Page 289 was a restful day to relax, unwind, and recharge.  After sleeping in, my morning was a mix of computer games, reflecting on the past week, and doing some follow-up correspondence in some ongoing conversations.  As noon approached, it was time to fire up the pellet grill for the traditional Saturday bacon cheeseburgers.  After lunch it was time to gather up some food and lawn chairs then head down to Hoffman Lake for an afternoon cookout/picnic with some friends from church.  

The afternoon was absolutely beautiful for an outdoor event and I managed a few photos of the surrounding scenery.  The puffy clouds against the bright blue sky looked like you should be able to reach out and touch them.  The fish swimming in the channel next to the house looked like you could reach into the water and come up with dinner if you wanted to.  The areas of water sheltered from the afternoon breeze were so calm the reflections were as clear as the real things.  But better than all of that was the beauty of the people gathered to enjoy an afternoon together.  

As I sit down to write today’s page, I think about the events of the day.  One of this morning’s online conversations included the discovery of some similarities even in the midst of different circumstances.  It helped me put words to a belief I have often taught about how God uses our life experiences to prepare us to help others through theirs.  The words that came to mind this morning were, “One thing I’ve discovered is that while each person’s life journey is unique, the individual components of it are more common than we typically imagine.”  While our particular arrangement of life experiences is unique to us, the individual parts are not.  When we share from our life, particularly the difficult times that God has brought us through, we can help others have hope that their trying times are not permanent.  When we become reachable in a way that people can identify with us, the reflection of Christ we present helps them to see the real thing and how He can make a difference in their life.  The prince of this world will throw everything he can at us in an attempt to separate us from our pursuit of God.  He uses confusion, deceit, and distractions to isolate us and convince us that no one in heaven or on earth understands what we’re going through.  But the truth is that we have Jesus who has been tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin.  We also have one another and with there being “nothing new under the sun”, someone has been through what we’re in the midst of.  God says that we are comforted in out times of trials in order that we can comfort others with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

I pray that you and I would be authentic and transparent in ways that are beneficial to us and to those watching and listening.  I pray that we would learn to support and encourage one another because we have received support and encouragement from our relationship with Jesus.  I pray that we would be patient with those who struggle, just as God has been patient with us.  I pray that we would not become victims of the enemy’s divisive lies that attempt to separate us from God and one another.

Page 288 began early and will end late but it will go down in the book as a rather pleasant day.  The morning began a little after six with the usual cleaning, building prep, and taking out trash to have the building ready for the day before eight.  Once that was done, it was time to catch up with messages and tasks from the day before.  In the middle of doing that, God put a new poem in my mind so I typed it out and shared it earlier today.  It was fun to watch God work because the poem started with two rhyming sentences about how I no longer use pen and paper to write.  I thought those sentences were it, but I typed them out thinking maybe God would bring me back to this later.  But as I finished the second sentence, the words kept coming and before I knew it a new poem was born. 🙂

During the morning, the promotional banner and proof copies for my latest book arrived so I began the work of what I hope to be the final proofreading before calling this project complete.  By mid-afternoon I was getting hungry so I headed out for a lunch break and some time with God.  After I got lunch I headed down to Potato Creek where I enjoyed some time along the lake on a beautiful fall day.  It was the kind of day where the photos seem to glow with the brilliance that existed in real life.  The trees continue their changing of color and the water reflected them and the crisp blue sky.  Much of my 3+ mile hike today was spent in praise and worship of a God that is incredibly creative on His own yet considers someone like me worth pouring His creativity into and through.  Finishing a writing project, whether it be a single poem or a devotional book, always makes me feel so amazed that God would trust me with such work.  

Once my extended lunch break was over, it was back to work to finish out the day cleaning the building once again and getting it ready for Sunday.  As I took the first collection of trash out, the sun was beginning to set so I grabbed my camera and shot a few photos of that part of God’s creativity.  A little later when I was out again, the moon had begun to rise opposite the setting sun so I took a few photos of that also.  In fact as I take a short break from the cleaning to start writing today’s page, it became difficult to decide what photo to use as God had given me so many good options.  I went with one from my walk at the lake as it shares a good variety of God’s handiwork at several levels.  

As I reflect on the day and get ready to get back to work and finish my tasks for the week, to say it has been a pleasant day would be an understatement.  Not only did God bless me abundantly, as He always does, He surrounded me with incredible reminders of His presence throughout the day.  I’m not saying that those reminders are missing some times, but there are times when I don’t pay attention and the day goes by without my noticing them.  

I pray that you and I would recognize, and use, the gifts God has put in our lives.  I pray that we would learn to be faithful with thing we consider small so that we can be trusted with things that we consider large.  I pray that we would live in a way that our lives reflect the brilliance of God as accurately as possible.  I pray that we would learn to pay attention to the reminders of God’s blessing and presence that He continually surrounds us with.   

Page 287 was a restful day that fits well between my two long workdays in the week.  When I agreed to teach a children’s class on Wednesday nights I wasn’t sure how I would make my schedule work without it seeming like I live at work.  After finally settling in on the idea of putting in double-shift days on Wednesdays and Fridays while taking Thursdays off, I’m not sure I could have come up with a better plan.  Once winter arrives and the snow begins to fly I’ll probably have to figure out a new plan, but for now it’s a good plan.  

Today I was able to sleep in a little but Susan was able to sleep in even longer.  After my morning grapefruit juice, I began the day with a cup of coffee and some prayer time.  The prayer time eventually led to some work on the prayer calendar I’m trying to put together for next year.  The prayer calendar will feature photos that I have taken and each day will have a prayer point that corresponds with the prayer points from my book, “Pursuing God”.  Eventually Susan woke up and I helped her get breakfast before I fired up the pellet grill so I would have mushroom cheeseburgers ready when Mary Jane got home.  While the burgers and mushrooms were on cooking, I did some follow-up on some details for the upcoming International Conference on Missions that I will have a prayer ministry display at.

After lunch we eventually made our way to Michigan City for some shopping and then on to Indiana Dunes State Park to take some photos and do a little kite flying.  While the photo opportunities, kite flying, and beauty of the park are all good parts of a great day, what makes it great is being able to spend it with my family.  The photo I chose for today’s page is one I took while I was flying my kite at the dunes today.  I shot it as it crossed directly between me and the sun.  I think it is a beautiful kite anyway, but with the sun behind it, it was illuminated like a stained glass window.  There was a gentle breeze coming in off the lake, so gentle that it was a challenge to keep the kite in the air.  But the beauty of watching the kite float through the sky made the work worth it.  After some time at the state park, we stopped back through Michigan City where I shot a few photos of the lighthouse before heading home.

As I thought about the day and the lessons God would want me to learn from it, a few things stand out.  One of those things is the importance of rest — not just physical rest, but a need to rest in the Lord as I trust Him from day to day.  When I combine a time of physical rest with rest for my soul, I find that I am more fully refreshed than if I settle for only one aspect of rest.  I also thought about how God’s light shining through us increases whatever beauty we may possess.  As individuals created in the image of God, we carry an inherent beauty that we may, or may not, recognize.  It is when we allow the light of God to shine through us, our true beauty is illuminated with a brilliance that cannot be hidden.  The third lesson from the day was about the value of the work involved in keeping our lives above the fray of the world.  Many times we think life ought to be easier than it is and we become weary as we work to keep all of our thoughts and actions from being dragged down to the level of the world.  Yes, it is work but the good news is that the work is worth it in our life and in the witness our life produces as we hold fast to the good news of God’s Word.  

I pray that you and I would seek and guard times of both physical and spiritual rest.  I pray that we would understand the beauty that God has put within us.  I pray that we would live in such a way that the light of God would illuminate His beauty within us.  I pray that we would make every effort to live in such a way that we rise above the turmoil of this earth and God’s love is seen through us.

Page 286 was day 5 of limiting my social media exposure by not viewing the public newsfeeds and keeping my involvement limited to the pages I manage and birthday greetings to friends.  It has been refreshing to have such a source of anger removed from my life.  When God tells us to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, the instruction is not meant as a punitive restriction but rather as a source of benefit to our well-being.  By guarding my heart and mind from the negativity and anger that has taken over much of the social media scene during this political season, I find my level of inner peace being restored.  The sad part is that I hadn’t even realized how much damage was being done until I stepped away from the negative source and began to feel the cloud lift away.

The day began early as I was awake well before the alarm went off and actually felt rested — I guess cutting wood during the day leads to a more productive sawing of logs at night. 🙂  The first part of the day was almost a repeat of yesterday but with more focus on the prep for the evening lesson.  After the building was ready for the day and I was comfortable with my lesson prep, it was back outside to spend some time cutting wood, clearing brush, and opening up another section of trail.  As I worked today, most of the time I found myself singing hymns and songs of worship.  My soul and spirit were filled with a desire to worship so the songs poured out accompanied by the sounds of a chainsaw and tractor — probably not the instruments you would choose to use for a church service worship band, but when I’m singing I need loud accompaniment so that God is the only one who can hear. 🙂

By early afternoon, the temperature had begun to climb and the mosquitoes began to be active so I put all my equipment away and headed to lunch.  While on my lunch break, I made a quick stop at Potato Creek to take a few photos but mostly just to sit with God.  As I was sitting on one of the piers, I shot today’s photo of a few leaves floating on the surface of the dark, still water.  Each one is from a different type of tree and they each possess their own style and beauty.  The variety actually adds something beautiful to the photo that would be completely missed if all the leaves were identical.  Each one of us is on this journey of life and we have this moment to either make a difference or blend in.  We make a difference by being who God created us to be.  We are God’s handiwork, fashioned together by God Himself in the womb of our mother before we were even born.  We were created to be worshipers of God who would bring Him glory by the way we live life.  We blend in when we decide to be like someone else rather than who we were created to be.  When we choose to model ourselves after another person rather than after God’s design for us, we fail to worship God because in reality we are worshiping that person we are trying to be like.

My lunch break at the park got rained out so I headed back to work where I spent time in prayer going back over the lesson material for my 1st through 3rd grade class.  Tonight’s lesson was about Adam and Eve disobeying God, but also about God’s promise to make a way for that sin, and our sin, to be covered by sending His Son, Jesus.  After class I’m cleaning the building, mopping floors, and taking short writing breaks to work on this page as I finish up the day.

I pray that you and I would pay attention to the things that are robbing us of the peace that God desires for us to have.  I pray that we would guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus at all times.  I pray that we would do whatever it takes to avoid the foolish talk and useless arguments that seem so prevalent in our society.  I pray that we would be worshipers of God in all we do.  I pray that we would learn to rejoice in the way God has made us and honor Him as we seek to reflect Christ in everything we say and do.  I pray that we would hold fast to the promise of God to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In this story of life, there are many pages that look insignificant apart from the whole narrative.  Page 285 was one of those pages that appears ordinary but, like every other page, the story wouldn’t be complete without it.  The day began with the usual cleaning and building prep before spending some time going through the material for the lesson I’ll teach tomorrow evening.  After getting the lesson ideas planted in my mind, it was back outside to continue work on the trails through the woods.  As I cut wood and graded trails, my mind started to work through the new trail layout and how to best use it for a prayer and listening walk.  There is still a lot of work to do before I reach that point, but the plan is to place a number of benches along the trails with a variety of different prayer focuses along the way.  

I got so caught up prepping trails and considering how to make them into a useful prayer walk area that the workday got away from me before I had even realized it was gone.  After putting my tools and equipment away, it was time to head home and relax for a little while.  The weather forecast is still calling for a significant drop in temperatures later this week, so we headed down to Potato Creek for an evening family walk to enjoy the beautiful weather while it lasts.  There is always something peaceful to me about walking the trails at the park and that is the atmosphere I’m hoping to establish on the trails at the church property.  Each visit to the park looks more and more like fall with the changing color of the leaves.  Today’s photo is looking down an abandoned roadway which has now become a trail in the park.  

As I think about the day, I keep thinking about how “ordinary” the day was.  But as I think about that, I can’t help but be reminded of the things that don’t happen without a series of “ordinary” days in which all the preparation is done.  No lesson is taught, or learned, without the behind the scenes work of planning, study, and preparation.  No prayer walk is developed through the woods without the ordinary work days of cutting brush and clearing trails.  And no great work for the kingdom of God is accomplished without the “ordinary” days of prayer and listening.  So often, people skip serious prayer times and avoid the quiet times of listening to the still, small voice of God’s Spirit because they feel they have to be doing something important — something extraordinary.  Yet the extraordinary is not the result of pursuing it, rather it is the result of pursuing God in the ordinary moments of life.  I teach about prayer and write prayer-based devotional material, and share poems because I listen to God in the ordinary moments of life and He gives me things that are worth sharing.  

I pray that you and I would set our mind on things above when we find ourselves in the middle of an ordinary day.  I pray that we would seek God wherever we are and find places that free us from the distractions that keep us from listening to Him.  I pray that we would do the ordinary tasks of life well and allow God to build them into the extraordinary things that He would desire them to be.

Page 284 was a beautiful fall day to begin the work week.  The morning began with sweatshirt and jacket temperatures and warmed up to short sleeves by mid-day.  It’s in these roller coaster temperature days that I often find myself leaving a trail of jackets behind me as the temperatures gradually warm up.  Many times I don’t realize I’ve left them behind until the next morning when I go to put my jacket on and it is no where to be found.  I think I’ve managed to keep track of them today, but it is early in the season. 🙂

The day began with the usual Monday morning cleaning and building prep.  Once that was finished and the building ready for the day, I settled into my office chair to spend time with God and work on the prayer guide for next week.  As I spent time in prayer, I finally settled on the topic of victory.  God says that it is through faith that we can experience the victory that has already been won by Christ.  As I spent time in prayer putting the prayer guide together, I thought about the difference in attitude between those who feel victorious and those who feel defeated.  I live in a college town where the entire city seems to have a different atmosphere depending on whether or not the football team wins on a given weekend.  In the midst of a losing season the discouragement and pessimism is pervasive and seems to be contagious.  The bad moods beget further bad moods until everyone not only has a short fuse, that short fuse has been lit and it’s just a matter of time before an explosion takes place.

Unfortunately, the same thing happens in churches when it doesn’t have to.  Instead of living with the victory that is ours in Christ, people can have a tendency to measure victory by attendance or offering numbers and incorrectly conclude that the church is losing — at least on a small scale, individual congregation level.  Or we look at the mess the world is in and focus on the spiritual battles that appear to not be going well, and we even conclude that the church as the body of Christ isn’t doing so well — perhaps it is losing too.  In a local church setting, it doesn’t take a visitor long to decide if there is a sense of victory or defeat.  The determining factor usually has far less to do with balance sheets, attendance records, or the world’s view of success than with simply being faithful.  Even when success seems lacking by all of the world’s standards, an individual who is living a life faithful to God will live a life that exudes a spirit of victory.

After the prayer guide was written, I took advantage of the beautiful day to start on some outside work on the church property.  After selling off some trees last winter, the trails through the woods are in need of a lot of attention.  As I was out cutting wood, clearing brush, and opening trails back up, I found myself singing songs of victory in worship of God.  One of the hymns I was singing as I worked has a chorus that ends with the words, “Faith is the victory that overcomes the word!”  I was thankful for the reminders from God that I can, and should, live a victorious life in Christ.

Once the workday ended I headed home and spent some time resting and sorting through photos as I continue to work on putting a photo calendar together for next year.  As evening approached, we went out for supper then stopped by the river walk so I could shoot a few photos as the sun began to set.  The photo on today’s page is one from tonight as the sun set over the St Joseph River in Mishawaka. To me, the setting sun is like God’s fireworks display celebrating another day in which He reigned victoriously over all the earth.

I pray that you and I would live life in such a way that others view it as victorious regardless of our circumstances.  I pray that we would pay attention to the times when discouragement begins to settle into our spirit so that we would realize our need to look to God for reminders of the victory we have in Christ.  I pray that we would find ways to address real problems and difficulties while maintaining a victorious attitude.  I pray that we would keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who is not only the source of our faith but also the one who perfects our faith.