It was a busy day for page 166 of this year’s journey.  I thought I would get some more writing done on my current book project, but that didn’t happen.  I started the day taking care of some record-keeping and correspondence related to the missions ministry.  While working on that, I got involved in some floor cleaning/scrubbing in preparation for refinishing.  When the floor scrubbing was complete, I finished up the missions work I was doing and then began putting down floor finish in the rooms we had prepped.  Four coats of finish later, with some drying time in between, I was quickly approaching a 12 hour workday so it was time to close up my work for the day and head home.

As I swung a mop back and forth putting down floor finish over a 4+ hour time span, I thought about how life parallels these floors we’re working on.  Time has a way of dulling our finish as the wear and tear of life grinds down the shiny polish we once displayed.  Occasionally an event happens that causes immediate damage to the surface of our life and our ability to reflect Christ is diminished.  Most of the time though, it is just a little wear here and a little dirt there and our lack of shine gradually disappears without us even noticing.  The good news is that God is an expert at refinishing and restoring the beauty we once possessed in our relationship with Him.  When we allow Christ to cleanse us, the filth of our sins are washed completely away and the dirt that has clung to us is completely removed.  The time we spend in prayer and God’s Word applies layers of finish that build a shine in our life that allows us to grow in our ability to reflect Christ accurately.

But it is important to remember that this is not a “once and done” process.  Just as the floors we are working on need refinished on a regular basis, our spiritual life needs a regular refreshing as we go through life.  We are bombarded on a daily basis by words and images that dull who we are in Christ.  Our minds are influenced constantly by thoughts that do not honor Christ.  When God says His mercies are new every morning, it would be a good idea for us to make use of those new mercies and apply them to our lives daily to restore the shine of Jesus in our life.  

I also thought about the incredible beauty of simplicity.  I’ve had two occasions in the past week where a hummingbird has briefly hovered outside my office window.  There is nothing there for them, so they don’t stay around long enough for me to get a camera out, let alone make any serious attempt to photograph them.  As beautiful, and busy, as they are, I am still just as fascinated by a single flower blossom and the beauty they display.  Today’s photo to go with page 166 is one I took a couple weeks ago on the first day of our Florida vacation.  While I greatly enjoyed the big scenes of sunrises, sunsets, and gulf coast beauty, a single flower blossom would often draw me to a stop to take a close-up photograph.  

I pray that you and I would evaluate the condition of our “finish” and take the necessary steps to restore the “shine” of Jesus in our lives.  I pray that we would guard our minds from the pollution that is so prevalent in our world.  I pray that we would daily apply the cleansing power of the blood of Christ to the filth and sin that so easily entangles us.  I pray that we would continually add the layers of shine to our life through our time in prayer and God’s Word.  I pray that we would take the time to notice, and praise God for, the beauty of the simple things God surrounds us with.

Page 165 began well enough and I made it through the work day feeling pretty good but it wasn’t long after I got home that the up-all-night of work Saturday caught up with me.  Since I didn’t take any pictures today, I started back through my vacation photos and found that one of the first ones taken was of a dish of ice cream I was about to enjoy. 🙂  As the day began, I spent time with God considering the prayer guide topic for next week.  The deciding part was probably a little longer than usual because it seemed as if the direction I was supposed to go was a topic I’ve already used.  While I have rewritten prayer guides on previously used topics, that is not something I do often.  As I looked at the topic and considered that summer is VBS season, I finally decided to update one of my earlier prayer guides that is focused on praying for children.  But the prayer guide isn’t simply a focus on praying for the young people that typically come to mind when we use the word children.  It also serves as a reminder that Jesus said we must become like children in order to enter the kingdom of heaven.  And so, as we spend time praying next week for children, we will also be praying about the qualities that God desires for all of His children to have.

Once the prayer guide was ready for next week, I spent some time with my devotional journal writing.  One of the topics I wrote about today was heaven being a home of right judgment.  God’s judgment is not only accurate and right, it is always based on complete truth.  If this is the way it is in God’s home, shouldn’t we as His children seek to live up to that example in our homes?  We are part of a culture that tends to rush to judgment with little regard for how much information we have nor how accurate the judgment is.  As I continue to catch pieces of the news today, the “talking heads” from politicians to news media “experts” to the general public continue to be quick in announcing their verdict of who/what is to blame in the horrendous shooting in Orlando.  Everyone has to be first to share “breaking news” regarding every little detail that the stories quickly become contradictory.  In our home here on earth, our judgments typically are made based on incomplete information and are designed to make us feel safer or more confident in our beliefs.  Truth becomes one of the first casualties when we fail to seek God and the right judgments that only He can make.  Speaking of right judgments, that chocolate chip coffee mocha and black raspberry combination of ice cream was definitely one of them! 🙂

I pray that you and I would understand how to become like little children without becoming childish.  I pray that we would share the love of Jesus with children everywhere.  I pray that we would express love and truth while leaving judgment to God.

As I sit down to write page 164 in this year’s story of life, a lot is on my mind.  Some days are more difficult than others to let the mind be still and experience the peace that is found in Christ.  The written part of page 163 concluded with my heading in to work to freshen up bathrooms and make sure everything in the building was ready for Sunday.  I discovered the water in the baptistry was extremely low so I began filling it, then decided to get some things out of my truck while it filled — only to completely forget I had the water running until more time had passed than should have.  Oops!  That made today’s page start much earlier than I had planned.  Instead of a quick clean and then home to bed, the rest of the night was spent working at vacuuming water out of carpet and drying areas that were wet.  By 6:30 in the morning, I had done all I could and the shop vac was no longer pulling water out of the carpet, so I headed home for a few hours of sleep before returning for the morning worship gathering.

As I would take breaks throughout the night, short snippets of breaking news began to form the story of a deadly mass shooting in Orlando.  As suspected, it wasn’t long before the blame game began.  Some blamed the guns, some blamed the victims, some blamed the hatred in our society, some blamed the Republicans, some blamed the Democrats, and in the midst of what seems to be a never-ending list some even blamed the shooter!  As I thought about some of the many responses to the shooting that I have seen throughout the day, my mind went to my favorite verse of scripture — I know I have a lot of them, but this one is at least near the top.  In John 10:10 Jesus says, “The thief comes to steal and to kill and to destroy but I have come that you may have life and life to the full.”  When I led camp weeks, I would tell the campers and faculty multiple times each day, “No matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, where you’ve been, what you or others think about your life and actions; God loves you very much!”  While Jesus wants to give us life and life abundantly; Satan not only wants to destroy life, he wants to convince us that not all life has value.  When we begin to believe that lie, it is an easy step to a selfish and self-centered lifestyle.  When we accept that all life matters because God is the creator of life, we are grieved and we mourn any and all life that is taken by the hand of another — whether the hand is that of an abortion “doctor”, a criminal element of society, an angry hate-filled person, a person committed to terrorist activities, or one who “assists” others in ending life — among other types of hands that bring an end to life that God created and loves.  If we are accurately representing Jesus, then we will love all people and seek for them a life that is abundant and full.  

After the morning worship gathering, I had lunch then had a restful afternoon trying to allow my mind and body to catch up from the lack of sleep.  By early evening I headed to Potato Creek with my family for a walk on the trails to unwind and enjoy the presence of God among some of His beautiful creation.  

I pray that you and I would value all life as individuals created by, and loved by, God.  I pray that we would understand that we face an enemy that seeks to destroy life in whatever ways he can.  I pray that we would not fall in to the trap of believing there are some people whose life doesn’t matter.  I pray that we would repent of any attitudes that fail to value the created life of all people.  I pray that we would weep with those who weep and mourn with those who mourn — period.  

Page 163 seemed to have all the signs of summer built into it.  The temperature outside made it well into the mid-90’s with a blazing hot sun all day long.  MJ returned to helping my mom on Saturday mornings so Susan and I resumed our summertime Saturday morning zoo visits.  When we first arrived, there was a gentle breeze and it hadn’t gotten unbearably hot yet so most of the animals were visible and fairly active.  By the time we left, many of them were looking for cool places out of sight or had resorted to stretching out to take nap.  While playful at the beginning of our visit, three of the four tigers had disappeared into their home while the fourth one was stretched out in the enclosure snoozing away.

After our dad and daughter zoo trip we came home and I fired up the pellet the next step of our summer Saturday routine — bacon mushroom cheeseburgers hot off the pellet grill for lunch!  After lunch, we all decided to follow the good example of the tiger and snoozed a while.  Eventually we got up and headed to Sam’s Club to get some groceries and replace a dehumidifier that was no longer working.  I’ll soon finish writing today’s page and then go live a little more of it as I’ll go in to work tonight to do a final refreshing of the building before the Sunday worship gathering tomorrow.

As I type, I realize that my arms are sore from my kayak outing yesterday.  It had been a long time since I had taken it on the river and my arms wasn’t used to the nearly constant paddling.  I started downstream but was headed against the wind so I wasn’t getting very far unless I paddled.  Coming back to my truck I had the wind behind me to help but I was still paddling against the current.  Yesterday’s workout may have contributed to my need for a restful afternoon.  I think sometimes we expect the Christian journey to be easier than what it is.  We anticipate it is all downstream and once we are in Christ we can just coast to our destination.  It doesn’t take long until we realize coasting isn’t getting us anywhere.  As a matter of fact, coasting may be causing us to lose ground at times.  God calls for us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling”, not because we can actually do any work to make it happen but because it is work to resist temptation and stand firm against the evil one.  Yes, there are times when it will at least feel like less work than at other times but it is important that we are always ready to be involved in the good work that God created in advance for us to do.  The more we align ourselves with the work God has created and called us to do, the more enjoyable the work becomes.  

As we go about the work God has for us to do, it is also important to understand how facing the heat of temptation can wear us down more quickly than at times when temptations are not so aggressive.  Just as the heat of summer can quickly wear down our bodies, the heat of spiritual warfare creates in us a need to be refreshed through times of rest and communion with God.  One of my favorite verses, and I have many, says, “Be still and know that I am God!”  With life running a hundred miles an hour around us, it is often a difficult thing to find times of stillness and solitude.  Scripture tells us that Jesus would often go to “lonely places” in order to escape the crowds and spend time with His Father.  Perhaps we would do well to define, and find, “lonely places” where we could do the same.

I pray that you and I would understand the work involved on a daily basis as we seek to stay on the path that leads to eternal life.  I pray that we would not grow weary in doing the good work God has called us to.  I pray that we would make times of stillness and solitude a priority in our lives.

Page 162 has been a busy, productive day.  I started mowing at work early in the day while it was still cool.  The sky was very overcast when I began and I was praying that I could get all the lawn mowed and also stay dry.  I had tried to convince myself yesterday that the lawn needed mowed and with the forecast of rain, I should probably mow instead of going to camp.  But I knew then that it was just an excuse to try to keep me from doing what God wanted done.  Because there is so much to mow, I normally try to spread it out over two days but this week today was the day.  While it took most of the work day, I did manage to get it all mowed and it stayed dry all day.  I did take a couple breaks during the mowing and did some cleaning in the building and worked on some of the A/C settings.

After work was done, I stopped by the house and loaded up my kayak then ate a very late lunch at Arby’s before heading to the river for some late afternoon paddling.  Normally when I put in the river I begin by paddling upstream the distance I want to go, then float back down with the current to where I parked.  Today I wanted to take some photos in the downtown South Bend area so I began the trip going downstream and then had to finish with the work going upstream to the truck.  It had gotten very hot by the time I finished mowing at work and I thought it would be cooler on the water — it was very relaxing, but definitely didn’t feel cooler. 🙂

While on the river, I paddled under 4 traffic bridges, 1 pedestrian bridge, and one railroad bridge — then back under each of them on the return trip.  On a calm day like today, I enjoy the beauty of these multi-span bridges reflected in the water.  Today’s reflection included a beautiful cloud-filled sky with patches of blue.  As I thought about the day, my mind focused for a time on the mowing — more specifically God allowing me to get it finished today after choosing a more important task yesterday.  So many times we are tempted to neglect the things we are confident God wants us to do because we are so busy doing the things we feel are important.  When listening to God takes time out of a schedule that we have already overfilled, our trust of Him to take care of the things of lesser importance is put to the test.  

As I work on my fourth 32 ounce glass of water since coming home tonight, I also think about the thirst that is created by living in the heat of the day.  Without the proper liquid intake the heat can quickly dehydrate a person, causing them to become sick or even die.  When we live life in the heat of the day, it is critical that we continually refresh our spirit with the Living Water of Jesus.  Many are spiritually sick and some perhaps are even dying as they journey through this dry and weary land without the refreshing presence of Jesus in their lives.

I pray that you and I would learn to listen to God and obediently follow His direction rather than our own.  I pray that we would drink our fill of the Living Water that God offers through His Son.  I pray that we would take the Living Water of Jesus to the people around us who are sick and dying, in need of the refreshing that only God can give.  

While page 161 has been a decent enough day, it is a tough one to mentally process and write about.  That means this could either be a very short written page, or a very long one. 🙂  I had been praying all week about whether I should attend a prayer breakfast at the camp this morning.  For a person leading a prayer ministry, it probably seems a little strange that the decision would be that difficult.  But it was.  This is a place that I served on staff at for nearly 5 years before finally walking away 3 years ago, completely worn out and disillusioned, doubting that I had accomplished anything of lasting value during my time there.  For 3 years I have avoided a return to the property because the hurt I had felt continued to overshadow and obliterate the good memories from the years serving at the camp prior to being on staff.  When I saw the information about the prayer breakfast, I think I knew right away that God was calling me to return and begin to find peace, but I still wrestled in prayer with Him about it because I wasn’t sure I wanted to go.  When I got up this morning and left the house, I still wasn’t even sure if I was headed to camp or to work.  Less than a mile from home, the decision was made and I got on the bypass and headed north instead of going under it and on to work.

While I drove onto the property with a nervousness and a great deal of uncertainty, the breakfast part was short and I was soon out prayer-walking the property and discovering the peace of God’s presence with me.  I walked the perimeter of the property, as much as possible, and prayed as I walked.  I stopped many times to simply pray for the things, based on my experience, that I suspected would take place at various spots throughout the summer.  I prayed at the staff residences and at the empty cabins, which in a few days will be filled with campers and faculty.  I spent time praying at the playground, which the moving of it to its current location was the final project I worked on 3 years ago.  I ended up spending the entire morning there — a little bit of it in conversations with camp staff, but most of it in conversation with God.

Once I finished up my prayer time at the camp, I headed to my office for a few hours in the afternoon to take care of some work related to the building, maintenance projects, and the missions ministry of the church.  When I came home late in the afternoon, I fired up the pellet grill and put some chicken on to cook for supper.  As I got the grill out, I began to realize some of the healing that my prayer time at camp had begun.  I have a shelving unit in the middle of my garage that, along with other storage shelves, have sat virtually untouched since I put them there after leaving the camp staff.  There have been a few times over the years that I have looked at it and wondered where to begin, but tonight the peace God had given me this morning allowed me to actually begin going through the items, bags, and boxes on the shelves to find each thing a more appropriate home — including some that found that home in the trash.  While I didn’t get through everything on the shelves, I worked on it throughout the entire time the chicken was cooking and made good progress without feeling emotionally drained.  While the day will soon come to an end, I have a feeling that this page will be continued onto other pages as the year continues.

I pray that you and I would be willing to follow God’s direction, even if it means wrestling in prayer until we are willing to submit to Him.  I pray that we would understand that some things take time and that God’s timing is often not the same as our timing.  I pray that we would continue to seek peace with God and man and do everything in our ability to live at peace with everyone.  I pray that we would take each day’s progress that God makes in our lives and build upon them for the benefit of His kingdom.

Photo from Michiana Christian Service Camp Prayer Walk

Page 160 was another slower paced day filled with meetings, writing, and maintenance research followed by a family hike at Potato Creek State Park.  I’m trying to keep a summer cold and/or sinus infection from taking over but I’m not real sure I’m winning that battle.  Anyhow, trying to gather my thoughts to write today’s page so I can turn in early and try to sleep off some of this mental fog that I’m in.

Part of my writing today was a section in my current book project about the kingdom of heaven being a home of innocence.  In the devotional, I wrote that I believe nowhere in history is the loss of innocence more vividly portrayed than in the account of Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden.  Until they disobeyed God and had their eyes opened to the knowledge of good and evil, they had lived in complete innocence before God and before each other.  We all probably know things about certain situations and/or people that we wish we didn’t know.  Prior to certain knowledge, we could interact with people more freely — with an innocence that didn’t feel the need to protect ourselves or them.  When Jesus called the children to Himself, He told the disciples to not hinder them from coming “for such is the kingdom of heaven”.  Jesus also taught that unless we repent, or change, and become like little children we will never enter the kingdom of heaven.  Innocence is a tough thing to reclaim because we can never “unsee” what we allow our eyes to look upon, we can never “unhear” what we allow our ears to listen to, we can never “unthink” what we allow our mind to dwell on.  One of my greatest struggles in life is a mind that traps the words that people have spoken to, and about, me that have been perceived as harsh and unkind.  They become a hindrance, or a stumbling block, to the innocence needed to restore a relationship.  I’ve wrestled in countless hours of prayer over a mind that recalls exact words of being fired from ministry, of being rejected, of being unqualified, of being not enough, of being a whole list of other things that make me feel inadequate in nearly every situation.  Yet in the midst of all that, God continues to give me work to do for Him — to connect me with new people where the innocence between us allows for effective relationships and productive ministry.  He also continues to provide healing in His way and timing for the words that have wounded.  And in the midst of a writing project He reminds me that I am headed toward a home of innocence as all guilt is washed away by the blood of Jesus.

I pray that you and I would be wise about all that is good and innocent of all that is evil.  I pray that we would be careful to protect the innocence of others.  I pray that we would understand the things we need to repent of in order to become more like the little children Jesus says we need to become like in order to enter His kingdom.  I pray that we would pursue an innocent life even through the midst of pain and heartache.  I pray that we would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and the home we are headed toward.