Prayer

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2016: Page 35

The ice was thick on the windows and windshield of the truck as I prepared to head to work this morning.  It was difficult to get the ice scraper to make its way under the layer of ice and start chipping it away.  The streets were slick in spots and the first order of business at work was to put ice melt down on the sidewalks leading to the building.  As I was finishing up the cleaning, I got word that school was on a two-hour delay again today.  As I spent time with God finishing up the necessary tasks to start the day, greater clarity for the next 31-day devotional journal began to from in my mind.  It seems as if when one writing project nears completion, God gives me another one to begin praying and seeking Him about.

The current project, “Watch Your Mouth: Choosing Words Which Honor Christ”, is being proofread and should be sent to the printer and published soon.  This next project first came to mind last year during a sermon series David and CJ did at church based on the ten commandments.  The book title, “Living Free”, came to mind then but the thought was that it would be based more closely on how following them gives us freedom.  Today the clarity that came took a little different focus as the current working title is, “Living Free: Gazing Into the Perfect Law of God’s Word”.  Each day in the devotional journal the focus will be on something different the Bible says about how following God’s Word helps us to live free from something, by something, or for something.  Once God put the concept in my mind, the topics came rather quickly.  In fact, in a short amount of time I came up with a list of 40 daily topics that I need to narrow down or combine to fit the 31-day format.  I currently have two different cover photos that I’ve worked on but I’m not sure either one is quite what I want for this book.  That’s okay, it will be a little while until I need a finished cover as it will take some time to write each day’s devotional questions and thoughts.

Following work I spent some time at home and as the sun began to break free from the cloud cover I decided to head down to Potato Creek State Park to see if there were some photos that wanted taken. 🙂  Sure enough, there were a variety of scenes longing to be preserved in digital photography.  I took a short hike and made my way to the east side of the lake as the sun was setting.  The sunset was gorgeous and the reflections off the ice seemed to amplify its beauty.  As I was ready to call an end to the photo excursion, I noticed a pair of bald eagles perched in a tree a long ways away.  With daylight fading the photos I could get at maximum zoom weren’t as clear as I would have liked but they still possess a majesty that the eagle represents.

I pray that you and I would always make the most of every opportunity — both the opportunities to act and the opportunities to be still and listen.  It is in the combination of the two that we find ourselves walking in the center of God’s will.

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2016: Page 34

Earthdate: 20160203 — These are the ramblings of one traveler’s journey on earth as he makes his way toward a heavenly home.

A quiet start to the morning as I found out after I got to work that school was on a two-hour delay and I could have slept in a bit.  This allowed me a completely quiet atmosphere in which to clean and pray.  I had some inquiries out about several opportunities to represent Impact Prayer Ministry at conferences and group gatherings, so the quiet time to talk and listen to God about these was very much appreciated.  As I got the building ready and took out trash, the sun began to make its way up over the back tree line while the waning crescent moon still hung in the early morning sky.  The scene was crying out for a few photos to be taken so I happily obliged.  

As I sat at my desk to enjoy a cup of coffee, the cardinals gathered in the trees outside my office window.  As they would fly back and forth and chase each other from the preferred feeding spots, occasionally they would fly straight at my window then swoop upward just before impact.  A I watched them, it became apparent that they were coming up to the building to use the guttering as a birdbath and drinking source.  Some day I may figure out the right settings or proper equipment to photograph them in flight.  Right now all my attempts either miss them completely or are just a blur of red.

As the morning progressed, I had a couple of computer tech issues to work on in the building with one of them taking a big block of time without ever getting it to work correctly.  As I worked on other things, God began to weave together the opportunities that I had been praying about.  By the time the work day ended I had received confirmation from the Michigan Christian Convention about my setting up a display there, I had reached an agreement with the Association of College Ministries to represent Impact Prayer Ministry at their National Student Conference, and I had received and filled out an application/agreement to have a display at the Christian Camp and Conference Association Super Sectional Conference Event being held in Indiana.  My purpose in each of these events is to put copies of the prayer-based resources of Impact Prayer Ministry into the hands of people who want to grow in their relationship with God through prayer.

When these ministry opportunities come up, sometimes I am tempted to look at my resources and forecast what is possible and what isn’t.  While Jesus does talk about counting the cost of being a disciple so that we are prepared to both pay the cost of full surrender and finish the journey, he also calls us to live a life of trust and faith.  While I can’t do what He doesn’t provide for, I also know that I must be obedient to doing what He calls me to do while trusting Him to provide the necessary resources to do so.  Right now my financial resources allowed me to register for these conferences but there isn’t much left at the moment to pay for books and resources to be printed and distributed.  But, as I often tell people at conferences and conventions, that is not my problem.  The resources belong to God, and I believe He has called me to freely share them at these conferences, so He is the one I go to when I run out.  

Just as there are times the weather forecast is wrong, there are many times when my forecast of what God wants to provide completely misses the mark.  I pray that you and I learn to live obediently to the will and call of God in our life as we trust Him to supply all of our need according to His riches in glory.

This photo is one I took of the moon this morning while most of the schools in the entire area were under a delay due to a forecasted dense fog advisory.  I guess either the forecast was wrong or God had a purpose in holding back the fog in the area I happened to be in. 🙂

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2016: Page 33

Earthdate: 20160202 — These are the ramblings of one traveler’s journey on earth as he makes his way toward a heavenly home.

If you’re like me, sometimes the work days seem ordinary and the uniqueness of each day gets lost in the routines of life.  One of the benefits of committing to this routine of writing each day’s page in this journey of life is that it makes me pause at the end of the day and consider the lessons God has been trying to teach me.  While each work day for me generally begins with the same tasks, I have to choose each day what my attitude about doing those tasks will be.  I have discovered that if I approach each task with a prayerful attitude then it is easier to take things as they come and try to see how God will use them to accomplish His purposes.  

As I worked on details for some possible opportunities to represent Impact Prayer Ministry, the birds returned to the trees and bushes outside my office window after being absent yesterday for some reason.  At one point two cardinals came as sat next to each other causing me to think of the old saying, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”.  I’ve always understood this to mean that a sure thing is worth as much, or more, than multiple possibilities that may, or may not, come to pass.  Sometimes it is easy to give in to the temptation to skip things that seem small with the hope that bigger things will come along.  Once again I was reminded of the consistent teaching of Jesus that calls me to be faithful with the little things or I don’t even have a chance to be trusted with larger things.  Potential opportunities are good, but I’ve learned to spend time with God fully considering each opportunity that comes my way and address it based not on its prestige or perceived potential, but on what I become convinced God wants me to do.  As I made inquiries into potential conferences and conventions where I believe the prayer-based materials I have written would be useful, I continually prayed that God would give me great wisdom and clarity in both understanding and accepting the answers He knows are best.  

God instructs us to make the most of every opportunity and I pray that you and I do so on a consistent basis.  I also pray that we don’t miss the opportunity that is in our hand because we are distracted by multiple opportunities in the bush.  May you and I prove faithful in everything that God calls us to without concern for its apparent size. 

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2016: Page 32

Earthdate: 20160201 — These are the ramblings of one traveler’s journey on earth as he makes his way toward a heavenly home.

After a great conference last week, today was a return to a “normal” work schedule.  I was up early and headed to work at 6 AM to do the morning cleaning and check on maintenance requests that had been left for me last week.  I am blessed to be a part of a church family and staff that supports the work God does through me in Impact Prayer Ministry.  Not only is there a financial support, but I know that I am prayed for and that there are people willing to clean the building and handle whatever tasks come up while I am out teaching, preaching, and representing the prayer ministry.  The deacons and my fellow staff members at Deer Run are a vital part of the Impact Prayer Ministry team and I appreciate them greatly.  I don’t dread coming back from a week-long conference because I know that things have been taken care of while I was gone and not simply left to accumulate for my return.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to each person who helped last week!

Upon completing the cleaning and changing a couple light bulbs that I had a note about, I settled in to my Monday morning routine.  If nothing pressing demands my time, Monday mornings are when I spend time with God writing the prayer guide that will be published for the following week.  While there have been a few intentional duplicates and an occasional new prayer guide that reuses a topic, I continue to be amazed at how God has given the content for these guides each week since November 2012.  On their own, each prayer guide may not seem like much but they represent a faithfulness in doing a seemingly small thing that God has called and gifted me to do.

As the day unfolded, I thought about my visit to Mingus Mill last week in the Smoky Mountains National Park.  As you approach the mill, the creek that it is built next to is nothing that would shout “power source”!  It is a small meandering stream that flows from the nearby mountains into the valley below.  It is not the volume of the stream that makes this mill still function 130 years after it was built, it is the faithfulness of its flow.  A partial diversion of the stream’s water down an elevated wooden raceway continues to power this mill on a seasonal basis just as it did for the early residents years ago.  While any part of this process may not seem that significant, and some parts may not even seem suitable to the task, all of the pieces work together to do what they were designed to do and provide cornmeal or flour to those needing food to eat.  

Many times God gives us gifts and abilities that at first glance do not seem all that impressive.  They may be easy to overlook and perhaps even be neglected as we long for something more visible that brings greater notice to us.  Unfortunately, those “greater things” rarely come when we fail to be faithful in the “little things” that God has designed for us to do.  I pray that you and I take a fresh look at all of the pieces and people that God has brought together in our lives and consider how faithfulness in each one doing their part would look.  When we are faithful with everything God gives us, we are able to share the Bread of Life with people who are in desperate need of the life we have found in Jesus.

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2016: Page 30

I love representing Impact Prayer Ministry at conferences and conventions but when the days begin by 8 AM and last until 10 PM or later, my old body seems to take a while to catch up.  Today found me up early to get a start on cleaning the church building before being a part of the men’s breakfast and study.  After the fellowship time I came home and took a nap for a while then spent some time inputting contact info from the conference into my database.  All month I’ve been keeping an eye on family vacation options and today I found a combination of flights, days, location, lodging, and price that fit what we were looking for.  All in all, a good productive day.

As I thought about the day, my mind took me back to my Cades Cove trip during the conference where one of the old church buildings had a hymnal open to the song, “It Is Well with My Soul”.  This hymn has been a favorite of mine for a lot of years and it serves as a reminder that my relationship with Jesus is what allows my spirit within me to be at rest.  For most people, rest seems to come easy when “peace like a river attendeth my way”.  It is when “sorrows like sea billows roll” that it becomes much more difficult to trust that God can, and will, make things well with our soul.  My favorite verse though, has always been the final verse where even when facing Christ it can be well with my soul.  As much as we may want a life of peaceful times and relaxation, that will mean nothing if we reach the end of life and our encounter with Jesus is not one that is well with our soul.  It is our relationship with Jesus that allows us to have an inner peace regardless of, and even in spite of, the circumstances we face in life.

It is my prayer that you have times of great rest and relaxation in your life.  I pray even more that you have found peace with God through a relationship with Him bought by the blood of His Son, Jesus.

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2016: Page 29

After being away from home for nearly a week representing Impact Prayer Ministry at a camp conference, today was a day to relax.  My staying home allowed Susan a chance to sleep in — at least for a while until a seizure took hold of her.  I began the morning with some reflection and devotional time followed by the writing of yesterday’s “page”.  After helping Susan as she came through her seizure, I worked on going through emails and messages from the week.  Eventually I made it to going through the photos from the times I was able to spend in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park during the conference.  I am almost always surprised at the number of pictures I take when I’m out enjoying the great beauty of God’s creation.  The total photograph count from the conference trip is 870!  As I go through each one, I am reminded of just how glorious God is.  I even find things in them that I hadn’t noticed when I took the pictures.  

Some of my favorite mountain scenes, and therefore photographs, are the waterfalls.  With significant snowfall just before I arrived, and warming temperatures during my stay, the waterfalls were running with great force.  As I considered the power, the purity, and the polishing force of the falls, I reflected on how well they represent God’s grace in my life.  While it can be fun to stick a hand under the edge of one of these major waterfalls, it would flatten you at its base to bear the full force of it.  Sometimes pride keeps us from allowing the full power of God’s grace to drive us to knees before Him.  We are satisfied with just testing the edges of His grace rather than experiencing the fullness of it.  The water rushing over these mountain falls is crystal clear and represents a purity that we all long for in water everywhere.  As it gathers in the pools at the base of the waterfall, it sparkles in the sunshine and magnifies the gravel on the pool bottom.  One of the attractive qualities of God’s grace is its absolute purity.  When we allow God’s grace to rush over us and gather in the pool of our life, we should sparkle and reflect the evidence of God’s grace in a way that is visible to the people around us.  One of the fun parts of visiting a waterfall is collecting the smooth polished stones that collect in its path.  When we live in the power and purity of God’s grace, we find our life continually being polished into the image of His Son, Jesus.  The polish He puts on our life enables us to live in a blameless way — His grace has covered and removed the sin and roughness so that no accusations against us have reason to stick.

I pray that each day of our lives, you and I would live fully under the waterfall of God’s grace.

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2016: Page 28

Page 28 in my life story of the year 2016 was a long one which is why I’m writing this the next day.  🙂  It was the final day of the camp conference that I was representing Impact Prayer Ministry at and it began with light fog in the valleys and the sun climbing its way over the far side of the mountains.  The more the sun worked its way over the mountain range, the more the fog tried to fill in the valley.  Within 15 minutes, the fog had spread all the way up to, and beyond, my 14th floor balcony.  As I packed up and left the room, the only view remaining was the hazy outlines of some of the nearer hills.

It was a great conference and I believe it was a good conference for me and the prayer ministry.  I went with a total of 4 boxes of books and when I packed up the display, all of the remaining books on the table fit in 1 box.  It is my prayer that as people go home, they will find the resources they picked up to be useful in their walk with Christ and perhaps even in their camp ministry.  As the closing session began, the conference did their final giveaways for the week.  I had been asked to “introduce” my contribution for these door prize drawings and considered it a privilege to do so.  My cameras have become incredible tools in the time I spend in personal worship of God.  I had taken with me a 20″ x 30″ high-gloss mounted photo that was a close up of a day lily.  My title for this photo art is “Consider the Lilies” and on the back was a label  with the tile and the passage from Luke where Jesus instructs us to consider the lilies and how God clothes and provides for them with great beauty.  As we consider that, He reminds us that we are of much greater value to Him so we should be confident in His care for us.  Having experience as a camp staff member, I was able to relate that I understood the financial pressures that often can seem overwhelming and even of greatest importance to others.  I encouraged this group of camp leaders that during those times, they should consider the lilies and take all of their needs and concerns to God first.

It was going to be a long drive home, so I headed out and began the journey.  About an hour and a half into the trip, I encounter road construction on the interstate that had it down to one lane and a back-up that led to a six mile stretch of highway taking 45 minutes to get through.  Instead of being frustrated, I pulled out a Dr Pepper and the rest of the package of sliced turkey (the same package, that I hadn’t planned on getting, from the first day of the trip) and used the slow crawl down the highway as an opportunity to have lunch and listen to some worship music.  I had my iPod connected to the truck’s radio and found a folder on it labeled “camp”.  It seemed like a fitting assortment to listen to as I headed home from a camp conference.  It was all of the music I had used for worship times, meal times, wake-up times, recreation times, and all other times the last time I had been dean for the 5th & 6th grade camp week.  The music ranged from “I’m so Happy” to “The Water Buffalo Song” to “This is the Air I Breathe” and everything in between.

After a quick stop south of Louisville to pick up my father-in-law, the trip home resumed.  This time my GPS warned me of a 45 minute delay ahead and re-routed me around it.  We reached the backed up traffic just as I exited to go around and it was still six miles away from where the signs said the construction was taking place.  I even thought about this being a lot like life — sometimes we are able to hear the warnings and avoid the hardships and troubles that would occur if we kept on our current path.  Other times we either get no warning or we don’t notice or pay attention to the warnings that come and we simply have to live through the difficulties, seeking God’s help to make the best of whatever circumstance we find our self in.  This takes us back to my photo and our need to always “Consider the Lilies” and trust God to care for us when things go as we planned and when things don’t go as we planned.

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2016: Page 27

The view out my window this morning was nothing but thick fog.  Even after getting breakfast and spending the morning and lunch time talking with people about the prayer-focused resources I had available, the fog remained when I returned to my room for an extended afternoon break.  As I contemplated what my afternoon free time would look like, I began to wonder if the road over the mountains between Gatlinburg, Tennessee and Cherokee, North Carolina would rise above the fog.  The adventurer in me wanted to get out and hike and the photographer in me wanted to take pictures from above the fog.  Fortunately, the solution for both of those was to get out and drive the Newfound Gap road looking for adventure and photo opportunities.  As it turned out, I found both. 🙂

The drive up the mountainside was foggy until just before the Newfound Gap overlook as the road crested the mountain.  As I left the fog behind, it was still spread out like a blanket over the area I had just left.  The photo opportunities I anticipated were also spread out in the valley below.  As I stood at the dividing line between Tennessee and North Carolina, the contrast was remarkable.  Fog blanketed the valleys and low-lying areas on the Tennessee side of the mountain while it was completely clear on the North Carolina side.  With clear skies ahead, I headed toward a series of waterfalls and hikes that I now knew would be clearly visible with no fog on their side of the mountain.  

As I enjoyed the beautiful afternoon, I thought about the verse in Proverbs that talks about the sluggard saying he is not going out because there is a lion in the street.  I’ve always heard that it was unlikely that there was actually a lion but that since it was a possibility it simply became an excuse not to do what needed done.  When I worked on a roofing crew, there were times we were rained off of a job, but never a time we were “forecasted” off of a job.  Sometimes we talk ourselves out of doing the things God wants us to do because we are not willing to move forward in faith by simply taking the next step.  The prospects don’t look that promising.  The “what ifs” tend to paralyze us and we never end up knowing if the should have been actually could have been.  It would have been easy today for me to look at the fog and decide it wasn’t good hiking weather and it would be impossible to take pictures that would turn out at all.  What if I get to the top of the mountain and it is just as foggy there as where I started from?  I overcame the “what ifs” and decided I would never know until I got out and tried it.  The result was even better than I had hoped for but the truth is even if the fog had continued up one side of the mountain and all the way down the other, it would have been a good trip to enjoy the goodness of God’s creation.  

As I wrapped up my sightseeing on the North Carolina side of the mountain it was looking possible that I would reach the peak just as the sun was setting.  I hadn’t even thought about trying to make that happen and it was looking as if God was wanting to give me an extra blessing beyond all the goodness He had already shared today.  As it turned out, I was a little late getting to the peak for the best photos but I had incredible views of the sun setting down the back side of the mountain — there just weren’t any pull-offs with clearings to the west where I could get pictures of anything but trees with a sunset behind them.  Even so, there was still some color in the sky when I reached the top so I managed a few pictures of a fading sunset.