Page 297 has been a cool, rainy day.  So cool, in fact, that it felt cold after a long stretch of beautiful fall weather.  I even changed the filter and turned the furnace on last night to take the chill out of the air.  Having to turn the furnace on used to be a big deal for me, but I’ve reached the point that I would rather spend a little money and be comfortable than to find myself freezing in my own home.  Some might think I’ve gotten old and am finally starting to mellow out, but I think it has a lot more to do with finally being debt free and not having to worry so much about how the bills will get paid.  It has not always been easy, and sometimes I may have guarded every last nickel too closely, but there is great freedom to be found in living out the scripture that says to “owe no man anything except the continuing debt to love one another.”  

My workday began with the normal prayer, cleaning, and building prep before turning my attention to the building HVAC systems.  With the cold temperatures moving in overnight and expected to stay for a while, it was time to do the switch-over from cooling to heating.  With nearly all of the flooring either carpet or tile directly over concrete, the building seems to hold its warmth to a point but once the air and ground becomes damp and chilled, the building quickly follows suit.  So, with what seems like miles of piping throughout the building, I prefer to fire up the boilers at a time when I will be in the building to watch for leaks or other issues.  One of the boilers fired up right away but the other took a little coaxing to convince it that now would be a good time to start the season.  Once everything was up and running I kept monitoring it throughout the day as I took care of some office work and correspondence. 

Lunchtime was spent encouraging a friend before heading home to unwind and relax.  Throughout the late afternoon and early evening I spent time starting to put the 1000+ photos from our fall break adventure into online galleries so I can share them with those interested.  Today’s photo is one from last weekend’s adventure as my camera focused in on a few leaves in front of me as I was looking to shoot a wide view of the vast valley below me.  In the peak of the leaf changing season as the hills are covered with the reds, yellows, oranges, and even greens of the millions of leaves of fall, it is easy to let a few leaves go unnoticed.  Yet here they were adding to the beauty whether anyone would ever notice them specifically or not.  Sometimes it is very easy to feel like we’re such a small part of a larger picture that it might not even make a difference if we are in it.  I know because there are times and seasons when I feel that way.  My bit of color seems so small compared to the mountainside of those before me.  Yet this photo reminded me that sharing whatever bit of beauty that God has put within me is all that is required of me.  I don’t have to light up the entire mountainside with vibrant color, I only have to display the presence of God within me no matter how big or small that may seem at any given time.

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

• Living with changing seasons means there are changes that must take place to adapt.
• God says that to everything there is a season — I take that to mean there is a lot of adapting that I will need to do as seasons change.
• Money can be a great servant, but it will always be a terrible master — which role does money have in your life?
• In today’s culture, debt is probably the primary way that money becomes our master.
• I find that having no debt allows me greater freedom in using money to serve.
• We serve best when the only debt we still owe is a debt of love.
• Starting up the heating systems in a building after they have been idle for a few months take a little finesse and a watchful eye.  The same is likely true of anything we have allowed to become idle and need to restart.
• I don’t have to be the entire beauty of Jesus on my mountainside.  I only need the entire beauty of Jesus to be seen in me no matter what my size.

After a long day of travel wrapping up our fall break adventure, page 296 began very early as I met the pest control service tech while the building was empty.  Susan had a seizure before I left for work, and as I was finishing up with the pest control rounds I got a message that she had another one after I left and needed to sleep it off.  While the preschool would be back in session, the school was still off for fall break so I finished up what needed done at the building and then headed home to switch places with my wife so she could be here for preschool and I could keep an eye on Susan.

With the change-up in routine and location, it was a little more difficult to settle into the Monday morning routine that I still hoped to get accomplished even from home.  Once Susan was settled downstairs, I settled in with God to put together the prayer guide for next week.  As I considered a variety of topics, it seemed that each one that came to mind ended up being one I had done within the past year.  In considering topics, then looking to see if I had written a prayer guide on the topic yet, I realized that this will mark the end of 5 years of writing weekly prayer guides — or perhaps begin the sixth year as I began the written weekly prayer focus in 2012 with what was then called “A November to Remember”.  It seemed like a fitting title at the time — to focus a month on daily prayer using a weekly guide to help people get started each day.  As the title may suggest, I didn’t plan on it turning into what it has, but God took that seed and has grown something larger than I ever would have considered.  Now the weekly prayer guide that began as a resource for one church as is sent out to over 200 email subscribers and posted on the Impact Prayer Ministry website where it is viewed around the world on a regular basis.  Wow, God!!

Anyhow, that little side trip down memory lane led me to writing a prayer guide about some things we ought to remember.  I’ve written one in the past about remembrance, but this was different.  Not only did God give instruction throughout scripture on how His people ought to remember Him and His mighty works through special days and memorials, He also gives instruction to each of us on some things we ought to remember.  God knows our tendency to forget things so it was He who instituted monuments and even lists — remember the ten commandments?  I know there are times when a person will come up and tell me something they need done, and if I can’t drop what I’m doing and get to their need right away, my response is always a very standard “write it down and put it in my box”.  It’s not a brush-off or a way of avoiding what needs done, but rather an acknowledgement that I need a reminder or by the time I finish what I’m currently working on I will have forgotten the new request.

Anyhow, it was late by the time I finally settled on the topic I believed God would have me use, so by the time it was written it was already early afternoon and time to fire up the pellet grill to cook some bacon cheeseburgers for lunch.  As they cooked, I worked at the formatting and scheduling of the prayer guide to be ready for Sunday — otherwise it would have been far too easy to get sidetracked by lunch and forget to finish up the project.  After lunch, it was time to call it a day, as far as most of my work tasks, and begin the process of going through the photos from our fall break adventure.  I ended up taking more than a thousand photos so, with a few short breaks, the rest of the day was spent doing some minor adjusting to them and deleting a handful of them that just didn’t turn out no matter how much editing I tried. 🙂  The photos were a good reminder of the value of spending time as a family deliberately noticing the incredible creativity of God in the midst of a variety of creation.

With no new photos taken during the day, I went back to one from the lighthouse we stayed in during our trip.  The lighthouses are always a reminder to me of the need to let our light shine so that people would see God working through us.  The light not only served as a warning of potential danger, but it served to aid in navigation so those on the water could find a safe passage to where they needed to be.  Our light needs to include an element of warning, but it also must be used to direct people safely to where they need to be.

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

• It is important to me to be able to have a routine in which I find balance while allowing for breaks in that routine in order to find rest and variety.
• The best routines need to be flexible enough to allow for the needs of people.
• The family functions best when it works together to care for the needs of each member.  Knowing this makes me pray even more for those who find themselves leading a family alone.
• Triage– the ability to organize and prioritize based on urgency of need — while most often used as a medical term, is an important concept to understand and practice in everyday life.
• Sometimes just doing something faithfully week after week or day in and day out, has a way of accumulating results we could never plan for.
• When I sit down on a Monday morning to write a prayer guide, God doesn’t expect me to write enough for the next 5 years — He only wants me to do the task that is in front of me today.
• For me, remembering isn’t nearly as difficult as remembering the right things.
• Reminders are a good thing as long as we pay attention to them.
• Photos serve as good reminders for me; not only of things I’ve done and places I’ve been, but of God’s blessings and presence wherever I go.
• At times, people say my photos are a gift.  I often view the scene that I photograph as God’s gift to me and because of that I believe I am responsible to share it.
• Most gifts we receive from God are meant to be shared so that the entire body is built up.
• My light ought to shine in a way that warns people of the danger that satan wants to draw them into.
• My light also ought to shine to guide people to the safety that is found in Jesus.

Page 291 was the end of a short work week and the beginning of a family fall break getaway.  The day began early with the usual prayer, cleaning, and building prep tasks.  As I took the trash out, Venus was shining brightly above the tree line in the eastern horizon.  It wasn’t long before it was followed by a small sliver of the moon being chased by the rising sun.  The rest of the morning was spent taking care of some maintenance tasks and correspondence details before heading home to get ready for our adventure.  

After firing up the pellet grill and making some bacon cheeseburgers for lunch, we hit the road for a long afternoon of driving.  Probably not the best planning to end up going through a major city at 5 PM, but we managed.  As evening was approaching I could see the sun rapidly falling toward the horizon in my rear view mirror.  We weren’t quite going to make it to our destination by sunset, so we made a quick search for a nearby park overlooking the lake so we could get some sunset photos.  While not the best, we found a partial view just as the sun was setting.  We managed a few photos, but it was beautiful to see and watch even with a partiall blocked view.  

As with many of our family adventure pages, I think I’m going to let the photos do most of the speaking for the day and do without the bulletted “lessons and observations” section.

Lake Erie Sunset

Lake Erie Sunset

Lake Erie Sunset

Moon and Venus in the same photo . . . If you look closely enough.

Almost a New Moon

Venus and a “random” star.

Venus Close-Up

Page 290 began with the usual early morning prayer, cleaning, and building prep tasks.  As I went about my morning work, I found myself praying about communication styles and how they influence the manner in which we relate to God.  The sky was filled with stars when I left the house early this morning, but the moon didn’t rise until sometime while I was going about my early tasks.  Today was an interesting day on the solar and lunar schedules as the moon rose in the eastern horizon about an hour before the sunrise and set in the west about an hour before the sunset.  With the new moon fast approaching, there was just a sliver of moon visible when it finally made it up over the horizon.  The moon was present in the sky overhead all day, but there wasn’t enough of it reflecting the light of the sun for it to actually be visible in the bright daylight.  As I took the trash out, it was an interesting sunrise as there was more color in the sky to the south and west than there was to the east.  Today’s photo was taken at sunrise this morning looking to the south and a little west.  Not only did the sky light up with color, but the trees are finally starting to show some of the color change of fall as well.

As I went about my early morning tasks, a poem showed up in my mind again today.  As I look back over the past few years, it seems like these flare-ups of the PTSD symptoms I’ve been diagnosed with, probably along with the seasonal effects of SAD, somehow crack open a wall to the poem storage in my mind as it is when I am dealing with these symptoms that most of my poems have shown up.  While not pleasant to live with, it is good to know that God doesn’t waste anything as I’ve watched Him use some of these poems in incredible ways.  If you follow my blog writing, you’ve probably already seen the poem, “Just a Moment“, that I posted earlier today.

As I worked on some prayer ministry correspondence, I got word of some maintenance issues that needed taken care of.  After evaluating the situation, I put on my plumbers hat and went to work taking care of a couple water issues.  Most days I have an idea of what I hope to accomplish, but many of them include a surprise or two that is just part of the nature of my job.  When the surprises come, I can either address them cheerfully knowing they are a part of my work, or I can become irritated that my plans are being disrupted.  It is kind of that way in our spiritual life, right?  Or is it just mine?  We have a plan or idea of how things should go but as much as we want it to be, it isn’t always identical to God’s plan.  When God “surprises” us with something that is a disruption to our plans, do we do His work cheerfully as we ought to or do we become irritated that something got in the way of what we wanted?

By mid-afternoon my mind was fading fast and it was time to call it a day.  I stopped for a late lunch on the way home then took my meds and a nap to finish out the afternoon.  There are issues that I feel I ought to write about, but with little clarity of mind and no clear direction from God to do so, I think it is best to leave those topics until He makes it clear there is something He wants me to say.

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

• Not everyone communicates most effectively in the same manner.
• It’s one thing for me to understand my preferred means of communication.  It is a different, and better, thing for me to work at understanding the preferred communication styles of others.
• Realizing that people communicate differently helps me to see how people relate to God differently, and then work with them to help them use their communication preferences in their conversations with God.
• I find the interaction between the sun, moon, and stars fascinating and they always leave me in awe of a wonderfully creative God.
• The sun provides light, but the varying degrees of moisture and density of the clouds turn the light into the beautiful colors of a sunrise or sunset.
• God provides His light within us, but it is the personal characteristics of each of us that turn His light in us into a beautiful tapestry of humanity.
• Sometimes the things which cause discomfort or pain in our lives are the things God wants to use to minister to others through us.
• God’s plans are never disruptions no matter how much they may feel like it.  His plans ought to be the purpose of our life.
• When my plans become more important than God’s re-directions, I am headed for trouble.
• Sometimes emotions lead us down paths that aren’t ours to take.  It is always best to walk the paths God leads us on rather than the ones our fear or anger direct us to.