Page 286 was day 5 of limiting my social media exposure by not viewing the public newsfeeds and keeping my involvement limited to the pages I manage and birthday greetings to friends.  It has been refreshing to have such a source of anger removed from my life.  When God tells us to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the instruction is not meant as a punitive restriction but rather as a source of benefit to our well-being.  By guarding my heart and mind from the negativity and anger that has taken over much of the social media scene during this political season, I find my level of inner peace being restored.  The sad part is that I hadn’t even realized how much damage was being done until I stepped away from the negative source and began to feel the cloud lift away.

The day began early as I was awake well before the alarm went off and actually felt rested — I guess cutting wood during the day leads to a more productive sawing of logs at night. 🙂  The first part of the day was almost a repeat of yesterday but with more focus on the prep for the evening lesson.  After the building was ready for the day and I was comfortable with my lesson prep, it was back outside to spend some time cutting wood, clearing brush, and opening up another section of trail.  As I worked today, most of the time I found myself singing hymns and songs of worship.  My soul and spirit were filled with a desire to worship so the songs poured out accompanied by the sounds of a chainsaw and tractor — probably not the instruments you would choose to use for a church service worship band, but when I’m singing I need loud accompaniment so that God is the only one who can hear. 🙂

By early afternoon, the temperature had begun to climb and the mosquitoes began to be active so I put all my equipment away and headed to lunch.  While on my lunch break, I made a quick stop at Potato Creek to take a few photos but mostly just to sit with God.  As I was sitting on one of the piers, I shot today’s photo of a few leaves floating on the surface of the dark, still water.  Each one is from a different type of tree and they each possess their own style and beauty.  The variety actually adds something beautiful to the photo that would be completely missed if all the leaves were identical.  Each one of us is on this journey of life and we have this moment to either make a difference or blend in.  We make a difference by being who God created us to be.  We are God’s handiwork, fashioned together by God Himself in the womb of our mother before we were even born.  We were created to be worshipers of God who would bring Him glory by the way we live life.  We blend in when we decide to be like someone else rather than who we were created to be.  When we choose to model ourselves after another person rather than after God’s design for us, we fail to worship God because in reality we are worshiping that person we are trying to be like.

My lunch break at the park got rained out so I headed back to work where I spent time in prayer going back over the lesson material for my 1st through 3rd grade class.  Tonight’s lesson was about Adam and Eve disobeying God, but also about God’s promise to make a way for that sin, and our sin, to be covered by sending His Son, Jesus.  After class I’m cleaning the building, mopping floors, and taking short writing breaks to work on this page as I finish up the day.

I pray that you and I would pay attention to the things that are robbing us of the peace that God desires for us to have.  I pray that we would guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus at all times.  I pray that we would do whatever it takes to avoid the foolish talk and useless arguments that seem so prevalent in our society.  I pray that we would be worshipers of God in all we do.  I pray that we would learn to rejoice in the way God has made us and honor Him as we seek to reflect Christ in everything we say and do.  I pray that we would hold fast to the promise of God to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In this story of life, there are many pages that look insignificant apart from the whole narrative.  Page 285 was one of those pages that appears ordinary but, like every other page, the story wouldn’t be complete without it.  The day began with the usual cleaning and building prep before spending some time going through the material for the lesson I’ll teach tomorrow evening.  After getting the lesson ideas planted in my mind, it was back outside to continue work on the trails through the woods.  As I cut wood and graded trails, my mind started to work through the new trail layout and how to best use it for a prayer and listening walk.  There is still a lot of work to do before I reach that point, but the plan is to place a number of benches along the trails with a variety of different prayer focuses along the way.  

I got so caught up prepping trails and considering how to make them into a useful prayer walk area that the workday got away from me before I had even realized it was gone.  After putting my tools and equipment away, it was time to head home and relax for a little while.  The weather forecast is still calling for a significant drop in temperatures later this week, so we headed down to Potato Creek for an evening family walk to enjoy the beautiful weather while it lasts.  There is always something peaceful to me about walking the trails at the park and that is the atmosphere I’m hoping to establish on the trails at the church property.  Each visit to the park looks more and more like fall with the changing color of the leaves.  Today’s photo is looking down an abandoned roadway which has now become a trail in the park.  

As I think about the day, I keep thinking about how “ordinary” the day was.  But as I think about that, I can’t help but be reminded of the things that don’t happen without a series of “ordinary” days in which all the preparation is done.  No lesson is taught, or learned, without the behind the scenes work of planning, study, and preparation.  No prayer walk is developed through the woods without the ordinary work days of cutting brush and clearing trails.  And no great work for the kingdom of God is accomplished without the “ordinary” days of prayer and listening.  So often, people skip serious prayer times and avoid the quiet times of listening to the still, small voice of God’s Spirit because they feel they have to be doing something important — something extraordinary.  Yet the extraordinary is not the result of pursuing it, rather it is the result of pursuing God in the ordinary moments of life.  I teach about prayer and write prayer-based devotional material, and share poems because I listen to God in the ordinary moments of life and He gives me things that are worth sharing.  

I pray that you and I would set our mind on things above when we find ourselves in the middle of an ordinary day.  I pray that we would seek God wherever we are and find places that free us from the distractions that keep us from listening to Him.  I pray that we would do the ordinary tasks of life well and allow God to build them into the extraordinary things that He would desire them to be.

Page 284 was a beautiful fall day to begin the work week.  The morning began with sweatshirt and jacket temperatures and warmed up to short sleeves by mid-day.  It’s in these roller coaster temperature days that I often find myself leaving a trail of jackets behind me as the temperatures gradually warm up.  Many times I don’t realize I’ve left them behind until the next morning when I go to put my jacket on and it is no where to be found.  I think I’ve managed to keep track of them today, but it is early in the season. 🙂

The day began with the usual Monday morning cleaning and building prep.  Once that was finished and the building ready for the day, I settled into my office chair to spend time with God and work on the prayer guide for next week.  As I spent time in prayer, I finally settled on the topic of victory.  God says that it is through faith that we can experience the victory that has already been won by Christ.  As I spent time in prayer putting the prayer guide together, I thought about the difference in attitude between those who feel victorious and those who feel defeated.  I live in a college town where the entire city seems to have a different atmosphere depending on whether or not the football team wins on a given weekend.  In the midst of a losing season the discouragement and pessimism is pervasive and seems to be contagious.  The bad moods beget further bad moods until everyone not only has a short fuse, that short fuse has been lit and it’s just a matter of time before an explosion takes place.

Unfortunately, the same thing happens in churches when it doesn’t have to.  Instead of living with the victory that is ours in Christ, people can have a tendency to measure victory by attendance or offering numbers and incorrectly conclude that the church is losing — at least on a small scale, individual congregation level.  Or we look at the mess the world is in and focus on the spiritual battles that appear to not be going well, and we even conclude that the church as the body of Christ isn’t doing so well — perhaps it is losing too.  In a local church setting, it doesn’t take a visitor long to decide if there is a sense of victory or defeat.  The determining factor usually has far less to do with balance sheets, attendance records, or the world’s view of success than with simply being faithful.  Even when success seems lacking by all of the world’s standards, an individual who is living a life faithful to God will live a life that exudes a spirit of victory.

After the prayer guide was written, I took advantage of the beautiful day to start on some outside work on the church property.  After selling off some trees last winter, the trails through the woods are in need of a lot of attention.  As I was out cutting wood, clearing brush, and opening trails back up, I found myself singing songs of victory in worship of God.  One of the hymns I was singing as I worked has a chorus that ends with the words, “Faith is the victory that overcomes the word!”  I was thankful for the reminders from God that I can, and should, live a victorious life in Christ.

Once the workday ended I headed home and spent some time resting and sorting through photos as I continue to work on putting a photo calendar together for next year.  As evening approached, we went out for supper then stopped by the river walk so I could shoot a few photos as the sun began to set.  The photo on today’s page is one from tonight as the sun set over the St Joseph River in Mishawaka. To me, the setting sun is like God’s fireworks display celebrating another day in which He reigned victoriously over all the earth.

I pray that you and I would live life in such a way that others view it as victorious regardless of our circumstances.  I pray that we would pay attention to the times when discouragement begins to settle into our spirit so that we would realize our need to look to God for reminders of the victory we have in Christ.  I pray that we would find ways to address real problems and difficulties while maintaining a victorious attitude.  I pray that we would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is not only the source of our faith but also the one who perfects our faith.  

Page 282 was a beautiful fall day and a good day for a family adventure!  The cooler temperatures yesterday led me to drinking too much coffee, so my night was rather restless.  I suppose it was a good thing that I was restless as during the night someone had completely missed the spiritual concern and point that I had made in a social media post and they tried to make it into something political.  The good news is that I had a couple friends who understood what I had posted and gave the same response I would have had I not gone to sleep after the posting.  During one of my middle of the night awake times, I noticed the back and forth that had taken place and realized that once the post had been made political it would no longer have the meaning it was intended to have, so I took it down in the middle of the night before it got out of hand even further.

It did make me realize that I need to find a way to use social media in the positive ways that I attempt to do with my Tom’s Treasure, Impact Prayer Ministry, and Tom Lemler Photography pages without allowing everything else that is on it to distract me.  I’m not sure what that will look like yet, but these page-and-photo-a-day writings are linked to show up on my social media feeds automatically so they will continue regardless of what my social media usage looks like over the next month.  At some point early in the morning, I finally went to sleep and stayed asleep until morning arrived and it was time to get up.  Once up, I spent some time with God and continued to wrestle with the words to a poem for tomorrow.  As I wrestled, I worked on getting Susan up until she finally decided it was time to wake up and get dressed for the day.  Once she was ready, we headed out on a Saturday family adventure.  Our first stop was lunch, then our first real stop was at Salamonie Reservoir as I was looking for Three Falls Trail that I had read about online.  I found the information I needed and drove up the road to Salamonie River State Forest, where the trail is.  It was a beautiful walk and I found all three falls along the trail — only there was no water!  One of the falls had a slight trickle of water dripping over its face, but the other two had a damp look to them but no visible signs of water.  I guess spring might be a better time to actually see the three falls.

As we wandered our way home, I had a couple covered bridges on my list to stop and photograph.  Both of them were supposed to be open to traffic but the first one we stopped at was blocked off and chairs were set up inside the bridge for a wedding to take place later in the day.  We still managed a few photos and as we were leaving I noticed a sign for a mill.  It turned out to be an operating grain mill established in 1857.  They tried to get us to take a tour but we settled for wandering around the outside taking photos.  After that, it was on to the next covered bridge where I took the photo for today’s page.  This bridge we had driven over and while I was wandering around it taking pictures, I walked underneath it and took a photo.  Many covered bridges are no longer open to vehicle traffic because their support structures have been deemed unsatisfactory.  I have seen some beautiful looking bridges that have been closed to traffic because a careful inspection of what is under the bridge determined it would not be able to support the additional weight of vehicles.  I took this photo because most of the photos you will see of covered bridges, and most of the ones I take, are of the top part of the bridge.  That is what draws our attention and makes it identifiable to the average person.  In fact, sometimes there is so much attention paid to the visible part of the bridge, and not to the supporting structure, that it can be on the verge of collapse and no one will notice until it is too late.

As I thought about the day, I wondered how often we spend the majority of our time, and maybe even all of our time, working on the part of our life that everyone else sees without paying attention to the foundation it rests upon.  While my bridge photo shows some of the support structure for the bridge, there is a critical element to it that does its work completely unseen.  Without the visible support structure resting on, and securely fastened to, a solid foundation, the bridge is subject to movement that would eventually destroy it.  Our entire life, including the visible support structures that we have, must rest securely on the foundation of God’s Word if we are to have any hope of enduring the storms of life.  

I pray that you and I would seek God during our restless moments of life and pay attention to the things He may desire for us to do during those restless times.  I pray that we would value the people God has put in our life and find ways to enjoy this adventure of life together.  I pray that we would live a life that is not dried up but flows constantly with the love of God.  I pray that we would not only pay attention to the visible parts of our life that others see, but that we would daily work on the structures which support us as we remain firmly placed on the foundation of God’s Word.

Page 281 is a good example of how writing these daily pages can be a useful exercise even if I am the only one who benefits from them.  I read a question the other day that went something like this, “Did you really have a bad day or did you have a bad five minutes that you’re holding onto for the whole day?”.  My mind seems drawn to holding onto the bad five minutes, or whatever length of time, of the day and forgetting the good the rest of the day held.  These daily pages help me to look back on the day and usually see beyond the bad moments — yes, there have been some days when the bad seemed to outweigh any good and finding the good has been extremely difficult, but most days the good isn’t that hard to see if I just look. 

My morning began early with the cleaning, building prep, and taking out trash to start the day.  Once again the sun was working its way up over the horizon and I was greeted with its great beauty as I took the trash out.  There were fewer clouds this morning so it had a very different look than yesterday but it was still a beautiful reminder of God’s creativity.  Once the building was ready for the day I did some follow-up with some correspondence from yesterday about having a prayer ministry display at two different camp conferences early next year.  Being that the idea for my latest devotional book came from a camp conference early this year, I expect God to use that resource specifically to minister to these two conferences.  With that correspondence sent off, I spent some time working on a new display banner, which will highlight the Serving God book, to use at the camp conferences.  My next project was spending more time with God in trying to come up with a poem to share.  I would have thought that out of over 120 poems that God has already given me to write, surely one of them would be what He would have me to share.  While the idea for some of them have been planted in my mind by suggestions or requests from people, they have all just shown up in my mind without my really working on them.  In almost every way, this request was different than any other but I really expected God to lead me to one of my existing poems to share — so far that’s not been the case.  Because of the situation, the distractions are heavy but I do keep getting short snippets of what I think is coming together in time for Sunday.

By mid-afternoon my mind was tired so I headed out to lunch and made a quick trip to Potato Creek.  You could definitely tell the seasons are changing.  When I left the building, I was comfortable in shorts and a t-shirt but when I got to the park, it was downright chilly.  The air temperature had dropped more than 10 degrees during my 10 minute drive.  Not only did it feel like fall, it is beginning to look more and more like fall as additional colors are showing up in the tree line around the lake.  It was a peaceful time for a brisk walk and a reminder of God’s presence.  When I returned to work for the Friday evening cleaning and getting the building ready for the weekend, there were things on my social media newsfeed that I found very disturbing and inappropriate.  Being that their visibility on my newsfeed was because of Christian friends liking and sharing them, I almost let the bad five minutes turn into a bad day.  But as I began cleaning and praying and then eventually sat down to right today’s page, God reminded me of the good He had put into the day.  

I pray that you and I would understand the difference between a bad day and a bad five minutes.  I pray that we would make the most of the opportunities that God gives us.  I pray that we would seek God even more diligently when our tasks seem overwhelming.  I pray that we would guard the words we use in speech, social media, and other means of communication.

Page 280 is a good example of why I actually like the long Wednesday and Friday workdays.  I was able to sleep in (which for me has now become anything past 8 AM) this morning, but more importantly, Susan was able to sleep in even longer.  Today was a nice summer day and tomorrow is supposed to be a fall-like day which keeps things interesting — especially in Susan’s seizure-producing brain, so it’s good to let her sleep when she can.  While not a workday, I spent a good part of the morning with God trying to come up with a poem that I’ve been asked to share.  The words that do come don’t seem appropriate, fitting, or polite and since I still have those filters working most of the time, I keep seeking God’s face for the right words.  Lunch was pork chops slow-cooked on the pellet grill and then I spent some time playing games and going through yesterday’s photo.  

The photo on today’s page is one I took during my lunch break yesterday as the sun broke through the clouds.  It was a peaceful scene that reminded me of God’s generosity in pouring out the light of His Spirit on His children.  It also made me wonder how much of that light is visible through us within the dark world we live in.  God says that He will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast in their trust of Him.  While that is easy to read, it is difficult to believe and even harder to put into practice.  It is so easy to let things and circumstances distract our mind from being steadfast on God’s Word and His love for us.  We think we have to “fix” things that are beyond our control and ability so our peace slowly slips away as we realize our attempts at control are not accomplishing what we hoped for.  When peace dissipates from our life, it is gradually replaced with fear which often turns to anger.  I know, I’ve been down that path more often than I would like to admit.  When fear and anger show up, a defensive posture and language soon follow.  And when our position is indefensible, we begin to attack anyone who holds a view that is different than ours.  When we’re in attack mode, there is no room in our life for the steadfast peace that God desires to give us.

So, how do we get this “perfect peace”?  For me, at this particular time, a beginning step is to “hide” all social media posts that come from pages that spew hatred and attacks — and it doesn’t matter which candidate for which office is being attacked, it automatically gets a “hide all posts from . . .” click.  When the hate-filled posts continue to show up, I then “unfollow” anyone who is consistently “liking”, “sharing”, or commenting on such posts so that these actions don’t show up on my social media timeline.  One thing I’ve noticed about doing this, is that I rarely see political posts — no one seems to be posting anything positive about the candidate they support, just hate-filled rhetoric about the opposition.  By removing those words and images from my view each day, it becomes easier to keep my mind steadfast on the things of God that it ought to dwell on.  It seems our enemy has done a good job of convincing us that our battle is against flesh and blood, so on we fight.  My constant prayer through all of this social media cleansing is that God’s people would recognize the real enemy, and it’s not one another — ti’s not even flesh and blood!

I pray that you and I would practice using the filters of reason, common sense, and God’s Word before we communicate in any form.  I pray that we would seek the perfect peace that God wants us to have.  I pray that we would understand the specific things that distract us from having a mind that is steadfast on the things of God.  I pray that we would do whatever it takes to remove the distractions that lead us to fear and anger.  I pray that we would put on the full armor of God as we find ourselves in a spiritual battle.  I pray that our battle lines would not be drawn against people, but against the forces of evil that operate in the heavenly realms.

Page 279 has been one of those days that kind of just go by in a blur and while they seem to last forever, before you know it, its gone.  Wednesdays have become one of my long workdays as I was at work before 6:30 this morning and came home around 10 this evening with about an hour lunch break thrown in for good measure.  On that lunch break, I stopped by the riverwalk and shot today’s photo as the slow shutter speed gives me the impression of this great bird standing still while life flows by it at warp speed.  

After doing the morning cleaning and prep, I headed out to mow before daylight so I could get the areas around the building done before the school day started.  I did have to take a short break in the mowing to grab a camera as the sun was coming up through the clouds in the eastern horizon.  It was a beautiful sight to behold and photograph.  Once I had taken a few photos, it was back to mowing and enjoying the peaceful prayer time that comes with it.  A good amount of my prayer time was focused on praying about the great divide that exists within the Christian community here in the United States.  I have no real way of knowing how widespread the divide really is, nor how the numbers fall on either side of the divide, but I do know by watching my social media feed that each side of the divide has great animosity toward the other.  I have friends that share writings from different great Christian leaders and theologians who write from complete opposite viewpoints why one political party’s candidate for president is the “more Christian” choice than the other and why a vote for the other candidate is the most  un-Christian thing you could do.  Mind you, I see these postings claiming to offer absolute proof why they’re right both for and against each candidate.  While these, and the spirit in which they come across, are bad enough, the tone and language in the disagreeing responses are even more unsettling.  It’s as if the “expert” writers feed the conclusion that voting in agreement with them is the determining factor of a person’s Christianity.  It appears that far to many people are willing to be helped along to that conclusion.

After I finished my prayer time from the mower seat, I laid out the lesson plan of my Wednesday evening class then headed out for a late lunch and a short walk.  When I returned to work, I went back through the material for the evening class.  The material I am using is designed to give an overview of the Bible in 52 weekly sessions.  Last week was the introduction to the series and tonight we dug into the creativity of God found in the creation account.  As I connected that in my mind to my earlier prayer time, I thought about how God has created each of us as unique and valuable beings in His image.  There isn’t any of us that has full knowledge and is right all the time, yet how often do we act like we have all knowledge and are always right in all things?  It is not until we begin to see the value of one another that we will even be willing to listen with ears that are actually open to hearing.  The picture that the church presents of Christ ought to be one of love one for another.  At least that is what I understand Jesus to say, that the world will know we are His disciples by our love for one another.  What does the world see about Jesus when they look at you and me?

I pray that you and I would spend time praying for, and seeking, peace for our nation.  I pray that we would be careful what we share, and how we respond to what others share, on social media and in person.  I pray that we would have a greater understanding of the value God sees in each person whether we fully agree with them or not.  I pray that we would grow in our listening skills.  I pray that our love for one another would be the predominant and identifying feature of the church today.