I'm busy, busy, dreadfully busy!

There is a VeggieTales song that goes like this, “I’m busy, busy, dreadfully busy. You’ve no idea what I have to do. Busy, busy, shockingly busy; much, much too busy for you.”

Unfortunately, there are far too many people who relate to that thought way too often; myself included.

In Isaiah 30 God has the prophet pronounce a “woe” on the obstinate nation Israel. “Woe to the obstinate children, declares the Lord, to those who carry out plans that are not mine…” (v.1) The description in the rest of the chapter is not a pretty picture. In verse 15 it says, “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, BUT you would have none of it.” This concept is true for us today as well. When we turn from our busy-ness (repent) and quietly rest (trust) in God to care for our needs we will find a safe place that is strong enough to take very good care of us.

BUT…like Israel, we often will have none of it. We are too comfortable taking care of ourselves. We live like taking care of our own needs poorly is better than accepting or worse yet, asking for aid. We can get so busy taking care of ourselves that we have little time to invest in our relationship with God and others. But it is in those relationships that we will find salvation and strength.

In vs. 18 it says, “Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you, therefore He will rise up and show you compassion…Blessed are all who wait for Him.”

Amazing isn’t it! God who has infinite responsibilities LONGS to be gracious to you; He is never too busy for you.

“Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.” (Ps. 27:14)

Year One

It is official, we have lived in WY for one year. The extra population hasn't burdened the town's infrastructure too much.

This means, among other things, that I can officially apply for RESIDENT hunting and fishing licenses! Thanks to a very generous and good friend, I will have a rifle of my own to take hunting this fall. Pray the hiking around the mountains doesn't kill me!
(Stay posted for hospital reports)

Alex and I will continue to enjoy the fishing - especially when the only ice is in our drinks!


There have been other adjustments to be made involving weather.






















The bottom line is that I love the people here and, at least I think, they love me, too! Thank you all for a great year. And most of all thank God for bringing me here.


"The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance." Psalm 16:6

Relationships

Not to be confused with relatives - that is an entirely different subject!

I have been thinking a lot about relationships. I have all sorts of them and I'm afraid I don't think about them enough - you know - sort of take them for granted. I'm sorry.

I listened to one of my favorite songs by The Swift, "Almost There" When you listen to it, picture the father singing to the Prodigal Son.

When I listen to it, I hear my Heavenly Father singing to me - His all-to-often prodigal son. I have broken His heart over and over and He still loves me and wants me back with Him. That is AMAZING!

Too often I KNOW about my relationship with God; I've read the book and know most of the facts about it all. But I don't always think about my relationship with God, how all the stuff that happens every day, and the things I do and say affect my Father. I just hear Him saying,

"You go ahead and do what you "have to do".
I hope and pray you change your mind.
But if you come back, could you remember to bring my heart
I'll stay right here so I'm not hard to find."

I am so very sorry for all the times I have wandered off just not paying attention. And I am so very glad that you are right here and not hard to find. Thank you Father.

You're So Far Away...

OK so I am sitting here looking at pictures of my family on the other side of the continent (not to mention the ones on an entirely different continent...) and there is the song in my head...

"You're so far away, doesn't anybody stay in one place anymore. It would be so fine to see your face at my door. And it doesn't help to know that you're just time away. Long ago I reached for you and there you stood. Holding you again could only do me good. How I wish I could, but you're so far away... "

The sad thing is that I was able to remember almost all of those lyrics. in my head being sung, of course, by Carole King...my mind frightens me sometimes.

But I have so many joys and so much to be thankful for.

Still I miss you all and love you all...just "one more song about movin' along the highway..."

How can you say that?

I was reading the other day and came across these words of King David near the end of his life. 2 Samuel 22:21-26 "The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the LORD; I have not done evil by turning from my God. 23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. 24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. 25 The LORD has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness [a] in his sight. 26 "To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless,"I read it, stopped and read it again.

Then I said to myself (since I was the only one there) HOW CAN HE SAY THAT? with a fair amount of incredulity. This is the same David who feigned insanity to escape his enemies. This is the same David who, in anger, was on his way to kill Nabal because of his rudeness. This is the same David who got another man's wife pregnant, had her husband murdered to cover up his "indiscretion" and then lied to everyone about it. This is the same David who says, "I have been blameless before Him (God) and have kept myself from sin."? THAT David? How can he say that? How can that be a part of the inspired Word of God?

Well, as I was contemplating it all, some other scriptures came to my mind. There is Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool." And Ps 103:11-12, "For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us." and finally all of Psalm 32 which begins, "Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered."

And I saw it. David, later called "a man after God's own heart", could say those things with a straight face because he totally understood how complete God's forgiveness is. David confessed his sins and asked God to forgive him, THEN he ACCEPTED God's forgiveness! He took God at His word! When God forgives HE NEVER BRINGS IT BACK UP - it's GONE!

My problem is I remember how I have failed. I know my sin. And its hard to let go of guilt even after God has declared confessed sin forgiven.

Often if it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true. But in this case God's forgiveness certainly seems too good to be true - BUT IT IS!

Help me wrap my brain around that one God...

Wid Goose Chase

I am reading a good book entitled, Wild Goose Chase by Mark Batterson. (I highly recommend it) One line jumped off the page at me yesterday as I was reading so I just wanted to put it out there for you to think about it too. "One of the greatest dangers we face spiritually is learning how and forgetting why."

I am reminded that the journey is more important than the destination and that just going through the motions of our spiritual life - no matter how well we are able to do that - is empty without a meaningful relationship with our God.

So when we speak, sing, pray, act, etc. if we are merely repeating what we have become accustomed to and have perhaps even gotten good at, all we have is empty ritual. So it is good to allow the Holy Spirit to shake up our lives a bit so we rely more on WHY we worship, pray, love, etc. like we do than HOW we do those things.

Anyway, it makes me think...(ouch - my head hurts!)

Whose Story is This

To understand what I am about to write you must first accept the premise that we all are living our "story" every moment of every day. I also begin with the understanding that all of history is God's story. Today's thought clarified and reinforced my understanding of "story" (that's a good thing)

During my scripture reading for the day I did something I don't normally do. (Perhaps I will begin from here on out.) I read the introduction to the books of 1 & 2 Samuel in my copy of the Message paraphrase of scripture. In it I read the following,

"The biblical way is not so much to present us with a moral code and tell us "Live up to this"; nor is it to set out a system of doctrine and say, "Think like this and you will live well." The biblical way is to tell a story and invite us, "Live into this. This is what it looks like to be human; this is what is involved in entering and maturing as human beings." We do violence to the biblical revelation when we "use" it for what we can get out of it or what we think will provide color and spice to our otherwise bland lives."

Then the sentence that started the red crayon underlining,

"In the reading, (of the Bible) as we submit our lives to what we read, we find that we are not being led to see God in our stories (even though He is) but to see our stories in God's." (parenthesis mine)

God's story is bigger than any of our stories, especially mine. It is in His story's context and plot that I fit in. If all I have is MY story, not only is it bland, but it is downright depressing sometimes. But when I see that I am a supporting actor, in the story just to point to and highlight the STAR, making HIS grace and HIS love and HIS power and HIS goals more glorious, well, that makes much more sense and is much more fulfilling for me.

Thanks for wading through my rambling thoughts. (Its good to have proof that I have some every now and then) If nothing else, it has been a good reminder for me.