Page 191 began early as I finished out page 190 with some writing and then fired up the pellet grill at midnight.  I had been asked if I would cook some pulled pork for a small group and the timing was easiest if I started it at midnight to begin its slow 12+ hour process.  So after starting the pellet grill on its smoke setting, I put some seasoning rub on the pork and got it started as the day transitioned from one to another.  I kept an eye on it for a short time then headed to bed to get some sleep.  When I woke up in the morning, it was a little more than halfway through its cooking time and was already smelling delicious.  As I waited for Susan to get up, I spent some quiet time on the front porch in the coolness of the day.  There was a hummingbird coming and going so I got my camera out and was able to snap a few photos of it.  It wasn’t long before Susan was ready to get up and head to the zoo for our Saturday morning outing.  There was an event going on that had the parking lot and surrounding roads blocked off so we had to walk in.  As we walked across the empty parking lot, the lions were roaring a welcoming greeting and Susan was excited to hear them.

After visiting Susan’s animal friends at the zoo, we headed home for a relaxing day.  I spent some more time on the porch and then shortly before 1 in the afternoon decided the pork was ready to come off the smoker.  After taking it off the grill, I let it rest for a short while before pulling it apart and having some for lunch before sending most of it off to help feed the camp week faculty tonight. The rest of the day was spent doing some more relaxing and finished off with writing today’s page.  As I was writing this page, I could hear fireworks going off so I took a break and went back out to the porch to watch and photograph fireworks.  While they are attention-getting with their noise and bright flashes of light, to me they still can’t compare with the intricate beauty of God’s creation.  Today’s photo is a sunflower with all of its beauty and wonderful design.  

With so much of the day revolving around cooking pork, my mind turned to our need to slow down and wait upon the Lord.  The secret to good pulled pork from the smoker is to let it take its time and not try to rush it to completion.  Yes, I could turn the heat level up a notch or two and shorten the time it takes for completion but the finished product isn’t the same.  The Bible says that those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.  Many people pray seeking God’s will and direction, but no so many spend time asking God about His timing.  Even when we’re willing to surrender to doing things God’s way, we often want to do it according to our schedules.  We don’t think we have time to wait for God to finish His work in us, or others, before we charge off thinking we’re going to do great things in His name.  The great things that happen in His name only take place when we take the time to allow His greatness to dwell within us — and I’m talking a deep abiding dwelling within us, not some drive-by visit.  

I pray that you and I would understand the patience of God in regard to His desire that none should perish but that all would come to repentance.  I pray that we would learn to live with that same patience in our lives.  I pray that we would not only seek to do God’s will, but that we would seek to do it His way in His time.  I pray that we would rest in the Lord and allow His greatness to dwell in us through the power of His Spirit.    

Page 190 began with a brief stop in the office before heading out to finish the mowing at work.  The forecast was for a hot and humid day so my goal was to get the outside work done as early as possible.  Even with an early start, the mowing took most of the morning and the heat index rose steadily the entire time.  After mowing I got a cold Dr Pepper and spent some time working on display material and workshop prep for an upcoming conference.  One of the workshops I will lead is about developing a lifestyle of prayer in the real world.  My mowing time is both preparation and a good example of what that looks like.  Many of the daily tasks we do in life require our attention, but also contain opportunities to pray if we were to make the most of our time.  As I mow, I obviously pay attention to my surroundings and what I’m doing but that doesn’t keep my mind from thinking about situations and people and praying for them.  This morning, much of my prayers were focused on praying for a nation filled with angry people.  

As I mowed and prayed, my mind focused a lot on the instructions from the book of James that everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry.  It seems we have lost sight of how to do that in a culture of sound bites, video clips, and fast-paced “news” that is more concerned with being first than being right.  We are in such a hurry that we don’t actually listen for truth — we only pay attention long enough to draw a conclusion that fits our own mindset.  With the explosion of social media opportunities there is a ready audience waiting to “hear” the words we “speak”.  We don’t even have to consider who’s listening, we simply type out anything and everything that comes to mind.  It seems that a natural result of our failure to listen and our insistence on being heard, is a short fuse of anger that is always ready to explode.  The solution is to not only hear the Word of God but to do what it says.  James goes on to say that we must get rid of all moral filth and evil that is so prevalent and then cling to the only thing that can save us — God’s Word.

While it seems easy to see this when it is played out in large scale on the national scene, that only happens because it is happening on a personal level in the lives of each of us if we don’t bring it under the control of God’s Spirit.  I know because I have seen it in myself more often than I would like to admit.  There are times when I am not quick to listen.  In fact, times that I don’t listen at all because my mind is already made up.  While I’ve never been accused of speaking quickly, there are times when I have posted things on social media in the heat of emotions without giving adequate thought to what my words will sound like.  Once the lack of listening and the quick responses begin, an endless cycle is set in motion that plants the seeds of anger and then fans their flames as they grow to maturity.  The only thing that I’ve found that is able to stop this cycle is to recognize I’m in the cycle and repent of the moral filth and evil that I’ve allowed to be a part of my listening, reading, hearing, speaking, and writing.  The only way I know of to keep it from returning with even greater force is to constantly cling to the truth that is found in God’s Word.

Today’s photo is of a day lily in the rain.  I got my camera out to see if I could catch some shots of a hummingbird that had been flying around but as I made it to the porch it began to rain and the hummingbird disappeared.  As the rain fell, the beauty of the raindrops on the flowers caught my eye.  Sometimes we miss the incredible beauty of a person’s life because we were expecting something else.  In our disappointment we fail to put into practice the principle of being quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. When we look through the lens of anger, we will always miss the beauty that God has created in a person who’s not really so different from us.

I pray that you and I would stop and listen.  Listen to God.  Listen to one another.  Listen to the hurting.  Listen to the lonely.  Listen to people like us.  Listen to people who are different from us.  Listen to the Spirit of God calling us to be peacemakers.  I pray that you and I would guard our words.  Guard what we say in public.  Guard what we say in private.  Guard what we post on social media.  Guard what we say to friends.  Guard what we say to enemies.  Guard what we say to strangers.  Guard what we say to ourselves.  I pray that you and I would let go of our anger.  Let go of the anger from hurt.  Let go of the anger from fear.  Let go of the anger toward others.  Let go of the anger toward God.  Let go of the anger toward one another.  Let go of the anger caused by lies.  Let go of the anger caused by misunderstanding.  Let go of the anger toward self.  I’m not saying that the hurt, the fear, the lies, the misunderstandings, and all the other sources of anger don’t need dealt with — they do.  But they need dealt with by the Word of God in love, not in anger. 

Much of page 189 was spent on my weekly prayer walk at Michiana Christian Service Camp.  I began the day by catching up on some things in the office before heading to the camp to pray.  As has been my practice this summer, I pray and photograph as I walk the property while allowing God to use the things I see and hear as prayer prompts.  The photography helps me to share my prayer walk with others, who may not be able to make it to the camp, so they can have some of the visual reminders to pray also.  Today seemed to have more than its share of focus (both in prayer and photo 🙂 ) on small things.  The photo on today’s page is one of those small things.  As I walked, these specks of yellow caught my eye.  They were so small and low to the ground that I didn’t even notice them until I was right on top of them.  If I had walked a few feet one way or the other I would have missed them entirely.  They didn’t seem to be widespread or plentiful, just a few of them in a relatively small area.  

As I stopped to photograph one of these blossoms, I thanked God for bringing me to that specific spot so He could share this beauty with me.  I also prayed for the campers on the property who may be feeling small and unnoticed.  I prayed that God would surround them, not just with the peace of His presence, but with someone who would express to them the great value they have as a creation of the almighty God.  I prayed for the many children, youth, and adults who would come to camp feeling small and insignificant, that God would use their time at the camp to reveal to them a purpose and value beyond imagination.  I prayed that each of us would notice those that society would call “the least of these”.  I prayed that my actions would be commended by Jesus as one who did for Him as I did for those who were least.

As my walk continued, I crossed paths with a snake — and no, I didn’t photograph him.  Once I noticed him I moved on as quickly as possible, not wanting to be in his presence even for the brief time it took to register what it was I was seeing.  I don’t like snakes.  I don’t care if they’re poisonous or not, harmful or harmless, I would just as soon never have to see one or be anywhere near one.  As I kept moving and my heart rate returned to normal, it didn’t take me long to wonder if I have the same aversion to the presence of sin and the evil one.  Do I want as much distance as possible between me and temptation, not even wanting to be anywhere near the seeds of sin?  Or do I play with it, trying to see how close I can get without being drawn in?  For me, if all temptation would come to me being offered by a snake, I would avoid it at all costs.  Yet the great deceiver, the serpent, satan himself is the author of all temptation and because he offers it in much more attractive packages than a snake, I find myself tempted more often than I would like to admit.

I pray that you and I would would continually grow in making prayer a priority in our life.  I pray that we would recognize and value the uniqueness of each person as one created in God’s image.  I pray that we would flee from evil each and every time that it tries to draw us into its grasp.  

Page 188 began with the early morning sound of rain as I was waking up.  By the time I headed to work, the rain had diminished to a light mist under a very gray sky.  With everything wet and the radar indicating that the rain may not be over, I decided to do my weekly prayer walk at camp another day.  I spent part of the morning doing another read-through of my latest book, looking for typos and potential changes.  After that, I copied it into a different program that usually catches some things that my standard spell check in MS Publisher doesn’t notice.  As these writing projects have continued, I tend to find fewer places where corrections are needed.  After the third time/method through the manuscript, I uploaded it to the printing company and ordered a couple dozen copies to make sure the finished product looks like I want it to before ordering the 300+ copies I need for the student conference later this month.

While I was online ordering books, I decided I ought to do inventory of my current titles and found that I was out of 3 of the 6 current titles and I only had sufficient inventory of one of the titles for the conference display.  So, in addition to the preview copies of the newest book, I ended up ordering quantities of 5 of my previous books also.  By the time I had ordered the necessary inventory of my books, the rain and mist had come to an end and the grass had dried sufficiently for me to start the mowing for the week.  The rest of the morning and most of the afternoon was spent outside mowing.  Midway through the afternoon mowing the sun came out and caused a drastic increase in temperature and humidity.  I enjoy mowing — not only because I can be outside, but it also provides a peaceful place to pray and worship.  While I still plan to head to the camp this week to pray, while I was mowing I was able to pray for the 2nd grade camp session that was wrapping up today and for the 3rd grade session that would begin this evening.

By late afternoon it was time to call it a day and get some lunch on my way home.  Once home, I sat and relaxed for a little while and then we headed down to Potato Creek to take a walk and see if the eagle would show himself.  The eagle wasn’t out when we got there so we headed out on a trail for a hike that could best be described as “Sweating with the Oldies”. 🙂  When we finished our hike, we checked back where we usually find the eagle and he still wasn’t out so we headed on home.

The photo for today’s page was taken at the end of our time at Potato Creek today.  The air was calm with hardly a ripple on the surface of the lake.  This made for a huge reflecting pool as the sun broke through the clouds and shone down upon the lake.  It reminded me of how our stillness before God prepares us to better reflect His image and His glory than we can when we are living in the turbulence of a noisy life.

I pray that you and I would make prayer and worship a priority, even in the midst of the routine tasks of life.  I pray that we would allow God’s Spirit to calm us and lead us beside still waters.  I pray that the stillness we experience with God would prepare us for the turmoil we experience in the world.

With the Fourth of July holiday weekend coming to an end, page 187 felt more like a Monday than the Tuesday that it was.  The workday tasks began by spending time with God in prayer as I sought direction and content for next week’s prayer guide.  After considering several topics that didn’t feel like the right fit for now, I settled on a prayer focus of being refreshed.  As I spent time writing the daily points and prayer ideas, I was reminded of how God uses His Word, His Spirit, and His people to refresh His children when they become weary.  Writing the prayer guide took most of the morning today between listening for the topic and then writing the daily points.  

When the prayer guide was complete, I continued in the writing mode I found myself in and settled in to do some more writing in the next Impact Prayer Ministry book, “Almost Heaven”.  It was a good day for listening and writing as I found myself working through lunch.  By late afternoon, I typed the final words of the last day’s devotional thoughts on the page to finish the initial writing of the book.  As I’ve written in other daily pages, this book is being written to correspond with a national student conference’s theme of “Not Home Yet”.  Each day of this 31-day devotional journal will focus on an aspect of our heavenly home and how that particular characteristic can grow in our lives even as we journey toward their fulfillment.  The final topic is day 32, a bonus day that wraps up the book by having the reader consider a home filled with God’s glory.  

As I printed off the initial draft of the book to proofread and edit it, a collection of birds gathered in the trees outside my office window to sing songs of great joy.  Today’s photo on the page is one of those birds that seemed to rejoice with me at the work God is doing through the writing assignments He gives me.  With the conference set to begin July 30, I’ve been praying about a timely completion in order to have the first 300 copies of the book printed in time to put into the hands of the conference attendees.  With a normal 7 to 8 business day turnaround from order to printed book in hand, I was thrilled that God had given me the words necessary to faithfully complete His assignment in a timely fashion.  Now that the primary writing is finished, my focus can turn to the editing and completion of the book as well as more deliberate times of prayer and listening regarding the two workshops I will teach at the conference.  As I reflect on the prayer guide written for next week and the completed writing of this next book, there is something refreshing about this process of listening and writing out of obedience as I trust God to used the finish product for His purposes and His glory.

I pray that you and I would listen intently to God and follow the direction He gives us through the time we spend with Him in prayer.  I pray that our faithfulness would produce a peace within us that comes from trusting God to accomplish His purposes through our obedience.  I pray that the incredible work of God would give us reason to rejoice.  I pray that our efforts to live in obedience to God would produce fruit that accomplishes the will of God and brings glory to Him.

Page 186 was what could be called a tankful of adventure.  I see articles posted online at various times about trips that can be taken on a tankful of gas.  Today I put together one of our own as we spent the holiday hunting lighthouses.  I had done a little research last night and discovered that it was about 3 1/2 hours to the Port Washington lighthouse which is a little north of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  The lighthouse friends site listed 15 lighthouses from there back down the coastline to Chicago.  So, we were ready and in the truck a little before 9 AM to begin a new family adventure.  We made it to Port Washington a little after noon our time, so we grabbed some lunch at Subway before heading to the lakefront to find the first lighthouse of the day.  From there we worked our way back down the shoreline, stopping to photograph 13 of the listed lighthouses.  The last two on our list were in the Chicago Harbor and best seen from Navy Pier.  As we drove Lake Shore Drive along the Chicago lakefront, we could see the lighthouses but could also see the crowds of people gathering for the evening fireworks show.  It was getting late enough that we were already looking at not getting home until 10:30 PM, so we kept driving and decided we would come back to photograph the Chicago lighthouses at another time.

While the size and design of these lighthouses varied greatly, the created function of each of them was the same — to warn of danger and to help guide those who are out on the waters to safety.  As Christians, we bring our unique characteristics to Christ and instead of making us just like everyone else, He uses us in the way and time that He knows is best.  While we may not look the same, because we’re not the same, we have been given the same responsibility as Christians — to warn others of danger and to help guide those who are outside of a relationship with Christ to safety.  Far too often we spend all of our time comparing ourselves to one another while accomplishing none of the purpose for which we have been made new creations in Christ.  

While it has been a long day, it was a very good day spent together as a family.  As the days turn into weeks, weeks into months, months into years, and years into decades, I have an increased awareness of the importance of spending time together.  Sometimes that time together needs to be planned out well in advance and sometimes it just needs to happen when the opportunity avails itself.

I pray that you and I would value the people God has brought into our lives and that we would consistently make time to spend with them.  I pray that we would understand the work God has created for us to do in representing Him to the world.  I pray that we would be found faithful — not only in living for Christ, but in living like Christ.  I pray that we would only concern ourselves with being who God created us to be, not with how we compare to anyone else.

Page 184 has been a busy day with quite a mix of activities and some rest.  I’m writing today’s page from the office at work as I fit it in between cleaning for Sunday and finishing sermon work for tomorrow.  Being a Saturday, the day had a relaxed start to it and then Susan and I headed to the zoo.  It was rather cool and overcast to begin the day and some of the animals seemed to like that as they were more active than most Saturday mornings.  After seeing the animals and taking photos of some of them, we rode the zoo train and then headed home.  Being a person that is comfortable with good routines and traditions, it was grilled mushroom bacon cheeseburgers for lunch again. 🙂  After lunch I relaxed a bit and took my camera out to the front porch in an attempt to capture some photos of the hummingbirds that like the feeder MJ put out.  I managed a few photos and then some family members stopped by to visit for a while.

By late afternoon, it was time to head to Sam’s Club to pick up some things.  A trip to our usual Sam’s Club now means a trip to The Chief in Goshen for ice cream.  By the time we got home, it was late evening and I headed in to work to finish getting the building ready for tomorrow, put some polish on a sermon for tomorrow, and write today’s page.  As I was at my desk, the woods began to glow with a brilliant red color as the setting sun shone over and through it.  With the building being surrounded by trees to the west, north, and east, I could only capture a glimpse of the sunset as I stepped out the door by my office to take a picture.  As I write, the sounds of fireworks going off are constant yet no fireworks display I have ever seen comes close to reaching the beauty and majesty of the handiwork of God in a simple sunrise or sunset.

As I think about the day, my mind immediately goes to how easily the noise of the world distracts us from noticing and sharing the wonder of God.  It seems I have been distracted a lot this week and as I look back, all of the distractions have simply been noise with very little real substance to them.  The good news is that one of the unexpected benefits of doing these daily written pages is that I stop each day to recognize the distractions and seek God’s help in pressing on with the work He has set before me.  As I think about the distractions of just this week and the things that seemed to be the target of the distractions, I have to wonder if in the times when no distractions are present is it because I’m not making the effort to do the things God created me to do.  Distractions, confusion, and deceit are primary tools of the enemy so if I’m fully engaged in living a life that represents Christ, I should expect these weapons to be used against me.  The wonderful news is that the One who lives within me is greater than the one who is against me.  While the weapons of the enemy may have great effectiveness against me along, there is no weapon formed that can defeat the power of the One that now lives in me.

I pray that you and I would notice the still, small whisper of the work of God in our world and in our lives.  I pray that we would be aware of the noise of distraction that constantly attempts to keep us from being who God created us to be.  I pray that we would press on in the power of God’s Spirit when the weapon of distractions comes against us.  I pray that we would live victoriously in the knowledge that nothing can defeat the power of the One who lives within us and calls us His own.