Gracious Blessings

  So the Word became human and made his home among us. 

He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.  

And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son...

 

 From his abundance [fullness] we have all received one gracious blessing after another.

John 1:14-16

Our first Sunday service of the year, the floor was opened up for testimonies on what God had done in our lives in 2013. One by one, my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ stood to honor God's gracious blessing in their life. My tears would not stop flowing. 

He's been so good to them....to us.... to me...

....I'm not talking about our great circumstances, material wealth or ease of life, but because of God's work, guidance, care and favor in spite of our circumstances.... because of His abundant grace in our lives.  And it is absolutely radiant in these dear people. 

"From his abundance [fullness] we have all received one gracious blessing after another."

We have all received one gracious blessing after another. Look around and you'll see God's grace in the lives around you, as well as in your own. Then take time to acknowledge it, honor Him. It's kind of like treasure hunting.

It's been 3 weeks now and I can't seem to keep my eye makeup on through a worship service since then. There is a real connection between gratefulness and sincere worship...looking back to remember what He's done, acknowledging His work and His grace in our lives. Then worship flows.

In health or in warfare, there is fullness of joy in the presence of the Lord

Is January zipping by for everyone or is it just me! I need to get back in the habit of posting here, but I'm not making any promises....or resolutions.

I'm just not a resolute type of person I guess. There are many things I should be resolute about, but, ehn. So a few years ago, I gave up making New Year resolutions and began asking God to give me a word for the year.

I began this spiritual practice at the end of 2010, being challenged by a group of other pastors' wives I am involved with. Here is my little history of what God's shown me in the past few years....

2011 Joy ....coming after a few terribly stressful years. The housing crisis hit and we were devastated and humbled by it. I lost 2 jobs because of lay offs.  I felt very unsure of myself and vulnerable. These, along with a lot of other things that involved loss, just made it a difficult series of years for us that led up to 2011. In fact, when I got this word after praying for one, I kept rethinking it. I was in such a state of being humbled and vulnerable that I kept thinking it was just wishful thinking and not something from God. But it was, it kept being confirmed to me and I finally, thankfully, accepted it.

Even though it wasn't a perfectly happy and pain free year, God developed an inner peace and contentment throughout that year that I truly realized the truth I did know in my head, I just wasn't practicing it. Joy comes from within, from being submitted to the Lord, grateful and obedient to Him, not from outer circumstances. The word could have been trust, because I was learning to trust what He was doing in our life, but that was the process....the gift was accepting joy.

The beginning of that year found us packing up our home and moving to a very cheap rental house, wondering what would come next. But it was a freeing time too. We no longer had a huge house payment and I did not have to work. We could afford for me to stay home again and it was...joyful. We were content to live in that little rental house and had plans to be there for as long as we could foresee. But the end of the year found us moving into a large, beautiful home owned by a generous person who charged us less rent than the cheap rental house. We learned to be content and find joy wherever we were. It was kind of an amazing journey of letting go of stuff and trusting what God was doing.

2012 Health ....not striving for health (which was my first thought), but a gift of... an answer to a lot of different health problems that did not seem connected. I was beginning to feel very worn down,  used up and in pain a lot. In February an ultrasound for female things showed that I had a left kidney full of stones. Even though I'd had numerous kidney stones before, I had no idea that was where my pain and problems were coming from. After a grueling 2 lithotripsies and an emergency hospitalization, I remembered an old friend's kidney stone problem was caused by an overactive parathyroid gland, so I mentioned that to my doctor. One simple blood test later, I ended up having one of my parathyroid glands taken out and wow, what a difference! I'm so thankful.

2013 War. Scary word, but I was invited to join in the spiritual warfare that was raging against my family and our church. The word Victory was popping up all over the place, even the day after I got this word, so it was a very hopeful time, even though it was a very hard year....the hardest of my life. There were many victories too. Trust me.

This is the main reason I have not blogged very often this year. The things going on in my life and head were a little too personal and not really about me, so I could not share.

2014 Fullness

 Are you kidding me! Bring it! I am ready. Already I am hearing this word pop up in my husband's sermons....even before telling him my word. And see it all the time in my devotional time.  I made a Pinterest board on it. The verse I'm mainly focused on is Psalm 16:11...

You will make known to me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
In Your right hand there are pleasures forever.
Psalm 16:11 NAS

Fullness only comes from God, so I am eagerly anticipating this year and what He will show me. God is so good to us in that group of women I meet with, giving us a little glimpse of the year, a little prophetic word to hold on to, to anticipate....  Each woman has a story to tell about their words. He is active and working and teaching us so much.

Signs in the Sky

I would never have classified myself as a signs and wonders type of person. I mean I always knew God could perform signs and wonders if He wanted to, but I didn't think they were necessarily something for my daily life.

But y'know what? That is changing. It's not that the signs and wonders weren't there before, it's that I didn't recognize them. I wasn't looking or expecting anything. God is working all the time, all around us. He wants us to join in and notice......to be grateful and mindful of His power and presence.

A couple of weeks ago, Maggie and I were driving in to Albuquerque for a driver's education practice and I looked up at the mountains that divide Albuquerque from our East Mountain area. I always look at them when we're driving and since she was driving, I was really looking. It's a beautiful view of the green covered sweeping mountain ridge, lately with patches of yellow aspen. Right above the top of the ridge--I kid you not!--was a semicolon. It was made from a couple of small clouds. It was the only patch of clouds I could see, sitting there all alone in a perfect backwards semicolon. I even pointed it out to Maggie and she said yes, it was a semicolon and added that I was weird. (I was a little excited, that's all)

Punctuation in the sky.

It gets your attention. It is weird.

I dropped her off to drive with her instructor and then I had to google semicolon to see what it's purpose is because, clearly it was a sign of some sort.

--A semicolon is used to join 2 independent, yet somewhat related, statements.
--Semicolons are described by writers as old fashioned, middle class, and optional.
--Semicolons can be used to link transitional phrases.
--Semicolons are used to separate words of opposed meaning.
--They also allow for a rapid change of direction in a sentence.

 In full time ministry lifestyle, we are constantly praying for God to put a kind of symbolic semicolon into people's lives.

Charlie used drugs to escape the emptiness of life; when he turned his life over to Christ, he was set free and now has direction and Hope.

Susan's life was all about fighting for cause after cause; God showed her true purpose in life, to let Him love others through her.

Our church has been prayer walking together at least once a month in different neighborhoods. It is amazing what you are led to pray for someone by just walking by their property. It gets very personal and it's obvious that people need a semicolon these days. The last 3 uses listed anyway.

--To link transitional phrases.
--To separate words of opposed meaning.
--Allows for a rapid change of direction in a sentence.

On October 31st we will be taking the children of our church trick or treating in a neighborhood near our church. As the children go to the doors, the adults will be covering that household in prayer. The children will hand the person answering the door a small gift bag with a little gift and a card that tells them we care and have prayed for their household.

We want to see that huge semicolon inserted into people's lives....transitions, radical changes, true Hope where there is now only emptiness.

The Dovecot

I love it when I'm doing something ordinary and something extraordinary happens.

My sister Julie asked me to send her Hannah and Bradley's new address. They are on their honeymoon, so I was trying to figure out their house number on my own. I looked it up on Google maps and then clicked on the street view option. I couldn't see the house number but while I was looking at it from different angles something else jumped out at me.

So I took a screen shot of the Google map view.

In one angle of the street view, there are two birds (they look like doves) taking flight right in front of the one eave on the house. It is a tiny, tiny house....400 square feet I think. When my sister Julie saw it last week, she said it reminded her of the little cottage where Meg and John Brook live in Little Women. They called it the Dovecot.

I love how symbolic it is that the doves are just taking off in flight, just like the newlywed couple.

Many, many blessed times and years to them.

Caged beauty

My dog, Maisy, eats my pansies. They haven't bloomed all summer until now

....inside their cages. 

I tell them it's for their own protection.

Maisy has moved on to squirrels, but she hasn't gotten to taste one yet....though not for lack of digging after them into their holes.

Autumn came in my mailbox today

We haven't live in New Jersey since 1997, but a bit of NJ autumn arrived in our mailbox today!

Ivins' Spiced Wafers...... I wrote a whole post about these little cookies once ( and here
and here). The recipe there is a good ginger snap recipe, but it's really nothing like Ivins'.

I have talked about them so much since moving away from New Jersey that my friend Sue thinks of me every time she sees them in the store.....which is only during the fall! They only make them for fall. The rest of the year you must have to anticipate (or stockpile them in your freezer).

Well this year, when Sue saw them in the store, she not only thought of me, but she bought me some and mailed them all the way to New Mexico. (the postage cost more than the cookies) She is that kind of wonderful. And it made my day! Sue, you are a really cool friend and I thank you, thank you, thank you!

Oh and the reason I don't have a picture of the actual cookie is because I must wait to eat them until I have a tall glass of ice cold apple cider to accompany them.

Things I haven't blogged about lately...

This is my catch up list! (with very fancy bullet points)

- I sent Maggie off on a mission trip. Our youth group went to Oakland/San Francisco, California to help clean up a neighborhood and be Light to the people there. They have some wonderful stories too!
- Sent Charles off to Phoenix (you are seeing a trend here I assume) to perform a wedding and to pack up our outdoor furniture, grill, chiminea, lawn mower, weed whacker, and assorted other outdoorish things. We didn't have room in our original moving truck for these things and have been begging and borrowing lawn mowers and eating only indoor cooked foods since we moved here so...YAY! We've also broken every folding camping chair we had except one because we sit on our deck so much. Love having our furniture set again. Love having a mowed lawn and grilling food outside.
- I flew to Phoenix 2 days after Charles to attend Hannah's wedding shower at her sister-in-law-to-be's house. Then we went whirlwind shopping to try to find a bridesmaid dress for Emma which was unsuccessful but fun. Then I met Charles at the church, where the wedding he reception he was involved with was wrapping up, hopped into the small moving truck drove with him back to Albuquerque (from which I flew away early that same morning). We arrived somewhere around 3:30am, bleary eyed and almost in an altered state! ;)
- Youth mission team arrived back on Monday night but without Maggie. Her sisters picked her up as they drove through Flagstaff and she has been in Phoenix visiting ever since. She helped with our former church's Vacation Bible School this past week and left yesterday to go to youth camp with her old youth group until Tuesday. She will be home Thursday, when my sister will drive up to visit for a few days.
- I have found that life around here is either full steam, barreling ahead or it's completely quiet and peaceful until your ears are ringing. Maggie described it that it's like being dropped in honey....every. thing. slowwwwwws. doooooown. Meditate on this for a while. It's taken a while to get used to but we are enjoying it now. I think it's healthy and was needed. And now imagine floating in honey without a Maggie in the house. You've gone from honey to molasses in January. I am cracking up because that is exactly what it was like for a week or so. .....and then the barreling starts.
- In one long weekend we volunteered at a field day for the community center's children's summer recreation program. I manned the dart game.....with real darts with one inch stickers on the ends. (Yes, that was as intimidating and stressful as it sounds when you are assisting keyed up K-6th graders with dangerous weapons) Sunburn number one happened.
- The very next day, our church put on a block party. Our church does a block party every summer as a way to get to know the community better. But this year we also did it as a fund raiser for a neighbor of ours named Steve. On Memorial Day weekend, our neighbor 7 houses down the road lost his house in a fire. Sometimes it takes something tragic to bring people together and we have seen how God's used this tragedy to bring our neighborhood closer. No one was hurt in the fire, but he lost everything. As a single dad, he's been blown away by the community's concern and help for him. We had tons of help at the block party, but with prep, set up, greeting and visiting with dozens of new people, helping an out of town youth group get set up and know what to do, and standing for 7 hours, hooo, baby, I was wiped out. We didn't feel it until we hit our front door. It was a great day, full of energy and neighbors becoming friends, and people pouring out money and concern for Steve.
- Had the out of town youth group over for the afternoon after the block party while they did their debriefing and finished their blog and photo booth projects. Fed them tacos. (Thankfully they cleaned up my kitchen afterwards! Very cool.) Then they left for the next leg of their mission trip and we basically collapsed into a heap. :)
- Sunday was youth led worship and service. They all gave testimonies about their mission trip and what God did in their own lives. Leadership team meeting after church until almost 6pm. I did not contribute much, just kind of sat there and tried to stay focused and take notes for the newsletter.
- This week, I demanded Charles actually take a day off. He was very willing after that busy weekend. So we decided to tour northern New Mexico. We drove up to Taos, visited a place he wants to take our young adult group for a retreat in a month and drove home that evening. It was beautiful weather and scenery. This is a spectacular place with a lot of unspoiled wilderness and natural beauty. There is not even a big highway that goes up there, you have to take little state highways and figure out your route carefully to get where you want to go.
- The forest fires here are mostly out now and the rain has finally been falling....almost daily! It's like everything in our yard has come back to life and the trees of our field are clapping their hands in delight of moisture and blessing. It's refreshing to the human soul as well.
- I've been getting curriculum and classes lined up for Maggie because we are going back to homeschooling this year! She is done with dramatic drama in schools and is ready to focus on school and enrichment studies without the anxiety. She auditioned for a concert choir in a homeschool enrichment studies program and made it in. And in a week she will begin driver's education class at a school in Albuquerque. Our last girl to start driving. I find it is one of the most stressful times in my life, when my kids start driving. But God uses it to grow my faith and trust in Him every time! I will have to write on that in another post.


God is good. He is giving us vision and showing us where to join in with Him in this community....where our church fits in and how we can be effective here to show His love and be His Light. 

- ETA: The men's breakfast was held in my house this morning, giving me time to hide out in my room and write this post. Last night I told someone I wasn't going to come out of my room until the kitchen was clean. And it was! Thank you to the guys! My husband made bisquits & sausage gravy, scrambled eggs and orange juice ...another man brought bacon. And now my kitchen is all clean and Charles is out mowing the lawn while I was adding some Miracle Grow to my gardens. Everything is growing great now that the air has a little moisture in it and it's been raining each day. I will try to post a picture soon. 

Snakes in the laundry room

This happened today....

 

Our landlord took our back door off to get a new one the correct size. In the meantime someone (named George) took full advantage of the situation.

Even though he looks dangerous, he is only a bull snake and harmless, unless you are a songbird or mouse. They also chase away dangerous snakes from your yard, so we'll keep him. Charles wrangled him out the door and we covered it up and chased him into the part of the yard where there are gopher holes. ;) 

Go George go!

Droughts

The days have been warm enough this week to turn on the cooler around 1pm and keep it on until evening. It does a great job cooling down the house.  It's a swamp cooler, not air conditioning. And it's very effective here in this very dry climate. I think it's a lot drier here than it is in Phoenix....my lips get chapped quite often.

We are praying for rain. They've had a few years of drought here and there are now 4 big forest fires raging in the mountains around us...not our mountain range, but near enough to see the smoke. Last night I could hear the thunder and saw a few sprigs of lightning light up my living room window, but the rain did not fall on our neighborhood. I go out every morning and walk through the powdery dust of our front yard and water my little vegetable garden. The birds all fuss at me to fill the bird bath with water. There is never any moisture left in it 24 hours later.

The other night I was invited to eat dinner with a church friend. Our husbands were both out of town, so we planned a visit. She lives at the very top of a mountain. We sat out on the patio as the sun went down behind us and watched the mountain ranges change colors, the smoke from distant fires blew down the valleys and the lights of the nearby neighborhoods and then of Santa Fe came up and glistened as we chatted. Hummingbirds zipped all around our heads by the dozens! I think there were about 2 dozen of them at least, coming to her feeders to get their last sips of the day. A few times we saw 10-12 birds on one feeder, all sitting shoulder to tiny shoulder, heads popping up occasionally to peep at each other. I loved it! There were also all sorts of birds at other feeders and coming to drink at the pond and waterfall in front of us. She and her husband had very lovingly made an oasis in the dry climate. Plants, flowers and water all carefully placed and planned out, chairs and pathways in just the right places to catch the different venues of wildlife, nature and views.

We talked about our lives, where we'd lived, our families, our coming to know Christ. We talked about our love for the area and for nature. And we talked about how dear it is to have such a great fellowship of Christian friends here in the middle of this spiritually arid climate of secular society. That doesn't just happen and it is more and more dear, the older I get.  I realized that has to be carefully and lovingly cultivated as well. It takes spending time together, just sitting together in the quiet evening, chatting about life or in each others' homes learning to better handle the Word of Truth.

As darkness came, her solar lighting came on and the landscaping made it's own little island of glowing lights. I realized it was time to drive back home. The mountain road seemed endless in the pitch black night (oh, I dislike driving by myself at night) and I was never so glad to see the main highway and know I was back to other people, to streetlights and the sure way home.

I feel the same way about our little church here, so blessed to have this community in this culturally arid climate. We need the rain, so the land will flourish again. It's nice to be in an oasis of life to enjoy when the land is so starved and dry. It's a vivid picture to me of what else we're missing....God's Word and Spirit to flow out of the oasis, so the dry souls will flourish too.

God, bless the land with rain, but most of all, bless the people here. The fires are ravaging the land, but the enemy is ravaging the people with false beliefs and sin. Send refreshing showers and the life-giving nourishment of Your Truth. Let Your love flow through Your servants like rain blesses a dry land.....

God help us after the storms

It's the time of year for dust devils. This past week I've seen dozens of them on the horizon as we drive along. Tall funnels of dust and debri towering up into the sky.

The wind here can be strong in the spring. I often have to put my folding camp chairs back upright when I go outside. Once when Maggie and I were waiting in the car for Charles at the gas company I pointed out about 70 tumbleweeds piled up on their chain link fence, frozen in mid-tumble. She looked at them and asked, "Those are tumbleweeds?"  and at that moment the wind shifted and those tumbleweeds all came tumbling at us like a stampeding herd. We both squealed because it was startling and funny. For about 30 seconds it seemed like we were being attacked by them, barreling at us and scratching on the car.

Today the wind just seemed like a very bad memory, knowing what damage it caused across the middle of the United States.

Then this morning my husband got an email from someone who just moved from this area. His former neighbor's son had just died. Charles met him briefly while helping this friend pack his truck for the move, so he felt compelled to minister to him. As we drove out to their house in the next town over, he explained to me what had happened. The man's grown son had been helping roof another neighbor's house when a gust of wind lifted the roof off beneath him and hurled him down. He was found in the rubble 300 feet away.

That was on Monday, the same day as the Moore, Oklahoma tornado.

Today was calm, sunny, and peaceful. No one answered the door of the house, although the driveway was filled with cars and trucks. The wind whipped around the house.... they were probably in the back having lunch and didn't hear the knocking. So Charles left a sympathy card with his phone number on the porch, held there with a large rock so the wind wouldn't steal it away.

Dust devils spiraled up on the open fields. I counted 8-10 of them on the way back home. I had no fascination for them today, only sadness.

“Go out and stand before me on the mountain,” the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was the sound of a gentle whisper. 1 Kings 19:11-12

After the wind blows through and the violence of the storm is over, God is there in the gentle whisper, in the aftermath while we are standing there disheveled and bewildered, quiet and solemn.
He is there. God help us in the wake of the storms.

Yard life

We have spent time lately out on our little deck by a big juniper tree. The songbirds here are all over the place, so we've been watching them. (and they watch us) So one day Charles got out his iphone and opened an application from Audubon Guides called Birds.

He started trying to figure out what kinds of birds we had in the trees around us by finding their calls. He would play the call and soon we noticed the calls around us were closer and closer. We were being closely monitored with fly-by agents and reconnaissance spies in the branches around us. It was hilarious, but I had to be quiet because it was so much fun.

The Mountain Chickadee answers back when you imitate and the Juniper Titmouse came right up to us, within 3 feet of our chairs to investigate, a look of shock to see what weird birds we were. I was holding Maisy in my lap and she just trembled with anticipation of what that bird would do as they locked eyes with each other. Then he abruptly flew off. Maisy just sighed. No one wants to be her friend. ;)

And that's the news from the animal kingdom here.

P.S.
Charles did find a snake in the front yard yesterday. It was shortish and brown but had no rattle, so he let it slither off to eat gophers.
(I am shamelessly cheering him on in that)

Divine encounter

About 6 years ago my husband, Charles, flew to Oklahoma City to pick up a car his brother wanted our daughter Bethany to have. He visited for a day or two and then started the drive back. And around Albuquerque he began to realize this car was not going to make it back to Phoenix. In fact, it died....cracked head gasket (whatever that is, I don't usually ask). He called home to tell me he was spending the night in Albuquerque with a friend of a friend. He just happened to make the connection because he called our friend Dave to ask car advice. Dave called his friend in that city and the friend dropped everything to come and rescue my husband.

He not only gave him a ride. He arranged for towing, invited Charles back to stay at his family home for the night and fed him dinner. I remember Charles saying they were people you felt like you've always known, so friendly, hospitable and kind. The next morning Dave came from Arizona to help Charles tow the car back home but he always remembered this friend of Dave's who had come to his rescue. He said he wanted to find him and invite him to dinner and to visit our new church once we moved here to Albuquerque.

You never know Who is listening when you say things like that.... ;)

The other day we went to switch to New Mexico driver's licenses. We thought it would be quick and easy, but they require you bring documents to prove your residency and also your social security cards. As we headed away from the window, the woman helping us happened to mention that if our social security cards were laminated, they would not accept them. Ehnn, yeah, about that. Years ago we did laminate them before seeing the instructions not to on the back side. So she said we had to go to the social security office and get new ones. Sssssigh...

This was our mission this morning. We headed out with our passports, old social security cards, birth certificates, etc. We did not want to be turned away because we didn't have the right documents. I had no idea this was such a big deal. As we headed in to the office, there was a security check point, metal detector and 4 police officers checking us out. Then we entered a room of about 50 people sitting in plastic chairs, waiting for their number to be called to talk to someone about their social security needs. It did not look like fun. Drat those laminating machines!

We waited to be checked in and given a number so that we could wait some more. But when we got to the front of the line, Charles beamed and called out his old friend of a friend's name. He was the one checking people in! We were all just smiling and thinking it was an amazing chance meeting. He and Charles had a wonderful few moments of connecting again. Then, just as amazing, he said he would get us to a window right away so we wouldn't have to wait in those plastic chairs with those 50 other people and then shuttled us to the next window.

I usually don't like to take cuts, but boy oh boy....that was meant to be and we appreciated it so much. The woman helping us had us out of there in about 5 minutes. And the old friend assured us he would come visit the church in a week and come to dinner with us afterwards.

Maybe....instead of that friend being there to cut us a break, we were probably the ones who he needed to connect with. I hope he comes to our little church and finds out what God is doing in his life.

Very cool morning. You never know what a day will hold, do you?

One more week

Since Easter we have been in full on packing, sorting and pitching out mode.

We've also been to a different person's home or taken out to eat each day since then.

We have one more week in Phoenix before moving to Albuquerque.

It is getting sad to think of leaving our dear family and friends here, so I probably won't be posting much unless there is something encouraging to share. I mean, it's all been encouraging, just hard....kind of the same processing, over and over, with each group or family. And that's okay, this is part of it and we want to do it well.

Tonight we went to our future son in law's parents' home. They had family in from out of town and one of their daughters is expecting a baby, so it was a fun, happy night. They are Romanian and it's a very family upon family affectionate and close bond when they all get together. We were blessed to be a part of it.

Stuff

There are good things, not so good things and there are bad things about having to pack up your entire house.

Bad things:

All the dust you find when you move furniture away from the walls or when you climb up to retrieve the decorations you put on high ledges and have never touched since.....like with a Swiffer on a looooong pole, of which I have one in my closet.

Pain. Neck, back, feets. So glad we stocked up on Advil.

We just cannot keep everything. Boo. I like my stuff. But the house we are moving into is a lot smaller than this one we were blessed to live in, and there will only be the three of us moving, so we don't need as much.

Not so good things:

It makes you grouchy.

Too much salt and calories in restaurant food that you have to eat because you packed most of your kitchen already.

The dog is a little whacked out by packing of any sort.

Saying goodbye to people you love. This cannot go on the bad list although it is not so good, because there are such great ways to stay closely connected these days. 

Good things:

Thinking about setting up a new house.

Blessing our grown kids and friend with stuff we've had to part with. I am even giving them their memory bags I've had in my closet since they were babies. I gave Bethany hers and she said, "Wait, we can have these?" I told her yes, they are full of things I kept for them, so they could remember things from their childhood. "But how will you remember us now!?" Sometimes she reminds me of when she was little all over again. She was full of those kinds of questions.

Finding that stash of chocolate I hid a few months ago. Actually I don't know if it was a few months, but it was long ago enough that I have no memory of ever putting it in there. (I can't say where because apparently it's a really good hiding place!)

Giving away stuff and lightening the load.

Yes, I know that was also on the bad things list, but it's both. It's hard.....and then it's freeing.  You never realize how bound you are to certain things in your life until someone asks you to give it away. And when you can give it away, you realize how much you can do without.

Freedom is good. (side note to my dear husband, this does not pertain to my grandmother's china and my pink depression glass, so let's don't go there)

Under Construction

The main street in front of our church is under major construction.

Tonight I thought it was a very appropriate picture of what is happening to our church too.

The Light Rail system that is going in on that street will soon be bringing all sorts of new people and businesses there. I am excited to hear how God will work there in the coming years too, because He is doing construction and bringing new people to the church as well.

Sometimes that means things look torn up for a while.

But it's not a bad thing....it's just preparation for change.

Magic hugs

Tonight Bethany was over for dinner since her husband has a seminary class. We ate spaghetti and then we all piled in the truck to go and look at a chair Charles wanted to buy from someone on Craig's List.  I didn't realize until we were pulling out of the driveway that our little dog was in the car too. She is not really a car dog. She used to hurl over and over again when we would take her in the car when she was a puppy, so we just got used to not taking her on car trips unless we had to. (do you blame us?)

She was enjoying  it tonight though. Bethany rolled her window down about a quarter of the way and let Maisy stick her head out. I fell into narration mode as we watched her learning how to do the head out the window thing for the first time. "Okay, I can do this, I'm a dog...I think this is how it's done, you just...uh....uuuuhhhh, this is harder than it looks! Wind....wind..must....put....head...out......can't keep eyes open....ears....wind....all the smells of the city at 45 miles an hour....this is great!" And then there were sound effects of wind going through her cheeks that I cannot possibly spell out for you to read.

She is mighty funny, that dog.

My mom and sister kept her for 8 days about a week ago while we were out of town. One night I was talking to my sister and she asked me if Maisy usually went into her crate voluntarily at bedtime. I said yeah, she goes in there every night at bedtime. She said, "Well I tell her to go to bed and she just goes to the door of it and stands there! I have to pick her up and put her into it."

"Oooooh," I said, "she is waiting for a hug." And while my sister knows I'm a little nutty with my dog, she knew I was serious, so she tried it.

Sure enough, the next night Jodi waited for the pause and gave Maisy a hug and she went right into her crate!

The dog is a tradition lover....or maybe more like a tradition demander.  ;)

Bradley and Hannah

We have another wedding coming up this summer. That will make two in one year!

Bradley Cotan has been dating Hannah for almost a year now and they got engaged on Saturday night. We are so happy for them! After seeing how happily settled Jeremy and Beth are in marriage, it fills our hearts with peace and joy for Hannah to have a partner to come alongside her in life too. And we love Bradley and welcome him into the family.

God, bless them with a long, sweet, happy life together.

The couple.

 

The ring.

The bigger picture

....your purpose in life...

Some friends were discussing this last night. Immediately we started thinking of what we do....we are mothers, we serve in the church in various ways... and then one of my friends said, but really those things may pass away....children grow up and move on and we may not always serve in the same ways. But what is our purpose...and immediately a saying came to my mind. At first I wondered if it was a Bible verse, but when I searched it on the internet, it came up as the motto of the Navigators organization.

To know Christ and make Him known.

I like that. Simple but full. 

1. Love God-to know Christ.

2. Love others-help them to know Christ. 

The greatest 2 commandments.

Being a wife, mom, worker in church, home, or profession....these are the things we do, our roles. But our purpose as followers of Christ is to know Him and make Him known. At least I want it to be my purpose. It really helps define your life and heart when you come down to your one thing. If we are making our roles in life our one thing, we're not putting Christ first, but purposes that are temporal.

All of this is helping me to process with my friends our call from God to another place. I keep trying to clearly define for them why we are leaving.  But if He is clearly calling us, how could we not go?

My daughter Maggie, 15, who is moving with us and clearly feels the call also, wrote this last night on Facebook:

If God asked you to do something utterly crazy, would you have the guts to do it? What if He asked you to do something you really really don't want to do? Would you obey? Would you give your life for Him? Would you give Him a second thought? So many people get so caught up in their own life that they forget to look at the bigger picture. They forget the REAL purpose of their life. Life is an adventure that God gave us and he has the road picked out that He wants us to take. It may look a little scary now, but once you get going you will see that is was well worth it! :) Bring it on.

 She totally gets it. She hopes her friends will get it too. "It's not about me, it's about God," this life. And if we make it all about God, there are rich rewards along the way....like the friendships we've made here and amazing things God has let us see happen. If we had never come here, we wouldn't have had those friendships and experiences. So now can you see why we're excited to go? God has more out there, so we're going to follow. Not perfectly at all, just the best we can.

It's going to be worth it to see God's plan for our current church and for our next church unfolding in the next year or two. I hope we can all focus on Jesus and what He is calling each of us to do and not on the loss of a person's role in our life.... We're each on a journey with Christ and He's blessed us to come together on a part of it. I wouldn't have wanted to miss that.

I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back. Philippians 3:12-14 (The Message)

Transitions are hard

Well I failed on my Lent commitment to blog each day until Easter.

But I have an excuse.

We had a pretty big announcement to make on Sunday and the distraction of worrying about how people might react had me waiting to say something here.

Charles had to announce to our church that we are going to be moving soon to another church (near Albuquerque). God has been putting it on our hearts for a year now, so we've had time to process it, lay our lives down to it and then get excited about it.

But it feels cruel to be excited about moving on when your dear friends are grieving because it is a brand new thought to them. ......this part of ministry life is really hard. The pits. No likey. Bleh.

But...
    ....right now, somewhere out there, God is putting
           .....an inkling
                  ....in the heart and mind of another pastor,
who will be the one to bring this church,
our dear church family,
      ....to the next step He has for it.

Change is the hardest when it involves parting paths with people who are dear to you. I understand it fully because we've done this before.

And each time God heals the hurt, keeps the relationships special and refined with time....and He gives new and fresh relationships and ideas and projects and ministries.

It is good and it will be okay....good, in fact. Just wait and see.

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, 

“plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." 

Jeremiah 29:11

P.S. I will write about the new church soon in another post, when the time is right.

Instagramming life

Today I spied a sweet thing. From my seat by the window I could see my husband and Maggie, our youngest of four daughters, taking a walk through the woods on a path that meandered back and forth on the side of a hill. Sometimes they were in step with each other and sometimes one would stop to show the other a thing that caught their interest.

A look,
    a smile,
         a meeting of the eyes,
               understanding and kinship.

                And then they disappeared down the hill, all the time in the world, today.

But we know that sooner than we like she will fly from the nest, just like the others have...

And I wanted to write it down
         to remember what a sweet scene I'd witnessed. Words, like a snapshot.

Here are the walkers 12 years ago...