Page 143 of the year 2016 was a Sunday which meant the opportunity to gather with my Deer Run church family to study God’s Word and worship together.  It also meant a day of rest and rejuvenation of mind, body, and spirit.  Our Sunday School class continued our journey through the book of Proverbs where God has a lot to say about living a life that honors Him and not straying from a path of wisdom that only He can give.  The morning worship gathering included a message from Matthew 7 as David continued a sermon series through the Sermon on the Mount.  In a culture where it seems to be increasingly commonplace for churches to dismiss God’s Word as irrelevant, or redefine it to fit a shifting culture if not willing to completely dismiss it, it is good to be a part of a church which preaches and teaches God’s Word as complete truth and completely relevant to life today.

After lunch some of his family was able to get together to celebrate my father-in-law’s 88th birthday.  As we gathered around a campfire and enjoyed a beautiful afternoon together, it was good to hear the laughter and joy of a family full of love.  While I took a number of photos throughout the afternoon, the one that made inclusion on page 143 is of the fire ring as the flames and smoke danced in its midst.  As I watched the fire with the background sounds of playing children, I thought about the scripture passage which talks about our life being but a vapor — a mist which is here for the moment and then no longer found.  While we enjoy celebrating birthdays and life, we don’t like to spend much time dwelling on the fact that those exist for a limited time on this earth.  When we do think about it, the question shouldn’t focus so much on how much time do we have but rather on how much life will we put into whatever time we do have!  

As I thought more about the wisps of smoke and the brevity of life, I began to think about the Spirit of God living inside each of His children.  While not visible in the sense that I could take a picture God’s Spirit posing for a directory photo, the results of His presence in my life ought to be clearly seen by all who would observe the way I live.  Later in the afternoon I roasted some hot dogs while the flames and smoke were no longer visible.  Even without physically seeing them, their presence was clearly demonstrated by the browning that was taking place as the hot dogs cooked.  Sometimes God does such miraculous work that His presence is undeniably visible to all who would take the time to observe.  Other times, His work is less visible and it requires us to not look directly for Him but to look for the results of God’s Spirit being present.  If you’ve forgotten or wondering what those results might look like, a good place to look would be at the list of components that God says are a part of the fruit of His Spirit living within His children — love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  

I pray that you and I would always value and celebrate life.  I pray that we would commit to putting as much life as possible into each day that God gives us.  I pray that we would seek to be the best family member that we can be through the power of God’s Spirit within us, regardless of what our family looks like.  I pray that we would allow God’s Spirit to work in us each day to produce the things that reflect His presence.  

Page 142 has been a relaxing day and good practice for an upcoming vacation.  After working late last night, I was able to sleep in a little this morning.  It was good to simply enjoy a cup of coffee while going through email messages and social media posts.  It is my father-in-law’s birthday, so as morning began to slip away I fired up the pellet grill to get lunch started.  I began by making a shallow pan out of aluminum foil and cooking bacon on the grill.  When the bacon was nearly cooked, I put hamburger patties on the foil to cook in the bacon grease and  then eventually added fresh mushrooms to the grill to end up with some mushroom bacon cheeseburgers for lunch.  I still use my gas grill occasionally, but there isn’t much that compares to the flavor of food cooked on my wood pellet grill.  At lunch we talked about our upcoming vacation and the gas grills that are on-site, and get used nearly every day, where we stay.  

Since I had already grilled, I decided the bright warm sunshine would make the afternoon a good practice for our beach vacation so we packed the beach chairs and kites and headed up to the Indiana Dunes State Park via Bass Pro Shops.  I was looking for some new hiking shoes but the ones they had on sale didn’t fit my feet comfortably and the ones not on sale didn’t fit my wallet comfortably. 🙂  Although we didn’t get anything, we typically make a stop or two at the outlet malls while on vacation so this stop fit right in with the vacation practice theme of the day.  We left there and headed to the dunes where the warm 72 degree temperature that we left home in had dropped to a sunny 57 degrees along the lake.  We managed to find a protected area to set up the beach chairs and I worked at getting my kites in the air while MJ and Susan enjoyed the beautiful sunshine.  I managed to get the two larger kites that I had with me up in the air but the small one couldn’t catch enough wind under it to make it work.

In keeping with the vacation practice theme, we stopped by the outlet mall in Michigan City after we left the dunes and one of our first orders of business there was to get ice cream.  We also picked up a few things for our actual vacation then headed down to the lakefront to take some more pictures.  The real vacation will include some time at the pool so our evening waterfront visit would coincide with the sunset.  With over three hours until sunset, we had to settle for a few “daytime” photos before heading home.

As I thought about the day and the fun attempt to practice something that seems silly to even talk about practicing, I thought about the ultimate permanent “vacation destination” and how our life on earth can become a “practice” for the eternity we’ll spend with God.  I love vacations and for me, the family vacations my parents took me on were great practice for the family vacations I enjoy today.  Whether it was the picnic under the tablecloth covered picnic table because it had begun to rain or climbing the terrifying stairs out of the depths of Mammoth Cave, I learned to make the best of the time we have together and to overcome whatever fears and obstacles try to keep us from enjoying the day.  As a part of the family of God, we ought to have those same experiences that helps us to enjoy life together and give God praise in all circumstances.  Our life becomes a practice of worshiping Him at all times.  Our fellowship with one another and our worship of God helps us to overcome the fears and obstacles that try to keep us from experiencing true joy in Christ.  When we practice living in Christ and Him living in us every day, we find our days becoming more and more like the ones we will have throughout eternity as we worship God forever.

I pray that you and I would spend time contemplating and eternity with Christ.  I pray that we would spend each day worshiping God as we practice for an eternity of doing so.  I pray that our lives would be an encouragement to others as they figure out the daily walk that God is calling them to.

Yes, it’s an odd picture to post publicly given that I chopped the duck’s head off and mostly missed the picture I was trying to take.  There, now that that’s out of the way you can go ahead and read page 141 to eventually see why I used this photo. 🙂

Page 141 is a Friday and I decided I should refer to it as a dual-shift day rather than a split-shift day.  I was up extra early to start the inside cleaning by 5:30 so I would be able to begin mowing by daybreak.  I figure there is not much point in serving if you’re not willing to consider what is best for those you serve, so I try not to mow outside the classroom windows or in other areas that would be a distraction to the students once the school day has begun.  Once the cleaning and building prep was complete, mowing took up much of the morning and early afternoon.  By 1:30 I decided I was hungry so I headed to lunch and then spent an hour or so actually sitting along the river — no Waist Management walk today.  While I was at the river, I photographed some beautiful iris at Kate’s Garden Park in Mishawaka then got a few shots of a couple curious squirrels and a few ducks who came by.  At one point, a pair of ducks flew toward me and it became apparent that they were going to do a water landing in front of me.  I discovered that a full zoom leaves very little margin for error in where the camera is pointed and the timing of releasing the shutter.  After watching the squirrels and ducks, I headed back to the church building for the Friday night cleaning and prep for Sunday.  With the preschool graduation today, the auditorium was already set up and ready for Sunday so that saved some time. The cafeteria floor was another story as it took running the floor scrubber over it twice in order to get it clean, so there went the thought that I might finish early tonight. 🙂  Not only did that floor take extra time, but it completely ran the batteries down so once again I’m writing today’s page as the scrubber recharges.  When it is ready, I will be able to do the hallways and finish up the work week.

As I thought about the day, I thought about how much this photograph is like the way we often view life.  It is so easy to allow our focus to zoom in to our own little world and what is going on in our life that we tend to miss the bigger picture.  Sometimes we’re so ultra-focused that we not only miss the big picture, but we miss the immediate picture that is right in front of us.  I was following this duck with my camera on his approach to landing and I thought I had a good approximation of its speed and would be able to capture the moment he hit the water.  But, as often happens with life, he was coming in faster than I anticipated so he had begun to slide out of my photo by the time I hit the button to release the shutter.  If I had done a better job anticipating the speed, I would have likely gotten the picture I wanted because the part that I did capture is what I had pictured in my mind.  But I also could have zoomed out to a wider point of view and given myself a little grace in the exact timing.  I believe that our time spent listening to God through His Word and prayer, as well as listening to people, helps us to gain a wider perspective so that we are still able to capture just the right moment even when our timing isn’t quite perfect.  When we see people and situations from God’s perspective, then we are more likely to serve, help, and even correct in ways that are good and proper.

I pray that you and I would seek to know God more fully each day.  I pray that our time with God would help us to begin seeing things from a perspective that is closer to His than to ours.  I pray that we would celebrate the work God does in and through people, even when it isn’t exactly what we were hoping for.  I pray that seeking God’s perspective will help us during the events of life when we don’t accurately estimate the speed and timing of what God is doing.

Page 140 was back to a normal start to the day with early cleaning and building prep.  Once that was done, I had a morning appointment to have my truck serviced so I dropped it off near downtown and spent some time with God taking pictures and going through ideas and plans for some lifestyle of prayer workshops.  The stillness of the morning created a mirror-like surface on the river which became a huge reflecting pool.  The sky was a clear blue which was also reflected in the river below.  Once the service of my truck was complete, I headed back to the office where I worked on putting some of the morning thoughts on paper (well, actually in a computer file).  As the work day came to an end, I thought about how God has used the writing assignments He’s given me in places I would have never imagined.  I also thought about the doors that have closed, or never opened, where I thought my writing work would be the perfect fit.  

After work we made a trip down to Potato Creek for a late afternoon family hike.  By then, the breeze had picked up enough that the open water was not still enough to reflect the shoreline trees or the color of the sky.  I thought about how most Christians have a desire and an understanding of their need to reflect Christ in their daily life.  Yet most of us have a difficult time living with a stillness that allows for a clear reflection.  The prayer guide that I published for this week is about waiting — something that most of us have great difficulty in doing with contentment.  God calls for us to be still and know that He is God.  It is in our “stillness” that we allow our mind and spirit to be free from the distractions that get in the way of us, and others, seeing the work of God in our life.  We often live in such turmoil that we struggle to believe, let alone see, God’s work that goes on around us all the time.  When we are filled with doubts that toss us as the waves of an ocean, it is no wonder that our representation of Christ may be less than accurate at times.  

It is in our stillness that we can see a fuller reflection of what God is doing in and through us.  My stillness allows me to trust God to use His gifting in my life in the best way possible.  When I see the reflection of God in my life, I begin to recognize His work and I do my best to get pride and selfishness out of the way.  When your gifts and abilities come from God and belong to God, you have no real claim to dictate how and when they are used.  When we insist on our own way, we begin to stir up the waters of our life and any reflection that is seen is less than accurate.

I pray that you and I would learn to practice a life of stillness before God.  I pray that we would always seek to reflect Christ accurately.  I pray that we would realize the contentment that comes from surrendering back to God the control of the gifts and abilities that He has given us.  I pray that we would make the most of every opportunity to spend time with God and reflect His presence to the people around  us.

After working both ends of page 138, I slept in a little longer today than what has become my normal wake up time.  It still seems odd for me to think I slept in when I was at work by 7:30 AM.  After a morning of working on mostly office stuff and writing, I headed home a little early to put on my “son-in-law” hat and see if I could figure out a power steering issue on Gene’s truck.  As I crawled under the truck it quickly became obvious that the metal tubing, that they call power steering hose, had corroded and the power steering fluid was spraying out faster than you could put it in.  With all of the dirt and corrosion, I decided it was a bigger task to get to it than I was up to so I called a service center and took the truck in to have them look at it.  When I dropped the truck off, they said they would look at it and call me with an estimate so I threw my camera backpack over my shoulder and headed to the river walk in the downtown South Bend area.

When I’m near the section of the river walk where the East Race Waterway comes off of the river, I always stop and spend some time at the firefighters memorial.  I know a number of people that have served and/or currently serve as firefighters and this monument is a reminder to me to stop and pray.  As I spent time there praying today, I noticed a poem engraved on what I would call the back side of the memorial.  Part of the poem talks about firefighters knowing that on the job death is a possibility while praying that it doesn’t come to be.  When I think of the willingness to sacrifice their own lives to save others, I’m confident we don’t give enough honor to firefighters, police officers, military personnel, and people in other public safety professions who risk much to protect lives, property, and our way of life.  When the Bible says that we are to give honor where honor is due, we rightly immediately think of honoring God.  Yet many times because of the scriptural warnings about pride, we fail to recognize the people that we ought to be giving honor to.  But pride is typically about the honor we try to get for ourselves, not the honor we ought to be giving to others.  God tells us to honor others above ourselves.  When we honor those who serve others, we give value to Christ-like living.

I pray that you and I would always give honor to those who serve.  I pray that we would support, encourage, and pray for those who risk their lives for the public’s benefit.  I pray that we would give the greatest honor to the One who lived for the purpose of dying in our place and resolutely set out on the path to accomplish what only He could.  I pray that we would imitate the sacrificial mindset of Christ and those who have followed Him before us.

Page 138 is feeling a lot more like a Friday than a Tuesday as I’m writing this as I take a break from cleaning at work.  I was up early after a good night’s sleep.  I slept so well that I was up before the alarm and had begun my cleaning before 6 this morning.  It was an overcast and drizzly morning, so I spent time on my writing projects after the cleaning and building prep was done.  With warmer temperatures outside once again and the forecast calling for them to continue to rise, I decided to try once again to shut the boilers down for the season — we’ll see how long it lasts. 🙂  I had a discipleship/mentoring lunch meeting and then came back to the building to finish a few things to wrap up the first 8 hours of the work day.  After running some errands and spending a little time at home, it was back to the church to meet a few of the guys to go out and celebrate a birthday of one of them.  I think we all stuffed ourselves to the point we could hardly move but it was a great time of fellowship.  When we got back to the building I decided to come on in and start some of my morning work tonight.  It’s a good thing I did as there were lights on throughout the building and the alarm had not been set for the night.  

As I went through the building getting it ready for tomorrow morning, I thought about the osprey down at Potato Creek.  Now that they are nesting, there appears to always be one of the pair on the nest and the other one is either out fishing nearby or perched where he can keep an eye on the nest and its surroundings.  We all experience times when we are preoccupied with important things and need someone to “keep an eye out” for us.  While most of us love having people in our lives that we know we can count on to warn us of danger that may be creeping up on us while we are involved in important work, we also need to have that same level of commitment to being the person who looks out for the good of others.  Do the people around us know that they have someone in us that “has their back” and is constantly looking outward to provide the protection needed for them to do the important work God has called them to?  Are you and I aware of those who support us and shield us from danger as we do the important work God has created us to do?  I know I am blessed in my work here at Deer Run to have so many who “keep an eye out” and “have my back” in helping with the maintenance and facilities work when God has me doing prayer ministry things.  I’m sure that I don’t thank these people enough and I’m fairly confident that there are some that I’m not even aware of their part in making sure things get done.  When I think of the preaching, teaching, and written resources that God has allowed me to share with many people, I think of the guys I had dinner with tonight who are a core part of the group that makes all of that even possible.  And when I think of all the work that these guys and so many others do in covering for me, the little things that I do like locking up and turning out lights become just a small way for me to help someone else continue doing the things that God has put in front of them.

I pray that you and I would take the time to celebrate the lives of our friends on a regular basis.  I pray that we would recognize and appreciate those who stand watch over us as we do the work God has called us to.  I pray that we would stand watch with joy when we have the opportunity to serve in that way as others do the work God has given them.

Page 137 was the start to another work week so it was up early and in to clean and prep the building before the students arrived for school.  Maybe I’m getting old, although more mature sounds better, but early mornings have become some of my favorite times.  While the idea of getting up early never appealed to me, and still isn’t at the top of my list of fun things to do, the stillness and quiet of a morning at work before anyone else is around is a beautiful thing.  It is during those pre-dawn rounds that I can have uninterrupted prayer and worship times to start my day.  Most mornings an old hymn sticks in my mind and gets sung over and over as I clean.  And by giving it an opportunity to stick in my mind, it often reappears throughout the day.

After the cleaning and prep, I settled in my office chair to spend time with God to put together the prayer guide for next week.  As I prayed, the idea of wonder filled my mind.  It is an interesting word as we use it to describe a state of mind where we think about or question something — “I wonder if it will rain.”  We also use it to describe things that are incredible and perhaps even beyond explanation — “The seven wonders of the world.”  And then we have God who performs wonders, who fills our hearts and minds with wonder, and is Himself full of wonder.  It was out of all of this thought process that I put together a prayer guide for next week on the topic of Wonderful!  Watch for it to be published Sunday in the “prayer guide” section of the Impact Prayer Ministry website.

After the prayer guide was written, I spent some time with God going through thoughts and ideas for two workshops I will lead at a conference this summer.  Eventually I decided I was hungry and needed some fresh air so I went to lunch then headed down to Potato Creek for a hike with some listening and photography time.  As I began my hike, the hymn “Amazing Grace” filled my mind so it was sung throughout my afternoon walk.  One of the workshops I am putting together is on developing a lifestyle of prayer through listening so I decided to focus on listening throughout my hike.  It is amazing what I was able to notice when my listening was intentional.  I wasn’t listening for anything specific, I was simply deliberately listening to whatever could be heard.  Some of the sounds were obvious — the sounds of the birds singing, the roar of the jets overhead, the wind-driven water lapping along the shore.  But other sounds required a more active listening mode to hear movement or even to hear the absence of sound.  It was in one of these times when everything became really quiet that I looked up and then took the photo that is a part of this page.  The birds had been singing, but what got my attention this time was that my presence had become noticed and the songs of the birds had stopped.  Sometimes God uses the voice of His Word spoken into our lives to communicate to us His love and the direction we ought to be going.  Other times it is in the absolute quietness that He calls us to be still and simply know He is God and His presence is with us.

I pray that you and I would seek to develop a lifestyle of prayer so that prayer is simply a part of who we are.  I pray that we would worship God as we consider just how wonderful He is to us.  I pray that we would become more active listeners — first to God and then to others.  I pray that our listening to God would direct every aspect of our life.

Page 136 saw a return to cold weather with morning temperatures in the low to mid 30’s.  While the temperature outside was cold, the warmth of fellowship was present as the church family gathered to worship together this morning.  Our Sunday School class continued in the book of Proverbs with a focus on chapters 21 and 22 this morning.  As has been the case each week, there is so much wisdom represented in each verse that God wants us to not only know, but to focus on and apply in our lives.  The morning message at church was brought by our youth minister and continued a series through the Sermon on the Mount.  Today’s message from Matthew 7 focused on “Seeking What God Desires”.  The entire series is wrapped around a focus of being a relevant church by being the church Jesus founded back in the 1st century.  

While there is a push in many circles of influence, and even within many churches, to become more relevant by becoming more like the current culture, there is nothing more relevant to any person in existence than to become more like Christ.  Our focus as individuals, and as church congregations, must remain fixed on a growing relationship with Jesus.  While many would say that the calling of God for His followers to become a “peculiar people” doesn’t fit a culture that needs the church to be relevant, I contend that a church is completely irrelevant if it conforms to the surrounding culture without boldly proclaiming the absolute relevance of the truth found in Jesus.  

After the church gathering we headed to lunch and then down to Potato Creek for an early afternoon family hike.  While the wind was a bit brisk, the interior trails through the wooded areas were filled with a variety of songbirds.  As we walked the roadway back to the truck, we paused to watch an osprey soaring high overhead.  As he circled over the lake he would occasionally pause in mid-air with a razor-like focus on the water below.  Eventually he saw the opportunity he was waiting for and made a diving plunge into the water, coming up with a fish firmly grasped in its talons.  As he took his catch back to the nest to share with the family, we passed a heron wading through the shallows where it also maintained a steady focus as it watched for an opportunity to catch a meal of its own.

As I thought about the lessons from church, and from nature, I wondered about how focused we are in keeping the commands of Jesus to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as our self.  Our very survival, from an eternal perspective at least, depends on our razor-sharp focus in maintaining our walk with God every day.  The relevance we have as individuals, and as church congregations, depends not on our ability to be like the culture but on our razor-sharp focus in accurately representing Jesus to the culture.  

I pray that you and I would constantly seek the wisdom from God that He has promised to give without finding fault.  I pray that we would make the most of every opportunity to present Christ as relevant to every situation.  I pray that we would not succumb to the temptation to sacrifice truth in an attempt to make the gospel more acceptable.  I pray that we would understand how the transforming power of Christ becomes the only thing that maintains lasting relevance to a world that is lost.