After a long workday yesterday and and another long one expected tomorrow, page 259 became a personal retreat day as I loaded up my kayak and headed to Potato Creek for the morning and into the early afternoon.  There was a light breeze so the water was just a bit “choppier” than I prefer but not enough to keep me off the lake.  The air temperature was a little cool to begin with, but ended up being almost perfect weather for kayaking — not too hot, not too cold.  As I loaded my camera equipment into the kayak and set up my tripod in front of me, the water was beginning to sparkle as the sun made its way over the tree line.  The sky was filled with a beautiful mix of high-level wispy clouds and low-hanging cotton ball type clouds.  Today’s photo was taken about midway through my 4 hours on the water today.  I will typically set my small camera on the tripod at the front of the cockpit opening and then carry my “good” camera in a bag between my legs.  One of the keys, at least for me, in capturing photos that I like is to have a variety of options to choose from.

Today’s journey around the lake was filled with a variety of birds just waiting to be photographed along a shoreline filled with trees beginning to change into their fall colors.  Each dip of the paddle into the water opens up a new perspective in viewing the creativity and wonder of God in creation.  It is that ever-changing view around me that keeps me snapping photos — today’s trip yielded a little over 200.  While many of them are similar to each other, no two are identical as they are each taken at a different time and place, even if the difference is small.  Yet not a single one of them, nor the collection of all of them, gives a full picture of the park or my kayak trip.  I only see a part of the whole picture and no matter what I would do, I don’t have the ability to see each detail that is present around me.  I see in part, God sees in full.  I know in part, God knows in full.  

As I paddled around the lake, my mind reflected on the journey that I’m on called life.  With each day, week, month, year that passes, I get a little wider glimpse of what God has already seen from beginning to end.  But even as the view widens, there are parts past, present, and future that I don’t yet see and may never see or understand.  And some of the parts that I do see sometimes haunt me and I wish I could erase them from my mind.  They say that you never really erase information from a computer, deleting a file simply takes away the ability to access it easily.  My mind seems to be that way.  Bad things happen, hurtful things happen, hard things happen and I turn them over to God and pursue His help in moving on and moving forward in life.  I make progress, sometimes even good progress, and then the right (or wrong) words are spoken, things are done, circumstances pile up and all of a sudden the pain of those “deleted files” is back with a vengeance and I find myself struggling just to keep my head above water.  Susan was watching Lion King the other day and there is a scene where the monkey character whacks Simba in the head with his staff and tells him it’s in the past, it doesn’t matter anymore.  I often identify with Simba’s response as yes it’s in the past, “but it still hurts”.  I’m still learning and I know I stumble around at times, but the only solution I’ve found for those times when the hurts of the past return is to once again turn them over to God and press on.

I pray that you and I would know the value of spending time with God away from our normal distractions and make it a practice to do so.  I pray that we would enjoy the view of life God gives us while we keep in mind that it is just a partial view.  I pray that we would seek to understand our fellow believers who have a different, and also incomplete, view from where they’re at.  I pray that we would learn from the journey God is leading us on and when the pain of the past returns, trust God to once again carry us through as we take these hurts to Him.

Page 258 has been a long day as I began the day early with the morning cleaning and finished the workday doing tomorrow morning’s cleaning after teaching a children’s class tonight.  In between the two cleaning times were a variety of normal maintenance issues and a lot of work on the lesson for tonight’s 1st – 3rd grade Bible class.  As I worked at my desk late this afternoon, a pair of cardinals were playing in the underbrush in view of my office window and would peer out at me every once in a while.  I would also occasionally catch a glimpse of a tiny green hummingbird and a small yellow bird of some kind but both of those wouldn’t stay in one place long enough to take their pictures.  The birds outside my office window always serve as a reminder of God’s care for His children which exceeds the care and provision He provides for the birds of the air.

I suppose that reminder was fitting as the lesson focus I was working on throughout the day was about praising God.  As I introduced the lesson, I compared bragging and praising.  When we brag, it is us saying how great we are.  When we praise, it is us saying how great someone else is.  When we praise God, it is all about us proclaiming His greatness that exceeds all others.  I also compared praise with giving thanks.  While the two are closely related, they are not necessarily identical.  When we are hungry, we can be thankful for a meal even if it isn’t our favorite or hasn’t been prepared all that well.  Our gratitude reflects our appreciation for something that has been done.  Praise, on the other hand, is generally more focused on the who and how.  When we are served a meal that is our favorite and it has been prepared perfectly, we may well be thankful but we are also likely to praise both the meal and the one who prepared it.  God wants us to live a life that reflect expresses both thankfulness and praise.

As I wrapped up my day and checked my website stats, I found that it has had 150 page views today!  While for some websites that is not much traffic at all; given that my average is 3 or 4 views a day, this was a huge leap.  As I looked at the stats breakdown, it appears that the majority of the page views were from a single person going through page by page looking at the weekly prayer guides I have posted.  There are many times I wonder why God has me writing and if the work I do in sharing these writings have a real purpose beyond what God teaches me through my efforts and the time I spend with Him writing.  Usually at about the time those questions begin to grow to a distracting point in my mind, God provides a small glimpse into how He is using something I’ve written.  Today that glimpse was a reader from Nigeria devouring the weekly prayer guides.

I pray that you and I would know and understand God’s love that cares for us in ways that exceed our imagination.  I pray that we would be people of praise as we spend time with Got telling Him about our view of His greatness.  I pray that we would be faithful in doing the things God calls us to and sets before us.  I pray that we would be mindful of how God will use others to encourage us and use us to encourage others.

Page 257 began with the early morning cleaning and prayer time that most of my workday mornings start with.  There is a peaceful atmosphere in an empty, quiet building even while cleaning — at least once you get used the the random noises the building makes. 🙂  Once the cleaning was done and the building ready for the day, I spent some time working on material for a 1st – 3rd grade class I will teach on Wednesday evenings at the church.  It’s been a long time since I’ve taught elementary students, and even longer since it was early elementary.  I suppose this could be fun or this could be a nightmare for them and me both. 🙂  

As I worked on the lesson I had some phone calls and messages to make and respond to.  These ended up taking the rest of the morning as I shared with people some thoughts and ideas for growing in their prayer life and increasing the level of prayer in their churches.  While I’m not a big fan of the telephone, these are conversations I can have for hours on end.  There is something refreshing to my spirit to know God is using the gifts and insight He gives me as I spend time with Him.  Because our culture, and human nature, is so fixated on quantifying and measuring results in a manner that can be proven, a prayer-based life and ministry can be difficult for many people to accept even if they know they should.  When prayer is our focus and strategy, God tends to do things in a way that He gets the credit and it is nearly impossible to prove prayer had anything to do with it.  Yet, because prayer by its nature aligns our will with God’s, there is nothing more powerful on earth when it comes to accomplishing the will of God in the manner in which He desires.

After finishing up the workday, I headed out for a late lunch then headed home.  By early evening, we decided to take advantage of the pleasant weather and head to the riverwalk to shoot some photos and enjoy some family time together.  The sun was beginning to set as we finished our walk and I got some sunset photos, including a few through the decorative grasses in the park.  The sun shining through the tops of the grass clumps make them glow with the light of the sun just as God’s light shining through us ought to make us glow with the light of His Son.  

I pray that you and I continually grow in our practice of prayer as a lifestyle.  I pray that we would find an inner peace as we spend time with God throughout each day that he gives us.  I pray that we would seek to live a prayer-based life in everything we do.  I pray that every decision we make would be done through a life of prayer that seeks to know and do God’s will in all things.  I pray that we would live in a way that the light of Jesus shines through us so that others would see Him.

Page 256 was the beginning of another work week.  The alarm went off before 6 AM this morning so I could get the pellet grill fired up and some pork put on it to cook all day for pulled pork in the evening.  Once that was up and going, it was time to head to work and get the building cleaned and ready for the day.  Sometimes as I write these pages I feel as if I’m a broken record — repeating the same thing over and over again.  In a way, that’s true.  Most of us have routines of life that surround us as we get up each day and prepare for whatever that day may bring — which often carries a strong resemblance to the days ahead of it.  Routine in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad whether it’s in our work life or in our prayer life.  The deadly element with either one is when our routine creates an emptiness in what we do.  Some people do the same work for so long that they operate almost on auto-pilot without giving much thought to what they are actually doing.  The same can be true in our prayer life when it becomes such an ingrained part of who we are that we find our self going through the routine of prayer without really talking and listening to God.  For me, combining prayer with my routines of work helps to keep either of them from becoming empty practices.  The work of cleaning keeps my prayers focused on the people who will be using the areas I am working in.  The act of praying while I work helps to keep me focused on a greater purpose than just keeping things cleaned and maintained.

Once the building was ready for the day, it was time to settle in for my Monday writing routine.  I began by writing yesterday’s page as it was rather late last night by the time we got home from Lake Michigan and I had gone through most of the photos taken.  After yesterday’s page was written, I worked on the prayer guide for next week.  As I spent time with God, the subject of humility kept coming to mind so I began a search through scripture as I prepared to write the prayer guide with a focus of humility.  Sometimes we tend to think of humility as having a low view of self.  In fact, Biblical humility is just the opposite.  True humility is having a proper view of our self in relation to God.  It’s a view that puts Him in charge but lifts us up as having great value as His child.  When I know the value I have as God’s child, I find that pride and self-promotion are unneeded and have no place in my life.  

After the prayer guide was written, I spent some time finishing the writing of the final week of devotions in the “Devotions For Those Who Serve” series I have been working on.  This series contains 13 weeks worth of daily devotions with each week covering a topic related to how God would have us serve.  Today I wrote the final 3 days of devotions focused on serving with purity.  As we consider God’s command that serving others is a part of every Christian’s life, there are characteristics that help us to serve in a manner worthy of the calling we have in Christ.  The draft copies of week’s devotions in this series are available in pdf format from the Impact Prayer Ministry website.  I’m still working on what the finished print product will look like.  Considering either separate booklets for each week or a book compilation of the devotions for all 13 weeks — or perhaps even a combination of the two. 🙂

By the time my writing was complete it was mid-afternoon and, with the early start to the day, time to head home.  When I got home I fixed some lunch and then spent some time going through yesterday’s photos.  The photo I chose for today’s page stood out to me as I thought about today’s writings.  While there are times the lake front water looks dirty and uninviting, yesterday it was sparkling clear as it rolled onto shore.  While the water temperature was enough to keep most people out, the appearance of purity made it attractive to a few brave wave-jumping people.  Our purity, or lack thereof, as we serve will often make a difference in how inviting Jesus looks to the people who are watching our life.

I pray that you and I would seek to do everything with purpose.  I pray that our prayer life would help us to have focus in our work life.  I pray that our daily work would be filled with prayer.  I pray that we would live in humility in all that we do.  I pray that our view of ourselves would match God’s view of us.  I pray that we would seek God’s help in living wit purity in all aspects of our life.  I pray that our purity in serving would make the gospel of Jesus inviting to those who are paying attention.

Page 255 was a Sunday so the morning was spent in Bible study and worship at the church building.  Our adult Sunday School class is going through the book of Esther and this week we covered chapter 3 where Haman begins his plot to exterminate the Jewish people.  While the story is one of God rescuing His people, using a person put in place just for that moment, it is also a story of how pride and arrogance can eventually destroy us.  Haman used his position of power and influence to shine the spotlight on himself.  His pride was appalled that not everyone thought as highly of him as he thought of himself.  His anger at Mordecai’s refusal to bow and worship anyone but God ended up being a path that led to his own destruction.

After the Sunday School class, I had a great time of worship at Deer Run where David began a series from Nehemiah with an initial focus from chapter one on the prayer life of Nehemiah.  The opening of Nehemiah is one of my favorite prayer texts for many of the same reasons that were brought out in the sermon, although the thing I find most appealing about his prayer life is his occupation — he was cupbearer to the king.  Not a prophet.  Not a priest.  Not a king.  Not in “professional ministry”.  A worker.  A (somewhat) ordinary guy.  An exile.  A professional ministering where he was at, and doing so through prayer, regardless of why he was there or how he got there — kind of like what Esther ends up doing after a little encouragement.

After the church service, we headed to lunch then spent some down time at home just relaxing.  It was such a beautiful day, with the sky filled with puffy white clouds, that we decided to head out to take some pictures.  Our first stop was South Haven to photograph some lake scenes with the lighthouse.  As we drove down the street from downtown to the beach, the most notable feature was the plastic “tent” covering the lighthouse — so much for lighthouse photos there.  I did get some photos I liked and a short video clip of the gentle waves coming ashore so it wasn’t a wasted trip.  We left South Haven and headed down to St Joseph where the lighthouse they were working on much of last summer was uncovered and ready to be photographed.  We stayed there through the sunset and then headed home with a stop at Five Guys for supper.

As I reflect on the day, I wonder if you and I are more like Haman or more like Esther and Nehemiah.  Do we think more highly of ourselves than we ought or do we put the needs of others above our own?  Do we expect others to think more highly of us than they should or are we willing to serve others according to their need?  Do we allow our pride and anger to drive our actions or do look to God for direction and purpose in what we do?  Do we manipulate those around us in order to get our way or do we spend time in fervent, reverent, honest prayer in order for God’s will to be done in and through us?  Do we think more of our position or more of how God can use the position He has put us in?  I don’t think any of us would readily say we’re more like Haman, but what do our actions and attitudes say about us?  

I pray that you and I would humble ourselves before God, and others, as we seek to serve Him with our whole heart.  I pray that we would seek to honor God by the way we live no matter where we happen to be.  I pray that we would live in such a way that we are ready for the day the sun sets on our life here on earth and we enter life in the presence of God.

Page 254 has been a laid back Saturday, which is always good after a long Friday. 🙂  I was able to sleep in a little bit compared to my usual weekday wake up time, but was still up earlier than what I like to call “sleeping in”.  The rain that began last night continued into the morning, then reappeared mid-day before giving way to fall-like temperatures and blue skies dotted with fluffy white clouds.  With today’s photo being one I took yesterday at Potato Creek which is beginning to show some of the colors of fall, it is only fitting that today begins to feel like it.

Some of the morning was spent thinking about the events of 9/11/01 as tomorrow marks the fifteenth anniversary of what we simply call 9/11.  For most of us who were alive fifteen years ago, simply mentioning that date brings back a lot of memories and images which have been etched into our minds.  For most, the twin towers of the World Trade Center is the primary image that comes to mind as the loss and devastation of the attack was much more catastrophic and unbelievable in size compared to the attack at the Pentagon and the plane brought down in Pennsylvania.  Out of that reflection, I wrote a “bonus page” which I posted this morning.  Once I had written and posted that page, it was time to fire up the pellet grill and get the bacon cheeseburgers started for lunch.  After lunch I started going through photos from the past 12 months as I’m working at putting together a photo calendar for next year.  I didn’t get very far in narrowing down what I want to use, but I did decide that choosing the photos for the calendar will probably be the most difficult part of the project.  After supper I watched a movie with my family and now it’s time to write out today’s page before calling it a day.

On my mind a lot this afternoon has been the two phrases, “Always Remember” and “Never Forget”.  I’ve seen them a lot the past few days, and even more so today, in reference to the events of 9/11/01.  As I’ve thought about those phrases today, some questions come to my mind.  Always remember what?  Never forget what?  I suspect if I were to ask each person that I see posting one or both of those phrases, I would get as many answers as the number of people I would question.  I’m sure some of the answers would have similarity, but I imagine many would be rather vague about what they’re remembering or not forgetting.  Some of the answers would depend on who you are and what you most identify with from that day.  As I wrote about in more detail this morning, I fear that while we’ve held on to some memories and chosen not to forget them, it appears to me that many people did forget the most important memory of all — our need to cry out to God and draw into His presence.

But that fact is not just true about the tragic events of 9/11, is it?  When we find ourselves in need and cry out to God, we promise to always remember Him and what He has done.  But do we?  In the midst of great loss that God carries us through, we promise to never forget His love and mercy.  But do we?  If we’re not careful, even the memorials that are set up to help us remember become things of routine and soon lose their meaning to us.  Often that comes about because we begin to focus solely on the memorial rather than using the memorial to help us focus on the event it was designed to help us remember.  I am thankful to be a part of a church family which observes the Lord’s Supper every week.  I know there are some people who say that is not practical or that doing so each week causes the practice to lose its meaning.  While I understand what they are saying, my response is the same — if you focus on the event it is meant to help you remember rather than on the memorial itself, it will never become old, common-place, or too frequent.  When I take communion, I don’t focus on the communion service itself.  I use it as a reminder to focus on a God who loves me so much that His Son endured the breaking of His body and the pouring out of His blood in order to pay the penalty for my sin.  When I keep my focus on Jesus and His sacrifice, I never tire of gathering around the Lord’s Table.  In a technical sense, it is not important that I always remember or never forget the Lord’s Supper.  What is important is that I always remember and never forget His love and mercy demonstrated toward me at the cross and that is what the memorial each week points me to.

I pray that you and I would look beyond the memorials that we see and use them to actually remember what they memorialize.  I pray that we would use the memorial of the Lord’s Supper to help us always remember and never forget what God has done so that we can be called His children.  I pray that we would hold on to the love and mercy that God extended to us on the cross and be ones who will share that love and mercy with the world.

Page 253 is a Friday which means a long, multi-shift day.  It seems like I finally slept soundly last night which has helped as I’ve gone through today.  I was up and running a little bit late but still made it to work by 6:30 AM to begin the cleaning and building prep for the day.  I had most of the cleaning done and was getting ready to collect trash and take it out when I found out a one-hour delay had been called for the school.  I guess it is better to have everything ready with an hour to spare than to not be finished in time.  With the building ready for the day, I headed out into the damp, foggy air to begin mowing even before daylight arrived.  With the rainy day and funeral yesterday, all of the lawn needed mowed today so it was important to get started if I was going to finish the mowing before it was time for the evening cleaning. 🙂  With a couple of breaks to check messages in the office, I finally finished the mowing by mid-afternoon in time to head home and clean up a little so I could go to a funeral visitation to see a friend whose mother had died.  After spending some time listening to my friend, it was back home to change clothes again and then grab some lunch.

 I had a little time before the after-school program would be cleared out of the building, so I got my lunch and headed down to Potato Creek for a quick visit.  As I shot some photos, it was interesting to see some hints that fall is on the way as some of the leaves were beginning to change color.  Even in the midst of an overcast day, or perhaps because of it, these yellow flowers were blooming ever so brightly throughout the park.  It was as if they were bouquets of cheer scattered about for all who would need one.  It was a short visit at the park, but one that was enjoyable and helped me relax and reset before heading back to work for the “evening shift”.  As I headed back to work it was time to start cleaning and getting the building ready for Sunday.  As is typical, I got the east end of the building done and then sat down to write today’s page while the floor scrubber recharges so I can do the hallway floors in the west end of the building.  By the time I finish writing, it should be ready to go and I can get my work done for the day and head home.

As I reflect on the day, these flowers that I photographed are one of the things that stand out to me.  Much of our life, at least mine, is spent doing tasks that often seem mundane and not that important.  Faithfulness in the every day tasks of life can often go unnoticed and unappreciated.  On the other hand, if we’re doing the normal tasks of life for the purpose of being noticed and appreciated, we really need to examine our motives and have an attitude check.  Instead, our focus should be on doing everything as doing it for the Lord.  This means I do my best and I do it in worship regardless of who is or isn’t watching.  When I spend 8 hours in one day cleaning and mowing knowing I have to come back and spend another 4 – 6 hours doing more cleaning, it is by keeping focused on the fact that I’m doing it for the Lord that my mind can remain in an attitude of worship and prayer as I work.  While bouncing around on the mower seat for hours on end isn’t that pleasant, the sound of then engine behind me drowns out all distractions so I can have lengthy times of uninterrupted prayer and worship.  Today, much of my prayer time was about integrity.  I don’t think many Christians grasp just how easy it is to lose our integrity and how difficult it is to rebuild it.  When we make commitments and don’t keep them, all of our attempts at justification do little to help us maintain integrity.  Too often, we would rather make excuses than make a confession.  So instead of admitting we failed, instead of admitting we reneged on a promise, instead of simply confessing that we weren’t able to do what we said we would do, we make excuses and try to justify our actions with hollow-sounding rhetoric that does nothing to rebuild or establish our integrity.  Too often we find it easier to live without integrity than to make good on our word.  We live in such a time where words don’t seem to have much value — unless we want them to.  We want to be able to say whatever we want, yet become quickly offended when others try to hold us to our word.  We want to say it was just words when when we are called out on the things we say, but we demand others are held accountable for the words they use.  God’s solution is fairly straight-forward — live with integrity at all costs.  

I pray that you and I would find purpose in the routine tasks of life as we do them as unto the Lord.  I pray that we would always examine our motives, especially when we begin to look for praise from people.  I pray that we would be people of integrity at all times.   I pray that we would be quick to “make right” on our word when we discover we’ve slipped in this area of integrity.  I pray that we would examine our own eyes for the logs they may contain before we even think about addressing the speck in our brother’s eye.  I pray that we would find encouragement and blessing in God’s willingness to surround us with beauty, such as the wildflowers in today’s photo.