Page 81 is a Wednesday which means it will likely be a long workday.  I began the day early with the usual cleaning and building prep.  It was cold outside this morning but that just added a crispness to the air that made the moon and stars seem extra bright in the early morning sky.  As I took out some of the trash, there was a faint glow on the eastern horizon but without a cloud in the sky I didn’t anticipate much in the way of a colorful sunrise — at least not one that photographs well.  When I finished the morning prep the sun was beginning to crawl over the tree line to the east and appeared to be a perfect ball of fire making its way into the sky.  While beautiful to see, I haven’t figured out how to photograph that scene well without the clouds to diffuse some of the brightness and catch the various colors of light.

After the building was ready for the day, I settled into my office to spend the morning finishing up the missions record-keeping and accounting work that I had begun yesterday.  I always enjoy this task because it involves things I am good at — numbers, math, and accounting principles — but I enjoy it more so because it involves mission work in various parts of the world.  As it ought to be with all tasks that I do, this one is easy to include prayer as a key part of the work I do.  The correspondence and financial contributions which go to the missions Deer Run helps to support are useful to them, I’m sure.  But even more useful are the prayers that take place and go with every letter and check sent out.  

By early afternoon I had my office work done and headed to the post office to send out some mail.  After getting lunch I headed down to Potato Creek to spend some time with God, do some walking, and take some photos.  While I didn’t see any of the eagles today, there was a good variety of birds willing to have their photo taken. 🙂  The first part of my walk took me to an area of the park where there were swans, geese, ducks, heron, and osprey.  I sat out with this group quite a while as I took photos, watched, and listened to them interact with each other.  When I left that area of the park, I headed over to the other osprey nest where I took the photo which made today’s page.  It is rare that my photo-of-the-day is of the same subject two days in a row, but this photo of the two osprey working together to build their nest seemed like the right fit for today.  This pair of osprey seemed to be doing a good job of working together as they build their nest.  When one would arrive with a stick or branch, it would work at finding just the right placement for it while the other would take off in search of more nesting material.  By the time I left the park, they had taken a break from nest building and each of them could be seen atop their platform with a fish in their claws enjoying an evening meal together.

I headed back to the building to take out trash and make sure it was ready for the mid-week Bible study classes.  I’m writing today’s page as I wait for the building to clear out after the classes, but I’m considering heading home and coming in early in the morning rather than work late tonight.  I guess I’ll finish out the page and see how I feel when it’s done.

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

• The moon has no light of its own but many songs, poems, and stories have been written about the light of the moon.
• You and I have no light of our own but Jesus declared that His followers are the light of the world.
• Since we are to be the light of the world and we have no light of our own, it is critical that we become effective in reflecting the true light — Jesus.
• Gazing into the presence of God can be blinding and uncomfortable but when we reflect God’s glory, the people around us are able to see Him without becoming completely overwhelmed.
• Money by itself isn’t the answer to any problem.  It may be part of the answer but if God is not being listened to, having all the money you think you need will actually be part of the problem instead of part of the solution.
• People can accomplish great things when working together.  They can accomplish impossible things when working together with God.

Page 80 felt like a multi-season day.  As I headed out the door early, the moon was shining brightly but it was shrouded in a haze of high altitude moisture.  It looked and felt like the early spring morning that it was as I drove to work.  As I cleaned the building and took the trash out, the fog was rising off the ground in the pre-dawn darkness.  With the haze floating across the ground and a scattering of clouds in the sky, I set up my camera to record the sunrise as I went back inside to finish the building prep for the day.  Once the building was ready, I went back outside to shoot a few still photos and collect the time-lapse video that covered fifty minutes of the rising sun.  

Back inside, I spent the morning taking care of some missions tasks and beginning the monthly accounting and record-keeping for the missions work of the church.  As I worked, the sun continued to rise so I headed outside to take care of some tasks on the preschool playground.  A few weeks ago, a wind storm had rearranged some of the safety surface tiles and I have been waiting for a sunny, summer-like day to warm the tiles up enough that they would go back together easily.  They snap together like puzzle pieces and working on the black rubberized surface with the sun shining brightly on my back made it feel like summer.

By early afternoon I finished up the work on the playground and left to take care of some off-site tasks and get a late lunch.  After lunch I picked up my family and we headed down to Potato Creek to do some walking and take photos.  The park has a number of pair of Osprey that live there during spring, summer, and fall and today we saw the first pair that have returned from their winter away.  Today’s photo is one of the Osprey in the midst of a work in progress.  Every spring when they arrive, they build a huge nest where they will raise their young.  By late summer they begin to tear apart the nest until there is essentially nothing left when they head out for the winter.  Each year this process is repeated as they arrive in the park and start out with a fresh nest.  As we hiked through the park the temperature had dropped, a cold wind was blowing, and the sun was hidden behind some dense cloud cover making it feel more like a late fall day than early spring.  

At the end of our walk, we drove around to where we often see a Bald Eagle or two and I was able to photograph one as it soared overhead.  It wasn’t willing to land while we were there, but it is beautiful to watch as it glides through the sky.  As I unwind this evening and write today’s page, the temperature continues to drop with a forecasted low down into the twenties.  So with a day that began feeling like spring before changing to summer-like weather and then into an autumn feel, it’s going to end up feeling like winter.

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

• Change is inevitable.  Sometimes it’s faster than we would want, sometimes it’s slower than we would want, and often it’s not what we want but it still happens.
• The change that we have the most control over is our choice to change into the likeness of Christ.  He has to make the change in us, but we have to choose it.
• The change that we likely have the least control over is to change someone else to become like us.
• Many things, including the human will, are easier to work with under conditions which make them soft and pliable.
• We often hate the idea of starting over because we don’t do it often enough to realize its benefits.  
• A big part of beginning fresh is to get rid of every part of the old that holds us back.
• Deliberately beginning each day fresh with God helps to free us from the mess of yesterday’s struggles.  
• When it is our ideas that lead us into trouble and failure, it won’t be our ideas that lead us out.

I’m tired.  I have a mind that processes right and wrong in very black and white terms yet I live in a world that operates in various realms of gray.  The old song that says, “This world is not my home, I’m just a passing through” is a constant reminder that I need to figure out how to live as a visitor in a world that I don’t belong to.  I also realize that this is a time of year that I typically come out of a season of weariness.  It is in these times of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual weariness that I must be very careful to remember that I am responsible for my own integrity, not that of others.  

Page 79 began early as I needed to be at work to meet our pest control serviceman shortly before 6 AM.  As he did his work, I began my morning cleaning and building prep routine.  Going through the building in the early morning, I looked at some issues that had been brought to my attention on Sunday but couldn’t duplicate the problem they had described.  I’ll keep an eye on things this week and if nothing becomes apparent I will check with them for further details.  Once the building was ready for the day and the students began arriving, I settled in with God to work on the prayer guide for next week.  As I spent time listening, I settled on the topic of being ready.  The obvious, or hopefully obvious, part of being ready is our need to be ready for the return of Jesus.  But there are other things that the Bible says believers should be ready for, so as the morning progressed the prayer guide took form with a different aspect of being ready to pray about each day next week.

After I had the prayer guide written, formatted, and scheduled to send out Sunday morning, I had a conversation with a friend and coworker before heading to an afternoon lunch followed by a trip to pick up some janitorial supplies.  After picking up the supplies I headed to a park to enjoy a late afternoon walk with my family.  Even though it was an overcast day, the birds were plentiful and they filled the park with their joyous music.  One of them made it as the photo for today’s page.  He had flown into a tree in front of me and it took a long time for me to see where he landed as his coloring, or lack of it, helped him blend into his surroundings.  It was the song that helped me to narrow down the location so I could take the photo.

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

• There are many ways to be weary.  Understanding the ways in which we are weary and some of the why we are weary, should help us to know what is needed to overcome the weariness.
• When we live as a citizen of the kingdom of God, we should expect times when we don’t feel at home in any kingdom of this world.
• Controlling the response of others to the ways of the world is not my responsibility.  Giving control of my response over to God is my responsibility.
• What one person sees as a problem may not be apparent to someone else looking at the same thing.  
• Being ready for the return of Jesus is where our “being ready” needs to begin.
• Sometimes when we can’t see with our eyes, we need to listen.   

Page 78 was a Sunday and the beginning of week 12 in this year’s writing adventure.  Being a Sunday with no snow, I was able to sleep in beyond my normal waking up time and I suspect the extra sleep is helpful as I continue to keep a winter cold/sore throat combination from trying to take over.  I’ve managed to come close to being free from the cold symptoms a few times this winter, but that freedom has seemed short-lived.  

Our Sunday morning Bible class continued a study in 1 Thessalonians as we spent this morning in chapter 3.  Evident in this study, as in all of his writings, is Paul’s intense love for the people who had accepted the message of the good news of Jesus.  His love is really seen for all people, but he has a great concern that believers would understand the temporary nature of hardship compared to the eternal glory of life with Jesus.  It is important that believers everywhere hold fast not only to the teachings of Jesus, but to Jesus Himself as the tempter works hard to draw us away from the faith that saves us.

As we gathered for worship this morning, David continued a sermon series from the gospel of Luke with a message about our life investments based on lessons from a “rich fool”.  Perhaps you are familiar with the parable Jesus told of a man whose land produced such a good crop that he decided to tear down all of his barns and build bigger ones to store all that he had so he could sit back and “eat, drink, and be merry.”  God is the one who calls this man a fool as he had saved up for himself without being “rich toward God.”  This man’s life would be required of him that very night and all of his work to prepare for a life of ease on earth would count for nothing.  As David pointed out, this man made three mistakes that we should pay attention to because they are not mistakes unique to this story — they’re also mistakes we are likely to make if we do not remain on guard.

These are three of the mistakes the “rich fool” made that we must remain aware of in order to remove them from our life.  

• He allowed his possessions to possess him.
  • While not something we would readily admit to, how often is our life direction determined by what we own or what we want to own?  When we fail to recognize God as the provider of every good thing in our life, we begin to fall into the trap of becoming possessed by our things.  Our “stuff” becomes the driving force behind all of our decisions and actions to the point that we believe what we have accumulated defines who we are.  This is extremely tough because our society works hard to make us believe in a “self-made man” scenario that is completely false.  The key to overcoming this mistake is to daily surrender everything to God and acknowledge Him as the giver of everything.
• He assumed there is only one kind of barn to store possessions in.
  • Because “the ground” had produced such an abundance of crops, this man concluded that the only thing that could be done was to build larger physical barns to keep his grain in storage.  How often do we experience the goodness of God and never think beyond who we can preserve it for our future enjoyment?  Jesus taught that there is a better “barn” that the physical storage places we use for our things.  He said we should store up for ourselves treasure in heaven.  We do so by the way we use the things that we treasure on earth to care for people.  When we are “rich toward God”, it is visible by the way we give of our time, our possessions, and our self.
• He thought he had all the time in the world.
  • The man in the parable made a decision that by storing up his possessions and using them wisely, he could live a life of ease for many years.  It never dawned on him, at least not until God showed up with judgment, that his life would not be long and prosperous.  He made plans for the years ahead but didn’t make plans for the eternity ahead.  Many people, perhaps you and I as well, put much greater effort into preparing for retirement than we do in preparing for eternity.  It is easy to think we have all the time in the world, and satan is pleased to keep us thinking that there is no reason to believe the time on earth is short.  God says that no one knows the day or hour of the return of Christ so we must be ready at all times.

After the worship gathering, it was time for lunch and then a little rest before heading out for a family walk.  Today we headed down to the St Joseph River and found a variety of wildlife to photograph, including a number of wood ducks.  Between the beauty of the ducks and the calm water which allowed for reflections in the photos, it was a great day for taking pictures.  Sometimes when we consider the lessons God is teaching us, we need to stop and see what the reflection of our life looks like to the people around us.  Our life ought to be a reflection of Jesus, so if people are seeing something different, we may need to spend some serious time with Him regarding changes we need to make.

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

• Battles often weaken us even when we win.  Win, lose, or draw, we need times of rest to renew our strength for the tasks God is calling us to.
• Studying God’s Word should always teach us something.  If it doesn’t, we may need to examine who we’re listening to.
• Mistakes are easy to make.  The key is to learn from our mistakes, and the mistakes of others, before they become deadly either physically or spiritually.
• Whatever we desire to own will often find a way of owning us.
• When we live as stewards in the kingdom of God, we recognize that God owns everything.
• Storing up treasure in heaven will have results that far outweigh and outlast any retirement plan on earth.
• God wants us to prepare wisely for tomorrow.  That means being ready not only for the work He calls us to, but also being ready should He call us home.
• Our reflection says a lot about us.  Do people see Jesus reflected in your life each day?

Friday night ended up being later night at work than I had anticipated as I went back and forth between cleaning and writing.  I have been having issues with my cell phone where it would shut off when I would answer it, or I couldn’t hear the person calling even though they could hear me.  My mom called this week and the phone wouldn’t let me answer the first time she called, so I decided it was time to get a new phone.  So, after I got home late last night I spent some time trying to get the service transferred from my old phone to a new one.  That meant that page 77 technically began with growing frustration as the transfer process didn’t seem to be going well.  I finally decided it wasn’t going to do what it should and with no way to contact tech support at that hour, it was time for me to get some sleep.  

With page 77 being a Saturday, not only did my schedule allow me to sleep in but my being up so late helped the sleeping in to actually happen.  When I finally woke up, I checked on the phone and even though it said the transfer was in process, more time had passed than what they had estimated on the website.  The good news is that I was within the tech support hours of operation and I could chat with them about what was going on.  It took most of the morning but I finally got a commitment that the transfer would be complete and I could use my new phone by 11:58 my time.  11:58 came and went and my old phone went off-line, which they said would be the sign the new one was ready to use, but the new phone still wasn’t working.  So, it was back to the tech support chat which said there was a 20 minute wait.  Instead of waiting, I called the tech support phone number which had an automated message saying the next available agent would return my call after at least a half hour wait.  So it was back to the online chat which gave the same nice spiel about the transfer being in process and I should wait until my old phone quits working.  I explained my old phone quit over two hours ago at this point and response is that he will have to connect me with a different agent who is a specialist in this area.  After a number of messages to wait, that he is waiting for a response from the other agent, I am told I will have to call their tech support phone number and have them handle the issue.  I make the call and get put on the list for the callback, which they eventually do.  I once again get the same story that the transfer is in process and I need to wait until my old phone no longer has service.  I explain that has been several hours ago now and he finally begins the troubleshooting process on their end to see how to make my new phone work.  After being on the phone with him for half an hour, we finally had success and my phone is working — I think as it should.

It probably would have been easier to start fresh.  To throw out the old phone and activate the new with a fresh number and service.  But that would have come with its own set of problems.  It would have required a new phone number which the people who use the old one wouldn’t know without work on my part.  It would have meant losing all of my minutes and data allowance that I have paid for.  I could have avoided the set of problems I ended up dealing with if I had been willing to accept the known limitations of doing so.  But by facing the unknown and dealing with it, I was able to move forward with an eventual better result all around.  

With another overcast and drizzly day, today’s photo is from a couple days ago.  To me it’s a picture of balance and the work involved in staying in balance.  It was a breezy day and this bird was clutching the twig with one claw while fanning out its tail to provide balance while it reached to reposition its footing while munching on fresh leaf buds that it discovered along the branch.  Sometimes we fall because we think we have used all resources available to us in maintaining balance.  More often we fall because we’ve not used the resources God has promised and provided to us through His Son.

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

• Sometimes we continue doing things that aren’t working simply because we don’t want to make the effort to do what does work.
• Often it is not until something fails at a time we counted on it that we begin to realize it hasn’t been working all along.
• Change takes work no matter how we go about it.  We would do well to work in such a way that the benefit of our effort is greatest for everyone.
• Sometimes we need a fresh start.  Sometimes we choose a fresh start because we don’t want to do the work required to actually change.
• One size fits all rarely fits all.
• Keep doing the same thing while expecting different results may be the definition of insanity, but most of us find it far more comfortable to do that than to admit we are wrong about something.
• Living a balanced life may seem difficult and even impossible, but we’ve not used all of our resources until we’ve trusted God to bring true balance.

Page 76 was another day that I was awake before my alarm went off.  Today was only fifteen to twenty minutes early, so I got up and headed into work since the forecast was calling for sloppy weather through the morning hours.  As I went through the building cleaning and praying, I kept watching out the windows for precipitation that would require me to put down ice melt or clear walks — I guess it was a new take on the instruction to “watch and pray”. 🙂  I got the building ready and took out the trash but the rain/snow/sleet mixture that was in the forecast hadn’t arrived yet.  Sometime after the students had arrived for the day, I noticed that the snow had begun falling with very large flakes that would float slowly to the ground.  Eventually the intensity of the snowfall picked up but it never managed to amount to any accumulation as the air temperature wasn’t cold enough for the snow to stay around.

After working on some projects in the office for part of the morning, I headed out with a “young” friend to visit and “old” friend who is in a residential rehab facility following surgery.  As has been the case through most of our friendship, I was there to pray for her and, more importantly, to give her a hard time about anything and everything as that is what she would expect from me in the way of encouragement.  Sometimes the best thing you can do for a person going through a tough time is to acknowledge the tough time but interact with them as much as possible in the same way you would have before the tough time.  At times they need to know they are still the same person to you as they go through so many changes that are beyond their control.

After our visit, my “young” friend, David, and I went out to lunch before heading back to work.  It was a drizzly, overcast day so I skipped the afternoon walk and photo taking and just continued the work I had begun in the morning.  Once the school and after-school care was finished, I began round two of cleaning for the day as I worked to get the building ready for Sunday.  The evening has been a combination of cleaning and writing as I would work on cleaning specific areas of the building and then take a break to write a little bit of today’s page before going to the next area of the building.  With no photos taken today, I went back and chose a photo from a couple mornings ago as the sun made its way up for the day while the lake effect snow moved in from the other direction.  Especially when the day has a gloomy feel to it, I always enjoy seeing the sun break through the layers of clouds and brighten the horizon.

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

• Watching and praying is always a good thing.
• We need to watch out for temptation even, and perhaps especially, as we pray.
• We need to watch for opportunity to do good as we pray.
• We need to watch for the working of God in our life and in the lives of others as we pray.
• It can be very difficult for an extreme introvert to understand how much a visit can mean to a person until you see it in their face.
• Sometimes we must step out of our comfort zone and into someone else’s comfort zone in order to encourage them.  
• “In the same way, let your light so shine that people would see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

One of the good things about writing out these pages each day is that I can look back and review the lessons I should have been learning.  While there are cleaning and prep tasks that I need to have done before the start of each school day, I am thankful for the great flexibility I have in my daily schedule that allows me to not only maintain the building and direct the prayer ministry, but also allows me to maintain a balance of life, ministry, work, and rest.  Wednesday’s are typically long work days for me by my choice because if I stay after the mid-week Bible studies and get the building cleaned and ready for the next day, I end up with a day that I can sleep in.  Sometimes after a long day, I find myself in the midst of an internal discussion about whether to stay and clean or head home and have to wake up early to come back.  Last night was one in which the day had been long and I gave serious thought to putting off the cleaning until this morning.  It didn’t take very long as I looked back on the benefit of being able to sleep in on Thursday mornings, that I decided to do the cleaning and prep last night before going home.

I did wake up while it was still dark this morning and gave thought to heading out somewhere to photograph the sunrise, but decided the rest was more useful and I laid down and went back to sleep.  When I did finally wake up for the day, the sun was shining brightly and was melting away yesterday’s snow.  Susan was still sleeping soundly so I fixed some coffee before checking email and messages while catching up on social media postings.  By late morning Susan was ready to get up, so I got her meds and breakfast out and made sure she had what she needed to get the day started.  When MJ came home from work, we went out to lunch then headed down to Potato Creek to enjoy the sunshine with a walk in the park.  

When we arrived at the park, one of the bald eagles was there to greet us but greeting was the only interaction on his agenda.  As we got out of the truck and grabbed cameras, we watched as the eagle left his perch high in the tree and headed out across the lake and out of view.  As we drove through the park before walking, I saw one of the juvenile bald eagles in a tree but he was directly between me and the sun so I couldn’t get any of the photo attempts to turn out.  As I tried to move to a better vantage point, he took off and was joined by a second juvenile eagle as they soared back toward the lake and out of sight.  Even though I ended up with no good eagle photos today, it was good to see them and to watch them soar — even if they were soaring away.  During our walk we passed by one of the wetland areas which ended up being the photo for today’s page.  It represented such a mix of the seasons as the ice and snow encrusted edges gave way to clear water and reflected tree lines.  

After our walk, we headed home and spent a relaxing evening as I began to work on today’s page.  I was thankful that I had chosen to work late last night and was able to rest today and have a relaxing time with my family.  Tomorrow will be another long day as I will need to get the building ready early for the start of the school day, and then get it ready for the weekend once all the activity in the building is done for the day.  Remembering what is coming just adds to the value of learning to rest and relax when the opportunity is available.

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

• I usually have a reason for dong what I do . . . sometimes I need to remind even myself about what those reasons are.
• It can be tempting to take the path that is easiest right now and lose sight of the bigger picture.
• Sometimes a little extra effort now can make for an easier time later.
• Writing each day’s page, or journaling, helps me to understand better approaches to life — especially in the repetitive routines I face.
• It is easy to fill up a day of rest with good things that are not that restful.  Knowing I need rest helps me to say “no” or “later” to the good things so I can get the rest that I know I need.
• My life isn’t all about me.  My choosing to work late one day so I can have a day of rest, also benefits my daughter who needs the rest even more than I do.
• Sometimes the experience of what God shows us is enough even if aren’t able to share it — maybe this moment was meant to be just between us.
• Even on days that appear “plain”, God will reveal His creativity and beauty if we pay attention and take the time to notice.
• Sometimes a day of rest is catching up from the past and sometimes it is preparing for the future — often times it is both.

Page 74 found me awake half an hour before the alarm was to go off, which left me with a dilemma of whether to get up or try to go back to sleep.  I ended up laying in bed resting a while before finally getting up and heading in to work.  A light snow had fallen during that extra half hour and continued to fall as I began the morning cleaning and building prep.  As I worked, the snow quit falling and I took the leaf blower out to clear the walks before coming back inside to finish the cleaning that needed done for the day.  After the students arrived for the day, the snow intensity picked up again as the sun began its crawl up over the eastern horizon.  While there was significant cloud cover, the sunrise was beautiful as the snow fell with a backdrop of a glowing sky.  As I headed out to take some photos, I discovered someone had driven up on the ball field and tore it up sometime over the past few days.  

This caused a change in my planned schedule as I spent a good part of the morning going through surveillance video trying to narrow down when it happened and see if the vehicle involved could be identified.  I finally tracked it down to taking place sometime around 7:30 Monday evening as a black (or dark) Ford Ranger pickup did some donuts in the parking lot before heading up onto our back lawn and doing donuts there to tear up the lawn.  As the guy that mows and maintains the lawn and property, it frustrates me that a person would have absolutely no respect for property that isn’t theirs.  As I worked on the video to save the clips showing the damage being done, the snow began to fall with some serious intensity.  It finally let up again a little before preschool pick-up time, so I started up the leaf blower and went back out to clear sidewalks again.  This time there wasn’t just a dusting of snow, but several inches to remove — but fortunately it was “lake effect” snow which is typically light weight and fluffy so it was easy to blow away.

When I came in from clearing the walks, I got word that the school was still having computer issues related to the standardized testing that they need to do this week.  So, I headed down to the school office and joined in on a conversation with the testing company tech person and ended up spending much of the afternoon trying to figure out together what was causing the problem.  I did everything I could, and everything he suggested, on my end with nothing seeming to make positive progress.  I backtracked the entire network and reset every piece of hardware I could find but even that didn’t seem to make a difference.  When we finally reached the end of things I could try on my end, it was time to step away and suggest that someone with more experience on both sides of the issue take a look at it.  As I went back to my office, the trees and brush were once again filled with birds — even one that I don’t see outside my window very often.  As I read about birds and listen to people talk who are into birding, a general consensus seems to be that blue jays are not very friendly.  They have a reputation for being loud and obnoxious and chasing off any other bird that it considers to be in its territory.  Yet today’s photo is of one of those blue jays perched outside my office window while the brush and ground surrounding him is filled with a variety of other birds including cardinals and finches.  It made me think about how God has the ability to make us better than our reputation.  As I made my rounds to collect trash before tonight’s Bible studies, I stopped by the school office to see if there had been any progress with the network issues.  As it turned out, the person overseeing the testing had come in and everything was miraculously working.  It seems that the resetting of the hardware that I had done may have done some good, but it required time for it to actually take effect.

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

• The way things are, are not necessarily the way things will be half an hour from now.  That is true of so much more than just the weather in Michiana.
• When we are able to recognize the beauty of a situation, the work involved in that situation doesn’t seem so great.
• Perhaps if we would recognize the beauty of people as God sees them, we wouldn’t think the work to reach them was too great to do.
• There are times that I appreciate what God does through the way my mind is formed — other times, I wish it was “normal”.  While I know the people are different and the response would never be the same, today when I saw the damage that had been done to the lawn, my mind immediately transported me back to my previous job where I was somehow the one in trouble for a similar incident that I had nothing to do with other than an expectation that I make it appear as if it had never happened — immediately!  
• There are times when we have to realize we’ve done the best we can with what we’ve been given by God, and then trust Him to take care of the next step.
• There is great beauty to be found in seeing God transform people who have reputations for not getting along with others into those who learn to share both space and life.
• Sometimes we need a reset in our life that also includes down time that allows the reset to work its way through every fiber of our being.