I ended up working late last night and then slept more soundly than I have in a long time.  I was awake at 7, which has now become “sleeping in”, and noticed the sun starting to light up the eastern horizon.  It looked like it would be worth taking some photos, so I got dressed and headed outside.  I have trees in all directions from the house, so I went out to the road where the clearest view to the horizon is possible.  As I went out, I noticed everything had iced over after I got home last night making the driveway and walks at home quite slippery.  So, I headed to work to put down some ice melt on the walks so they would be clear for the preschool classes and teachers in-service day.  

While work is only two miles from home, as I pulled into the driveway it appeared that there wasn’t nearly as much snow cover on the ground.  When I drove up to the building, the sidewalks appeared to be clear and dry.  While the meant my trip was unnecessary as far as work goes, it also meant I had a better view of the sunrise to take pictures.  I pulled around to the back of the building and took a number of photos as the sun made it’s way over the horizon and then the tree line.  As I finished my photo taking and headed home so Susan didn’t have to wake up, I looked in my rear view mirror and noticed the sun making its way over the building.  The sight was enough to cause me to stop on one side of the driveway and shoot a few more photos before heading home.  Today’s photo is one that would have been missed had I not payed attention to my surroundings as I drove away.  Sometimes we settle for good because we don’t anticipate, and look for, better.  We become so comfortable and satisfied with the work of God in our life that we no longer look for the “more than we can think or imagine” that He still wants to do.

After taking a few photos from the driveway, I headed home so MJ could go to work and Susan could keep sleeping.  While Susan slept, I went through the photos I had taken and shared a few online for others to enjoy.  Even with snow on the ground, by mid-morning I fired up the pellet grill and put some pork chops on to slow cook so we would have smoked pork chops for lunch.  The rest of the day was spent in a combination of relaxing and letting the sermon points for Sunday soak in and simmer.  In talking with others, I’ve come to believe that my sermon prep process is not exactly normal, but I’ve rarely claimed to be normal. 🙂  In fact, those close to me believe it is something in the Asperger’s family that God uses to create the perspective I have in my writing, preaching, teaching, and photography.  Sometimes it is difficult to keep focused on how God uses those differences in thought processing for His good purposes when others don’t appreciate the perspective they bring.  Like all things, the key lies in staying focused on why we do what we do and on Who we’re doing it for.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• It’s good to wake up refreshed.  It’s even better to live refreshed.
• Weather conditions where you are may be different from even those that are nearby.  Just because someone lives near you, it doesn’t mean their life conditions are the same as yours.  You won’t know until you spend the time to be with them.
• Sometimes a glimmer of light is all that is needed to make a person seek more.
• Is your life a glimmer of light to others or is it a tree that keeps the light from being seen?
• Good is good, but don’t dwell so firmly in the good that you miss the better and best.
• We’re all unique, even different some might say.  Seek God for how He wants to use the uniqueness He has gifted you with.
• People won’t always understand you and you won’t always understand them.  Listening usually leads to better understanding than arguing.
• Faithfulness is God’s measure of success.

After a stormy night with very interrupted sleep, heading into work early to get the cleaning and building prep done for the day wasn’t as difficult as one might think.  Keeping at it until late tonight to get the building ready for tomorrow may be a different story.  🙂  Once I get today’s page written, I will see how I feel and how much I get done.  I did find out by accident, and then later got an email, that the students don’t have school here tomorrow so it will just be the teachers and preschool, so that will change a little bit of both what needs done and when it needs done by.

After getting the building ready for the day, I spent a little time continuing work on the sermon for Sunday before heading out to help a church member move to a different apartment.  We moved things from a lower level apartment which meant we had to carry everything up a flight of stairs to get it out of the building, to an upper level apartment which meant we had to carry everything up a flight of stairs to get it into the apartment.  That meant that my wrist-worn activity tracker finally said I met goal in flights of stairs climbed — a goal I rarely meet as I don’t have much stair usage in a normal day.  As we were carrying things into the new apartment, a friend that was helping asked me jokingly if the Wednesday services at church would be canceled tonight — the carrying boxes and furniture up and down stairs was wearing all of us out.  My reply was, “I’m pretty sure this is Wednesday services, so coming to the church building later is up to you.”  Gathering together for Bible study and fellowship is important, but serving brothers and sisters who are in need is equally, if not more, important.  It made me think of the teaching of Jesus regarding the Sabbath being made for the benefit of people rather than people being created so there would be someone to keep the Sabbath.

By early afternoon the majority of the things, and all the heavy items, were moved so I headed to the store to pick up some things for the office before heading back to work.  As I went back to working on the sermon, I found myself in a battle to keep from nodding off.  I persevered and kept at it until I needed to do a building walk-through and take out trash before the Wednesday evening Bible studies.  By late afternoon, the temperature had dropped and the morning rain had changed to snow.  Today’s photo shows the snow clinging to the trees and brush that were earlier filled with birds singing their songs of spring.  While the white coating on everything presents an appearance of beauty and purity, it is also a reminder that winter isn’t over.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• The storms of life can be loud and disruptive, but they don’t have to keep us from doing what we ought.
• Sometimes we have to look deep within our self, and then look beyond our self to God, to find the strength to carry on.
• I’m guessing building designers don’t anticipate they will ever have to move someone’s belongings.
• I’m often asked to pray that God would make the plans of a person or group work like they want them to.  I’m rarely, if ever, asked to pray that a person or group would make God’s plan work in their midst.  Regardless of what I’m asked, I always pray the second.
• If we’re too busy to serve others, we’re too busy.
• God looks at the heart of a person, not the church attendance record of a person.  
• The heart that seeks God ought to lead us to involvement in a church body and involvement in being the church body outside the building.
• God’s promise to forgive our sins and to completely cleanse us from all unrighteousness is a beautiful thing.

Page 59 has been a dreary looking day with storms in the forecast through the nighttime hours.  A service tech was scheduled to be at the house this morning in an attempt to address some of the concerns I had with a recent phone and internet installation.  So, after the early morning cleaning and building prep, I headed home to work on a sermon for the weekend while I waited for the tech.  I really just needed information about a wire that was left on top of the ground to be buried later.  My communication with the support department yesterday resulted in them scheduling a visit by a service tech because they could not answer my questions.  I was thankful that they didn’t just brush me off but was willing to send someone out to make sure my questions were answered correctly.  And it was nice to work from home and be able to let Susan sleep in, which she did quite well. 🙂

The sermon I’m working on is a part of the “Living As a Servant of the Lord” series I’ve been working on.  For the series, I’ve chosen a variety of characters who are described in the Bible as being a servant to the Lord.  Some of the characters make the claim about themselves and others are described as such by someone else.  So far I’ve looked at Abraham, Moses, Anna & Simeon, Mary, and Joshua.  Next up in the series is a look at the life of Samson.  Samson is an interesting servant of the Lord because we see him making very deliberate stands for God as well as making very poor decisions at times.  Does that sound like anyone you know without pointing fingers beyond yourself?  Even while being on the receiving end of some horrible consequences of his bad decisions, Samson continued to seek ways to serve the Lord — even at the cost of his own life.  Too often, we make poor decisions and somehow believe, or have been taught, that we are no longer able to be used by God.  For me, the life of Samson teaches us that even in the midst of the consequences we may face, we still have the choice to live as a servant of the Lord.

As I worked on the sermon, the service tech came, answered my questions satisfactorily, and left.  He even left my his phone number, and the phone number of his boss, should I have further questions when the sub-contractor comes out to bury the new wire that is needed from the pole to the house.  Eventually, I wrapped up the sermon work for the day and headed out for a late lunch with my family.  After lunch, I found a great deal on airfare that made more sense than the original plan of driving to Florida for an early summer vacation.  So, I booked the flights, reserved a rental car, and tweaked the lodging reservations I had already made so they matched the flight availability schedule.  With the busy day and uncooperative weather, I took no new photos today.  So after firming up some details for a family vacation, I chose a photo from last year to show we really do believe in vacations with a porpoise. 🙂

And just for fun, my computer crashed as I tried to finish up today’s page.  Fortunately, most of it was auto-saved and I am finishing it up on my laptop. 

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• You won’t have the answer to everything.  When you don’t know, the best first step is admitting you don’t know.
• After admitting you don’t know something, a good second step is to find someone who does know the answer to what is being asked.
• God uses all kinds of people to accomplish His work.
• Living as the Lord’s servant looks different from person to person because we each have service to do that matches our unique gifting and calling.
• Unwise decisions often have consequences, but those consequences don’t have to keep us from continuing to be the Lord’s servant.
• Sometimes planning for, and anticipating, a time of rest can provide enough of a boost to carry us through the routines of life as we anticipate what is to come.
• Planing for, and anticipating, an eternal home with God should give us an even greater boost to carry us through the daily routines of life until we receive our reward.
• When lived for Christ, life does have purpose.

Page 58 has been a busy day and I didn’t manage any new photos so today’s page includes one from a few days ago.  As I headed into work this morning, the sky was clear and filled with stars but the moon had “waned” all the way down to “new moon” status.  Today was pest control service day, so I headed into work even earlier than usual to meet our service tech.  As he did his thing, I worked on the cleaning and prep to have the building ready for the start of the school week.  With clear skies, the sunrise was beautiful but not as photogenic as when there are scattered clouds to catch and diffuse the light into brilliant layers of colors.  

Once the cleaning was done and the building was ready for the day, I settled into my Monday morning prayer guide writing routine.  As I spent time with God, my mind eventually settled on God not only being enough, but being more than enough.  When we begin to see the outpouring of God in our life as being more than enough, we are more likely to share what we have.  We like to think we can do things, earn things, accumulate things on our own.  Yet God asks, “what do you have that you have not received?”  The ability we have to do anything comes from God — even that breath we just took was received from God.  God goes on to ask, “if you have received, why do you act like you haven’t?”  When we fully accept what God desires to give, we find that we not only have enough, we have more than enough to do what God wants us to do.

Once the prayer guide for next week was written, formatted, and scheduled to go out Sunday, I headed outside to work on the Kubota to get it ready for spring.  I knew I would need to order rims and hubs for the rear of the tractor but I had hoped I would be able to get it usable as I wait for the parts to arrive.  It ended up being a chore to get the worst of the wheels off the tractor but I finally got it removed so I could take it to the dealer to get a professional opinion on what needed done.  As I suspected, the rim and hub were rusted and corroded so badly that they couldn’t be made to function even in the short term.  So I ordered the parts and will wait for their arrival to put things back together.

By mid-afternoon, it was time to call an end to the workday and head to lunch.  The workday didn’t actually end, however, as I picked up some supplies for work after I was finished with lunch.  I eventually made it home and spent a good part of the late afternoon and evening attempting to straighten out some issues with my phone and internet provider.  It was one of those evenings when after arranging for the first issue to be addressed, I was made aware of another issue and so it was back chatting with the support team to resolve that as well.  I think both issues are in the process of being resolved, but only time will tell with each of them.  Finally, it was time to write today’s page so I can get some sleep before heading back to work early.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• It is good to work with people who are willing to adapt their schedule to avoid disrupting the school day.  
• Each of us would do well to find ways to accommodate the needs of others.
• A cloud in our life here and there can add beauty and depth.
• Acknowledging how empty we would be without God can be pretty difficult for many of us who believe we’ve earned everything we have.
• When we are content with what God gives we are more likely to share His resources with others.
• We will never have enough until we decide that God is enough.
• Maintenance is necessary and it usually becomes more difficult and expensive the longer we wait.
• Maintaining our spiritual life is necessary and it usually becomes more difficult and costly the longer we put it off.
• Problems and issues rarely resolve themselves.  We must invest ourselves in them if we desire to see change.

Page 57 was a Sunday that began early as I headed into work to clean bathrooms, glass doors, and hallways as I needed to make sure the building was ready for the morning.  As I arrived at work, I was greeted by the beauty of the sun illuminating the back tree line before it made its way over the horizon.  Sometimes it is easier and more peaceful to head into work early on Sunday rather than stay up late on Friday night making sure everything is ready.  Today was one of those peaceful mornings when quiet time with God accompanied each step of my work.  As I stopped by the office before Sunday School, a cardinal stopped by outside my window so I took his photo for today’s page.

After the building was cleaned and ready, I headed to Sunday School class where we finished up our study of the book of Colossians.  As Paul closed out his letter to the Colossian Christians, he stressed the importance of being devoted to prayer.  Part of the key to living a lifestyle of prayer is to be watchful and thankful.  As we open our eyes to our surroundings, we will find plenty of things to pray for.  And as we pray, we will find more and more to be thankful for.

During our morning worship gathering, David shared a message from the end of Luke eight as we considered how to deal with “Desperate Times”.  While the desperate times in the text dealt with a man whose daughter was sick and dying, we have our own desperate times as we face circumstances that are unsettling and beyond our control.  As we understand the actions taken by Jairus in his attempt to overcome the desperate situation he faced, perhaps we can learn to implement those actions in our circumstances before desperation sets in.

• The first thing we need to do in times of desperation is to come to Jesus — and the sooner, the better.  Too often, we reserve prayer and a turning to Jesus as a last resort after we’ve tried everything else to resolve whatever problem we face.  Perhaps we would have fewer times of desperation if we learned to come to Jesus with everything before the molehills turn into mountains.
• Not only do we need to come to Jesus, we need to stay with Jesus in our times of desperation.  Sometimes when things look desperate, we frantically try anything and everything, including turning to Jesus, but we often don’t stay long enough to receive the answer we need.  Throughout the Bible, we find God instructing His people to wait.  Often times our pace doesn’t match the pace that God is leading us on.  Scripture teaches us the incredible value of waiting on the Lord, but experience tells me that most of us would rather do anything except wait.  Staying with Jesus means that we move through life, and through our time of desperation, at His pace rather than our own.
• Probably the greatest key in both coming to Jesus and staying with Jesus in our times of desperation is found as we learn to trust Jesus even when it seems like there is no hope.  Many times we fail to come to, or stay with, Jesus because we have lost hope and fail to trust Him to meet us in our times of desperation in a way that benefits us.  The writer of Hebrews says that it is impossible to please God without faith because we must not only believe that God exists, but we must believe He rewards those who diligently seek Him.  We come to Jesus because we trust Him.  We stay with Jesus because we trust Him.  And we trust Jesus because we know He rewards those who come to Him, and stays with Him, in faith.

After the worship gathering, I headed to lunch and then spent the afternoon relaxing and trying to optimize my home computer as it keeps giving me problems.  The hope is that I can figure out what keeps bogging it down so I can keep it going for some time.  I eventually got it running consistently for now and then began the writing of today’s page.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• God’s timing is always better than my timing.
• While I enjoy seeing the sunrise, I know it will rise even when it can’t be directly seen.
• Some days God’s presence seems more visible than others, but I know its existence doesn’t change according to how much I do, or don’t, notice it. 
• Being devoted to prayer means that prayer has become a way of life for us.
• Our thankfulness should increase by our observance of God’s working in our life and in the lives of the people around us.
• They say desperate times call for desperate measures.  So, when those times come we would do well to come to Jesus, stay with Jesus, and trust Jesus to carry us through.
• Sometimes our life becomes so bogged down with the cares of this world that we need to stop and allow God to restore us.

I was doing some updates on my GPS that ended up taking longer than I anticipated, so page 55 soon merged into page 56 before I headed to bed.  The late, or very early morning, bedtime made the idea of sleeping in even more desirable than normal.  When I finally woke up, winter had returned overnight and there was a dusting of snow on the ground with light flurries still falling.  After relaxing much of the morning, we finally decided to head out for a trip to Portage and Michigan City, Indiana for some shopping with stops along the Lake Michigan shoreline to shoot some photos.

Today’s photo is of the lighthouse scene at Washington Park in Michigan City as the sun attempted to break through the clouds.  While the wind coming off the lake made it feel even colder than the twenty-seven degree air temperature would make it seem, it was still a great afternoon to take photos.   The occasional break in the clouds allowed for the sunbeams to stream from the sky onto the waters of the lake.  When viewed from the dunes and hills along the lake shore, the water was an amazing variety of blues and greens as the waves rolled onto the shore.  In fact, if you could ignore the gray sky and cold temperature, it almost had a tropical look to it.  Yet appearance isn’t always an accurate reflection of what something is.

It is kind of that way with people too.  God says that we have a tendency to look at the outward appearance of people, while He looks at the heart.  While we need to apply that principle to the way we view others, we really need to begin by examining whether we spend more time working on our own outward appearance or more time with who we are at our very core.  Do we want people just to think well of us, or do we want to treat people well?  Do we let people see who we really are, or do we spent most of our time hiding our true self.  Do we even take the time to be honest with our self about what God already knows about us?

Overall it’s been a quiet day and after the shopping and photo excursion, the evening was spent at home going through the photos taken in the afternoon before writing today’s page.  I will need to do some cleaning at work before church tomorrow, so it’s probably time to wrap up today’s writing and call it a day.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Sometimes I start projects later than I should and find myself working on them long after I should have taken a break.  This character trait is probably positive at times and negative at other times.
• How persistent am I when it comes to doing what it takes to grow in my walk with God?  Do I pursue Him naturally according to His leading or do I force the relationship to fit my plans and ideas.
• Not everything is what it appears to be.  Sometimes it is, but other times it is either better or worse that what it appears, or perhaps just different from its appearance.
• Our integrity is the quality that helps us be the same person whether anyone is looking or not.

Page 55 began with surprisingly warm weather on a day that saw the season change from spring back to winter again.  As I took the trash out after the morning cleaning and building prep, the day’s first line of storms began moving through the area.  It began as light rain and the trees were filled with birds singing their springtime songs in the early morning.  As the rainfall became heavier, the sounds of the birds disappeared as they headed deeper into the woods for cover.  But the music of nature continued as the rain danced on the metal roof of the building while I took care of my morning tasks.  By late morning the first round of rain came to an end and clear skies appeared for a brief time before the clouds began to build for round two.  

With a memorial service and dinner scheduled for late afternoon and evening, I did some writing as I waited for the cafeteria to clear out so I could clean the floors and help with the setup for the dinner.  Today’s writing was my first blog post other than my daily pages in a very long time.  The idea for the writing came from a photo I took of my daughter this past weekend.  The photo caught her in a great expression of joy which flows not from what she can accomplish, but from who she is.  If you’ve not already seen it, you can find that blog post at “Finding Joy In Who You Are“.

After the writing, it was time to clean floors and do some setup for the evening before heading out to lunch.  With the building in use, the rest of my weekend cleaning will end up waiting until sometime Saturday or early Sunday morning.  So, after a late lunch I headed home where I relaxed and took a nap before dinner.  After dinner, it has been a combination of Words With Friends games and writing today’s page.  With no new photos taken today, I chose one from yesterday for today’s page.  It reminds me a lot of the overcast and stormy weather of today.  Even with a day that the weather would probably not be considered ideal, God continues to share His creativity and beauty.  Once I finish up the writing, it will be time to get some sleep.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• We don’t always get the weather, or other life circumstances, that we want but that shouldn’t keep us from noticing God’s goodness in what He gives us.
• Just because the birds stop singing in a storm, it doesn’t mean the music has to stop.
• We must be careful to not let a good routine cause us to miss the incredible surprises God wants to bring into our life.
• If we count on what we do, or what others think about what we do, to bring us joy, we will eventually end up disappointed.
• True joy in Christ comes from being who God created us to be and being content to simply be that.
• Serving people may well cause us to have to change our plans and schedules — serve anyway.
• With no rain, there is no growth.  With no growth, we die.  Appreciate the cloudy and rainy days of life for the life they bring.

Page 53 ended later than I had anticipated so page 54 began with me heading to bed to get some sleep.  When I eventually woke up to start page 54 for real, I sat down at my computer to check on messages and social media postings.  It didn’t take long this morning for me to realize that although I walk a lot and consider myself to be in good enough physical condition, apparently running a chainsaw for several hours straight yesterday used a different variety of muscles that what I’m used to using. 🙂  I was thankful that Thursday’s are typically my day off so I could recuperate from yesterday’s work.

We’re having spring, summer, fall, and winter all within days of each other this week, so Susan’s neurological system seems to be experiencing a lot of difficulties with a variety of seizure types.  My day of rest helps her to rest so it becomes a win-win for all of us.  She was eventually ready to get up so I helped her get her clothes out and breakfast around so she could get herself ready for the day.  Once she had what she needed, I fired up the pellet grill so I cook some bacon cheeseburgers for lunch.  After lunch, Susan and I headed down to Potato Creek where she walked a mile and then rode her wheelchair while we did an additional four miles of trails.  When we first got to the park, a bald eagle was perched in a tree near where we parked.  I was able to get a few photos before he decided to go somewhere else to do his fishing.  In the photo on today’s page he seems to be looking at me and wondering, “What is he doing here?”  In the very next photo I was able to take, he has begun to spread his wings just before taking off.  While I love seeing the eagles when I’m there, the park itself is filled with beauty and photo opportunities throughout.  

After our walks, we headed home where I spent some time going through the photos I had taken.  Once the photos had been gone through and I had shared a few of them, I fired the pellet grill back up and put some chicken on for supper.  After eating, it was time to begin writing today’s page so I can call it a day and get some sleep before the early start to Friday.

As I reflect on the day, here are some thoughts/lessons that stand out to me:

• Life is filled with a lot of ebb and flow, a variety of hills and valleys, and we would do well to understand the balance that can be had in the midst of that.
• Doing something we’re not used to doing will generally be uncomfortable for a time but that shouldn’t keep us from doing what we ought.
• The mind is a wonderful and complex creation.  As with most things, the more complex they are, the more difficult it is to understand all the ways it works — especially when it functions differently than others.
• The things we call disabilities often help those who have them to do things the rest of us can’t.
• While there are many things that Susan can’t do, it is more productive to focus on the things she does better than most — like her ability to relate to God.
• Most people seem to be focused almost exclusively on the visually spectacular even when they are surrounded by other things, or people, that ought to be noticed.
• What are you missing today because it doesn’t fully match what you’re looking for?