I should start today’s page with a disclaimer — while the page is a reflection of my thoughts on this election day, it is not a political statement or viewpoint.  I am deliberately writing it early in the day before any election results are known because it isn’t about who won or lost, regardless of what the results are.  Instead, this is an observation of the spiritual lessons I have been learning today.

Well, page 313 was election day in the United States and as unpleasant as some of the choices were, I’m glad the day is over.  Most people I know view voting as a privilege and a God-given right but I would have to strongly question the second part of that belief.  I do believe that voting is a privilege and everyone who is offered that privilege should prayerfully participate.  I also believe it is a responsibility even more than a privilege and one that we shouldn’t take lightly.  There is an inherent problem, however, in voting for leaders and it is the problem pointed out by God when He replaced the people’s choice, Saul, with His choice, David, to be king of Israel — “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  One of the difficulties, even if we want to make godly choices, is that we cannot see the heart of another person accurately.  Yes, there are things about them that can give us a good idea of what their heart may be like — “Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks”, but we will never have the same view of the heart that God does.

But it is not the hearts of the leaders that should concern us the most.  It is the condition of our heart that is the one we can do something about.  When a group of people are allowed to choose their leader, that leader will invariably reflect the hearts of those making the choice.  Most people I know are surprised at the candidates we have to choose from at almost every level of politics.  If you were to base your voting decision in almost any race solely on television ads that have been aired over the past few days, I’m not sure we would be able to vote for anyone — every ad that I have seen and heard has only been about what a terrible person their opponent is.  So, either the ads aren’t accurately representing the people running for various offices, or we’re in big trouble! 😉  And then I consider the spiritual climate in our nation and the eagerness of so many to call evil good  and good evil.  When the people of a nation turn their hearts away from God, it is unlikely they will be inclined to select leaders whose hearts are turned toward God — it could happen, but it would be a total work of God rather than of man.  The good news is that regardless of the process, no leader comes to power in a way that catches God by surprise.  Regardless of how the various candidates fare today, God is still on His throne and He has the power, ability, and desire to care for His children.  No matter who is president; God still calls me, and each of His children, to “care for the widows and orphans and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

As I consider my heart, do I care for the yet to be born children, for the poor, for the needy, for the lonely, for the abandoned, for the hurting, for the hungry, for the hopeless, for so many others who feel invisible or do I close my heart and expect the government to deal with that which God has called His children to do?  Do I love God with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength or do I love myself more than God with portions of each of those?  Do I care for those that God brings across my path or do I try to justify myself and ask, “Who is my neighbor?”  Do I love when it is difficult and messy or only when it is convenient and beneficial?  It is only when my heart is turned fully toward God that I can help others know how to turn their hearts fully toward God.  And when the people of God have turned their hearts fully toward Him, they will take seriously His instruction for us to pray for our leaders so that we may live quiet and peaceful lives in full godliness.  Speaking of quiet and peaceful lives, today’s photo is of a young deer who was grazing quietly and peacefully outside my office window the entire time I’ve been writing this page.

I pray that you and I would turn our hearts fully toward God and pray for our leaders as He has instructed us to.

Page 312 was a Monday which meant I was up early and headed into work to get the cleaning and building prep done before the start of the school day.  In addition to the usual morning tasks, I spent some time with the heating and cooling system as it tends to get confused easily with the weather we’ve been having where it is cold in the mornings and warm in the afternoons.  Once the building was cleaned and I had made what adjustments I could to the HVAC system, it was time to seek God for direction in putting next week’s prayer guide together.  For some reason, the prayer guide topic was a struggle to come up with this week.  Often times that indicates a difficulty in focusing and listening on my part, but that didn’t seem to be the case today.  In fact, my time with God brought to mind some direction for a sermon I’ll share later this month.  Eventually the prayer guide topic and daily prayer points came together and flowed out of my prayer time and into print ready to be sent out for next week.

The prayer guide that came together for next week will focus on acceptable things according to God’s standards.  We have a tendency to use a lot of different standards when it comes to deciding what is or isn’t acceptable, but as children of God we ought to allow God’s standards to determine what is acceptable to us.  When God talks about something being acceptable to Him, He is not talking about it simply being good enough to get by.  No, His idea of acceptable means that it lives up to the highest of standards in all ways and reflects His glory in all things.

Once the next prayer guide was finished, I did some follow-up related to the teaching I did over the weekend and worked on some details for the Impact Prayer Ministry display I will have at the International Conference on Missions next week.  With an early start to the day, by mid-afternoon my workday was over and I stopped for a late lunch on the way home.  Later in the afternoon I started up the pellet grill and put on some chicken to cook while we headed down to Potato Creek for an evening family walk to take advantage of the beautiful fall weather that has continued into November.  Today’s photo was taken as we began our walk and headed down one of the trails with the sun shining brightly through the trees.  As the sun continued to drop into the western horizon, the shadows lengthened across the trails.  I thought about how easy it is for us to let God’s light move to a position in our lives where it is no longer in the center.  The further we allow the light of God to move away from the center of our life, the longer the darkness of the shadows grows.  Our goal as children of God ought to be to constantly live in the light of God in such a way that there is no room for shadows to creep in and take over.

I pray that you and I would remain steadfast in seeking God, especially when we have difficulty in hearing His voice.  I pray that we would know the goodness of God as He illuminates our life with His wisdom and guidance.  I pray that we would seek to know what is acceptable to God and then live in a way that honors Him.  

As page 310 draws to a close, it feels like it has been a Sunday.  I suppose it was getting up and spending the morning doing some prayer teaching at a church then spending the afternoon with my family that just had a “Sunday” feel.  I was privileged to be able to do some prayer teaching at the Buchanan Christian Church this morning and spent some time with a group of great people talking about developing a lifestyle of prayer.  As I teach, I always pray that God will encourage those listening as much as He has encouraged me.  

As I packed up resources last night to have them ready to take with me today, I thought about how each book God has given me to write has its own story.  I was able to share a couple of those stories with the group today, including the story of the first book I published, “Seeking God”.  This is a book of sixty original poems with corresponding prayer points written specifically for each one.  The book went from one poem to a finished manuscript in two months time as I found myself seeking God for direction and purpose in my life.  The poems were so unexpected and out of the blue that there was no doubt they were gifts from God.  The big question in my mind was “Why?”.  While the flow of poems was a great encouragement to me as a reminder of God’s presence, I couldn’t imagine them having any value beyond that.  When I submitted the manuscript to a Christian publisher that specializes in prayer focused material, the response back was that poems don’t sell and have no real value in today’s marketplace.  Fortunately, they gave me the name of a printing company and provided some guidance on publishing the book myself.  So, three months after the first poem arrived in my mind, a finished book was published and available in print and Kindle editions on Amazon.  I still didn’t understand why poems and couldn’t really figure out their purpose, but they were God’s gift to me and throughout the entire process I knew at some level that I was supposed to share them.  So share them I did and in the process God gave me the idea for writing a second book and then a third, and fourth, and on it goes.  I am convinced that none of the writing that has taken place after that first book would even exist today if I had not been obedient in both writing and sharing those early poems.  

The Bible says that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift and I believe that most, if not all, of those gifts are given with the intent that we share them.  I think many times when it feels like God is not giving us anything good, we probably need to spend some time examining just what it is we did with the last thing God gave us.  Perhaps we’re not receiving because we’re not sharing what we’ve already been given.  

A couple days ago I wrote about my worn out shoes.  Well, yesterday I received a sales flyer that had those “most comfortable” shoes on sale so when I got home from the morning of teaching we headed to the store to pick up a new pair and then we spent some time photographing some shoreline scenes along Lake Michigan.  It was such a beautiful day as we worked our way along the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  The sun was shining brightly which added to the beauty of the day but made photographs a little challenging.  The brilliance of the sun is so overpowering that it is difficult to photograph the details of the landscape beneath it.  God’s Son ought to be even more overpowering in our lives so that His brilliance washes out any details that are not of Him.

I pray that you and I would seek to live and grow in a lifestyle of prayer.  I pray that we would seek to know God so that His voice and will are familiar to us.  I pray that we would recognize and acknowledge the gifts God has put into our lives.  I pray that we would be obedient in using the gifts God gives us for the purposes He desires.  I pray that we would know the joy of walking in the light of the Son each day that we live. 

Page 309 has been a busy day that doesn’t look to end any time soon.  I’m writing today’s page as I wait for the building to clear out after spending the last two hours making balloon creations for some very eager children.  The day began early with the usual cleaning and building prep before working much of the day on a combination of ICOM preparation, prayer teaching prep for tomorrow, and sermon prep for Sunday.  After learning my lesson Wednesday when I didn’t end up leaving the building during a 15 hour workday, I headed out to lunch today to get something to eat and take a break.  After lunch I began to get things set up for my balloon bending task and went through my backpack of balloons to see what I had left — as well as did some practicing to see what I could make.  The children began arriving a little before 5:30 and it was pretty much nonstop pumping, tying, and twisting until we began to close down the event at 7:30.  To me, the funny part is that I’m not very good at it and am extremely limited in what I can do with the balloons, but the children don’t seem to care.  They will stand in line and wait patiently, and be excited about whatever I make for them even if I have to tell them I don’t know how to do their request and give them the limited options.

As I worked in my office shortly before heading to lunch, a deer came up the trail outside my office window.  As I got my camera out and tried to take some photos, I heard a noise coming from the rooms next to my office.  Apparently, the deer heard it too as he turned quickly and ran off into the woods while I managed to snap two quick photos.  It is interesting that I can sit in my office watching and photographing them with ease until someone else shows up at one of the other windows facing the woods.  Even when I go outside, they will often lift up their heads to look at me and all I have to do is calmly tell them it’s just me and they will usually go back to grazing where they are.  I’ve even had them grazing on one side of the back field while I mow the other and then as I work my way across the field we change sides.  It is something special to build up a comfort level between the wildlife and myself where we don’t view each other as a threat.  It is even more significant, but often more difficult, when people can learn to trust one another in complete confidence that neither person will intentionally hurt the other.

As the building begins to quiet down and I reflect on the day before finishing the work that needs done, the words contentment and trust come to mind.  How often am I excited about what I get, even if it’s not what I wanted?  Do the simple pleasures of life satisfy us any more, or have we complicated life to the point where we miss out on the joy to be had simply because life doesn’t always turn out the way we want?  How often do we run in fear because we feel threatened when a calm, reassuring conversation would go a long way in building trust?  How often do we appear threatening to others because of our body language, tone of voice, or unexplained actions when we really had no intention or desire to scare them away?  Would having greater contentment lead to greater trust and would having greater trust lead to greater contentment?

I pray that you and I would learn contentment with what God offers as we learn to trust that His offer is always for our best.  I pray that we would pay attention to how we come across to people as we seek to serve for their benefit.  I pray that we would give others the benefit of the doubt when we lack understanding of their intentions.  I pray that we would learn to be calm in our approach to others as we learn to trust each other.

Page 308 was a day designed for rest and I guess I needed it as I slept until 10 AM!  I wasn’t feeling well when I finished work late last night so I wasn’t that surprised at how long I slept.  I’m not sure if the not feeling well had to do with extreme tiredness, trying to get sick, only eating chocolate and Doritos yesterday, or more likely a combination of some or all of those things.  Once I woke up, I checked messages and then helped Susan get around for the day.  She usually likes my days off because it often means that she can sleep in also.  After we were ready for the day, I fired up the pellet grill and put some pork chops on to smoke/cook for lunch.  The real food seemed to help me feel better, so with some great weather for early November we headed out to St Patrick’s County Park to do some hiking and take some photos.  The hiking and photo opportunities were both great and we enjoyed our time together as a family.

When we were done at the park, we stopped by the riverwalk in Mishawaka to take some photos there as the sun began to set for the day.  Today’s photo is of a flower blossom that was soaking in the remaining rays of the sun for the day.  Its created beauty was magnified by the brilliance of the sun shining upon it.  It made me think about the beauty that each one of us is created with and how every one of us has that created beauty magnified when the brilliance of the Son is shining upon us and through us.  We left the riverwalk and stopped for supper on the way home where we watched the sun finish setting for the day.  

As I unwind and reflect on this day of rest, I think about the times we feel spiritually unwell.  Perhaps we can learn from the times we are physically not well and see some parallels to our spiritual life.  Sometimes we simply become spiritually exhausted as the unseen battle wages on around us.  We generally don’t see the actual spiritual warfare that is taking place around us and for us on a daily basis, but we can often feel it.  At times the temptations seem to come at us in waves and we stand firm as we resist the attacks of the enemy, we eventually become tired and need to rest in the safety of our Father’s protection.  When we begin to not feel well spiritually, perhaps it is time to “Come aside and rest” for a time.  Other times when we begin to feel unwell spiritually, we find that we are coming down with something that we caught from someone we’ve had contact with.  The encouragement we gain from one another, and are supposed to give to one another, is an incredible thing.  Unfortunately, there can also be a dark side to what we “catch” from others.  Attitudes seem to be as contagious as the common cold and there are times we find ourselves not feeling well spiritually because we’ve caught discontentment, envy, greed, jealousy, anger, or any of a variety of other unwell attitudes from the people around us.  For me, I found I was catching many of these “spiritual diseases” from social media public newsfeeds.  It has been nearly a month since I’ve pulled up any of my social media newsfeeds, and while I am sure I have missed a lot of information that I would have liked to have known, I have avoided catching some attitudes that I would be better off without.  And then there are the times when we feel spiritually unwell because we’ve not maintained a healthy spiritual diet.  Instead of a steady diet of spiritual food, our prayer life becomes non-existent and our time in the Word is sporadic and without purpose.  We tend to avoid the things that would make us grow and only seek out scripture and prayer times that make us feel good and satisfies a selfish desire.  And just like the physical start of my day today, many times our feeling unwell spiritually is a combination of multiple factors.

I pray that you and I would recognize the times when we are not feeling well physically and/or spiritually and seek the proper action to resolving that feeling.  I pray that we would rest physically when we need to and rest spiritually when we need to.  I pray that we would know the incredible beauty that we have been created with and that we would amplify that beauty by letting the presence of Christ within us illuminate us from the inside out.  I pray that we would examine the things that cause us to not be as well spiritually as we ought to be and seek God’s help in resolving them.  

Page 306 found me at work early doing the morning cleaning and building prep while the place was empty and quiet.  Once the building was ready for the day, I spent some time going through correspondence from the missions we help support and then updating our missions bulletin board.  As I worked on that, I had an extended phone call discussing details of some prayer teaching I will be doing for a church on Saturday.  A few more boxes of books arrived today as I gear up for the ICOM display, so I checked to make sure they were printed correctly then added them to the collection to take to Lexington in a couple weeks.  So much of my book and resource inventory had been depleted over the summer that I’ve had to order some of almost everything for this conference at a cost of over two thousand dollars just for books and printed material.  Add to that the cost of display space, housing, food, and travel, and a significant investment is being made in putting prayer-based resources into the hands of people who will use them.  Seeing so many of the expenses come due all at once is something that both puts my faith to the test and amazes me at the provision of God as I do the work He has given me to do.

The rest of the workday was spent on preaching/teaching material as I continue to prepare for a first through third grade Bible class I teach on Wednesday evenings, the prayer teaching I’ll do Saturday morning, and the sermon I’ll share Sunday morning.  While it is a lot to keep sorted out in my mind, I very much enjoy the opportunities to preach and teach.  After work I grabbed a late lunch then headed home where I was able to unwind a short while before we headed out for a family hike at Potato Creek for the evening.  Today’s photo was one of the last ones I took at the park this evening before heading home.  It was a beautiful reminder of the satisfaction of a completed day and the peace that comes from spending time with God.  The entire walk, other than the three snakes that I didn’t see until I had run each of them over with Susan’s wheelchair, was a beautiful stroll through a piece of God’s creative handiwork.  

As I think about the day, my mind reflects on how God continually provides what I need even when what I want and seek after is different than what I need.  When I first began giving away the books I have written, people would often ask how I could do that.  My response then continues to be my response now, “It’s really not difficult.  The books have been God’s gift from the very beginning so I view them as belonging to Him.  So, they are His books that I am giving away at His direction.  When I run out of copies of the books, I simply go to God and let Him know I’ve given away all that He had provided.  So far, He has always given resources to get more every time I run low.”  It may be an easy response to give but it is not an easy response to live.  I can tell you that the more I trust Him and the more I see Him come through for me when I live by faith, the easier it gets to believe He will continue to provide whether I can see how or not.  Many times I think we take over ownership of the things God has given us and because we grasp them tightly in our hands we have no room to receive more from God than what we already have.

I pray that we would be faithful in doing the work God calls us to and in trusting Him to provide for that work.  I pray that we would be excited about opportunities to teach God’s Word to others.  I pray that we would not let the distractions of life keep us from seeing the beauty of God around us.  I pray that we would recognize the source, and ownership, of every good gift that we have received.  I pray that God’s gifts in our life would be held loosely as we share them and use them for the benefit of others.