Page 256 was the beginning of another work week.  The alarm went off before 6 AM this morning so I could get the pellet grill fired up and some pork put on it to cook all day for pulled pork in the evening.  Once that was up and going, it was time to head to work and get the building cleaned and ready for the day.  Sometimes as I write these pages I feel as if I’m a broken record — repeating the same thing over and over again.  In a way, that’s true.  Most of us have routines of life that surround us as we get up each day and prepare for whatever that day may bring — which often carries a strong resemblance to the days ahead of it.  Routine in and of itself isn’t necessarily bad whether it’s in our work life or in our prayer life.  The deadly element with either one is when our routine creates an emptiness in what we do.  Some people do the same work for so long that they operate almost on auto-pilot without giving much thought to what they are actually doing.  The same can be true in our prayer life when it becomes such an ingrained part of who we are that we find our self going through the routine of prayer without really talking and listening to God.  For me, combining prayer with my routines of work helps to keep either of them from becoming empty practices.  The work of cleaning keeps my prayers focused on the people who will be using the areas I am working in.  The act of praying while I work helps to keep me focused on a greater purpose than just keeping things cleaned and maintained.

Once the building was ready for the day, it was time to settle in for my Monday writing routine.  I began by writing yesterday’s page as it was rather late last night by the time we got home from Lake Michigan and I had gone through most of the photos taken.  After yesterday’s page was written, I worked on the prayer guide for next week.  As I spent time with God, the subject of humility kept coming to mind so I began a search through scripture as I prepared to write the prayer guide with a focus of humility.  Sometimes we tend to think of humility as having a low view of self.  In fact, Biblical humility is just the opposite.  True humility is having a proper view of our self in relation to God.  It’s a view that puts Him in charge but lifts us up as having great value as His child.  When I know the value I have as God’s child, I find that pride and self-promotion are unneeded and have no place in my life.  

After the prayer guide was written, I spent some time finishing the writing of the final week of devotions in the “Devotions For Those Who Serve” series I have been working on.  This series contains 13 weeks worth of daily devotions with each week covering a topic related to how God would have us serve.  Today I wrote the final 3 days of devotions focused on serving with purity.  As we consider God’s command that serving others is a part of every Christian’s life, there are characteristics that help us to serve in a manner worthy of the calling we have in Christ.  The draft copies of week’s devotions in this series are available in pdf format from the Impact Prayer Ministry website.  I’m still working on what the finished print product will look like.  Considering either separate booklets for each week or a book compilation of the devotions for all 13 weeks — or perhaps even a combination of the two. 🙂

By the time my writing was complete it was mid-afternoon and, with the early start to the day, time to head home.  When I got home I fixed some lunch and then spent some time going through yesterday’s photos.  The photo I chose for today’s page stood out to me as I thought about today’s writings.  While there are times the lake front water looks dirty and uninviting, yesterday it was sparkling clear as it rolled onto shore.  While the water temperature was enough to keep most people out, the appearance of purity made it attractive to a few brave wave-jumping people.  Our purity, or lack thereof, as we serve will often make a difference in how inviting Jesus looks to the people who are watching our life.

I pray that you and I would seek to do everything with purpose.  I pray that our prayer life would help us to have focus in our work life.  I pray that our daily work would be filled with prayer.  I pray that we would live in humility in all that we do.  I pray that our view of ourselves would match God’s view of us.  I pray that we would seek God’s help in living wit purity in all aspects of our life.  I pray that our purity in serving would make the gospel of Jesus inviting to those who are paying attention.

Page 255 was a Sunday so the morning was spent in Bible study and worship at the church building.  Our adult Sunday School class is going through the book of Esther and this week we covered chapter 3 where Haman begins his plot to exterminate the Jewish people.  While the story is one of God rescuing His people, using a person put in place just for that moment, it is also a story of how pride and arrogance can eventually destroy us.  Haman used his position of power and influence to shine the spotlight on himself.  His pride was appalled that not everyone thought as highly of him as he thought of himself.  His anger at Mordecai’s refusal to bow and worship anyone but God ended up being a path that led to his own destruction.

After the Sunday School class, I had a great time of worship at Deer Run where David began a series from Nehemiah with an initial focus from chapter one on the prayer life of Nehemiah.  The opening of Nehemiah is one of my favorite prayer texts for many of the same reasons that were brought out in the sermon, although the thing I find most appealing about his prayer life is his occupation — he was cupbearer to the king.  Not a prophet.  Not a priest.  Not a king.  Not in “professional ministry”.  A worker.  A (somewhat) ordinary guy.  An exile.  A professional ministering where he was at, and doing so through prayer, regardless of why he was there or how he got there — kind of like what Esther ends up doing after a little encouragement.

After the church service, we headed to lunch then spent some down time at home just relaxing.  It was such a beautiful day, with the sky filled with puffy white clouds, that we decided to head out to take some pictures.  Our first stop was South Haven to photograph some lake scenes with the lighthouse.  As we drove down the street from downtown to the beach, the most notable feature was the plastic “tent” covering the lighthouse — so much for lighthouse photos there.  I did get some photos I liked and a short video clip of the gentle waves coming ashore so it wasn’t a wasted trip.  We left South Haven and headed down to St Joseph where the lighthouse they were working on much of last summer was uncovered and ready to be photographed.  We stayed there through the sunset and then headed home with a stop at Five Guys for supper.

As I reflect on the day, I wonder if you and I are more like Haman or more like Esther and Nehemiah.  Do we think more highly of ourselves than we ought or do we put the needs of others above our own?  Do we expect others to think more highly of us than they should or are we willing to serve others according to their need?  Do we allow our pride and anger to drive our actions or do look to God for direction and purpose in what we do?  Do we manipulate those around us in order to get our way or do we spend time in fervent, reverent, honest prayer in order for God’s will to be done in and through us?  Do we think more of our position or more of how God can use the position He has put us in?  I don’t think any of us would readily say we’re more like Haman, but what do our actions and attitudes say about us?  

I pray that you and I would humble ourselves before God, and others, as we seek to serve Him with our whole heart.  I pray that we would seek to honor God by the way we live no matter where we happen to be.  I pray that we would live in such a way that we are ready for the day the sun sets on our life here on earth and we enter life in the presence of God.

Page 254 has been a laid back Saturday, which is always good after a long Friday. 🙂  I was able to sleep in a little bit compared to my usual weekday wake up time, but was still up earlier than what I like to call “sleeping in”.  The rain that began last night continued into the morning, then reappeared mid-day before giving way to fall-like temperatures and blue skies dotted with fluffy white clouds.  With today’s photo being one I took yesterday at Potato Creek which is beginning to show some of the colors of fall, it is only fitting that today begins to feel like it.

Some of the morning was spent thinking about the events of 9/11/01 as tomorrow marks the fifteenth anniversary of what we simply call 9/11.  For most of us who were alive fifteen years ago, simply mentioning that date brings back a lot of memories and images which have been etched into our minds.  For most, the twin towers of the World Trade Center is the primary image that comes to mind as the loss and devastation of the attack was much more catastrophic and unbelievable in size compared to the attack at the Pentagon and the plane brought down in Pennsylvania.  Out of that reflection, I wrote a “bonus page” which I posted this morning.  Once I had written and posted that page, it was time to fire up the pellet grill and get the bacon cheeseburgers started for lunch.  After lunch I started going through photos from the past 12 months as I’m working at putting together a photo calendar for next year.  I didn’t get very far in narrowing down what I want to use, but I did decide that choosing the photos for the calendar will probably be the most difficult part of the project.  After supper I watched a movie with my family and now it’s time to write out today’s page before calling it a day.

On my mind a lot this afternoon has been the two phrases, “Always Remember” and “Never Forget”.  I’ve seen them a lot the past few days, and even more so today, in reference to the events of 9/11/01.  As I’ve thought about those phrases today, some questions come to my mind.  Always remember what?  Never forget what?  I suspect if I were to ask each person that I see posting one or both of those phrases, I would get as many answers as the number of people I would question.  I’m sure some of the answers would have similarity, but I imagine many would be rather vague about what they’re remembering or not forgetting.  Some of the answers would depend on who you are and what you most identify with from that day.  As I wrote about in more detail this morning, I fear that while we’ve held on to some memories and chosen not to forget them, it appears to me that many people did forget the most important memory of all — our need to cry out to God and draw into His presence.

But that fact is not just true about the tragic events of 9/11, is it?  When we find ourselves in need and cry out to God, we promise to always remember Him and what He has done.  But do we?  In the midst of great loss that God carries us through, we promise to never forget His love and mercy.  But do we?  If we’re not careful, even the memorials that are set up to help us remember become things of routine and soon lose their meaning to us.  Often that comes about because we begin to focus solely on the memorial rather than using the memorial to help us focus on the event it was designed to help us remember.  I am thankful to be a part of a church family which observes the Lord’s Supper every week.  I know there are some people who say that is not practical or that doing so each week causes the practice to lose its meaning.  While I understand what they are saying, my response is the same — if you focus on the event it is meant to help you remember rather than on the memorial itself, it will never become old, common-place, or too frequent.  When I take communion, I don’t focus on the communion service itself.  I use it as a reminder to focus on a God who loves me so much that His Son endured the breaking of His body and the pouring out of His blood in order to pay the penalty for my sin.  When I keep my focus on Jesus and His sacrifice, I never tire of gathering around the Lord’s Table.  In a technical sense, it is not important that I always remember or never forget the Lord’s Supper.  What is important is that I always remember and never forget His love and mercy demonstrated toward me at the cross and that is what the memorial each week points me to.

I pray that you and I would look beyond the memorials that we see and use them to actually remember what they memorialize.  I pray that we would use the memorial of the Lord’s Supper to help us always remember and never forget what God has done so that we can be called His children.  I pray that we would hold on to the love and mercy that God extended to us on the cross and be ones who will share that love and mercy with the world.

Page 253 is a Friday which means a long, multi-shift day.  It seems like I finally slept soundly last night which has helped as I’ve gone through today.  I was up and running a little bit late but still made it to work by 6:30 AM to begin the cleaning and building prep for the day.  I had most of the cleaning done and was getting ready to collect trash and take it out when I found out a one-hour delay had been called for the school.  I guess it is better to have everything ready with an hour to spare than to not be finished in time.  With the building ready for the day, I headed out into the damp, foggy air to begin mowing even before daylight arrived.  With the rainy day and funeral yesterday, all of the lawn needed mowed today so it was important to get started if I was going to finish the mowing before it was time for the evening cleaning. 🙂  With a couple of breaks to check messages in the office, I finally finished the mowing by mid-afternoon in time to head home and clean up a little so I could go to a funeral visitation to see a friend whose mother had died.  After spending some time listening to my friend, it was back home to change clothes again and then grab some lunch.

 I had a little time before the after-school program would be cleared out of the building, so I got my lunch and headed down to Potato Creek for a quick visit.  As I shot some photos, it was interesting to see some hints that fall is on the way as some of the leaves were beginning to change color.  Even in the midst of an overcast day, or perhaps because of it, these yellow flowers were blooming ever so brightly throughout the park.  It was as if they were bouquets of cheer scattered about for all who would need one.  It was a short visit at the park, but one that was enjoyable and helped me relax and reset before heading back to work for the “evening shift”.  As I headed back to work it was time to start cleaning and getting the building ready for Sunday.  As is typical, I got the east end of the building done and then sat down to write today’s page while the floor scrubber recharges so I can do the hallway floors in the west end of the building.  By the time I finish writing, it should be ready to go and I can get my work done for the day and head home.

As I reflect on the day, these flowers that I photographed are one of the things that stand out to me.  Much of our life, at least mine, is spent doing tasks that often seem mundane and not that important.  Faithfulness in the every day tasks of life can often go unnoticed and unappreciated.  On the other hand, if we’re doing the normal tasks of life for the purpose of being noticed and appreciated, we really need to examine our motives and have an attitude check.  Instead, our focus should be on doing everything as doing it for the Lord.  This means I do my best and I do it in worship regardless of who is or isn’t watching.  When I spend 8 hours in one day cleaning and mowing knowing I have to come back and spend another 4 – 6 hours doing more cleaning, it is by keeping focused on the fact that I’m doing it for the Lord that my mind can remain in an attitude of worship and prayer as I work.  While bouncing around on the mower seat for hours on end isn’t that pleasant, the sound of then engine behind me drowns out all distractions so I can have lengthy times of uninterrupted prayer and worship.  Today, much of my prayer time was about integrity.  I don’t think many Christians grasp just how easy it is to lose our integrity and how difficult it is to rebuild it.  When we make commitments and don’t keep them, all of our attempts at justification do little to help us maintain integrity.  Too often, we would rather make excuses than make a confession.  So instead of admitting we failed, instead of admitting we reneged on a promise, instead of simply confessing that we weren’t able to do what we said we would do, we make excuses and try to justify our actions with hollow-sounding rhetoric that does nothing to rebuild or establish our integrity.  Too often we find it easier to live without integrity than to make good on our word.  We live in such a time where words don’t seem to have much value — unless we want them to.  We want to be able to say whatever we want, yet become quickly offended when others try to hold us to our word.  We want to say it was just words when when we are called out on the things we say, but we demand others are held accountable for the words they use.  God’s solution is fairly straight-forward — live with integrity at all costs.  

I pray that you and I would find purpose in the routine tasks of life as we do them as unto the Lord.  I pray that we would always examine our motives, especially when we begin to look for praise from people.  I pray that we would be people of integrity at all times.   I pray that we would be quick to “make right” on our word when we discover we’ve slipped in this area of integrity.  I pray that we would examine our own eyes for the logs they may contain before we even think about addressing the speck in our brother’s eye.  I pray that we would find encouragement and blessing in God’s willingness to surround us with beauty, such as the wildflowers in today’s photo.

Page 252 was a day filled with variety and a look back as well as a look ahead.  It began before daylight with the usual cleaning of the bathrooms and hallways then collecting trash from around the building and taking it out.  With a rainy morning making it somewhat cooler outside, I spent some time trying to adjust the cooling system in an attempt to keep the building as comfortable as possible.  I had an 8:30 AM dentist appointment so once everything in the building was set for the day, I headed to the dentist for a six-month cleaning.  As I sat in the chair getting my teeth cleaned, I thought back to my first visit to this dentist about a year and a half ago.  During that first visit, there was a question on the new patient form about previous visits to the dentist and the date of the last visit.  I remember doing the math and writing down that it had been somewhere in the neighborhood of 35 – 40 years since my last visit to a dentist and I couldn’t remember the actual date. 🙂  It’s not that I had a problem with dentists, I just wasn’t in the habit of going and didn’t have a pressing need for any dental work until recently.  Now, at the end of each visit, I schedule my next cleaning appointment and then I don’t worry about how long it has been or if it’s time to return — I simply keep my appointments.

As I thought about that, my mind went immediately to a friend who always talked about the Sunday worship gathering at church — specifically the sharing together in the Lord’s Supper — as a weekly appointment.  He would talk regularly about our need to keep our appointment with each other and with the Lord.  As our gatherings would end, he would often pray about God watching over each of us until we gather at “the next appointed time”.  One of the things in next week’s prayer guide is a focus on God’s command to not give up meeting together.  Most Christians know the importance of meeting together for worship and mutual encouragement yet many find it far too easy to let distractions keep them away from church gatherings.  We would do well to make an appointment each week to gather together in remembrance of Jesus and at the conclusion of each meeting reconfirm our commitment to keeping our appointment the following week.

After the dentist appointment, it was back to work for a while before calling it a day in order to attend the funeral service for one of my aunts.  As I watched the photo slide show at the funeral home, it was a trip back in time as it brought back memories of childhood with my cousins as we would play in my grandparents’ barn during the times we would get together.  Later my aunt and uncle had put in a pool with a diving board so it was a favorite place for me to visit.  Not only was it a look back, but this aunt was my mom’s sister and today she looked eerily like my mom so in a way it was an unwelcomed look forward.  Very few of us like to think of the end of life for our loved ones, but unless Jesus returns first it is something we will all face.  It is only through a faithful relationship with Jesus that we can look forward to the end of this life on earth with great hope and confidence of life eternal.

As the day began to fade away, I picked up my camera and went outside to take a few photos.  I put a fixed-length 35 mm lens on my camera so it was somewhat old school in not having zoom capability and my having to actually have to move to frame the scene I wanted.  One of the shots I took was of some sunflowers with a bee approaching one of the flower heads.  In keeping with the look back and look ahead, I used modern technology to crop the photo and apply a filter effect to give it a black and white photo look.  My first photography experience was way back when I was 8 years old and took photography as a 4-H project.  The first year we were required to shoot everything in black and white film so I guess today’s photo is a “Thursday Throwback” to a much earlier time.

I pray that you and I would so greatly value the time we spend with our church family, and with Jesus around His table, that we would make a standing appointment that would take precedent in our busy life.  I pray that we would consider the great value of being able to spend time with family and loved ones, even as we consider the brevity of life.  I pray that we would be ready for the end of our life on this earth as we put our faith in Jesus and the work He has done on the cross.

Page 251 was back to the early morning cleaning and building prep to start the day.  As I took the trash out, there were a few deer in the back corner of the property keeping an eye on me to make sure I wasn’t coming out to disturb them.  They seemed okay with me being out there as long as I wasn’t making any attempt to move in their direction.  Once the early part of the morning routine was done, I responded to some messages and ordered some cleaning supplies that we were running low on.  After that, I settled in to do some more writing on my “Devotions For Those Who Serve” series.  Today I worked on several days worth of devotions on the topic of serving with purity.  Much of what I hear or read on the topic of purity focuses almost exclusively on sexual purity.  While that is an important aspect of purity, I think that sometimes the immense focus on that tends to make the larger topic of purity go unnoticed.  Many times if we would address a lifestyle of purity that encompasses everything we do, sexual purity would become a natural result without having to make it into more, or less, than what it should be.  When our mind, our heart, our actions, our very way of life is lived with purity we bring ourselves into submission to Christ and it transforms us from the inside out.  Too often though, we fail to allow God to cleanse us from the inside and then we wonder why our life seems to be headed down a track that is going nowhere.  

After my mind and eyes were tired of writing, I began to wrap up my workday and got drawn into a conversation about volunteers in the church — specifically a growing lack of volunteers and commitment to teach and lead the next generation.  One of the premises of the devotional series I am currently writing is that we are all called to serve.  While each of us are gifted in different ways and are called to serve according to our gifting, within that serving ought to be an element that sees value in teaching those younger than us whether it is younger chronologically or spiritually.  While not all of us have a gift of teaching, we have all been commanded to make disciples and teach them to obey all that Jesus commanded — including the command to make disciples and teach!  Many churches have difficulty finding volunteers to teach children and adults when they ought to be filled with people wanting to share how the truth of God’s Word transforms lives.  Perhaps one of a multitude of reasons is that we’ve been led to believe the teaching roles belong to the “professionals”.  Unfortunately, that attitude is shared by some in “professional ministry” as well as some who ought to be volunteers.  In my first part-time youth ministry, I had a preacher tell me that I had no business being in ministry without a Bible college degree.  Over the years I have also heard the excuse by potential volunteers that “that’s what we pay the youth/children’s/associate/senior minister to do”.  Yet the truth is that God says those who have been given specific gifts, including teaching, have been given them for the purpose of equipping the body, that is everyone else, to do the works of service that will build up the body into maturity with the head of the body being Jesus.

I pray that you and I would seek to live with purity in all aspects of our life.  I pray that we would live as those that have been washed in the blood of Jesus.  I pray that we would live as pure from the inside out.  I pray that God would raise up volunteers within His church that would respond willingly to His command to make disciples and teach.  I pray that we would value the contributions of everyone as fellow laborers for the cause of Christ.

After a long, busy, and seizure-filled weekend, Susan needed to catch up on her sleep so my page 250 became a work from home day.  Mary Jane went to work early and did my morning cleaning at the building so I could stay with Susan.  Technically, the first hour of today’s page was spent finishing our drive home following a Lake Huron lighthouse trip.  Because we got home in the middle of the night, my morning was filled with writing — first yesterday’s page and then the prayer guide for next week.  As I wrote yesterday’s page and spent time in prayer about what God would have me write for next week’s prayer guide, the idea of never give up seemed appropriate.

I wrote in the introduction to the prayer guide that while Jesus taught that unless we give up everything we have we cannot be His disciples, the Bible also talks about some “things” that we should never give up.  God says that the crown of life is reserved for those who are faithful to the end.  At least in my life, it seems that satan works overtime to get us to give up.  For many of us, though, the idea of giving up on God isn’t likely to take place in one fell swoop.  Instead, the enemy encourages us to “just take a break”.  We’ve grown up in a culture where advertisers have sold us on the idea that we “deserve a break”.  With that idea planted in our minds, it becomes easy for each of us to become convinced we are not giving up on anything — we are simply taking a much deserved break.  While there is scriptural precedent, and Jesus set the example, for times of rest and refreshing — a break, if you will — the good purpose of a break is to allow us to draw closer to God.  The enemy’s purpose in convincing us we need a break is to draw us away from God.  This makes it critical that every time we step back from something and take a break, we examine the purpose of the break to determine if it will draw us closer to God or take us further away.

As I finished up the writing, Susan was finally getting up and it was time to make lunch — she really was tired. 🙂  After lunch I spent some time scheduling the prayer guide to go out next week and then spent some time going through the photos I took over the weekend.  A big focus of the trip was visiting and photographing lighthouses along the Lake Huron shoreline.  The purpose of these lights are to provide direction and guidance to all those traveling on the water.  The lights also provide warning of dangerous areas that need to be avoided.  When Jesus states that He is the light of the world and as His followers we are to be the light of the world, His purpose is that we would provide direction and guidance to those traveling around us in this world.  When we hold forth the light of God’s Word, we not only lift up a beacon to lead people to safety, we also provide a warning of the dangers that exist in a world filled with shipwrecked people.  

I pray that you and I would learn the difference between giving up everything to be a disciple and not giving up in being a disciple.  I pray that we would seek God when it comes to our taking  breaks in life so that we are refreshed by Him rather than being distracted by the enemy.  I pray that we would understand our role as the light of the world — as one who holds forth the light of Jesus in a dark world.  I pray that we would look to God for direction and safety as we hold up the light of His Word to lead others to the same safety we experience in relationship with Him.