Winter has maintained its hold on the weather for now, so I dusted a fresh layer of snow off my truck before I headed into work early this morning.  As I arrived at work, it appeared either the ice melt that was put down yesterday continued to work or the wind had selectively cleared the snow from the walks.  Regardless of why, the good news was that I didn’t have to be out in the cold clearing snow this morning.  Instead of facing the cold wind, page 73 began with the cleaning and building prep.  I took the trash out under the light of a nearly full moon set in a crisp star-filled sky.  There were hints of the sun dancing on some of the puffs of clouds in the eastern sky, but the actual sunrise didn’t take place until after the building was ready for the day and the students had begun to arrive.  

I had just sat down to go through messages and follow-up on some information I was seeking when I got word that the school was having computer network issues.  So, the next while was spent trying to figure out a system that no one knew anything about and had been changed to something I was no longer familiar with.  It didn’t take too long for me to see what the conflict was in the network, but because there was no information on how it had been set up to work, I needed to be cautious so as not to cause bigger problems while I resolved the current problem.  I eventually created a workaround for the issues that got the network up and running for the day and it seemed to be functioning according to the needs of the users.

The rest of the morning was back to the messages and trying to track down the information I was working on earlier.  Throughout the morning the birds filled the trees outside my office window and I was blessed by their songs of praise.  As I would stop and photograph them from time to time, I noticed that some of them seemed to be watching me as much as I was watching them.  Today’s photo is of what I think is a finch that appears to be staring me down as I took its picture.  I was fascinated by its coloring — the same colors that can be seen in the brush surrounding where it is perched.  In fact, there are times when I glance out the window and think that the birds have all left for the day and then I begin to notice movement.  Some would say they adapted well, I say God has done an incredible job of creating the right things for the right settings.

By early afternoon, my workday was complete and I headed to lunch before going home to spend an afternoon filled with quiet and rest.  I still haven’t fully kicked the cold/sinus crud, so it feels like I’m always worn down and needing rest.  I suspect that the time change has confused my body clock as well, so perhaps I’ll feel more energetic once spring weather actually arrives.

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

• Preparation is better than being unprepared.
• Asking people to join you in praying about something when you have no intention of listening, really isn’t prayer — it’s just a show.
• Choosing our own path of connection with God will generally leave us feeling disconnected.
• Instead of trying to restore a connection path of our own making, it is usually more productive to return to God’s design for how we should connect with Him through His Son.
• God has designed His children to walk in such a way that we become invisible while Christ becomes magnified in us.
• When people pay attention, even when they don’t see us they ought to see the movement of God in our life.
• Sometimes we must be deliberate about drawing near to God to find rest for our soul. 

With today being the first workday following the weekend’s “spring forward” time change, it felt like I was up even earlier than what the clock said.  It had snowed overnight, so there was no hitting the snooze as there was a lot to get done before the start of the school day.  While the snow didn’t add up in depth, it was a wet snow so the leaf blower didn’t do any good today — it was old school shoveling and then putting down some ice melt to help keep the walks clear.  After the outside was ready, I turned my attention to the inside cleaning and building prep.  

Once the building was ready, I turned my attention to settling in with God to work on the prayer guide for next week.  I don’t know if it was tiredness or an accumulation of situations around me, or probably a combination of both, but today was tough coming up with a topic as I seemed to constantly be fighting off topics I knew were only from my mind.  Sometimes there are things going on around me that I am tempted to address in a prayer guide, but I know that wouldn’t be right so I’m thankful that I’ve developed a habit and process that commits to listening to God until I’m confident it’s His topic that I’m covering and not my own.  As I drew in nearer to God to be more deliberate about listening, a variety of birds gathered in the brush outside my office window.  Among them were several pair of bluebirds, including the one in today’s photo that had just plucked a seed out of the sumac head she was perched on.  

I suppose for some people they could be a distraction, but watching the birds always helps me to recognize the presence and goodness of God.  As I watched and photographed the birds, I spent time in God’s Word drawing into His presence.  As I prayed about what God would have me share, the word “saved” kept showing up in my scripture reading and in my mind.  Sometimes I think we, or at least I, take being saved for granted.  Or we struggle with how we’re saved, what we’re saved from, what we’re saved to do, how we remain saved, and probably other questions depending on our background and upbringing.  Once that word was settled in my mind, the prayer guide flowed together as I could feel God’s presence flow into the daily prayer points.  

After the prayer guide was written, I did the formatting and scheduling so it would be ready to go out early Sunday morning.  Because the prayer guide had taken a lot longer today than most weeks, I ended up working a long day as I spent all afternoon working through some additional writing and ideas for some prayer-based teaching.  

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

• Always be ready is a good plan for the uncertain Michiana weather, but it is also what God expects of us when it comes to sharing about the hope that we have in Christ.
• While it can be tempting to use God’s gifting to promote a personal agenda, that is not what God gives it for.
• When it is difficult to hear God, it is important to pursue an even greater commitment to listening.
• If God’s presence seems to be distant, it is good to spend time noticing how His presence constantly surrounds us.
• While it may be easy to carry a verse or two with us that we think define specific theology points, most of the time doing so will cause us to miss the full depth of God’s teaching in that area.
• Sometimes the best thing we can do is to keep at it until God gives the result that He desires we have.

I’m not sure which hour of daylight I was supposed to have saved, nor how to withdraw any of this daylight from my savings, but page 71 began with a missing hour of sleep as the clocks jumped forward an hour overnight as part of the Daylight Savings Time ruse.  I use the term, “ruse”, because it is a sleight of hand that has no real ability to add, or subtract, a single moment of light to or from a day.  You might say I have an opinion about this whole “time change” thing and that opinion isn’t too favorable. 🙂

Once the day got started, it was off to the church building for Sunday school and worship.  Our Bible study class is in 1 Thessalonians and today we looked at Paul’s reminder to the Christians of the message of the gospel that they believed.  While there were individuals attempting to bring confusion into the church, Paul affirmed that the teaching He had shared with them about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus was not only true but shared with pure motives and love for them.

In our morning worship gathering, David continued his series from the gospel of Luke with the message, “What Is Better?”.  The primary text was the story of Mary and Martha where Martha was busy doing tasks that needed done and wanted Jesus to tell Mary to help her.  In the ensuing dialogue, Jesus not only addressed Martha’s attitude, He also made it clear that Mary had chosen what was better by her listening to Him.  But it’s not just a story — it is an example for us to learn from and act upon.  Here are some lessons from each of these sisters that we should learn from and examine our lives for which traits we need to surrender to Jesus and which we need to cultivate.

• Martha:
  • Distracted – Life is full of distractions.  For most Christians, the distractions are not necessarily bad or sinful, they’re just good things that keep us from choosing what is best.  Martha was so busy taking care of things that needed done in opening up here home to guests, including Jesus, that she seems to have missed the advantage of Jesus actually being in her home.  How often do you and I become so distracted by the tasks of life that we forget the very presence of Jesus dwelling within us.
  • Worried – If the distractions don’t get us, worry is often close on its heels to keep us from trusting God.  Jesus said that Martha was worried about many things — likely about how everything was going to get done that was on her list.  Worry puts a barrier between us and God because it plants doubts in our mind about God’s trustworthiness.  I know we often have a tough time when it comes to distinguishing between genuine concern and worry, but perhaps a good measurement would involve determining if we are being drawn to God or feel blocked from God.  Concern should draw us to seeking God for wisdom and His solution.  Worry puts up a wall between us and God as we begin to doubt we can trust Him.  
  • Upset – Being upset has a way of isolating our mind from any good thoughts and positive direction.  When we are upset, our entire view of who or what we are upset at changes.  Being upset keeps us from having an accurate view of a situation as our mind focuses solely on the cause of being upset rather than on a solution.  Martha was upset.  She was upset with her sister.  She was upset by thinking she had to do all the work.  Perhaps she was even upset with Jesus for not noticing all that she was doing and send Mary to help  her.  Jesus said she was upset about many things and it was keeping her from noticing the better things.
• Mary: 
  • Sitting – Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus.  Sitting is a good counter-measure to distractions.  Life has a way of presenting too many good options to us all at once.  When we choose to sit with Jesus, we show that He is better than all the other things we could be doing.  Yes, our times of sitting should lead us to doing the things we learn from Jesus, but sitting helps us to overcome the distractions and hear what Jesus is saying.
  • Listening – Mary wasn’t sitting in order to avoid the work her sister was doing, she was intent on listening to what Jesus had to say.  Deliberately listening helps us to overcome worry because in our times of listening we learn that God can be trusted.  God continues to desire to communicate with us through prayer and His Word, but to do so effectively, we must listen.  Our listening needs to be done in a manner that is causes us to respond appropriately to what God is saying.
  • Choosing – While it is easy to make excuses for our Martha-like behavior, God says that Mary’s response to Jesus was a choice she made.  Yes, distractions, worry, and being upset can be more natural to us than the alternatives, but we have the option to choose what is better.  Choosing the better combats being upset because in doing so, we decide that the things or people who have made us upset do not have mastery over us.  For most people, sitting and listening to Jesus requires that we choose to do so — it doesn’t just happen.  

Following the worship gathering, I spent a lazy afternoon doing as little as possible.  Susan was not feeling well and had seizures throughout the afternoon, so I provided some comfort to her and eventually took a nap.  With no photos being taken today, I chose one from Friday morning for today’s page.  I had set my camera up to time-lapse photograph the sunrise while I worked in the building and when I came outside there were two deer that seemed to have an interest in my camera.  They saw me and headed to the end of the field, but stopped there to pose while they continued to keep an eye on me.

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

• Change is difficult — especially when the change makes no logical sense.
• It is good to be reminded not only of the purity of the gospel message you have responded to, but to examine the purity of the gospel message you are sharing.
• We all make choices multiple times each day.
• It is good to have the wisdom to choose good over evil, but how often do we consider choosing what is better over what is simply good?
• Distractions can be reduced by learning to deliberately sit at the feet of Jesus.
• Worry can be reduced by learning to deliberately listen to the words of Jesus.
• Being upset at things and people can be lessened by learning to choose the better for our self and valuing the better choices of others.

I finally had a morning when I slept in well past sunrise.  I’ve had mornings recently when my schedule would have allowed for it, but I still found myself awake before dawn.  That wasn’t all bad as it allowed for some great sunrise photos, but I think I reached the point where sleep was more useful to me than some more photos. 🙂  When I did wake up, I came downstairs to pour my usual morning glass of ruby red grapefruit juice.  As I looked at the drink I had just poured, I couldn’t figure out what was so different about it this morning until I realized it was coffee creamer and not grapefruit juice!  After laughing at myself, I set the creamer aside and got the juice I wanted to start my day with.  

I eventually used the creamer in my coffee after I finished my juice, then spent time checking email and catching up on social media posts.  With a discipleship discussion scheduled for the afternoon in Dowagiac at the church I preach at once a month, I headed out late in the morning to stop by Lake Michigan on my way.  Today’s photo was taken during that stop from under a shelter at Silver Beach in St Joseph, Michigan.  It is hard to imagine that it won’t be long before it will be nearly impossible to get this shot without it being filled with people.  Today’s below-freezing temperature and cold wind coming off the lake made it feel like spring and summer are a long way off, but the calendar says otherwise.  

After the brief stop at the lake, I headed over to the North Wayne Mennonite Church where a wonderful couple led a discussion on the cycle of making disciples.  Disciple making begins with understanding and accepting God’s call for all believers to make disciples.  Most of us can quote what we call the “Great Commission”from Matthew 28, but what are we actually doing about it?  Even when we understand our responsibility to make disciples, we have difficulty in crossing over the threshold of comfort and familiarity to help someone else be a follower of Jesus.  The moment we step out of our comfort zone, we open ourselves up to difficulties and temptations that we may have never had to deal with before.  It is in the midst of those challenges that we find ourselves with a choice to make.  Most of us can only hold up under them for a limited amount of time, so we either have to run back to a place of safety and comfort or die to self and move forward.  Being a disciple means that we are learning from and following Jesus, who left the ultimate comfort of heaven to consider our need and the will of His Father to be more important than life itself.  

There is good news in this death to self, though.  When we die to self, the gospel that is planted within us can be brought to life and bear much fruit.  In the end, we make disciples not because we have the most skill or the catchiest slogan or the best marketing strategy; no, we make disciples because we choose to be crucified with Christ so that we no longer live but Christ lives in us and the power of the resurrected Christ draws those around us to Himself.  At the end of the afternoon, I headed home and thought about how willing I am to be like Jesus, who described Himself as a kernel of wheat which must fall to the ground and be buried in order to be raised up and bear much fruit.  Disciple making at its core is to be buried with Christ so that we are raised up with Him to produce much fruit within the kingdom of God.  

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

• Sometimes the body wakes up before the mind does.  It’s okay to laugh at yourself when that happens, but also remember that it can happen to others as well.
• When we are weary, the things we do aren’t always the things we want to do or even the things we should do.
• Understanding the reason for something not being right isn’t the same thing as accepting it.  Understanding leads to change, acceptance leads to excuses.
• Appearances can be deceiving.  Just because something looks or sounds nice, doesn’t mean that it is.
• If you are a disciple of Jesus, you will be making disciples.
• My obedience to God is the disciple-making standard I must live by.  I don’t win by making more disciples than someone else, I win by being faithful to God’s calling.
• Jesus and His grace are the only standards I need measure myself by.
• If I’ve truly died to self, then it is Christ in me that completes any accomplishment of His will.

I woke up before the alarm went off this morning with an itching sensation along my nose and around my eye.  As my doctor had just removed a cyst from that region Wednesday morning, I knew better than to attempt to scratch that itch — at least while I couldn’t see what I was doing — as I didn’t want to tear out the stitch that had been put in.  So I got up and bleary-eyed made my way to a mirror where I could satisfy the itch without doing myself harm.  I’ve had enough stitched up wounds in my life to suspect the itching is a sign of healing taking place, which is a good thing.  

Since I was up, I headed into work early to get the cleaning done and the building ready for the day.  As I took out the trash, there was just the right mix of clouds and clear sky that I anticipated a beautiful sunrise.  One of my cameras has a time-lapse setting where I can put it on a tripod and it will take a picture every five seconds then flow them together into a video.  Its default setting keeps shooting for fifty minutes and turns it into a ten second video clip.  I normally adjust it to make the video run at half speed so it lasts twenty seconds, but even then the clouds fly across the sky as the sun rises quickly.  Anyhow, I set it up to do its thing and then went back inside to finish the tasks that needed done before the start of the school day.

Once the building was ready for the day, I collected my camera and shared the video on social media before checking messages from yesterday.  One of the messages was letting me know that the final parts I had ordered for my tractor were in.  After taking care of a few things in the office, I picked up the parts and spent the morning working on the tractor so it will once again be a useful tool for my outside work.  By early afternoon I had already spent eight hours at work and it was time to take a break and get some lunch.  As I grabbed lunch and headed down to Potato Creek, the beautiful mix of sun, clouds, and blue sky turned to a completely overcast afternoon.  The wind was cold, and with the sun hidden behind the clouds, I took a short hike and shot a few photos before heading back to work.  As I made my way back to the building, the clouds began to break up and soon the sky had returned to the beautiful mix of sun and clouds that had been present earlier.  

As I prepared for the evening cleaning to get the building ready for Sunday, a cardinal showed up outside my office window.  Normally they will perch in the brush as they eat berries or pick seeds out of the sumac heads, but this one was hopping along in the grass with the bright sun shining down upon him.  He seemed intent on posing, so I got my camera out and took some photos and included one of them on today’s page.  I joked about him stopping by to see if I took walk-ins for custom photo sessions.  Since he was such a great representative of God’s creativity, and he was posing so well, I said I would take his photo without an appointment. 🙂

That bright sun that the cardinal was enjoying turned into a beautiful evening sunset.  I took a short break from the cleaning tasks to take a few sunset photos and start the writing of today’s page.  Once I’m done with the writing, it will be back to cleaning for a couple hours and then head home.

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

• Reactions are not always helpful.  It is usually wise to think before you act.
• How we deal with discomfort can either be helpful in bringing relief, or we can cause even greater pain.
• Recording the details of events over a period of time through some type of journaling allows us to have greater insight into just how much movement and activity God has been doing in our life.
• Taking the time to repair and/or maintain equipment makes hard work easier once the equipment is usable.
• Taking the time to repair and/or maintain the spiritual tools God has given us makes difficult spiritual work easier as we walk by the Spirit.
• Some days will seem cold and cloudy.  Keep walking with Christ and allow Him to bring you into the warmth of His light.
• God surrounds us with reminders of His creativity and beautiful work.  If you’re not noticing it, you may need to learn to sit with Him and listen.

As I wrote yesterday’s page, I wasn’t sure if I would work late or call it a day and go to work early this morning.  Since I was still at work when I wrote the page, I ended up staying to do the cleaning and building prep for today.  So, page 68 began with my being able to sleep in . . . which means I didn’t get up until about 7:30 this morning.  I probably would have gone back to sleep except I looked out the window and saw a beautiful sunrise starting to take place.  It got enough of my attention that I got dressed and went outside to take a few photos.  Today’s photo was shot looking down the road in front of the house as the sun made its way over the horizon, lighting up the eastern sky as it rose.  

As Susan slept the morning away, I caught up on some correspondence and looked at some options for selling some of my unused, or little used, camera equipment.  I found a new wide angle lens I am looking at, so it would be helpful to pay for it with the sale of some equipment I have already upgraded from.  Getting rid of things is difficult for me for a lot of reasons, and for some reasons I’m probably not even aware of.  My mind is a trap that holds onto so many memories and it always feels like getting rid of the things which are associated with those memories somehow diminishes them.  Even if the  item doesn’t have specific memories associated with it, there is always the thought that I might still have a use for it sometime in the future — what if I get rid of something because I haven’t used it for a long time, and end up needing it the week after it is gone?  I know, not likely, but it is possible. 🙂

By late morning Susan was ready to get up.  As she got dressed for the day, I got breakfast around for her and then got some pulled pork out of the freezer to start warming it up for lunch.  Once it was heated, it was just as tasty as when I pulled it off the pellet grill a few weeks ago.  After lunch, I spent some time on the computer and played some games on the Wii system before giving in and taking a nap.  Tomorrow will be another long workday, so even with the nap, I will head to bed early as I continue to battle round two of the cold/sinus crud that seems to drain my energy.  

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

• The things we become accustomed to often form the basis for what we believe is “normal”.  
• To accept the truth of God’s Word as the norm for all aspects of our life, we must spend so much time with it that we are accustomed to its precepts.
• A variety of things may motivate us to get up and do something.  Is obedience to God’s Word one of those things in your life?
• Are there things you are holding onto that are a hindrance to your ability to move forward in your relationship with Christ?
• When I view all of my things as belonging to God, I tend to be less possessive of them while treating them with greater value.
• Hoarding may be a psychological and/or neurological issue, but it also may be an issue of not trusting God to provide what is needed when it is needed.
• God’s design of our bodies often gives us warning signs when extra care is needed.  Do we pay attention to those signs?

My workday began in the usual fashion of cleaning bathrooms, sweeping floors, taking out trash, and other typical janitorial tasks.  Most of us have tasks that we do on a regular basis, whether they are a part of our work or simply a part of our life.  For me, the key to keeping the routine tasks from becoming a thing of drudgery is the attitude I approach them with.  Yes, I have my moments and sometimes they are longer than moments — such as when it becomes routine to have to turn off lights that have been left on all night — but it is in those times that I especially have to guard my heart and mind to keep the attitude I ought to have.  I do that by turning the times of routine into prayer times.  And the more mundane the routine tasks are, the more focused my prayer time becomes.  My cleaning routine is usually so consistent that I often finish and then second-guess myself about whether I missed something.  When I doubt, or don’t remember, I go back and check and so far, every time I had already done the task I wasn’t sure about.  I call it auto-pilot mode.  Tasks that I need my hands for, but don’t necessarily need a lot of mind presence to accomplish.  It is in those morning hours that I can pray and seek God for a proper attitude for the day and listen to His direction for how I ought to serve.

Once the building was ready for the day, I sat down and typed out yesterday’s page before the lessons of the day slipped from my mind.  While I pray that these daily pages are an encouragement to those who read them, in reality they are my process of journaling as I am able to both record the lessons God is teaching me and review them when needed.  After the page was written, I headed out for a doctor’s appointment.  I’ve had a lump on the side of my nose that has been growing for the last few months so I made an appointment to have my doctor look at it.  Just to be safe, I stopped at McDonald’s to get some breakfast on my way to the appointment as anything medically related has a tendency to make me pass out, and even more readily if I haven’t eaten recently.  After looking at it and calling it some big word cyst, he said he could remove it while I was there.  I was glad I had stopped to eat, but warned him that I may take a nap during the procedure. 🙂  After he had numbed up the area and began to work on it, my mind began to mess with my body.  There was no pain and I couldn’t really feel what he was doing, but my mind was playing out all the details of all that it thought was likely going on.  Long story short, a couple cold washcloths on the forehead managed to avert the passing out but I know I was close.

The drive back to work was an adventure as the wind had become fierce.  As I worked in the office the rest of the day putting things away from yesterday’s conference trip and doing inventory while repacking the remaining books, a squirrel was outside at the very top of some small trees eating the fresh buds.  As he clung to the tiny branches, he was being waved back and forth in the wind yet managed to maintain his grip and kept on eating what he could find.  I kept thinking that eventually it would fling him out of the tree and I would see a squirrel flying past the window, but that never happened.  This guy wasn’t going to let anything stop him from feasting on these spring delicacies.  As I write today’s page waiting for the building to clear out so I can get the building ready for tomorrow, I’m becoming more aware of the area that the cyst was removed from.  I guess I’ll see how it feels by the time the building empties as to whether I do the cleaning tonight or head home and come back early tomorrow.

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

• Sometimes living a lifestyle of prayer is more about maintaining a proper attitude than anything else.
• As with the communication we have with others, prayer ought to take place in a variety of styles and forms as we spend time in conversation with our Father.
• Our work time prayers may look different from our bed time prayers which may look different from our quiet time prayers which may look different from our corporate worship prayers, but that is not only okay, it’s expected.
• When it comes to medical things, my mind can turn simple procedures into major deals.  How often do we do that with minor issues in life?
• We ought to pay close attention to the warning signs that God puts into our life to let us know we are close to becoming spiritually unconscious.
• When it comes to feasting on the Word of God, we ought to be so diligent that absolutely nothing can shake us from it.

Page 66 was a long and full day, so I’m doing the actual writing of the page the next morning.  The day began early as I headed into work to do the usual morning cleaning and building prep before the start of the school day.  After cleaning bathrooms and hallways, I did a morning walk-through of the building then began loading the prayer ministry display material in the truck for the CCCA conference.  Even with a light drizzle, the air surrounding the building was filled with the sounds of praise as the cardinals were out sharing their joyous song.  

With the truck loaded, I headed out of town on my way to Gull Lake Ministries in Hickory Corners, Michigan for the “vendor fair” of the Christian Camp & Conference Association’s Great Lakes Super-Sectional Conference.  As I headed north, it felt like the wind was fighting against me, so I made a quick stop along Lake Michigan only to be surprised that the waves weren’t very significant.  My next stop was Sam’s Club to get bait — chocolate to put on the display table to entice people to stop at least for a moment. 🙂

I arrived at the conference location shortly before noon and began setting up my display.  As I worked, they announced that lunch was being served in the cafeteria, so I paused my work and went to get lunch.  I had been to this conference several times in the past as a camp staff member, so I was familiar enough with where things were and what to expect.  I did notice two big differences, they had completely remodeled the dining area to enlarge it and open it up to even more light as it overlooks Gull Lake and today the surface of the lake was rather choppy where in previous visits there were people out ice fishing on it.  j

After a good lunch, I headed back to the gymnasium area to finish up the display and wait for the vendor fair to begin.  It is a limited amount of space with a lot of people coming through in a relatively short amount of time.  The atmosphere and acoustics make it rather loud, so conversations seem to involve trying to out-talk the surrounding noise.  There were a number of good conversations and quite a few resources were put into the hands of camp staff.  I did bring more back with me than I had hoped, but being my first time with a display at this conference, I may have overestimated what I needed to take.  The most surprising thing to me was that very little of the chocolate was taken!  

Once the vendor fair part of the conference was over, I packed up the display and materials and loaded them back in the truck.  As I left the property, the morning drizzle and gray sky and turned into a somewhat warm, sunny day.  Since my route home takes me very near Lake Michigan and it was going to be the sunset hour as I went by, I had to stop and take some photos.  Today’s photo was taken in St Joseph, Michigan with the sun setting behind the lighthouse.  If you look closely, there is a person in the water on the far right side of the picture.  While not significant in size, there were enough waves that several people were out surfing on the cold waters of Lake Michigan.  Once the sun had set, I headed home and starting going through the day’s photos before deciding I needed to sleep so the writing of the page would have to wait until morning.

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

• Schedules and routine are important, but so is rest.  Jesus said, “Sabbath was created for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  I think the same principle can apply to schedules and routines.
• Our surroundings may change the sound of our worship, but they shouldn’t be able to silence it.
• The winds of life can produce waves that are either gentle and calming or waves that threaten to sink you.  The difference isn’t always the force of the wind but rather the direction it is coming from.  Seek to be moved along by the winds of God’s Spirit.
• A life that is lived well for Christ should be the “bait” that attracts people to wanting to hear about the hope that is within you.
• God calls each of us to let our lights shine, but to do so in a way that it is His light that is seen.