There was a dampness in the air as I headed into work early this morning, but the temperature was above freezing so there was no frost or ice to deal with.  Page 317 had no specific soundtrack to start the day, but I did find myself singing lines from a variety of hymns as I went about my morning tasks.  After making some small adjustments last week to try to bring balance to some of the room temperatures, including my office, I walked into a very cold office this morning.  My first thought was that the changes I had made actually backfired, but as I checked some other rooms and investigated further I discovered that one of the boilers in the building wasn’t heating.  After I finished getting the building ready for the day I turned my attention to doing what troubleshooting I could on the boiler.  My efforts brought no improvement so I called a service tech and he said he could be out sometime during the day.

With that project on hold, I turned my attention to working on the prayer guide for next week.  With the Thanksgiving holiday taking place next week in the United States, I was pretty sure I wanted to do something based the idea of thankfulness.  As I looked back in my records, it appears that I have used the same prayer guide for Thanksgiving week each year with only minor adjustments.  While I could have done that again, I felt that I needed to take a fresh look at the topic this year as I spent time with God on this prayer guide.  Rather than use the old one, or even deliberately not use topics from the old one, I decided to simply approach the topic of giving thanks from a blank slate as I would with any other topic on any other week — if the daily topics overlapped ones from previous years, that would be okay and if not, that would be okay too.  As I spent time in prayer and Bible study, the prayer guide came together and I haven’t even looked to see how different or similar it is to the one from the past years.  🙂

By the time the prayer guide was written, the morning was nearly over.  The service tech had not arrived yet, so I turned my attention to formatting and scheduling the prayer guide to be published on Sunday.  As I worked, the sun kept coming out from behind the clouds from time to time and the birds began to fill the brush in search of food.  Today’s photo is of one of the cardinals as she sat in the midst of a group of berries.  Once the prayer guide was done and it was scheduled for the weekend, I turned my attention to getting some tasks done in preparation for the International Conference on Missions later this week.  As I worked, the service tech came to work on the boiler issue.  After doing some testing, he discovered the electronic gas valve was bad which meant it wasn’t letting gas through in order for the boiler to fire and provide heat.  After replacing the valve, the boiler fired right up and should eventually provide the desired heat.  I had checked everything I could, and even tried to manually light the burner, but without fuel there would be no flame no matter how hard I tried.

Once the boiler was running it was late afternoon and I had put in a long day, so I put my work on pause and headed home.  The evening has been spent relaxing and working at the writing of today’s page.  With a long week ahead of me, I will try to get this written early and see if I can get to sleep early.

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

• If you don’t think small changes can make much difference, try driving in light rain when it is 30 degrees out compared to the same drive when it is 34 degrees.
• Sometimes the problems you face are of your own doing and sometimes they are not.
• It is good to know what you can actually do and when it is time to call someone who knows how to do what you can’t.
• Sometimes the easy path is the right one to take.  Other times it is not.  Wisdom is spending time with God to see which one He would have you take.
• Giving thanks is a topic that probably cannot be stressed enough.
• While Thanksgiving may be an annual holiday, it ought to be a daily way of life for God’s children.
• Sometimes avoiding something because you’ve already done it can cause you to miss what you ought to be doing.  Repeating a good thing isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
• Starting fresh with an open mind, a blank page, and an open Bible seems to be my best recipe for a useful prayer guide.
• Growing up on the farm, I used to often hear, and live by, the saying, “you have to make hay while the sun shines.”  It seems like the birds understand that concept in their terms.

Page 316 was a Sunday and I had the privilege of preaching at the North Wayne Mennonite Church in Dowagiac, Michigan.  When I woke up, I spent some time with God going through my sermon outline as I sought His refining guidance.  There was a light rain falling for most of our drive to the church building, but the temperature as just above freezing so the travel was much nicer than it would have been if the temperature was a few degrees colder.  About half way along our route, the road was closed and we had to take a detour.  About midway through our detour there were signs that a bridge was out ahead, but fortunately I turned off to resume our normal route before we reached the bridge.  Life tends to be a lot like that at times.  We get comfortable in our usual routes and routines and then we inevitably hit an unexpected detour.  And sometimes we even have a secondary detour in the midst of the main detour.  When we came to the first road closed sign, I jokingly asked my wife if she thought we could go fast enough to jump the missing section of road.  We both knew I wasn’t about to try it, but how often do we take that exact approach when we hit a roadblock in life?  We don’t like the idea of a detour in life and we don’t like our plans and routines to be interrupted, so we barrel full-speed ahead thinking we can just plow through the reasons for the detour.  The result is usually not pretty and then we blame God or others or anything we can think of rather than admit we alone were at fault for not heeding the warning.

We did make it to church on time and enjoyed a wonderful time of worship that included a hymn or two that I hadn’t sung for a lot of years.  They brought back good memories and may even show up as one of my morning soundtracks some day soon.  The sermon that I had spent a good amount of time on over the past couple of weeks, thinking it would be what I would share this morning, was based on the opening session of the Growing Strong teaching that I have developed for retreat and conference use.  Late in the week God shifted the direction of the sermon to back up a step to the “Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power” passage from which the Growing Strong concept developed.  Today’s sermon, however, focused on “Being STRONG” in the Lord with the growing part likely to be shared at a later date.  Anyhow, with the text from Ephesians 6:10-20 setting the background, here are the main points I shared about “Being STRONG” in the Lord.

• Be Secure:  As we put on the armor of God, God tells us to stand firm with the belt of truth and the breastplate of righteousness.  We are able to be secure in the Lord when we base that security on God’s truth and His righteousness.  Being strong in the Lord doesn’t come by our being able to stand on our own two feet and face down the enemy, no it comes because we can stand secure because of the truth of God’s Word.  It is God’s truth that keeps us from being tossed about by every wind of false doctrine that the enemy tries to get us to believe.  As we stand secure, God never asks us to compromise on the truth of His Word nor on its righteousness — in fact it is often the very act of compromise in those two areas that causes many to lose their footing and fall.
• Be Teachable:  Another part of being strong in the Lord is the need to be teachable.  As Paul outlines the various components of the armor of God, he says our feet should be “fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.”  As I read that I automatically think of the many walks I have taken over the years without the proper footwear.  I can be strong in every aspect of my being but if I’ve not put on the proper shoes, I just my find that my walk doesn’t reach its destination.  God says that the proper footwear for being strong in the Lord comes from the gospel of peace.  To me, at the heart of the gospel of peace is the need to be teachable.  No, this isn’t about compromising truth or righteousness, it is about learning to see things from God’s perspective.  Much of the conflict that exists in the world, and in churches in particular, comes because we are unteachable and hold fast to our opinions rather than submit those opinions to the gospel of peace.  We become teachable when we learn to listen and filter everything we hear through God’s Word rather than through our own opinions.
• Be Ready:  As we seek to be strong in the Lord, it is also important that we be ready at all times.  God instructs us to take up the shield of faith so that we can extinguish the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Unless you are a whole lot better at seeing those arrows coming than I am, it is important that you have that shield around you at all times so that you are ready for the relentless attacks of the evil one.  After Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the wilderness being tempted by the devil, and overcame those temptations, scripture tells us that satan left him for “a more opportune time.”  Just because you have survived skirmishes and battles, don’t think that the devil has given up on his desire to destroy you.  It is our faith in God and the work Jesus has done on the cross that makes us ready to extinguish any dart of accusation or doubt that the enemy hurls at us.  We can be strong when we are ready to use faith to shield us from whatever the enemy tries to destroy us with.
• Be Observant:  We can also be strong in the Lord when we seek to be observant to all that He would have us to see.  As Paul calls for his readers to pray, he calls for us to “be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.”  Sometimes it is far too easy to just pray generically, if we pray at all.  God wants to be alert, or be observant, to the things we can see around us as well as to the things we can’t see with our eyes.  We are strengthened when our prayer life is transformed by observing people and situations through the eyes of Jesus.  Being alert isn’t just an add-on once Paul has finished describing the armor of God — it is a necessary part of living on a battlefield.  Because of the need for each of us to “put on the full armor of God”, it is imperative that we remain observant as we “keep on praying for all the saints” — “saints” being the term Paul often uses for all those who have put their faith and trust in Jesus.  We make great progress in being strong in the Lord when we learn to be observant — both to the work God is doing around us and to the dangers that would seek to destroy us.
• Be New:  As we set out to be strong in the Lord, we should soon discover that  we must be new, and have a new way of thinking, in order for that to take place.  The reason for the armor of God rather than traditional military armor is because the battles we face that are most important are not battles against flesh and blood.  When God says, “if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation”, He sets forth the means by which we can be new as we face a battle that requires a new approach.  Because this battle is taking place on a spiritual level in heavenly realms, the localized skirmishes tend to take place in our mind.  I don’t think any of us would be too thrilled to have every detail of our entire life put on display for all to see.  Yet many times it is those hidden secret things, that should often remain that way, that satan uses in his accusations and attacks against us.  When we live as one who has been made new in Christ, we can be strong in the knowledge that the old is gone and no longer has power over us.  
• Be Guarded:  Being strong in the Lord, and the purpose of the entire armor of God, means that we can be guarded against the attacks of the enemy.  As Paul wrote to the Ephesians and gave them many instructions about their life in Christ and how it should influence how they interact with fellow believers as well as those who don’t believe, he wraps up his letter with the instructions to be strong and put on the full armor of God.  So often, we begin to think that becoming strong means that I can now do things on my own.  If I’m strong, I no longer need the protection of someone else.  Yet nothing could be further from the truth.  Being strong in the Lord means that we recognize our weaknesses and trust in God for His protection and help.  We are strongest when we seek out, and put to use, the protections God has promised to those who are His — when we realize we don’t have to go it alone, we can be guarded by the promises and presence of God through His Spirit.

It was an interesting message for God to put together in my mind because the message I had been working on earlier also used the word “STRONG” as the outline word but none of the points spelling out the word strong were the same.  I don’t think I have ever had two sermons in my mind at the same time which used the same word for the outline.

After church, we ate lunch then headed home for a relaxing afternoon.  The light rain from the morning drive has gone back and forth a few times between light rain and snow so it will be interesting to see what happens overnight now that the sun has set and the air temperature is likely to drop.  Since the weather wasn’t all that inviting for outdoor photo opportunities, today’s photo is one from yesterday’s trip to Lake Michigan.  With the leaves all fallen, I couldn’t tell if the tree in the photo is alive or dead, but it was interesting to see it jutting out of the side of the sand dune, not willing to give up completely.  Sometimes being strong in the Lord is just a matter of holding on and letting Him be victorious on our behalf.

As I reflect on the day and think about the lessons it contained, I think most of them are covered in the sermon points above so instead of adding to the length of today’s page, I will let those stand as is.

Page 314 was a Friday which means it has been a full day from start to finish — and it’s not even finished yet. 🙂  My internal clock still hasn’t reset itself to the “fall back” time, so I find myself waking up between 4 and 4:30 most mornings and then lie awake wondering if I have time to get back to sleep before the alarm goes off at 5:30.  Today I wondered long enough that it was time to wake up before I could get back to sleep.  During that hour the morning soundtrack in my mind began, and today it was “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!”  I started the morning working on some heating system components to try to bring a little better balance to a couple rooms.  The way the system works it will take some time to know if it helped or not, but it is easier to work on it when the building is quiet and empty.  Once I had made the adjustments I wanted to try, I began the usual morning tasks as I continued to consider the blessed assurance I have in Jesus. 

The morning was filled with some repair projects as well as some work on a sermon for Sunday.  As I would stop by my office throughout the morning to jot down notes for the sermon, the trees and brush outside my window would be filled with a variety of birds so I would take a few photos before going back to whatever the current project was.  During one of those stops, I shot today’s photo of a cardinal standing in the autumn leaves as he snacked on a berry he had plucked from the brush above him.  Shortly after noon it was time to do some cleaning and setup help for a funeral dinner that would be at the church.  After it was all set up and the family had arrived and gone through the meal line, I got a plate of food and went back to my office to do some more work on the sermon.  As I ate this rather late lunch, I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up to see a deer standing at my window.  I grabbed my camera and took a few photos before she was joined by two smaller deer — I suspect they were her spring babies.  They let me take some photos before continuing their journey toward the back of the property.  I looked out my window and saw that they had stopped at the playground, so I went outside with my camera to get a few more photos.  While outside, I noticed another group of four deer at the back of the field.  As I tried to position myself to get some good photos of them, they moved toward me as if to help in the process.  I got a couple photos before someone came out of the building, and just like that, they turned tail and ran into the woods.  It made me think about the process of building trust and how it really is a process.

With the deer in the woods and on their way, I went back to some sermon prep before starting the Friday evening cleaning to get the building ready for Sunday.  As I took a short break from the cleaning to write today’s page, I look up and again see a deer standing in the darkness outside my window.  I think maybe she came back to let me know that we are okay and I’m not the reason they ran off earlier.  🙂  I still have a little bit of work to do in the building before I can call it a day, so I guess I’ll finish today’s written page and get back to work.

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

• Habits can be hard to break.  That’s why it is so important to develop good habits.
• I suppose the blessed assurance I have has as much to do with my being His as it does with Him being mine.
• Some things are easier to do when there aren’t others around and some things are easier when you have the help of others.
• Small adjustments over a period of time tends to make smoother transitions than making huge changes all at once that are often more than what is needed.
• While God does provide for the birds of the air, their next meal rarely just lands in their nest — they have to go out and get it.
• When “each part does its work”, much can be accomplished.
• Trust is a delicate thing.
• When our actions can be easily misinterpreted, it is always good to reassure those close to us that our relationship is still good. 

The frost was not as heavy, and was only on the windshield, when I went outside to make my way toward work this morning.  The moon and stars were once again shining brightly in the clear night sky and the soundtrack for the morning began playing in my mind even before I got to work, “When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest in His unchanging grace.”  When I got to work I went about my usual morning tasks with the reminder playing in my mind that outside of Christ, “all other ground is sinking sand.”  By the time I took the trash out, the moon and stars had disappeared behind a growing collection of thick clouds.  The clouds were forming in waves with enough of a break between them that the approaching sunrise was beginning to tinge them with color.  

I went inside and got my camera so I would be ready in case the sun rose before the clouds completely overtook the sky.  I did manage a few sunrise photos as the sky lit up with brilliant pink and red hues for a time.  As I was photographing the sky, the deer began to come out of the woods to see what I was doing.  Eventually, a total of six of them came out to watch me so I watched them back. 🙂  Two of them in particular were very curious and walked halfway up the field toward me before deciding they would be better off back with their friends.  Today’s photo is of three of the deer who seem to be watching something that was off to my left — well, two of them were, the third one did her own thing.  It was fun to photograph them for a time and watch how they looked out for one another.  When something would startle them, they would huddle together and look around as if to identify the offending noise or movement.  Once they determined it was safe, then they would spread out and go back to their grazing.  As I left the field to return to work, they all left the other end of the field and disappeared into the woods.

As I went about my work, I thought about how God has placed us within families, particularly within the family of Christ, to look out for one another.   When one member is startled or senses danger then everyone around them should do their part to determine if protection is needed or if they can all go back to the regular tasks of life.  When I watch wildlife shows that film animals in their natural habitat, the enemy of nearly any group seems to do its best to isolate a single member so it can more easily be taken down and consumed while the rest of the herd is away from the isolated member.  Satan often works in a similar manner as he tries to isolate individual Christians from the church family which ought to provide a means of looking out for one another.  Unfortunately, that task is often made easier by Christians who decide they have no responsibility to the group.  They not only remove themselves from a layer of protection God designed for them, they leave a hole in that layer of protection for others.

After my morning work was done, I picked up a friend for lunch and we spent some time of encouragement and connection together.  After lunch I headed to Lowe’s to get some supplies and repair parts that I need in order to take care of a few projects at work tomorrow.  The late afternoon has been spend relaxing and unwinding before setting down to write today’s page.  It looks like the page will be written early and hopefully I will be able to get to sleep early in preparation for a long day tomorrow.

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

• While I don’t mind scraping frost off the windshield, particularly when it really isn’t that cold yet, it is surprising how good it felt to not have to scrape as much as I had anticipated.
• You might be surprised at how easy it can be to make someone’s day simply by lightening their load even a little bit.
• Allowing the words of hymns and worship songs to fill my mind helps me to “take every thought captive.”
• Routine, and even mundane, tasks are seen quite differently when I’m doing them while singing (in my mind) about resting in God’s unchanging grace.
• The same clouds that can hide the moon and stars from view can also reflect the light of the sun with great beauty.
• I wonder how responsive the animals were to Adam when God brought them before Him so he could name them.  It is fun to talk to the deer and have them come toward me instead of running away.
• God’s desire is that the members of a family would look out for one another — whether a physical human family, or a spiritual church family.
• When we isolate ourselves, or isolate someone else, we create an easier target for the enemy.
• Isolating our self doesn’t just put us at risk, it increases the risk of danger to others as we are not there to do our part in looking out for one another.

Fall is starting to be tinged with hints of winter as I had to scrape a heavy frost off the truck windows this morning before heading to work.  Through the crisp and cold air, the moon was shining brightly to illuminate the morning darkness.  I did snap a few photos of it and I suspect it planted the seeds of today’s internal soundtrack, “The Light of the World is Jesus”.  As I went about the morning prayer, cleaning, and building prep I thought about the darkness that has spread through this world and how God has called each of His children to reflect His light into the world so the people living in darkness would see a great light.  

Once the building was ready, I took out the trash and then finished writing yesterday’s page as didn’t get it finished last night before sleepiness overtook my mind.  My morning consisted of a combination of taking care of maintenance issues and repairs and working on some details for next week’s International Conference on Missions.  Both of those tasks carried over into the afternoon and it didn’t seem like it took long before it was late and I was hungry. 🙂  One advantage of working through a normal lunch time and having a late lunch is that I arrived at Arby’s midway through their afternoon “happy hour” when I could get each item of my meal, including an ultimate chocolate shake, for one dollar apiece. 

After the late lunch, I headed down to Potato Creek to get a walk in and see what I could find to photograph before sunset.  I didn’t see the eagles anywhere when I arrived, so I headed out on one of the trails for something close to two miles of walking.  It was a rather slow pace overall as I found numerous scenes that caused me to stop and shoot a few photos.  When I got back to my truck, I found the pair of adult bald eagles in a tree nearby so I spent time watching and photographing them.  Today’s photo is of one of the eagles as it eventually left its treetop perch and headed off into the sunset.  While it sat in the tree for the longest time, and I was beginning to think I wouldn’t get any photos of it in flight, it eventually decided it was time to head for home.  I took my cue from the eagle tonight and once it left I loaded up my camera gear and also headed for home where I spent the evening relaxing and going through the day’s photos.  

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

• While not a fan of the cold weather, I do appreciate some of the beauty that it brings with it.
• Even with the moon considerably less than full, it is able to reflect ample light to shine through the darkness of night.
• The light of the world really is Jesus, but He also says that you are the light of the world.
• When Jesus came to earth He was a great light that dawned on a people living in darkness.
• Today Jesus calls you and I to reflect His light to a people who still live in a land of darkness.
• When sleepiness fills my mind it is usually best that I not try to write something that won’t make sense once my mind is awake.
• I can’t remember when I started going to the National Missionary Convention, now the International Conference on Missions, but it has become something I look forward to each year.
• Life requires maintenance.  Sometimes it is preventative maintenance that is needed and sometimes it is repairing that which has been broken.  Either way, the maintenance and repairs necessary in our life are possible through a relationship with Jesus.

Page 311 has been a full day that began with usual morning work tasks and concluded with three Lemler boys telling stories — the “boys” being my dad and his two brothers. 🙂  In between were a variety of tasks that kept my busy all day.  I began the day early with the typical prayer, cleaning, and building prep tasks with today’s soundtrack in my mind being “Trust and Obey”.  Those two concepts do kind of go hand-in-hand, don’t they?  As James puts it, “Faith without works is dead.”  Trust and faith are definitely intertwined, but each of them are easy to say that you have but takes much more work to show that you have them.  It is difficult to obey someone fully that you don’t really trust, and it is equally difficult to say with a straight face that you trust someone when you are not willing to do what they say.  So when I choose to disobey God, my actions tend to say more about my trust of Him than my words do.

Anyhow, as I went about my morning tasks, this internal soundtrack kept reminding me to “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey!”  Since God has given me nearly 150 poems to write in the past few short years, I often tell people they are truly God’s gift to me as it is not something I ever set out to do and I don’t read poetry and had never written poetry until that cold December day in 2013.  But as God has been giving me soundtracks in my mind lately, I realize I have been exposed to poetry all my life through the hymns that I have embedded in my mind through the consistent singing of them.  I’m not one that blames music, videos, or games for the violent behavior of people, but I do know from experience that what you continually fill your mind with will eventually influence your choices and what comes out in your actions.

My work last week on my wife’s car did not end up resolving the issue it has of not starting unless it feels like it, so after she made numerous unanswered calls and unreturned messages with the local Jeep dealer, I called the dealer in Niles, Michigan and their service department actually answered their phone and talked to me.  I had a couple recall notices on the Jeep and one of them was to resolve a variety of fuel flow issues, including one that would make it not start at times.  Only time will tell if these recall repairs took care of the problem, but everyone I talked with at the dealership service department were very friendly and helpful.  When they found out my plans to go out walking while I waited on the vehicle, they even gave me a ride to the far end of the river walk trail so I could work my way back along the river to the dealer.  It was a beautiful morning to walk and take photos and by the time I returned to the dealer they had finished the recall work and could not duplicate the starting issue.  The entire process left me feeling good about this place of business, and even if it turns out this round of work didn’t resolve the issue, their actions and communication went a long way toward establishing a certain level of trust.

All of that made me wonder about our trust of people, but more importantly, about our trust of God.  Could it be that our trust is weak, or even nonexistent, because there is no communication taking place.  It seems many have given up on meaningful prayer as a conversation with God because they feel that God simply isn’t listening — in fact, He’s not even taking their calls!  There are a lot of reasons for that.  Sometimes we become convinced that we’re not good enough or important enough for Him to bother with the likes of us.  Sometimes we think we are so important that we can give directions to God and expect Him to follow.  Real communication, and particularly real communication with God, requires that we view both our self and the one we wish to communicate with accurately so that we are willing to both talk and listen.  If we don’t think we are worth God listening to, we will rarely take the time for any meaningful talk with Him.  If we think we are important enough to give directions, we will rarely take the time to actually listen to what He has to say.  It is when we view our self and God accurately that we begin to allow the flow of real prayer — that beautiful conversation with God where we both talk and listen.

Once I made it home from getting the car worked on, I spent some time going through the photos I had taken on my walk.  Today’s photo was actually taken from my office as I was wrapping up the building prep for the day.  As I took the trash out, the tree line was filled with a variety of birds singing their morning songs and gathering what food they could find.  The blue jays rarely sit still long enough for good photos, but this one sat singing his song for quite a while.  While their song is much harsher sounding than many of the other birds, I still enjoy listening for its call when I am out.  I also called my mom and arranged to meet my parents for dinner to finish out the day.  She told me that each of dad’s brothers would be their with their wife as well, so the evening wrapped up surrounded by family and listening to several lifetimes of stories from these three “boys”.

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

• Each day has a beginning and end.  One day the beginning will be just like any other and the end will be in the actual presence of Jesus.
• Memories are usually more fun, and funnier, when shared.
• What’s planted in your mind just may take root and grow.  Be careful what you are planting in your mind and in the minds of others.
• It is much easier to say you have trust than to have your trust tested through obedience.
• One of the foundational steps of building trust is communication.
• It is much easier to destroy loyalty than to build it.  Building it is vastly more important though.
• Talking to God only makes real sense if you’re willing to listen to God.
• We don’t all sing the same song and that’s not only okay, that is a good thing.
• I don’t know how much the “window of heaven” allows those there to see what takes place on earth; but if they could see it, I bet my grandparents were very pleased to see their three boys still talking and laughing together.
• I don’t know how the days that seem to have less taking place in them end up with the highest word counts in these daily pages. 🙂

Page 310 was the first day back to work after the “fall back” time change.  It seems like whether or not you like the back and forth of daylight savings time each spring and fall, it doesn’t take too much effort to find an “expert study” that supports your position.  In a culture full of experts, each seems to add to the divide in so many areas — instead of listening to one another and learning how we’re each affected by the things that go on, we find an expert that we agree with and try to use them as a hammer to destroy the views of those who don’t agree with us.  I’m not a fan of daylight savings time, although once I’m through the transition period each spring and fall it’s not really a big deal to me.  Sometimes we tend to make big deals out of things that really aren’t that significant and then we ignore the things in our life, and around us, that carry eternal significance.  We will fight and argue about the smallest of differences in opinions with one another while turning a blind eye to the sin which so easily entangles us.

The background track playing in my mind as I went about my usual morning work tasks was “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”.  I suppose I find comfort in the words of this hymn because it speaks of the unchanging nature of God.  Life is filled with change as the process of growth itself requires that we change.  Sometimes I fear we get so used to things in our world changing at random and in ways that may or may not benefit us, that we are hesitant to trust God to be true to His Word.  Yet even when we are unfaithful, He remains faithful.  When Paul writes that “love never fails”, he knows this to be true because God is love.

Once the building was ready for the day it was strange to be taking the trash out in the daylight, but that will gradually change again over the next few months.  As I sat down to spend time with God as I worked on the prayer guide for next week, I glanced through a book that our church will be using throughout this month as we focus on stewardship.  As I looked through the book, I was reminded of God’s ownership of everything and of our role as managers, or stewards, of the things He entrusts to us.  Many times if you mention stewardship in a church setting, it can clear a room faster than you can say, “take out your wallet.”  In our minds stewardship is so often equated with, and confined to, money that we miss the larger picture of our role compared to God’s ownership.  As these thoughts roamed my mind, I spent time in prayer and God’s Word considering what He says about stewardship and eventually the outline for next week’s prayer guide on stewardship began to form.  The rest of the workday was spent writing out the daily topics and corresponding prayer points, then formatting and scheduling the prayer guide to be published on Sunday.

After work I went home and had a late lunch before deciding to head to Potato Creek for a late afternoon walk with my family.  While there has been a good deal of color change in the trees that finally make it look like fall, it was surprising how much green still remains.  As we walked the trails, our journey was accompanied by the songs of a variety of birds.  Many were joyful, happy sounding songs and a few were harsh, angry sounding calls — perhaps warning others of our presence.  One of the birds that caught my eye more than my ear, was a flicker who made today’s photo because of its aerobatics in trying to pluck berries from the vines hanging from the trees.  Yes, this bird was clinging upside down to a vine because it was that committed to getting as many of the berries as it could.  It made me think about how committed I am to obtaining the blessings and promises of God.  As I read His Word, do I cling to His promises, and His laws, with no intention of letting go until I have obtained a taste of His goodness?

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

• Finding an expert to prove your point doesn’t necessarily make you right.
• Our perception of how a thing is will usually influence what we believe about it.
• You will usually see what  you are looking for, even if that isn’t the only thing that could be seen.
• There are things that matter.  From an eternal perspective, changing time twice a year isn’t one of those things.
• It is easy to get so wrapped up in causes that make no eternal difference in the lives of people that we miss the opportunities we have to see lives changed for eternity.
• Godly stewardship isn’t just about money.  On one level it is about money, but it is so much more than that.
• Godly stewardship requires that we have an accurate view of who is the owner and who isn’t — God is, you and I aren’t.
• Living with the knowledge that God owns everything ought to change how you and I use the things He has entrusted to us.
• Sometimes when we pick up God’s Word we are satisfied with the truths that are easy to glean from its pages without much effort on our part. 
• God wants us to dig deeper and cling to His Word so that we would obtain the full measure of the nourishment that He provides.