With no alarm set to wake me up this morning, I got an extra hour of sleep before a ringing phone woke me up instead.  The phone call brought word that the power was out at the church building and the school had called a two-hour delay, hoping that the power would be restored during that time.  It wasn’t long before word came that the power had been restored, so I got dressed and headed into work to make sure the boilers had re-fired and the air handlers in the HVAC system were running.  For some reason, several of the building systems don’t like to restart on their own after a power outage.  The interesting part is that all I typically have to do is unplug the power cord on the control panel and plug it back in — isn’t that kind of what the power outage just did?  

Once at work I reset a couple of the systems that had not started on their own and then spent some time in the office since I was already there.  While I was doing some more refining of Sunday’s sermon, I noticed movement out in the woods and as I peered though the brush and trees I saw a couple deer playing some distance away.  There wasn’t a clear enough view of them to get any photographs, but it was nice to be able to see them.  With Thursdays typically being a day off, by mid-morning I called it a day as far as work was concerned and Susan and I headed home.  As we left the building and walked out to the truck, six deer were standing on the hillside of the back lawn watching our every movement.  My camera was in the truck and I managed to get it out and take a couple photos before all the deer high-tailed it across the ball field and into the woods.  They were so beautiful to watch and it made me glad I had needed to stop by and check on the heating system.  

At home I fired up the pellet grill and after prepping some baby back ribs, put them on to slow cook for the rest of the day. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and keeping an eye on the ribs as they cooked.  By evening they were ready to come off the grill and as MJ said, six-plus hours to cook and six minutes to eat. 🙂  It may have taken a little more than six minutes, but they were very good and didn’t last long.

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

• Not everything goes according to our plans and sometimes we need reminded of that.
• There are many things that can bring our purpose to a grinding halt.  When that happens, we need to turn fully to God and allow Him to reset our purpose so that it once again aligns with His purpose.
• Changed plans can bring unexpected blessings if we pay attention.
• Often it takes a long time for good things to be completed.  
• Keeping our eyes fixed on the reward at the end helps us to live with patient endurance.  
• What we value most will be most effective in motivating us to action — including the action of waiting. 

Page 88 has been a beautiful spring day.  I was once again awake before my alarm went off so I got dressed and headed out into the crisp, cool darkness of the early morning.  The sky was filled with the brilliant dots of star light and the truck was coated with a light layer of frost.  When I arrived at work, I put my hat and coat in my office and noticed movement in the darkness outside my window.  After turning my light off to get my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I noticed several deer walking by my window before heading down the trail into the woods.  I didn’t have a camera out, and it was so dark the camera wouldn’t have done much good, but I enjoyed seeing the deer to start my day.

After such a welcome to work, I began my morning prayer time as I went about the cleaning and building prep tasks for the day.  Lately, a big part of my prayer time as I clean each day has been focused on praying about integrity.  I pray that I would live and serve and work with integrity.  I pray that those who lead would do so with complete integrity.  I pray that the children and young people of our churches and society would see vibrant examples of integrity in the lives of the adults around them.  Many times we are quick to complain about a generation that appears to us to have lost a commitment to truth and doing what is right no matter what.  Before we complain too loudly or too long, we may want to take a closer look at the example we have been setting.  We can talk and teach all we want to about honesty, integrity, and commitment, but if we’re not living it our words become nothing more than empty noise.  

Once the building was ready for the day, I took the trash out and took my camera with me to catch a few shots of the sun rising over the glistening frost-covered lawn.  After the cleaning was done, today’s tasks centered around the sermon for Sunday and the prayer guide that I’ll publish on Palm Sunday.  With the sermon that will continue the “Living As the Lord’s Servant” series and a prayer guide focused on obedience, the preparation for both things seemed to work well together.  The prayer guide itself will consider the example of Jesus, “who humbled himself and became obedient to death — even death on a cross.”  As this will be the prayer guide that covers the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, this topic of obedience according to the example of Jesus seems quite timely.

By mid-afternoon it was time for a break from the study and writing, so I headed out to pick up some cleaning supplies I needed for work.  While I was out, I came across baby back pork ribs on sale for two dollars a pound so I picked up a package of them and some wood pellets for the pellet grill so I will hopefully have a meal of ribs coming up soon.  After dropping the meat and wood pellets off at home, I stopped by the river to look for the wood ducks and take a few photos before heading back to work.  There were at least ten pair of wood ducks on the river and today’s photo is of one of those pair.  It was fun to watch them as they would ride the current of the river downstream for a ways and then fly back upstream to do it all again without drifting too far away from the area in which they appear to live.  We would do well to develop a similar practice in which we remain centered around an anchor point of Jesus in our life.  After shooting a few photos it was back to work where I made the rounds to make sure the building was ready for the mid-week Bible studies.  As is typical, I am writing this as I wait for the building to clear out so I can then get the cleaning done for tomorrow.  With ribs in the refrigerator waiting to be slow-cooked on the pellet grill, I’m pretty sure I’ll go ahead and work late tonight so the building is ready for tomorrow and I can stay home and do some cooking. 🙂

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

• Sometimes the things we consider unpleasant are actually part of the reason for the things we consider beautiful.
• Much of what God gives us is meant to be shared with others.  Occasionally He shares a gift with us that is meant simply to encourage us in the moment.
• When my thoughts and words seem inadequate and jumbled, I am thankful that God understands my heart.
• Integrity must be lived before it can be taught.
• Obedience to God should be one of our greatest desires — not because we “have to or else”, but because we love Him so much.
• When obedience is difficult and painful, we can learn a lot by looking at the example of Jesus.
• Sometimes when I go about the normal tasks of my day, God surprises me with an opportunity for goodness that I wasn’t expecting.
• While we have great freedom in Christ, our safety is found in remaining anchored in Him. 

Page 87 has been a gray and overcast day with an occasional spit of rain which kept the birds happy outside my office window.  My workday began with the cleaning of the bathrooms and getting the building ready for the day.  Once the building was ready and the students began arriving for the day, I turned my attention to working on the sermon I’ll share at the North Wayne Mennonite Church on Sunday.  I usually preach there on the first Sunday of each month and have been working through a series about living as the Lord’s servant.  Each message in the series has looked at a different person in the Bible who is specifically called the Lord’s servant.  Some of the character studies in this series are of people who have called themselves the Lord’s servant and some of them are called that by others in the text.  For me, the fun part is that this list of people is so varied that it gives great hope for any of us to be able to live as the Lord’s servant if we would commit to doing so.

 In preparing for this next Sunday, I spent the day with Hannah who prayed that God would “look upon your servant’s misery and remember me.”  It is good to know that this servant of the Lord could call out to God in the midst of her misery and expect God to not only hear her but to accept her as His servant.  There are a lot of things about her pursuit of God that stand out to me, including her willingness to promise to return her child to God if He would just give her one.  While that is a very noble vow, if you’ve ever followed and connected the stories beyond the first two chapters of 1 Samuel, the magnitude of making and keeping that vow is enormous.  You have Hannah who has endured years of mistreatment and misery as a childless woman in her culture.  Her plea to God for a child makes sense.  Even her promise to dedicate this child to God make sense to most people, but that is because we don’t take that commitment as seriously as Hannah did.  And then there is the atmosphere that she will be sending her son into if she keeps her vow.  On the surface, sending her son to live and serve within the house of the Lord sounds like a win-win — she loses the stigma of being childless and her son grows up away from the rivalry that exists in her home.  But then you get a glimpse into the lives of the people he will live with — the priest Eli and his sons.  Sons that were so wicked that God’s first message to Samuel is that He is going to judge the household of Eli and his sons.  As you read about the wickedness within the house of God, I suspect that many of us would be second-guessing a decision to send our firstborn into that atmosphere.  In fact, we often renege on our commitments based on unfavorable circumstances far less severe than that.  We promise one thing but then we make excuses for why we don’t keep that promise.  We justify why we don’t keep our word by pointing to the misconduct of others.  Yet one of the big lessons of Hannah as seen through her life and the life of her son, Samuel, is that God takes our promises seriously even if we don’t.

Today’s photo was taken of one of the many songbirds that kept me company as I spent time with Hannah today.  It serves as a reminder of God’s commitment to keep His promises.  But perhaps that is one of the reasons we struggle to keep our promises — we don’t trust God to keep His.  Many, if not all of us, would be severely tempted to pull our child out of the atmosphere that Hannah discovered she had placed her child into.  Yet Hannah continued to trust God as she maintained a commitment to keep her promise to God.

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

• God sends the rain on the just and unjust alike.  Sometimes that is a blessing and sometimes it seems like a curse — depends on whether we need the rain or not.
• God calls each of us to live as His servant.
• Before we dismiss the possibility of being able to live as the Lord’s servant, it would be helpful to learn from the lives of those the Bible identifies as such.
• In the Bible, the Lord’s servants are as different from one another as any of us are.  In fact, for the most part the only common trait is a decision to be the Lord’s servant.
• Living as the Lord’s servant changes who is in charge of our life.
• When we agree to let God be in charge, we must trust Him with everything.

Page 86 was another day that found me awake before my morning alarm went off.  At church yesterday, I had noticed some maintenance request notes in my mailbox so I got ready and went in earlier than usual to see if I could take care of some of those requests before the school day.   When I got to work, I checked my messages and then set about working on some minor issues throughout the building before starting the usual cleaning and prep for the day.  With the extra-early start, I managed to take care of the requests and get the building cleaned and ready before the students began arriving for the day.

Being a Monday, I settled into the routine of prayer and listening as I sought direction for the next weekly prayer guide.  I had a couple ideas enter my mind, but as I thought and prayed about them I couldn’t see my being able to develop them beyond the idea stage at this time.  During my prayer time I began to think a lot about the teaching of Jesus to seek first the kingdom of God.  From that, I began to think about the riches I have and the riches God desires for me to have that are not financially based.  It wasn’t long before the topic of godly riches had developed into an outline for the week and then my attention turned to spending time with God regarding the direction I would write for each day’s prayer focus.  I live in a culture that makes the pursuit of worldly riches seem normal and desirable which means I have to try that much harder to pursue riches that are not of this world.  Once I had the prayer guide written, I formatted it and scheduled it to be posted and sent out on Sunday.  After taking care of all that, the morning was almost gone but I started the process again as I have some spring break family time scheduled that will take me away from the office next Monday.  

By late afternoon my mind and body were both tired so I called it a day and headed to the river for a walk.  As I began my walk, the early spring flowers welcomed me to the river.  In addition of the beauty of the flowers, there were ducks, turtles, geese, and squirrels all waiting to be photographed.  Today’s photo is of a mallard duck that was eager to pose for pictures today.  Most of the time the ducks take off in flight as soon as they sense someone around.  I suspect that this duck and its mate, which allowed me to walk right up to them and take pictures, have learned from the squirrels that becoming friendly with people often results in food being offered..  After the walk I stopped by the store to pick up some chicken to put on the pellet grill for supper then spent some time unwinding and relaxing at home while it cooked.  

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

• Minor issues are generally easier to take care of than major issues but if not cared for the minor issues easily become major issues.  This is just as true about our spiritual life as it is about buildings.
• Most maintenance tasks are easier to take care of without the interruptions and distractions of other people.  Again, this applies equally to the maintenance of our spiritual life and the maintenance of buildings.
• Finding time that you can dedicate to spending with God caring for your spiritual well-being is essential.
• Seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness requires discipline and a focus that sees beyond the world’s wealth.
• Money doesn’t mean the same thing to God as it does to most of us.  We would do well to learn to view it in the same way God does.
• Work is important and given to us by God — so is rest.
• When we recognize God as the giver of all good things, we begin to trust Him enough that we are willing to draw near to Him.

Page 85 was a Sunday and I was up early as I headed to work to make sure the building was ready for the day.  I woke up before the alarm went off so I got up and went to work even earlier than I had planned.  That turned out to be a good thing as there was more that needed done than what I had planned.  As I cleaned, I prayed for the Sunday School classes and worship gathering that would take place and I prayed that God’s Spirit would  prompt people to remember the importance of gathering together.  It was raining when I left the house and the rain has been present for most of the day.  As I finished up the cleaning, I stopped by my office before heading to Sunday School class and caught sight of a pair of cardinals out searching for food in the rain.  They stayed further into the brush than what they normally do as they sought protection from the elements, but I still managed a photo of one of them for today’s page.  Even when we need to take shelter, we still ought to be visible representatives of Jesus wherever we are.

Our Sunday School class continued our study in 1 Thessalonians and today we took a look at chapter 4.  As Paul often does in his writings, he encouraged and praised the Christians for their work and growth in Christ as they shared His love with one another.  But he also challenged them to continue their growth and to do more and more as they put aside the sin and impurity that would seek to contaminate their witness.  There were also reminders that a life lived for Jesus was not in vain, that a confident expectation of eternal life with Him awaits those who finish this life in Him.

After the Sunday School hour we celebrated the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as we shared songs of worship, a time around the Lord’s Table, and a message that David brought about counting the cost.  Many times in church and ministry settings, we choose not to count the costs because we don’t want to set aside our own agenda that the facts would say we are not prepared for.  But more tragically, we often fail to consider the cost of being a disciple of Jesus as we’re really just playing at that hoping that He adds benefit to our life without expecting or demanding too much from us.  Jesus insisted, however, that unless we give up everything we cannot be His disciple.  So the real danger, especially in our United States culture, is that we go through life claiming to be a disciple without ever counting, and paying, the cost — the cost of full surrender.  

As we considered the cost of being a disciple, David had us spend some time thinking about our priorities — the things that we actually do.  While taking a hard look at the things we actually do can be uncomfortable, it ought to become convicting when we compare those things with the things that Jesus would say ought to be our priorities.  For example, we are really good at making self a priority but Jesus says that to be His disciple we must deny our self.  Most of us go out of our way to make comfort a priority but Jesus says that we must take up our cross daily if we are to be His disciple — doesn’t sound too comfortable.  While some would say that the instruction to count the cost of being a disciple is to help us decide if it is worth it, I believe the real purpose is to help us commit at the beginning to following Jesus through all costs so that we are faithful to the end.

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

• Sometimes I wake up before I think I need to.  If I pay attention, I usually discover why.
• There is no such thing as a bad time or place to pray.  In fact, the worse the time or place may appear, the more vital it is to pray.
• Sometimes we ought to seek shelter from the storms of life.  Doing so shouldn’t keep Jesus from being seen in us.
• There is no place for complacency in the life of a Christian.  
• The task of removing impurity from our life ought to be a continual, lifelong process.
• Hope is powerful.
• There is no greater hope than the confident expectation of life eternal that belongs to those who are in Christ.
• While Jesus has paid the price for our salvation with His blood, there is still a cost involved in being His disciple.
• Counting the cost of being a disciple is all about preparing us to surrender everything so that we remain faithful to the end.

After being at work early every day this week, it felt good to sleep in and start page 84 a little bit later today.  My morning was pretty relaxed as I caught up on some messages and social media content.  Rain had moved in with a few thunderstorms to start the morning so I checked out the weather radar to see how widespread the rain would be throughout the day.  It appeared like anything from our area to the north was likely to be wet, but an hour or so south of here wasn’t showing any chance of rain.  So, it was either put up with the wet weather or find somewhere to go a little bit south of here that would be worth exploring.  

We decided to go exploring, so after a little research we headed down to Mississinewa Lake and several State Recreation Areas that surround the reservoir.  The area is home to a fairly large number of bald eagles and we were hoping to find a few to photograph.  Our first stop was at the Miami State Recreation Area to hike a trail with several places that overlooked the lake.  When we first arrived, we drove to the boat ramp where we could look out over the lake.  I wasn’t prepared for what I saw — a lot of dry lake bed before any water could be seen.  I knew many reservoirs are kept at lower water levels through the winter to allow them to collect the spring rains and snow melt — I just wasn’t expecting the lower level to be this noticeable.  After I got home I looked up the levels and found that there is a twenty-five foot difference between the normal “winter pool level” and the normal “summer pool level”.  Today’s actual level was posted at 1.2 feet above the winter level.  Because of the immense size of the lake, I wonder how long it takes for it to come up to level for the summer.  

We saw no eagles from the boat ramp so we drove to the trail head to begin our hike.  The trail was called the “Blue Heron Trail” so we were hopeful to find some herons and other wildlife to photograph.  As we hiked the trail we noticed a lot of damage to the trees and many places where there were limbs and trees across the trail.  As it was a 2 1/2 mile loop trail, the plan was to push Susan in her wheelchair through the loop but with all the debris on the trail it seemed like we ended up with her walking and my carrying the wheelchair at least as much as her riding. 🙂  I guess there was still enough riding without too much walking as Susan kept saying she was having fun.  At one of the overlooks we walked out onto the lake bed to take some photos and look for eagles.  That side trip made for an interesting view on my tracking app as it shows a map of us walking out into the middle of the lake before resuming our hike on the trail.  

After our hike we drove around the lake and its headwater and tailwater areas with the hope of seeing an eagle or two.  While none were seen during our hike on the “Blue Heron Trail”, we did see a pair of heron during our drive.  While we struck out as far as seeing any eagles, it was a nice afternoon spent together as a family with a stop on the way home where we each had a Frosty to help us overcome the energy expended during our hike.  With no new wildlife photos from today, today’s photo is of one of my friends who stopped by outside my office yesterday morning to share a song of praise.  I did see a number of small songbirds like this on our hike today, but none of them stayed in one place long enough to photograph.  After a good day of relaxing family time, I will finish writing today’s page so I can get some sleep before heading into work early in the morning to make sure the building is cleaned and ready for our Sunday worship gathering.

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

• It’s difficult to recognize just how important even a short break in your schedule can be until you go a week without it.
• There are many ways to relax, but not each way is relaxing all the time.  Our means of relaxing needs to fit our need in order to really find it restful.
• Our circumstances where we are do not necessarily have to be the circumstances we settle for.  Sometimes we can change things where we are and sometimes we can change where we are.
• Expectations can drive us to new places in life.  Sometimes just being in the new place is reason enough for the expectation without having to have it fulfilled exactly as our mind imagined.
• Difficulty can destroy us if we let it, but overcoming difficulty can bring us great joy.
• Sometimes we must be emptied so that we have room to contain what is coming.
• The times of emptiness in our life are usually not all that attractive, but they can serve a purpose if we allow the emptiness to be filled with the right things.
• Songs of praise should always be heard even when, and perhaps especially when, the one singing can’t be seen.

Page 83 was a Friday which I planned to be a short workday after working all day Thursday which I normally have off.  I headed to work at my usual early hour to get the cleaning and building prep done for the day.  When I took the first round of trash out, it was still dark with a fairly heavy cloud cover.  As I finished up the cleaning and the students began arriving for school, I noticed that there was a small break in the clouds where the sun was trying to shine through.  It caught my attention enough that I went out and shot a few photos before taking care of some work in the office for the day.  As I was wrapping up my tasks for the day, I received a message that the service company wanted to do our fire alarm system inspection and testing today.  I called them to see if there was another day that would work only to find out they were on their way.  🙂

To keep the fire department from responding to this test, I called our security company to let them know we would be having work done on the system.  My first couple attempts didn’t reach anyone, so I tracked down a direct number to the monitoring company and asked them not to send anyone in response to alarms that may go off this morning.  The rest of the morning was spent with the inspection crew in the building and making sure everything was in working order.  When they finished up their work I received a printed report which I quickly read through looking for one thing — confirmation that we had passed and the system was working properly.  Sure enough, it stated the one thing I like to hear — everything was as it should be.

By the time that was finished and I had taken care of some other issues that had come up, it was early afternoon and I had put in a full day of work in spite of my plans to not do that today.  While I’m not a fan of Daylight Savings Time because of the difficulty in getting used to the time change twice a year, I do enjoy when it stays light later in the day.  After a late lunch, we took advantage of the daylight to do some walking as a family and spend some time along Lake Michigan taking some photographs.  As we walked out on the pier in St Joseph, Michigan, it was lined with people fishing.  Today’s photo shows a portion a portion of the pier with a lot of lines in the water.  In case you’re wondering, I didn’t catch anything.  There may be a number of reasons for that, but the most basic reason is that I wasn’t fishing.  There did appear to be a good number of fish being caught, and while I don’t know if everyone with a pole caught something, I do know they had a better chance of doing so than I did.  

The time on the pier made me wonder about the fishing we’re doing — or not doing.  As Jesus called His disciples away from their nets and boats, He told them they would become fishers of men.  This is the same task that Jesus calls each of us to as His disciples.  Just like fishing for fish, fishing for people requires that we be intentional about our efforts to catch someone.  We must not only be prepared, we must go to where the people are and actively engage them with the same thing that attracted you and I to Jesus — His love which calls for each of us to repent of our sin and find forgiveness.  I don’t think there is anything more powerful than for a person to know they are loved and to know that God has made a way for them to be forgiven.

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

• Sometimes it is hard to allow God to direct my steps when I already have a way planned out.
• It becomes even more difficult when I continually pursue the way I have planned when God is directing my steps elsewhere.
• When I hold my way loosely and seek God’s direction for my steps, I find I live with much greater peace.
• Sometimes God does more through things we don’t expect anything out of than what we could think or imagine.
• To catch fish, I have to do more than just show up — I have to be prepared and equipped, and I actually have to fish.  The same applies to being a “fisher of men”.

The building was taking longer than usual to clear out last night and I was tired so I decided I would head home before cleaning and then go in early this morning to do the building prep for the day.  Coming home early last night and going into work early this morning sounded like a better plan last night than it did when my alarm went off this morning.  Page 82 began with frost on the truck under a clear sky as I headed into work early.  Once there I went about my cleaning and building prep tasks.  When I took the first load of trash out I took my camera with me to shoot a few photos of the moon which had been bright in the sky on my drive in.  When I got outside, the sky was full of clouds and the eastern horizon was glowing with a brilliant selection of colors.  It looked like it was setting up to be a pretty spectacular sunrise so I went in to get my tripod so I could set my camera up to time-lapse the next fifty minutes.  If this works, today’s photo is actually the ten second video of those fifty minutes of this morning’s sunrise.

As I was shooting some photos of the sunrise and then watching this time-lapse video, I kept thinking about what an incredible view I would have missed had I followed my normal routine and cleaned last night so I could sleep in this morning.  It made me think of God’s faithfulness as the sun rises each morning whether I am awake to see when it happens, or not.  As much as I enjoy sleep and benefit from it, I receive greater joy from watching God’s handiwork as He puts it on full display to be seen by all who would care to look.  

One of the factors that went into my decision to rearrange my schedule to go into work on a morning that I would normally have off was to get some outside work done while the forecast was calling for favorable weather.  After the cleaning was done and the building ready for the day I followed up on some correspondence and then headed outside to grade the trails and do some work on the church property.  While it was dry, the temperature was much colder than I had expected so by the time my morning was finished I was feeling rather chilled.  I finished the workday taking care of some tasks in the office while I enjoyed a cup of hot coffee to warm up.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing at home before firing up the pellet grill to cook some chicken for dinner.  With an event in the building tomorrow evening, my Friday won’t be a normal  late night schedule for me so I’ll do the early morning tasks and whatever else may need done before calling it a day.  

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

• God’s mercies are new every morning.  I pray that you and I are observant enough to notice them and willing enough to receive them.
• Trusting God means that I seek Him for direction in every decision and believe He will work each decision together for good as I move forward in faith.
• God delights in His children and goes to great lengths to let them know that.
• Sometimes our expectations keep us from paying attention to the things God wants us to see and know.
• Routine is important to me but watching God work when my routine gets rearranged is even more valuable.
• An awareness of God’s presence ought to never leave us regardless of what we are doing.
• We have many ways to warm ourselves physically, do we make use of the ways God has given us to warm ourselves spiritually?