Page 354 was another early day with another set of tasks worked on as well as another set of lessons — some new and some repeats in both the tasks and the lessons.  My morning soundtrack that flowed through my mind as I went about the usual routine included the words, “What a friend we have in Jesus.  All our sins and griefs to bear.  What a privilege to carry, everything to Him in prayer.”  It was a good theme, both to start my morning with and to carry with me as I spent time throughout the day working on plans and preparation for a New Year’s Eve prayer vigil here at Deer Run.

It was also good because it was a reminder that I let things bother me.  Sometimes it is easier to just say that things bother me, but at least most of the time the statement that I let them bother me is closer to the truth.  Sometimes my “letting it” is amplified by a mind that thinks very literally.  For example, there is a commercial on TV that boasts some high percentage of people “have achieved completely clear skin” after taking this drug — my mind immediately thinks of transparent, like glass, and it conjures up a mental image that is difficult to remove. 🙂  It seems many times that a heightened sense of right and wrong, of fairness and impartiality, lead to things happening that I let bother me when in reality I have no part of the issues cause and am in no position to be a part of its solution.  Therefore the line in my mental soundtrack, “Oh, what peace we often forfeit.  Oh, what needless pain we bear.  All because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”, was a good reminder about things that I let bother me.  Not that I’m in any way cured of the “letting”, but the reminders teach me about things I need to work on.

My workday was filled with the prayer vigil prep, writing and sending a prayer ministry newsletter, and cleaning in preparation for a school program tomorrow.  I will still need to do some touch-up in the morning, but some of the larger prep is done.  By late afternoon it was time for lunch so I headed out to pick up a few things and get some lunch.  After lunch I called to see how my mom was doing and made plans to meet my mom and dad for dinner.  With time to spare before dinner, we decided to head to Potato Creek on our way and look for the eagles.  We didn’t see the eagles, but the sunset was well worth the stop.  Between the clouds, the area of clear sky on the horizon, and the thin layer of ice on the lake, today’s photo was an attempt to capture the stunning scene that was stretched out before us.  Once the sun dropped, we continued on to dinner and had a nice evening with my mom and dad before heading home and calling it a day.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Sometimes I have so many routine tasks and lessons that it is easy to miss the new ones if I’m not paying close enough attention.
• The Bible is full of names, titles, and descriptions of Jesus — each carrying with it an attribute of God.  Friend is one that is good to experience.
• Some things are easy and almost natural to take to God in prayer while other things take deliberate effort on our part.  God wants us to take it all to Him.
• Things happen that you and I don’t like.  Some may be wrong things and some may just be things that are different from what we expect or want — but it is usually our choice how long we let those things bother us.
• Thinking literally can be a good trait . . . unless the person you’re listening to isn’t speaking literally. 🙂
• Even a cloud-filled sky can be a thing of beauty when the sun shines on and through it . . . I suspect the same is true of my cloud-filled life when I let the Son shine on and through it.

Page 353 was a pleasant, productive day.  I left the house for work early in the crisp night air under a beautiful blanket of stars.  The forecast was for warmer weather and it didn’t disappoint.  I had a full day of work to get done before I could more fully enjoy the sunshine, so I started right in with my morning prayer, cleaning, and building prep routine.  Today my mental soundtrack began as soon as I walked out the door of my house.  It is one of many favorite hymns and words such as these filled my mind all day — “O, Lord, my God!  When I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds thy hands have made.  I see the stars . . . Then sings my soul!  My savior, God, to thee!  How great thou art! How great thou art! “.  Prayer and worship working together can do wonders when it comes to attitude and approach to a day.

Once the building was ready for the day and the trash was taken out, I took care of a few minor maintenance issues before turning my attention to some correspondence and messages from the day before.  One of my morning tasks was the boxing up of the remaining 2018 Bible reading calendars that I had on hand, along with some copies of the 31-day devotional books I have written, so I could get them sent out to a correctional facility that wants to use them.  I know I’ve written about this before, but I doubt that the person that passed along one of these Bible reading calendars to an inmate for the first time several years ago had any idea that it would lead to the opportunity for me to send even more prayer-based material into that setting.  Being faithful in doing what God sets before us really is about doing our part in what often appears to be a puzzle that we rarely see the whole picture of.

The warmer weather of today isn’t supposed to last, so after getting the box shipped off I turned my attention to making sure I had fuel on hand and the snowblower was ready for whenever the next snow would come.  The tasks of the day ate away the morning and crept into the afternoon as I tried to complete a few things in process before taking a friend to lunch for a time of encouragement . . . and food, of course. 🙂  Often times the best thing, and most difficult thing, we can do in a friendship is to just be available to sit and listen.  Yes, guidance and direction are important, but those often fall woefully short if we’ve not spent any time listening.

After I made it home, we decided to take advantage of the sunshine and beautiful day by heading to Lake Michigan to shoot some nature scene photos.  It was so nice out, that while I threw a coat in the truck “just in case”, I survived the entire evening with a sweatshirt to ward off the cool breeze coming off the lake.  There has been a snowy owl seen around the Michigan City lighthouse area at different times over the past few weeks, so I was really hoping to see one and be able to photograph it.  As we made our way out to the lighthouse pier, there were a few places with “white spots” that I zoomed in on with my camera only to have them just be white rocks or concrete chunks instead of an owl.  When we reached the end of the pier at the lighthouse, one of the spots on the outer break wall looked promising so I zoomed in and found that there was indeed a snowy owl out there . . . way out there!  Today’s photo is a picture of her that I took using the full 2000 mm zoom equivalent of my camera and then cropping the photo in even further.  She was fun to watch as she kept slowly turning her head back and forth, keeping an eye on all of her surroundings — and on us.  As we photographed the owl, the sun began to set and we even ended up with sunset photos that we liked so all in all, the evening photo outing was a success.  After we got home I spent the rest of the day going through the photos from the evening and doing some minor adjusting and cropping of them before finally heading to bed with today’s page lived but unwritten.  So, after a pleasant and productive day I am writing today’s page the next morning. 🙂

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• When you are accustomed to fall temps in the sixties and it drops into the thirties, it feels cold.  However when you got through several days in a row that are overcast and the temperature never reaches twenty, sunshine and temps near forty makes it feel really warm. 🙂
• Prayer and worship may not make everything “better” in the sense that it changes our circumstances, but it can make everything “better” in the sense that it changes our attitude about our circumstances.
• I cannot see a star-filled sky without considering and acknowledging the One who hung them in place.
• The seeds of opportunity never bear fruit until after we plant them.
• In God’s kingdom, many times the one who plants is not the one who will see the harvest.
• My part in the kingdom is made possible by others doing their part and my doing my part makes it possible for still others to do theirs.
• Listening may be more natural for some than others, but it ought to be a part of who we are even if we must work at it.
• Sometimes things aren’t what they appear to be, but you will often never know for sure unless you take a closer look.
• While I enjoy zoos for what they can offer, seeing and photographing wildlife in the wild is much more satisfying to me.  I suspect God feels much the same way about seeing us living in freedom rather than being caged by sin.

Page 352 was pest control service day, so it had an even earlier start than normal.  As I headed out into the early morning darkness I could see that the pavement was wet so I anticipated a rather icy morning.  Instead of a slippery morning commute, I was surprised by an air temperature of forty-one degrees which kept the steady drizzle at a nuisance status rather than a danger.  It also meant that I didn’t need to put down any ice melt and I could keep my morning tasks focused on inside work.  

After the pest control service was done, I turned my attention to the regular prayer, cleaning, and building prep tasks of the morning.  This morning’s soundtrack in my mind drew from way back as I’m not sure when the last time would have been that I had heard the lyrics, “He is able!  Oh, He’s able!  He is able to make you want He wants you to be.”  The song was both reassuring and challenging.  It is reassuring to be reminded of God’s ability to accomplish His will and His way in my life.  It is challenging, however, to consider how deliberately and diligently I seek to be willing to be what He wants me to be.  And if I’m daily submitting to Him, do I accept that while a work in progress I am what He currently wants me to be?  If I’m not, what am I doing about it — or more importantly, what am I allowing Him to do about it?

As I did some of the cleaning tasks, a poem started to show up in my mind as I thought about the increased generosity of many at Christmas time.  I also thought about the events that we celebrate at Christmas and began to wonder what would happen if we celebrated the gift of God’s Son every day.  Once the building was ready for the day, I sat down and quickly typed out the words that had collected in my mind and thus the poem, “Every Day Christmas” came to be.  After publishing the poem on this blog, I turned my attention to the “Monday morning with God prayer guide writing routine”.  I suppose the poem had given me a head start as the topic of love as the greatest gift flowed from the poem and into the subject line of the prayer guide.  The famous passage from 1 Corinthians 13 about love lists sixteen different attributes that love either is or isn’t.  I ended up grouping those attributes into similar categories as I came up with the six daily prayer points regarding this greatest gift of love.

By early afternoon I had the prayer guide finished and remembered to format and schedule it for publication — last week I wrote the prayer guide but got sidetracked before I finished getting it ready to send out, so I found myself working on it on Saturday so it was able to go out Sunday morning.  With grays skies and drizzle, the view out my window was pretty empty all morning.  By mid-afternoon I had a couple blue jays stop by but they weren’t too willing to stick around long enough for photos.  After they left, a few cardinals stopped to check out the remaining berry supply and, judging by today’s photo, take a quick nap. 🙂  That wasn’t sounding like a bad plan, so I finished up the work I needed to get done then stopped for a late lunch on the way home.

While I didn’t end up with the nap, the rest of the day has been restful as I played some video games and spent some more time with the photos from this year.  As evening arrived, I sat down to write today’s page with a plan of finishing the day early and catching up on some sleep.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• I’ve learned that I have to set up calendar reminders or I tend to forget things that happen on a somewhat occasional, yet recurring, basis.
• Appearances can be deceiving.  Sometimes things are what they appear to be, sometimes they are better than they appear, and sometimes they are worse — but you really never know until you look beyond the appearances to see what actually is.
• Most Christians I know will agree that God is able, but do we live like He is?
• God’s ability isn’t defined by our timetables or desires.
• The love that we celebrate on Christmas day was given to us by God and ought to be celebrated every day.
• To celebrate the real meaning of Christmas every day, we will probably have to rethink what that celebration ought to look like.
• Love really is the greatest gift we can give or receive because true love comes first from God.
• I need to learn from the birds of the air so that I can rest contently in the presence of God.

Page 350 has been a quiet and restful day.  So quiet and restful that I never made it out of the house.  I thought about going out to look for snowy owls to photograph, but my wife had other plans so I decided to start going through the photos I’ve take this year in an attempt to select some of my favorites to have prints made.  With thousands of photos from the year, this will be a long project — but a project that won’t ever get done unless I start.  

One of the sections of photos that I made it through were the ones from the 2017 Christian Camp Leaders Conference last January.  It seems only fitting that a conference for camp leaders would include free times in the schedule to go out and explore the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains.  Today’s photo is one from a hike I took of Abram’s Falls while I was at the conference.  I am scheduled to have a prayer ministry display at the conference again this coming January and am looking forward to both the connections that take place through the material I provide and to some time to spend in the mountains with God.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Sometimes your plans don’t coordinate well with the plans of others and you have to come up with an alternate course of action.
• When the year began, I was going to create a folder to put my favorite photos of each session into so I would have easy access to the highlights — but I didn’t.
• Putting things off is sometimes easier at the moment, but usually leads to a greater amount of work later.
• For me, photos provide a great reminder of the many opportunities God has given me throughout the year.
• Wherever I go, God provides opportunities for me to bask in His presence if I look for them.  Sometimes it takes more effort to miss those opportunities than to find them.
• I pray that others benefit through my being able to share the things I find during my times of pursuing God in the midst of His creative beauty.
• The times I spend alone with God are always a help to my being effective in the times I spend with people when I’m representing the prayer ministry at conferences and conventions.

Page 349 was a full day with a combination of usual Friday tasks, some tasks that I would not want to become usual, and even a task that I never thought I would hear myself saying that I did. 🙂  The morning began early as I knew I had a lot to get done before I would be able to call it a day.  I was thankful that there was no new snow, so there was no outside work to be done to start the day.  After a morning shift of cleaning and building prep, I made my way to the hospital to be with my mom so that my dad could hopefully get some rest.  There was some testing they kept talking about doing that dad didn’t want to miss, so he didn’t end up going home until mom was released at the end of the day.  They ended up doing the test shortly before noon, so when they were done my dad, brother, and I went to the cafeteria to get some lunch.  My brother has been having some health issues as well and as we were eating lunch he got a call that the doctors wanted him to have a test done right away.  While we were at a hospital, it wasn’t the right hospital for his insurance, so I made a trip across town with him to wait while he had an ultrasound . . . never dreamed I would be waiting on my brother for that, but in this case they were looking for a blood clot in his leg — which they didn’t find.

After some time at that hospital with him and finding out there wasn’t anything further they would do at this time, I made my way back across town to be with my mom and dad.  They still hadn’t heard anything back from the test, so I waited with them until the doctor eventually came in with the results and the news that mom could go home — the news that mom and dad were both waiting to hear.  After the “hurry up and wait” part of the dismissal routine and my sister prepared to take them home, I stopped to get something to eat before returning to work to get the Friday night cleaning done so the building is ready for Sunday.

With the snow and ice melt combination that winter brings with it, there was a little extra work required to the weekend cleaning.  As I worked, I was filled with praise and thanksgiving that I had the freedom to spend the day with my family in their time of need.  While it added to the length of the day, it also added to the joy and fulfillment of the day to help carry some of their concern and perhaps even relieve some of it because of the experiences I have dealt with.  With the cleaning mostly done, I sat down to write today’s page around 10:30 PM while some of the floors dried.  Once I’ve written today’s page and the floors are dry, I can finish the last of what I need to get done and head home.

My wife and I selected some of our favorite lighthouse photos from what we had taken throughout the state of Michigan this year and put together a photo calendar for 2018.  Those calendars arrived today and since I had no opportunities to take photos, today’s photo is a collage of most of the pictures that made the cut for the calendar.  

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• When there is a lot that needs done, an early start can be a good idea but only if that early start includes a recognition of God’s presence.
• When God says that we are to comfort others with the comfort that we ourselves have received, we need to be aware of how God might use the difficult times He has brought us through to prepare us to help others.
• Sometimes we find ourselves doing things that we never thought we would simply because God had plans that were greater than ours.
• Sometimes we so narrowly define what we think something is, that when we find ourselves in the midst of doing it we think it sounds strange.
•  Photographs help me to remember some great family times as each picture I take and share has a story of its own it could tell.

Page 348 began early as it was another day with fresh snow overnight that needed cleared from the walks.  The sky was clear as I walked out of the house and the sliver of moon hanging in the sky seemed to beg to be photographed — so I obliged.  After clearing the walks and getting the building ready for the day I got a phone call that my mom was in the emergency room after an episode of some kind.  My dad and brother was with her and said they would keep me up to date on what was going on, so I continued my morning tasks with a mind and heart filled with prayers for my mom and dad.  As I took the trash out, the moon and Jupiter were shining brightly in the sky so I grabbed my camera to see if I could capture them together.  I ended up with a couple photos that had them both in the picture but they were too far apart to get anything that I was real happy with, so today’s photo is the zoomed in look at the sliver of moon that was visible.

Today was probably the coldest the temperature had gotten so far this season and the building HVAC system was not being very cooperative in heating the building evenly.  So, a lot of my morning was spent tweaking and fine tuning the system trying to balance things out.  One thing I have learned is that small adjustments over a period of time works better than changing too much all at once.  There were some areas where I could see improvement starting to take place and other areas that I will continue to monitor and see if further adjustments are necessary.  

By early afternoon I found out my mom was scheduled for an MRI and would be admitted to a room following that.  After wrapping up my work for the day I headed up to the hospital to be with my family and see if the doctors had any answers yet.  The testing so far had indicated there was no evidence of a stroke but also no evidence of what had caused the episode she had.  As I sat with mom and dad through the evening, I couldn’t help but think there would be a day when they would not be here to sit with.  I continue to pray that they have a restful night and that God would reveal some answers as the doctors and medical personnel do their testing.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Even with only a sliver of moon reflecting the light of the sun, the snow cover helped reflect that light even further so that the darkness wasn’t all that dark.
• Preparing for the things that can be prepared for helps me be ready for the things that can’t be prepared for.
• Some scenes are just too big and grand for me to capture in a photograph.  Could be my limited photography skills, but I’m pretty sure it has more to do with the vastness of the God who designs such scenes.
• In many areas of life, extremes are the are the areas where danger exists.  Finding balance is mostly about moving Christ to the center and drawing near to Him.
• Big changes that are wrong are usually more difficult to recover from than small steps in the wrong direction.
• Sometimes figuring out what hasn’t caused an unwelcome event is a start in determining what did.
• Time spent with the people we love is never time wasted.