishments that they'd  have to be sorted in greatness so as not to exceed the allotted word count. But I find that to this point my "accomplishments" are not remarkable; as a matter of fact they're pretty mundane and can be contained in a single sentence... "Wife of... Mother of.... Daughter of.... Friend to.... Worker in..." I find my contribution to society largely has just been being a part of it. There are no books with my name, no articles with my byline. No sonnets, no sculptures, and no amazing business formulas that have revolutionized the economy. What there has been are lots of scribblings of thoughts and lunch bag doodles, homework done,  play times,washed clothes, homework done, meals made, vacations taken...

"It's just like riding a bike" I assured my daughter as we were lacing up our ice skates. "Don't worry, you'll remember how to do it." And so we clumped our way onto the ice and as she shakily pushed off  I realized unsteadily that my skates were way too loose. Clump, clump back to the bench. Untie, uncleat, pull the laces tight starting from the bottom, rezigzag through the clips, clump, clump back to the ice. Then I found that I was absolutely wrong. This was so NOT like riding a bike as I grabbed for the side of the rink. Tentatively I tried stimulate that muscle memory of how skating works and found my muscles were suffering from Alzheimer's! Perhaps it was from the lack of blood flow to my feet as the laces were now a fantastic tourniquet! Back to the bench, back to the ice to give to all the impression that I was a total novice. As I (so not!) glided around the rink I was incredulous! As a child living in faculty housing of Northland Inte...

It's melting!! By week's end the Blizzard of 2011 will be nothing but a memory as warm temps are slowly turning the mountains of snow into  rushing rivulets! But because the snow was so deep, it's hard to see the effect of the warmer weather except by comparisons. We have a sign for a political candidate on our lawn which was completely buried; then I noticed I could see the slightest bit of the top peeking through. The next day three inches of color was popping out of the snow drift and now you can actually read it again. Although the ground is still covered with white there is much less of it than there used to be! Subtle changes. Warming temperatures. Melting snow. Changing landscape. As we watch it happening outside our windows there's the realization that the same thing is happening in our hearts. Sometimes there is a blizzard and things change suddenly and drastically but so often God is working little by little; lining things up so that when the oppo...

I have this ridiculous solar powered flower on my desk - observe how silly it is... (click here if the video doesn't come through) So when the light is shining on it, it just does its thing - rocking back and forth and making me smile. What amazes me is how continuous it is. It just keeps going and going and going...! A bit like life I think - life and we just keep going and going. There is never an end to what is asked of us; always moving, hoop jumping, and continuing to put one foot in front of the other... This silly flowers source of power is the sun - as long as it's shinning it can keep on going. It is also our source of power... "Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might ..." Ephesians 6:10 NKJV We are not supposed to do it on our own. We don't have to do it on our own. We're not called to "charge our batteries" on Sunday in a good worship service and attempt to run on that for the rest of the week. Nope, we just n...

“My soul clings to you; Your strong right arm holds me securely” Psalms 63:8 ESV/NLT When the situation is fiery. Desperate. Unmanageable. Inescapable. What do you do? “My soul clings to you” No matter how independent, strong, and capable we are there are always those times: times when we’re unable to effect necessary change. What do you do? Cry “help”. The eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right; His ears are open to their cries for help Psalms 34:15 NLT Peter started off confident and then he was, literally, in over his head and the Bible tells us that his response was “Lord, save me!" Matthew 13:40 Nothing flowery, no bulleted list of needs and suggested solutions, just a desperate cry for help. Do you realize the trust contained in a cry for help? “Help! I am powerless and I am totally dependent on your strength to save me. I can do nothing but am relying on you to do everything.” “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. A...