After a long week that has felt non-stop since last Friday morning, page 218 looked to be an opportunity for rest.  As it turned out, the theme for the day in more ways than one was “go fly a kite”.  Susan has been having a lot of seizure activity the last few days, so my day of rest allowed her to sleep in and get some rest as well.  After Susan got up and I got her breakfast around for her, I spent some time working on the layout of my latest book to see if I could add a two-page spread in the front of it to include a dedication page and the poem I had written in memory of my niece.  While the books I have written are primarily given away at conferences and such to people who will use them to grow in a lifestyle of prayer, I’m considering using any proceeds that God may bring about from the book, “Almost Heaven”, to add to the scholarship fund set up in my niece’s memory.  After adding the two pages to the manuscript file, I sent it to the printing company I use and ordered some proof copies of the updated book to make sure the change didn’t mess with any other parts of the book.

I eventually fired up the grill to get some lunch going and sat on the porch waiting for photo opportunities while I let lunch cook.  I caught a glimpse of a hummingbird a couple of times as well as a butterfly that didn’t seem to want to land anywhere.  Eventually, a finch showed up to work on the sunflower seeds and I managed a few pictures of it before it flew off.  After lunch, I rested a bit but my family was eager to “go out and do something” so we loaded some things in the truck and headed out for a drive.  We headed for the Lake Michigan shoreline and drove along it as much as we could from the Michigan state line into Michigan City.  Drove another stretch of shoreline through the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on our way to the Indiana Dunes State Park.  It was at the park that I put the kite up in the air and took some photos while we relaxed for a while on the beach.  By early evening, we packed up from there and stopped for a bite to eat on our way back to Michigan City to photograph the sunset at Washington Park with the lighthouse for the background.

For some reason today, I had a difficult getting the camera settings I wanted on a consistent basis.  While I had a few photos that were overexposed to the point of not being able to distinguish what they were of, more of them were much darker than I had planned or desired — and just when I had begun thinking I was finally understanding some of the settings on my camera.  Life seems to be a lot like that, at least for me.  When I think I’m getting some part of it figured out, something happens to reveal how little I really know.  The times of success are followed by moments of failure and darkness that always seem larger than what they really are.  The good deeds of life go unrewarded and unappreciated, so the enemy tries to convince us to just give up — no one cares anyway.  While I can’t vouch for people who care, God always does.  His love for us is expressed in so many ways, that each tries to draw us closer into relationship with Him.  His desire is that we would know Him, we would experience His love, and that we would accurately represent Him to the people around us.

I pray that you and I would comfort those who mourn and honor those who have lived a life of faith.  I pray that we would give of ourselves even when the response is to go fly a kite.  I pray that we would experience daily the love and care that God lavishes on those who are His.  I pray that as His children, we would represent Him well to the people around us.  

Page 217 was back to work wearing the maintenance hat.  After a conference schedule that had me on the go from 7:30 each morning until midnight most days, my body was calling for rest but my schedule was saying something different.  I had a service tech scheduled to be at the building today to continue work on our heating and air conditioning system so I needed to be there to coordinate that.  The lawn was also needing mowed, so I began that early to try to beat the heat and humidity in the forecast.  The first half of the mowing was definitely more comfortable than the second half, but I did manage to get finished by keeping at it most of the day.

As I mowed, I put into practice the points I had been teaching at the conference about listening and praying in the “real world”.  The prayer time was valuable as I was experiencing a post-conference let-down as I went from the prayer-focused teaching work at the conference to the lawn-mowing and maintenance work at the church.  I often wonder why God hasn’t opened up the opportunities and resources for me to be preaching and teaching full time but also realize He teaches me so much through the physical work He has me doing.  I suppose it is a lesson in patience and waiting upon Him as I seek to live a life that is faithful in its obedience to His calling.

After the mowing was done and the service work completed in the building, I had put in a full day and it was time to head home.  Having worked through lunch, I grabbed a Klondike bar out of the freezer and a bag of Famous Amos cookies to provide some healthy nutrition to hold me over for an hour or so before dinner. 🙂  As I relaxed a bit at home, I started through the pictures from my walks with God during my conference trip.  As I went through the photos from the first day of the trip, this group of butterflies caught my eye.  I don’t know if I’m just paying more attention or if they’re more plentiful, but it seems like butterflies have been everywhere I go this summer.  For me, there is something striking about the beauty and incredible variety that can be found in the butterfly world.  

As the day draws to an end, my mind has reached the point of fatigue that is characterized by a foggy haze in my thought processes.  The actively awake hours from the week have caught up with me and the heat and humidity of the day’s outside work has added to the “drained” feeling.  All of that means it is time to begin wrapping up today’s written page so my mind and body can get some rest.  In the same way, it is important we pay attention to the condition of our spiritual life.  God calls us to be active in living out our faith, but He also calls for times when we “withdraw to lonely places” and allow our spirit to rest in God’s presence.

I pray that you and I would live out our identity in Christ in the midst of all of the activities we find ourselves doing.  I pray that we would grow in patience as a part of the fruit of God’s Spirit within us as we learn to wait upon the Lord to complete His work in us according to His good timing.  I pray that we would pay attention to the incredible reminders that God has placed around us of His creativity and attention to detail.  I pray that we would set aside times to rest our body, mind, and spirit as we grow in our relationship with God.

Page 216 included the closing session of the National Student Conference and a drive through almost the entire length of the state of Indiana.  The day began early with packing up my room and display to head home.  I made it to breakfast this morning and was able to chat with some students and campus ministry staff before the closing worship session of the conference.  This morning’s session looked at the life of Daniel and his example of having hope in exile.  It was through a study of Jeremiah’s writing that Daniel realized that the end of the exile in Babylon was near.  In looking forward with hope, Daniel turned to God in confession and repentance for Israel’s failure to look to God in their time of trouble and exile.  

We live in trying times, and as Christians it may often feel like we are living in a foreign land as the familiar landscape of life has made a massive shift over the last generation or two.  The life of Daniel is one that stands as an example of how God’s people ought to live with integrity and influence as we look forward to the time we will be able to head home.  While there are a lot of lessons we should learn and apply from Daniel’s life, one of the most important may well be to pray for and work toward peace and prosperity for the place where we live as aliens and exiles.

After the conference was over, I began the journey home with a few stops along the way to stretch my legs and take some photos.  The first stop after lunch was at Cataract Falls between Spencer and Cloverdale in Indiana.  As I was taking pictures of the falls with the covered bridge as the backdrop, there was a family in the vicinity that had been taking pictures as I arrived.  As they were walking away, I heard the mom tell the young daughter, “That may be one for your 4-H fair project.”  That statement took me back a lot of years as the first trip I remember to Cataract Falls, I was taking photos as a 10 – 12 year-old hoping to use them on my 4-H fair project!  

After my visit at the falls, I checked my GPS and found there were several covered bridges within a few miles of my route home so I took the short detours on some winding, dusty roads to photograph them as well.  These bridges had the interesting names of “Rolling Stone”, “Pine Bluff”, and “Cornstalk”.  Then after I had been to the covered bridges, my GPS took me down a road that was a dead end before it was supposed to have connected with the highway.  

Life is like that sometimes, right?  We are traveling along, perhaps even enjoying the journey, and all of a sudden we discover the directions we are following won’t get us to where we need to go.  God’s desire is that we would follow His direction at all times but most of us have difficulty doing that as consistently as we should.  We take direction from a lot of sources that sound like they know what they are talking about.  We listen to “experts” who have all the credentials to make us believe they know best.  We hear rumors, or read things on social media, that are repeated so often that we begin to believe them.  And when we do these things without evaluating them according to the truth of God’s Word, it isn’t long before we are led down a dead end path.  Fortunately, God has the ability, power, and desire to rescue us and redirect us onto the path that is good and leads to eternal life.

I pray that you and I would live with great hope because of the work of God in our lives.  I pray that we would seek peace and prosperity for the places where we live.  I pray that we would enjoy the surroundings that God has created and filled with beauty and wonder.

Page 215 was another conference day, which being a college student conference means that the schedule wasn’t designed for a person of my age. 🙂  I went to bed last night, or technically early this morning, thinking that I would have a somewhat relaxing day today as I wasn’t scheduled to teach until 4 PM.  So when the alarm went off, I decided to skip breakfast and get a little extra sleep.  When I did get up, I decided to check the schedule to see when the first session started after breakfast.  In doing so, I noticed that my workshop today was actually at 9:30 AM and not 4:00 PM!  Fortunately, I was ready  for it and still had an hour to get up and over to the workshop room.  Today’s teaching was on developing a lifestyle of prayer in the real world.  While not as large of a group as my first session, there were still more people in attendance than I had anticipated.  God allowed me to teach and minister to a lot of people during this conference and I consider it an honor for Him to entrust me with such a task.  After the workshop, I spent time talking with some students and campus ministry staff until it was time for lunch.  When lunch was over, it was finally time for a nap.  I slept for an hour or so, and then finished out the afternoon free time with a walk under a very overcast sky.  

I had decided it wasn’t going to be the full six mile trail that I took yesterday so my plan was to walk the trail to the two-mile mark and then turn around and come back for a total of four.  About a mile and a half into the walk, a light rain began to fall and when I made the turn at the two-mile mark, I began to hear thunder.  As most of the trail is through a wooded area, the rain didn’t make it through the tree canopy enough to drench me or my camera equipment so it didn’t turn out to be too bad.  Today’s picture is looking out through the mist at the continuation of the trail as I approached my turn around point.  After the walk, it was time for a shower and then head to dinner for some more conversations about the prayer ministry.  After dinner I was asked to take a group photo of the entire conference, or at least all who came for this evening’s session.  So I climbed a ladder on stage and put my photography skills and equipment to work.  When the session was over, it was time for some more conversations before coming back to the room to write today’s page and wrap up the day.

As I thought about the day, my mind reflected on how often we get our mind set on things being a certain way and sometimes have no real basis for our beliefs.  I don’t know why I thought my workshop was at four, but I’m glad I found the truth before it was too late.  In some of my conversations today about prayer, it is apparent that many of us hold on to beliefs about our relationship with God and what is fitting to talk with Him about and what isn’t, that have no basis in the truth of His desire for us.  I thought about how often we become convicted by God’s Spirit to grow in our relationship with Him through prayer or another of the spiritual disciplines, only to give up before we even begin because we’re afraid our attempt won’t be finished or will leave us “soaked”.  Even if life “drizzles” on us, there is something refreshing about finishing our commitments to spend time with God pursuing a growth in our relationship with Him.

I pray that you and I would always seek God’s truth above what we believe to be true.  I pray that we would make our pursuit of God a priority that nothing would deter us from.  I pray that we would be an encouragement to others as they journey through life.  I pray that we would spend the time necessary to figure out how God would have us to serve others, but that we wouldn’t wait to serve until we have it all figured out. 

Ahhhh . . . what a day!  Once again I am writing today’s page as the day quickly slips away and will soon turn into tomorrow. 🙂  There was nothing specific on my schedule of responsibilities for today at the conference, so it looked to be a day of rest between teaching times.  Breakfast was at 7:30 again this morning followed by a morning worship time.  After the worship gathering, I thought I would come back to the room and take a nap.  Once I got back here and laid down for a moment I realized it was Monday morning.  So, I decided to skip the nap and spend time with God in my normal Monday morning routine of preparing the prayer guide for next week.  The teaching of Jesus which says, “Blessed are those who mourn” has been heavy on my heart the past few weeks and I was drawn to the topic of blessings redefined.  As I looked through my files, I found that I had done a two-week prayer guide on the Beatitudes previously but it has been over 3 years ago.  As I thought about other topics, God kept bringing me back to this so I redid the topic with a new two-week series focused on seeing blessings from God’s perspective.

After the prayer guide was written for next week, it was time for lunch.  I usually try to get to meal times early to get my food and then find a random place to sit by myself and see who God brings to me.  Today was a couple campus ministers and a few students that sat with me and we had some good conversations about campus life, missions, and prayer.  This went on for so long that the kitchen and clean-up workers came and took our trays and empty dishes so they could finish their jobs.  Once lunch conversations were done, the entire afternoon was blocked out by the conference as “free time”.  As I came back to the room, I had a huge debate with myself about whether I should take a nap or take a walk.  The idea of a walk won out, so I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and set off on a 6 mile round-trip hike on a trail between the campus and a city park.  Last year I had seen some deer along this trail but today was mostly butterflies and birds.  It was a good walk but I was completely drenched from the 90 degree temperature and what felt like 90 percent humidity by the time I was done.  Tonight was dinner on our own, so after a shower I headed to town and had ice cream with a bacon cheeseburger as my side dish. 🙂

The evening worship session was good and as I was restocking my display before coming back to the room, I ended up having great conversations about prayer and developing a lifestyle of prayer with several different groups of students.  The were so excited about what I had shared in the workshop yesterday and simply wanted to connect further with the story of God working in my life.  Eventually, the building emptied out and I made it back to the room but the unplanned conversations were so much fun.  One of the pictures I took during my walk this afternoon was of a fountain in the middle of a pond on the edge of campus.  As the day went along, this photo reminds me of the springs of refreshing that God continues to provide to me and through me.  Today feels like I am at least nearing full circle in this journey of prayer with this location being a turning point of sorts.  It was eight years ago at this conference on this campus that it became apparent that my prayer ministry role with Impact Ministries International was coming to an end as the organization was in the beginning stages of some major restructuring.  It was after leaving this conference in 2008 that I began to seek what was next and ended up in camp ministry which led to a maintenance director role which led back to Deer Run which led to a renewed focus on the prayer ministry which led me back to this conference which leads me to a greater pursuit of, and listening to, God.

I pray that you and I would pay attention to the people and circumstances that God brings into our lives.  I pray that we would make the most of every opportunity that God gives us.  I pray that we would notice the nudges of God’s Spirit within us and respond to them with full obedience.  

Page 213 has been a wonderful day at the National Student Conference but I’ve discovered that they plan the schedule for people much younger than I am. 🙂  Breakfast was at 7:30 this morning and here I am writing today’s page as the day slips away.  Following a great breakfast, we had a time of morning worship before I was scheduled to teach my first workshop of the day.  With a limited number of students and multiple workshops for them to choose from, I had planned what I thought was optimistically for 30 people for each of my workshop sessions.  With teaching today’s session on Developing a Lifestyle of Prayer Through Listening twice, I had brought 60 copies of the handout to split between the two times.  God had other plans.  My first session was a packed room with people sitting on the floor around the perimeter of the room so they could get in.  All 60 of my handouts were distributed with a number of people sharing and/or giving theirs up to those that wanted one.  I was overwhelmed, in a good way, to say the least.  I decided with that many showing up for the first of the two sessions, there probably wouldn’t be much interest in it the second time it was offered this afternoon.  Nonetheless, I wanted to be prepared so I headed to Office Depot right after lunch and had another 60 copies printed and 30 more copies of the handout for my other workshop so I would also start with 60 of those.  When I got back, I went to my workshop room to spend some time praying about what God would want me to learn from the earlier workshop and listen for if there was anything He wanted me to do differently.  The afternoon workshop was following a break in the schedule so I reasoned that was part of why so many came in the morning — they were planning on extending their break into the first afternoon workshop time slot.  And so, as I was praying and preparing, people began drifting in.  A few here, and then a few more, and slowly a couple rows filled up.  With about five minutes before the scheduled start, there were only a handful of seats left.  By the time all the seats were taken I thought I ought to let them know that this was a repeated workshop from the morning and if they thought it was part two they may want to find another workshop.  No one left and a few more came in and, as in the morning session, sat on the floor!

All I could do as I began the workshop was to silently pray, “Yeah God!!”, for His work in developing a desire in so many students to learn about developing a lifestyle of prayer.  And all day since, God has encouraged me through the words of so many who would stop me in the hallways, meal lines, outside, or wherever I would be just to thank me for sharing what God had given me about prayer.  After the workshop, I got ready for dinner and after I had eaten I took a walk around part of the campus to spend time thanking God and worshiping Him.  As I walked, I went by what the campus labels their “Reflection Pond” and it was living up to its name as the sun began to sink toward the horizon.  While the sun was up enough that it was still very bright, it also presented itself with a “sun dog” on either side.  The one to my right was most visible and I didn’t really notice the one on the left until I had downloaded today’s photo onto my computer.  As I “reflected” on the day and on this photo, I thought about how often I see God at work doing something in and/or through me that is fairly noticeable yet realize later that He was doing much more than I first thought.  As I shared with the conference last night, God tends to work “multi-dimensionally”, in that there is often a part of His work we recognize and a part of His working in the same circumstances that we don’t notice right away and may  never notice.  Tomorrow’s another early day and today is nearly slipping into tomorrow so I guess I’ve written enough words for now.

I pray that you and I would leave room in our plans for God to surprise us in good ways.  I pray that we would learn to listen, both to God and to other people, with our whole being.  I pray that we would not confine the work of God to what we can see with our own eyes.  I pray that we would allow for the mystery of God to both be present in our lives and to be revealed in us when He chooses. 

Today has been a long day, but a good day.  After another restless night, I slept in a bit this morning and then took a one mile rugged hike before rewarding myself with a Klondike bar for breakfast. 🙂  I decided to continue the scenic route to the conference, so after my hike and breakfast I headed to Spring Mill State Park and then the combo of Lincoln State Park and the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial sites.  I eventually made it to the conference site and got my display set up and the conference books set out in time to take a shower and relax a bit before supper.  After supper, the conference officially began with on opening session and I had the privilege of introducing my book, “Almost Heaven”, immediately after the welcome and opening announcements!  It was fun to be able to share how God used the conference theme, “Not Home Yet”, as a seed for me to write a 31-day devotional journal for those in attendance.  I also shared how God takes our obedience to doing what He calls us to do, and uses it in more ways that we could possibly realize.

As I’m downloading pictures from today off my camera, it’s hard to believe it says there are 210 of them — thankful for digital photography! 🙂  The picture I’ve included on today’s page is what remains of Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home.  While there is now a wall around this small remnant to protect it, I think more surprising to me than the fact that this is all that remains is how small it is for a family dwelling.  In a time where many of our society try to portray this country as being founded by, and governed by, rich privileged white folks who never understood the plight of the poor and underrepresented, it doesn’t take a very close look at actual history to realize such a blanket statement is absolutely not true.  Yes, there are those who downplay Lincoln’s leadership, but to have someone rise to leadership from simple beginnings who longed for all men to be treated equally is very difficult to even imagine in today’s political climate.  So many of our leaders of years gone by lived by the motto made famous by Kennedy, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.”  Unfortunately, it appears we have become a nation not just asking, but demanding, that our country do something for us rather than seeking how we can serve our country by serving our fellow man.  I think Jesus would have liked Kennedy’s statement and the example of Lincoln and so many of our founding fathers.  It’s as if they put into practice His teaching that whoever wants to become greatest must become servant of all.  When people wonder out loud, “Where have all the great leaders gone?”, the answer often has a lot to do with answering the question, “Where are those who will serve, expecting nothing in return?”.

I pray that you and I would follow the example and teaching of Jesus and seek to serve others rather than ourselves.  I pray that we would honor leaders who become great by serving and not let their memory be tarnished.  I pray that we would ask ourselves often what we can do for our country and the people around us.  After we ask, I pray that we would do it without grumbling.

Today began my trip to the National Student Conference as I’m stopping along the way to spend time with God in the beauty of His creation in order to reset and prepare my mind and spirit for the conference.  I was still tired when I got up this morning to get ready for the trip so I decided I would bypass the Friday traffic around Indianapolis and not have to worry about that craziness.  My stop tonight is at McCormick’s Creek State Park so I mapped out a route that would take me to the west of Indy before heading south.  Because I needed to get to State Road 231, my route had me joining up with that at Lafayette and then heading south through Crawfordsville.  When I saw that, I new I needed to add pit stops at Shades State Park and Turkey Run State Park as they would not be far out of the way.  

Once I knew my route, I finished packing and then stopped by the office to load books and display material for the conference.  The first half of today’s trip was uneventful other than a heaviness of heart as I was more aware of a lot of small crosses along the road.  I know I see them often, but they just never meant as much as they do now.  As each cross became a reminder to pray for my brother and his family, God was arranging another pit stop of sorts that I hadn’t planned on.  As my GPS was taking me along the edge of West Lafayette, I entered a good deal of road construction and then finally a detour as the road I wanted was completely closed.  As I followed the detour, I realized it was taking me right through the Purdue campus.  As I was stopped in traffic, I looked around and noticed that most of the buildings along one side of the street were various fraternity and sorority houses.  I didn’t notice the one my niece had belonged to, but while I was stuck there in the detoured traffic I spent the time praying that God would raise up someone to be His light in the sorority like Bre was.  I prayed that the students would continue to reflect on her life and give careful consideration to the faith she displayed.  I prayed that a new or existing student would pray for the rest of the sisters the way Bre did.  As traffic began to move, I began to wonder if perhaps my last minute desire to avoid Indy was God’s way of putting me where He wanted me to be for a few moments of my day.  I am so glad I listened and had the reminder to pray.

Once I was through the Purdue campus and back on my planned route, it was off to the parks to do some hiking and listening.  At my first stop, I found a spot in the middle of my hike where I simply sat for a while as it was so peaceful and a great listening spot.  The sounds of the water running over the rocks and the birds singing throughout the woods was accompanied by numerous butterflies fluttering about.  It was a good start to the refreshing that I need before leading some workshops on developing a lifestyle of prayer.  Sometimes the most difficult thing to do in life is to simply be still enough to identify and listen to the direction God gives through His Spirit.

I pray that you and I would continually grow in our desire to be in relationship with God.  I pray that we would look for His direction in the times our plans don’t work like we thought they should.  I pray that we would seek out times and places where we can be still before God simply to be in His presence.