Page 334 was a welcome relief from the cold, rainy weather of the past few days.  The stars were shining brightly in the clear night sky as I headed into work this morning.  As the amount of daylight continues to shrink each day, it was still dark when I finished the morning cleaning and building prep.  As I worked in my office on some writing projects and my lesson for tomorrow evening’s children’s class, the sun finally made its way over the horizon to brighten the day.  Eventually, a variety of birds showed up to enjoy the buffet remaining in the trees and brush outside my office window.  Today’s photo is of a cedar waxwing who was one of the numerous visitors I had through the late morning and into the afternoon.  

I had intended to participate in the “Giving Tuesday” hoopla by once again making the Kindle editions of the books I have written free for the day.  Unfortunately, I discovered that process need to be set up at least a day in advance.  In the process, I found that I could set up a fundraising page on Facebook that would have the first one thousand dollars given matched by the Gates Foundation in honor of Giving Tuesday.  So, I set up the page, https://www.facebook.com/donate/10210173709674636/, which will be open through December 13 for donations to the Impact Prayer Ministry Resource Fund.  These donations will be used to have more books printed to put into the hands of camp leaders and Christian ministries at some upcoming conferences I will be attending.  Once that was set up, I completed the process to make the Kindle editions of my books available for free over the next two days.  So, Giving Tuesday will now become Giving Wednesday and Thursday done the Impact Prayer Ministry way!  

Once I had those tasks completed, the rest of the afternoon was spent writing a newsletter that will be emailed out just before midnight tonight letting my subscribers know about the free Kindle books from Impact Prayer Ministry.  Yes, the prayer ministry relies on the gifts of others in order to make prayer-based resources available to anyone who will use them, but I don’t feel right calling a day “Giving Tuesday” if all I’m doing is asking people to give to my work — for it to really be “Giving Tuesday”, I need to be giving as well.  So, if you are reading this page on Wednesday, November 30, 2016 or Thursday, December 1, 2016, feel free to head over to Amazon and search for author Tom Lemler in Kindle books and you should find each of my eight books available for free.  You can also go to my Amazon author page at https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Lemler/e/B00KEQ0Z6O/ to find the listing of each of my books.  The good news is that if you’re not reading this page on one of those two days, the Kindle editions of my books are regularly priced at only 99 cents.

By late afternoon, my “Giving Wednesday and Thursday” email was finished and scheduled to send out so I packed up my things and headed to lunch on my way home.  As I reflect on the day, the image in my mind of all the birds showing up for a morning buffet made me think of God’s care and provision for each of us, and specifically for  me.  When I schedule prayer ministry displays at conventions and conferences, it is usually so far in advance that I don’t have the resources in hand that will actually be needed for the display.  I spend time in prayer seeking God’s direction for where I ought to be and then I trust Him to provide the money and books necessary to accomplish His purpose for my being at the convention or conference.  While I never seem to have excess, I always seem to have enough.  Occasionally, such as today, I make the need known, but even in doing that I try to do so in a way that simply asks people to consider what God would have them do.

I pray that you and I would look for the brightness of God’s presence to be revealed in the times we feel surrounded by darkness and gloom.  I pray that we would learn to be generous with all that God has given us.  I pray that our words and actions of generosity would be such that they focus on the needs of others rather than our own.  I pray that we would understand how much God loves us as we consider the way He cares and provides for our needs.  I pray that we would trust God to provide what we need to accomplish the work He has called us to do.  I pray that we would seek wisdom from God to know how He would have us to help others accomplish their work for Him.  

Page 333 was back to the work routine following a nice Thanksgiving holiday break.  The pest control service was due today so it was an early start to the day to meet our service rep before beginning the cleaning for the day.  As I did the early morning cleaning, I also prayed about the rest of my day and sought direction for the prayer guide for next week.  Once the cleaning and building prep was done and the trash taken out, it was time to settle in for the morning to spend time with God as we put together next week’s prayer guide.  

I eventually decided to write the next prayer guide with a focus on our need to share.  God has not only called us to be people who share, He set the example as everything we have has come from His willingness to share with us.   Paul writes to the Corinthians, and to us, “What do you have that you have not received?”  The implied answer in the questioning is that I don’t have anything that I have not received.  The follow-up question is just as direct, “If you did receive it, why do you act as if you did not?”  When it comes to sharing, we would do well to always remember what it is that is actually of our own doing and what it is that we have received from God.  It is when we are able to keep that perspective, that we realize the meaning of Jesus telling His followers, “Freely you have received, freely give.”  

But this command to share is not just about stuff.  God wants us to share our self with people — our time, our abilities, our talents, our words, our listening — whatever it is that we have, we have not only received it but we are called to share it.  I probably should mention that this sharing should be a result of time spent with God seeking both wisdom and courage in being able to share what we’ve been given in effective and productive ways.  Sometimes it is a tough balance to be able to share in useful ways and not wasteful ones, but those are the questions we must take before God and listen intently for His answers.  For me, as I share the books that God has given me to write, I tell people they can take what they will use.  I want to be able to freely share the gift God has given me, but I also feel a responsibility to avoid wastefulness as much as possible.  I can’t guarantee that every book that is picked up from my display at a conference is put to immediate use, I can ask people to only take them if they will use them, and then trust God to cause His gift to me to bear fruit in the lives of people at just the right time.

Once the writing of the prayer guide was complete, I scheduled it to be published and emailed out next week.  The rest of my work day was spent taking care of some minor tasks in the building and going through mail and correspondence from the extended weekend.  By mid-afternoon, it was time to head out and take care of some missions banking and get some lunch before heading home.  

Today’s photo was taken a couple weeks ago as I hiked a trail in the Natural Bridge State Park.  While I enjoy the beauty of the natural settings that I am able to visit and photograph, I also realize the beauty is not meant just for me and that I need to share it with others.  The photography gift that God has put in my life and allowed me to develop has allowed me to share the gift of natural beauty with people who will never be able to visit some of the parks and locations I go to.  Every once in a while I begin thinking that I post too many photos on social media and then God will use someone to remind me of how much the sharing of them means to them.  

I pray that you and I would not only enjoy the breaks that we are able to take from the routines of life, but that we would enjoy the routines as well.  I pray that we would seek God in the midst of every task that fills our days.  I pray that we would honestly consider all that God has given us.  I pray that our evaluation of what we have received would lead us to a life of joyous sharing.  I pray that we would seek God for wisdom and courage in knowing how and when to share what He has given.

Page 332 began early as it was after midnight when I finished writing page 331.  When I finally got to sleep, Susan had a seizure during the night which woke all of us up.  As MJ cared for her, I went back to sleep to get some rest before heading out to preach this morning.  As I headed to Dowagiac this morning, there was a heavy frost covering most surfaces, including my truck windows which needed scraped before I could begin the trip.  As the sun began to warm up the air, the evaporating frost created a haze that added to the morning beauty.

It was a good morning of worship with the North Wayne Mennonite Church and I shared another message in the “Living as the Lord’s Servant” series.  Today I focused on the Lord’s servants, Simeon and Anna, written about in Luke 2 with a sermon, “The Lord’s Servants Give THANKS”.  While the Christmas season is a time we most often look at the account of Simeon and Anna because of their response to Jesus, it would appear they lived a life of thanks so that the praise we read about is a natural outpouring of themselves to God.  When we live as a servant of the Lord, our life ought to be one of thankfulness at all times.  As I looked at this morning’s text, there were six things that we need to learn how to give in order to give THANKS at all times.

One of the keys to giving thanks, is to learn to give Trust.  Until we learn to trust that God is looking out for our best interests, we will struggle with being thankful.  Both Simeon and Anna could give thanks to God for sending Jesus because they had lived a lifetime of trusting God’s promise of a Messiah.  Real trust has no time limit.  Our willingness to trust God, and people, will be reflected in our ability to be thankful when we don’t fully understand their motives.  We remain thankful because we trust.

Being thankful means that we give trust, but it also means that we give Hope.  In the midst of their praise and thankfulness, both Simeon and Anna proclaimed a hope that is available to all who would hear and accept.  Our life of thankfulness should be lived in such a way that a true message of hope is given to all who would hear our words and actions of thanks.  Being thankful, especially in difficult times, proclaims to all who are watching that we have a hope that cannot be extinguished.  As we offer expressions of thanks to God and to people, we shine a bright light of hope in a dark and dismal world.

As we give thanks, we also give Adoration.  It would be nearly impossible to find a purer form of adoration that the worship offered by both Simeon and Anna when they saw the baby Jesus before them.  Adoration by itself can be a form of thankfulness as we acknowledge the true worth of the one we adore.  It seems like a typical response by most people to an infant is that they are simply adorable.  What would happen to our level of thankfulness if that view of people never disappeared from our life?  Would we be more thankful if we learned to adore God as both Lord and Savior as much as we adore Him as a baby in a manger?  Would we give thanks to others more often if we could see them as adorable people made in the image of God?

If we are not finding much to adore, perhaps we need to work on the next aspect of giving thanks — give Notice.  I’m not talking about turning in a notice that you are quitting work, or life, or whatever.  No, I’m talking about paying attention to both God and people.  Simeon and Anna were able to give thanks to God because they were paying attention to what was taking place in front of them.  It is highly unlikely that they were the only people in the temple courts that day, but how many others noticed what was right before their eyes?  If we want to be more thankful in our interactions with God and people, a good place to begin would be to start noticing all that you ought to be thankful for.

When it comes to expressing our thanks, giving Kindness goes a long way toward helping a person believe we are truly thankful.  We have all probably had the occasion when someone, perhaps a child, has been forced to say thank you.  We know, not only because it doesn’t appear to be genuine, but because we recognize the attitude from the times when we have said thank you and didn’t mean it.  Simeon and Anna went beyond simply giving thanks to God for sending Jesus, they also expressed kindness in their interaction with Mary and Joseph.  If we want a life of thankfulness that has meaning, it is important that we learn to express a visible kindness as we give thanks.

Finally, giving true thanks also means that we give Self.  Simeon and Anna had both given themselves to God long before the day we read about in the second chapter of Luke.  Their thankfulness to God, while expressed in words and worship on the day the encountered Jesus in the temple, had long before been expressed in the giving of themselves to Him.  In fact, it is the giving of self that may well be the key to living a life that learns how to give thanks in all circumstances.  It is not until we surrender our self to God that we begin to learn how to trust Him completely, how to have a hope that endures, how to really adore Him as we ought, how to notice His presence in our life, or how to even understand what true kindness looks like.  When we decide to give self to God, we learn how to be thankful for His presence within us.  And when we follow the example of Jesus and learn how to give self to others, we learn how to be thankful for who God has created them to be.

The photo I chose today is one I took yesterday on our covered bridge hunt.  This bridge has had some help by the placement of a steel girder support system underneath it.  It continues to function as a bridge today because of the support added by the steel framework.  In many ways our willingness to give of ourselves provides a framework that makes it possible for us to be a person who gives thanks.  We are too weak to be thankful in all circumstances as we ought to be, so God has placed beneath us the power of His Spirit to strengthen us and make us able to do all things through Christ — including giving THANKS!.

Page 331 continued the Thanksgiving holiday and it was nice to have a few days off in a row where I didn’t even have work related projects that crept in to take my time.  Well, at least not directly.  Today was spent with my family doing some covered bridge hunting and photographing but I also spent much of the drive time reflecting on the sermon topic and text I will share Sunday morning.  The day allowed for some sleeping in but with a free day ahead of us and a forecast that was dry, we gathered up our cameras and went out following my GPS to photograph some covered bridges.  I began the day’s trip with 13 bridges on my list but almost immediately crossed off the first one as it was not really lined up in the direction of the others.  One of the bridges on the list ended up being a small cart bridge on a golf course so we didn’t take any pictures of it.  As we neared the end of the list, the sun was quickly fading in the west so we skipped two more of the bridges which brought our number of bridges photographed on this trip to nine with the final bridge leaving us a three hour drive back home.  

Some of the bridges are still in use and carry traffic over them on a regular basis while others stand as monuments to an earlier time while a replacement bridge runs alongside them.  Today’s photo was taken through a window on one of the longer bridges for the day.  As the sun began to set, visible in the photo is the modern bridge that the road now runs over.  Most of the covered bridges we have photographed were built in the mid to late 1800’s with a few being constructed in the early 1900’s.  Some have had major work done on them over the years to keep them in a usable condition and others appear to have had little maintenance done and aren’t even safe to walk across.  Yet even with very little care, the fact that these old bridges still remain is a testament to the effectiveness of their design and purpose.  The reason they were designed as covered bridges was to have the covering of a roof to protect the timbers of the bridge structure so they would endure through the changing seasons and weather.  With a little protection, much of the timber of these bridges have indeed lasted and when you add a little regular maintenance as well, the bridges not only last, they are still usable!

God has given us His Spirit and a set of armor that comes through His Spirit to protect us from the attacks of the evil one.  Its presence over us gives us a certain degree of protection simply because of its existence and purpose.  The greater usefulness is when we continually maintain our life through prayer as we put on the whole armor of God.  Prayer is a key component in the maintenance required for an growing relationship with God.  As people who desire to not just survive, but to be useful in accomplishing the good works God has created for us to do, we must maintain our spiritual walk with a lifestyle of prayer.

I pray that you and I would enjoy times when we are able to take a break from the regular tasks of life.  I pray that we would learn to be flexible in our plans as we allow room for changes.  I pray that we would understand our need for the spiritual protection offered by the armor of God.  I pray that we would not be content to simply have the armor of God available to us, but that we would use it and maintain it through a lifestyle of prayer. 

Page 329 was Thanksgiving Day which meant a day off of work to spend with family as we gathered with a spirit of thankfulness for all that God has given.  The day began with the ability to sleep in and catch up on some rest, which was one reason to be thankful right from the start.  By mid-morning I began the process of heating up the pork I cooked yesterday so that it would be both hot and juicy by the time we ate lunch.  The cooking of it ended up taking a little over 13 hours which left it incredibly tender and juicy, so I didn’t want to jeopardize the quality by rushing the reheating process.  

As the compliments on the pulled pork arrived throughout the day, I thought about how often we put a lot of work into something only to have impatience take over and keep the result from being the best that it could have been.  We get tired and rather than persevere, we take the first shortcut that we can find.  How often does our Christian witness suffer for that very reason?  We take great care and put much effort into knowing how God would have us live according to His Word, only to walk down an unguarded path because it looks like it will save us time in accomplishing what we desire.  I have often heard an old saying from a variety of settings, “If it’s worth doing, it is worth doing right.”  I might add that it is also worth taking whatever time is necessary to do it right.  Paul writes about buffeting his body daily and holding fast to the word of life so that he doesn’t run the race in vain.  He understood the importance of not only running the race well, but of finishing the race well also.  

The rest of the day was spent with family and lots of food.  As I sat down to write today’s page, I thought about the day and what photo I would include on the page.  I ended up choosing a photo I took last week of a natural bridge near Slade, Kentucky.  While I enjoy taking pictures of covered bridges, as nice as some of them are, they don’t come close to the magnificence of the handiwork of God.  But I didn’t choose the photo for today’s page because of its beauty.  I chose it because of the symbolism of a bridge as it takes us from one place to another.  As I reflect on the day, I am thankful to be a part of families which serve as a bridge of thanksgiving.  The family I was born into and the family I married into both serve as a bridge which carries me into an attitude of thankfulness.  I know that not everyone has a family that has been that bridge for them, but I believe that each of us can decide to be that bridge for our children, our family, and the people around us.  Our decision to be thankful, or not, has a tremendous influence on the level of thankfulness in the people who surround us on a daily basis.  Attitudes can be very contagious and the strength of our attitude will often determine whether others catch ours or we catch theirs.

I pray that you and I would learn to live with the patience required to do things right.  I pray that we would not give in to the temptations to take shortcuts that would diminish our witness for Christ.  I pray that we would live in such a way that our life would not be lived in vain.  I pray that we would have people in our life that have been a bridge for us into an attitude of thanksgiving.  I pray that we would be a bridge for others so they could make their way from an ungrateful attitude into one of thankfulness.  

Page 328 found last week’s conference schedule catching up with me.  Fortunately, school was out for an early start to the Thanksgiving holiday and only the preschool had classes today so I did not need to head in early to clean.  This allowed both Susan and I to sleep in and start to catch up on some needed rest.  I’ll be taking pulled pork to Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, so once I got up I fired up the pellet grill and began the 12+ hour process of slow cooking/smoking the pork.  Today’s photo was taken at about hour 11 and fortunately it is not a scratch-and-sniff photo or your screen might end up with a hole worn through it. 😉  

After I had the pork on the grill, I sat down to work on the monthly Impact Prayer Ministry Newsletter while Susan continued sleeping away the morning.  As I wrote the newsletter, it only seemed fitting that it focused on giving thanks.  Perhaps if we set aside time on a regular basis to examine the many things we have to be thankful for, we would learn to live life with a lot more gratitude to go around than what is often shown.  How would our attitudes change if we deliberately gave thanks every day like we are encouraged to do for the Thanksgiving holiday?  When I give thanks for the partners in prayer and finances God has provided for the ministry, I am less likely to complain about not having enough.  When I am thankful for the opportunities that God gives me to preach and teach, I discover a contentment that looks beyond missed opportunities.  When I give thanks for the gifts God has put within my life, I find myself being a more gracious giver with the gifts that are actually His.  When I am thankful for my family, I recognize a gift from God that needs to be treated with great care.  Thankfulness isn’t just about being thankful, it is about a complete transformation of my mind and spirit which recognizes in a real way that “every good and perfect gift comes from above.”  

As I finished up the newsletter and sent it out, Susan made it up so we got our things around and headed into work.  I spent a little more time on my sermon for Sunday as I waited for preschool to finish for the day.  Once they were done, I began my Friday cleaning routine as I worked to get the building cleaned and ready for the weekend.  One of the nice parts about a holiday break is that I can start the weekend prep and know that I have a couple days to finish it rather than have to work a late night in order to have it ready.  With an empty and quiet building, I was able to get most of the regular weekend cleaning done and will only have a little touch-up to do before Sunday morning.  As the afternoon came to a close, I called it a day and headed home to see how the pork was doing.  The smell of the slow roasting pork made me want to just sit in the garage but it was cold and rainy outside so I went in to the warmth of the house and would just go out to the garage to “visit” every now and then.  As I finish up the writing of today’s page, the cooking should be nearing an end and then it will be time to pull it apart and get it ready for tomorrow.  

I pray that you and I would pay attention to the rest we need — not just the rest our body needs, but the rest we need for our soul and spirit.  I pray that we would learn patience as we wait for God’s work to be complete in us at just the right time.  I pray that we would commit to being thankful at all times.  I pray that we would live with a transformed mind as we live a life of gratitude.

Page 327 began with all the appearances of an ordinary Tuesday.  I arrived at work in the early morning darkness to clean bathrooms, floors, and other areas to get the building ready for the day.  As I collected up the trash from throughout the building, I noticed a pink glow in the northern sky.  Not wanting to miss the morning beauty, I took my camera with me when I took the trash out.  When I got outside, it was obvious that the pink glow on the northern horizon was simply the overflow of the brilliant color coming up from the east.  Today’s photo through the playground equipment was the first one I took after depositing the trash in the dumpster.  I took others as well, but none seemed to capture the majesty of the morning better than this one.  It was as if God was telling me not to judge a day as ordinary that He has created as special.

Much of the day was spent working on a sermon I’ll share at the North Wayne Mennonite Church this coming Sunday morning.  As I continue a series that considers the idea of living as the Lord’s servant, this week I will address the need for the Lord’s servant to give thanks.  We seem to live in a time when thankfulness appears to be in short supply.  I suspect that a culture that teaches us that we deserve whatever we have and whatever we want, isn’t going to create a fertile ground for gratitude to grow in.  When contentment is just out of our grasp, we tend to not only become ungrateful but that lack of giving thanks soon turns into resentment.  As I thought about gratitude and contentment, a brief conversation that took place last week at ICOM came to my mind.  A person reacted to my giving out free books to anyone who would use them with a response that indicated it would be more helpful if I could make college free.  I’m pretty sure there was no thought that I would have any influence in making that happen but instead of saying thank you, the response came across as a feeling that my offer wasn’t all that useful.  I share that not to come down on this person, but as an example of how easy it is to miss out on a life of thankfulness simply because we are focused on what we don’t have rather than on what we’ve been given.  

In addition to the sermon prep, today was filled with a variety of tasks.  Some of the tasks were pleasant but others would be better described as unwanted.  One of those tasks included a considerable amount of blood — not mine, by the way.  After making sure the appropriate people were aware someone had been bleeding, and being assured a couple people in the building are susceptible to significant nosebleeds so it was likely not an emergency, I began the clean-up process.  For most people that may not be a big deal, but I tend to not do well when blood is visible.  Most of the time the fainting that occurs when I see blood tends to be a mind game more than anything else, so as I cleaned I not only prayed for whoever had left the mess but I also thanked God that I have work that enables me to serve others and also lead the prayer ministry He has called me to.  By keeping my mind focused on thankfulness and serving rather than on the details of what had happened, I got the blood cleaned up and didn’t even feel light-headed during the process.

I pray that you and I would realize that the ordinary days of our life are just opportunities for God to reveal His extraordinary character in ways that may well surprise us.  I pray that we would give careful consideration to just how thankful we are.  I pray that we would pay more attention to what we have been given than to what we don’t have that we want.  I pray that we would learn the secret of contentment as we come to know that God is enough.  I pray that we would live thankful lives even when the tasks we must do are difficult.