Page 137 was the start to another work week so it was up early and in to clean and prep the building before the students arrived for school.  Maybe I’m getting old, although more mature sounds better, but early mornings have become some of my favorite times.  While the idea of getting up early never appealed to me, and still isn’t at the top of my list of fun things to do, the stillness and quiet of a morning at work before anyone else is around is a beautiful thing.  It is during those pre-dawn rounds that I can have uninterrupted prayer and worship times to start my day.  Most mornings an old hymn sticks in my mind and gets sung over and over as I clean.  And by giving it an opportunity to stick in my mind, it often reappears throughout the day.

After the cleaning and prep, I settled in my office chair to spend time with God to put together the prayer guide for next week.  As I prayed, the idea of wonder filled my mind.  It is an interesting word as we use it to describe a state of mind where we think about or question something — “I wonder if it will rain.”  We also use it to describe things that are incredible and perhaps even beyond explanation — “The seven wonders of the world.”  And then we have God who performs wonders, who fills our hearts and minds with wonder, and is Himself full of wonder.  It was out of all of this thought process that I put together a prayer guide for next week on the topic of Wonderful!  Watch for it to be published Sunday in the “prayer guide” section of the Impact Prayer Ministry website.

After the prayer guide was written, I spent some time with God going through thoughts and ideas for two workshops I will lead at a conference this summer.  Eventually I decided I was hungry and needed some fresh air so I went to lunch then headed down to Potato Creek for a hike with some listening and photography time.  As I began my hike, the hymn “Amazing Grace” filled my mind so it was sung throughout my afternoon walk.  One of the workshops I am putting together is on developing a lifestyle of prayer through listening so I decided to focus on listening throughout my hike.  It is amazing what I was able to notice when my listening was intentional.  I wasn’t listening for anything specific, I was simply deliberately listening to whatever could be heard.  Some of the sounds were obvious — the sounds of the birds singing, the roar of the jets overhead, the wind-driven water lapping along the shore.  But other sounds required a more active listening mode to hear movement or even to hear the absence of sound.  It was in one of these times when everything became really quiet that I looked up and then took the photo that is a part of this page.  The birds had been singing, but what got my attention this time was that my presence had become noticed and the songs of the birds had stopped.  Sometimes God uses the voice of His Word spoken into our lives to communicate to us His love and the direction we ought to be going.  Other times it is in the absolute quietness that He calls us to be still and simply know He is God and His presence is with us.

I pray that you and I would seek to develop a lifestyle of prayer so that prayer is simply a part of who we are.  I pray that we would worship God as we consider just how wonderful He is to us.  I pray that we would become more active listeners — first to God and then to others.  I pray that our listening to God would direct every aspect of our life.

Page 136 saw a return to cold weather with morning temperatures in the low to mid 30’s.  While the temperature outside was cold, the warmth of fellowship was present as the church family gathered to worship together this morning.  Our Sunday School class continued in the book of Proverbs with a focus on chapters 21 and 22 this morning.  As has been the case each week, there is so much wisdom represented in each verse that God wants us to not only know, but to focus on and apply in our lives.  The morning message at church was brought by our youth minister and continued a series through the Sermon on the Mount.  Today’s message from Matthew 7 focused on “Seeking What God Desires”.  The entire series is wrapped around a focus of being a relevant church by being the church Jesus founded back in the 1st century.  

While there is a push in many circles of influence, and even within many churches, to become more relevant by becoming more like the current culture, there is nothing more relevant to any person in existence than to become more like Christ.  Our focus as individuals, and as church congregations, must remain fixed on a growing relationship with Jesus.  While many would say that the calling of God for His followers to become a “peculiar people” doesn’t fit a culture that needs the church to be relevant, I contend that a church is completely irrelevant if it conforms to the surrounding culture without boldly proclaiming the absolute relevance of the truth found in Jesus.  

After the church gathering we headed to lunch and then down to Potato Creek for an early afternoon family hike.  While the wind was a bit brisk, the interior trails through the wooded areas were filled with a variety of songbirds.  As we walked the roadway back to the truck, we paused to watch an osprey soaring high overhead.  As he circled over the lake he would occasionally pause in mid-air with a razor-like focus on the water below.  Eventually he saw the opportunity he was waiting for and made a diving plunge into the water, coming up with a fish firmly grasped in its talons.  As he took his catch back to the nest to share with the family, we passed a heron wading through the shallows where it also maintained a steady focus as it watched for an opportunity to catch a meal of its own.

As I thought about the lessons from church, and from nature, I wondered about how focused we are in keeping the commands of Jesus to love God with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as our self.  Our very survival, from an eternal perspective at least, depends on our razor-sharp focus in maintaining our walk with God every day.  The relevance we have as individuals, and as church congregations, depends not on our ability to be like the culture but on our razor-sharp focus in accurately representing Jesus to the culture.  

I pray that you and I would constantly seek the wisdom from God that He has promised to give without finding fault.  I pray that we would make the most of every opportunity to present Christ as relevant to every situation.  I pray that we would not succumb to the temptation to sacrifice truth in an attempt to make the gospel more acceptable.  I pray that we would understand how the transforming power of Christ becomes the only thing that maintains lasting relevance to a world that is lost. 

“I will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come?  My help comes from the LORD, Who made heaven and earth.”
Psalm 121:1-2 (NASB)

As page 134 came to a close, I gathered my chain saws and supplies in anticipation of doing some outside work during the church work day after the rain moved through overnight.  Page 135 was ushered in with a fierce storm as I could hear the wind howling and the sound of heavy rain and/or hail pounding the bedroom window overnight.  When I woke up, it seemed like the weather front had moved through so I got dressed and ready to load what I needed in the truck only to walk out of the house and into a steady rain.  I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m not desperate enough to cut wood in the rain so I headed back inside.  Knowing there would likely be a group working on inside projects, I decided to go in later in the day to get the building cleaned and ready for Sunday after they were done.

Most of the day was spent doing nothing and eventually led to a nap on the couch before heading to work to get things done.  With temperatures heading into the 30’s overnight, my first order of business at work was to restart the boilers that I had shut down last week.  It didn’t feel bad inside when I arrived this evening, but without some heat going it would likely be a different story in the morning.  As I cleaned and thought about the day, I began to think that today’s page wouldn’t have much written on it.  Even as I took a break from the cleaning to try to write while my mind was still awake, I didn’t think I would have much to write.  Usually I write the day’s page and then realize I have a picture that I took that day that compliments what I had written.  Today was different.  As I thought about a day with some long elements of rest in it, the passage of scripture at the top of this page came to mind.  At a time when many seek help from every source imaginable, how refreshing it is to know that my help comes from the Lord — the maker of heaven and earth.  As I meditated on this and started through the photos on my computer, I came across a folder from a prayer journey to Salt Lake City in July of 2004 and the picture that ended up on this page seemed to ask to be shared.

Looking to God for help in our time of need is a lot easier to talk and write about when things are going well, or when we are comfortably surrounded by Christian friends and family.  It is when our life is in turmoil and we feel all alone that it can become very tempting to listen to the many voices calling for us to look elsewhere for help — or we listen to the voices saying there is no help.  Unfortunately, if we are not accustomed to knowing God as our help in the good times of life, we will often not feel comfortable looking to Him for help in our times of need.  I don’t know the troubles you face today, but why not look to God for help first?  And if you’re not experiencing troubles, why not look to God first for wisdom in how He can help others through you?  You have probably noticed that we are living in a world full of troubles.  And in this troubled world, many are seeking political solutions to spiritual problems.  Politics will never solve the sin problem that plagues this world, only Jesus has the power to do that.  While I do pray for godly leaders who would exalt God with their decisions, my help in times of trouble does not depend on that.  

I pray that you and I would fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, so that He is the One we would go to in times of need.  I pray that we would learn to show His love to all people, especially in their times of need.  I pray that we would seek wisdom in honoring our leaders and pray that God would raise up godly leaders that would turn their hearts toward Him.  As you look toward the mountains of refreshing or the mountains of trouble, I pray that you would know with confidence that your help comes from the Lord.  

Page 134 started extra early as there was a lot to get done on what was forecasted to be a dry and pleasant day.  The plan was to have the bathrooms cleaned, hallways swept, trash taken out, and all the inside prep work done for the day by the time there was enough daylight to be able to mow.  When I took the trash out at 6:30 AM, the color from the sunrise was just beginning to show on the eastern horizon so I fueled up the mower and began the task that I usually divide over two days.  There was still a slight chill in the air but I was ready for it today with a windbreaker and lightweight gloves.  It was a beautiful morning to be on the mower watching the grass clippings fly and the sun come up and crawl across the sky.  

The mowing took the rest of the morning so, with a work day scheduled at the church tomorrow, by noon it was time to call it a day and head for home.  At home I fired up the pellet grill and put a rack of ribs on it to start slow-cooking for supper.  Once it was going, we headed down to Potato Creek as a family to enjoy the beautiful afternoon and get some walking in.  We ended up enjoying a hike that was a little over 4 miles with an occasional stop along the way to take some pictures.  The sky was an incredible blue with a variety of white clouds scattered over the blue water of the lake and various shades of green from the tree and plant growth.  The songbirds were out in full force throughout the walk and their music simply added a beautiful soundtrack to all of the visual beauty.  After the walk at Potato Creek we headed home where I push mowed the front lawn while the ribs finished cooking.  It seemed fitting that my day would begin wrapping up in a similar manner that much of it was spent in — enjoying the look of a freshly cut lawn.

As I thought about the enjoyment I receive from both the process and the result of lawn and grounds maintenance, my mind turned toward the process and results that ought to be present in maintaining a life.  Without the regular maintenance of prayer and God’s Word, our life can start looking rather unkempt in a hurry.  We use our time with God to trim back unwanted and unnecessary growth so the beauty of God’s Spirit within us can be seen.  

I pray that you and I would spend time maintaining the life God has given us.  I pray that we would keep the overgrowth cut back so that the light of Jesus can be seen clearly in us.  I pray that we would find enjoyment in the process of maintaining a godly life.  I pray that the result of living a godly life would be a beauty to the people around us.

Another early start to a day that seemed to just rush right by.  I started the day with the routine morning cleaning and the toilet plunging which has become as necessary as the daily cleaning.  As I thought about how easy it is to get my head fully immersed in the routines of life that are rushing by, this photo I took a few days ago came to mind.  The problem of being completely immersed in the routines of life is that we lose the ability to actually notice what is going on around us.  It is so easy to feel isolated when all you are able to focus on is what you are doing and your immediate surroundings.  I have those times when I pull my head out of the current of life and there seems to be no one around.  It is in those times that I am more likely to seek, and notice, God’s presence with me.  And in His presence He shows me the benefit I am to others and that others are to me.  When I go to do things that I noticed days earlier that needed done and find they are already taken care of, God reminds me that I’m not alone.  When I set aside my schedule for a moment to help a stranger who is out of gas, God reminds me that they are not alone.

In addition to the usual building prep and cleaning for the day, I spent time with the state boiler inspector this morning as our heating systems were due for an inspection.  Inspectors tend to make me nervous but this one liked what he saw and both of our boiler systems passed with no issues needing addressed.  Once that was done, I checked messages and found that the president of the student conference I am working with this summer liked my current book project so I decided I better get busy at writing the pages beyond the table of contents and outline. 🙂  As I worked on writing, some friends stopped by to see if I wanted to go to lunch with them.  By then it was already one o’clock  and lunch sounded like a good plan so off we went.  It was a good meal and a good time of fellowship together before I headed back to the office to work on another day or two in the devotional journal I’m writing.  As I was writing, a red fox trotted past my office window and quickly disappeared before I could get any of my cameras out to snap a photo.  Years ago we had found a fox den with young pups around it in the woods on the church property but I hadn’t seen any evidence that they were still in the area until today.

I pray that you and I would use our alone times as opportunities to seek God and spend time with Him.  I pray that we would pay attention when God reminds us of the people He has put into our life for our benefit and encouragement.  I pray that we would make the most of every opportunity when God reveals to us the people He has put into our life for us to be a benefit to and encourage.  I pray that we would learn to trust God more fully each day.

Page 132 began with a widespread hazy fog that did its best to hang around as long as possible.  I’ve found that the “early to bed” part of the old adage makes the “early to rise” part much easier as I began my work day at 6 AM.  While the early morning work is often rather routine, and I prefer it that way, it does give me good quiet time to spend with God as I clean bathrooms, hallways, floors, and whatever else needs done to have the building ready for the day.  With a cool dampness hanging in the air, I decided not to start the mowing after the morning prep was done.  The forecast is a little more hopeful for drier weather the next two days so I’ll wait and mow on one of those.  So instead of mowing, I decided it was time to clean my office.  Well, that job looked too big so I decided cleaning off my desk would be a good start. 🙂  With all of the writing projects God has been giving me, MJ thinks I ought to clean off my desk every time I start a new book — I think that would be overdoing the whole thing.

The cleaning process is difficult for me because I typically know what is on my desk and an approximate location in the pile to find it.  Cleaning means that I have to figure out where to file each item in a manner that I can retrieve it when needed.  In addition to the cleaning, I worked on more writing as well as sent titles and descriptions in for the workshops I will lead this summer at the National Student Conference of the Association of College Ministries.  I will have the privilege of presenting two workshops; “Developing a Lifestyle of Prayer through Listening” and “Developing a Lifestyle of Prayer in the Real World”.  In addition to the workshops, one of my current writing projects is a 31-day devotional journal that God put in my mind based on the theme of the conference, “Not Home Yet”.  I appreciate all prayers offered on behalf of the conference and for my work in preparing the workshop and devotional material that I will share.

As I worked at cleaning and putting together info for the conference, a beautiful bird flew by my window and landed in the brush nearby.  When it first flew by I thought it was a cardinal, which are plentiful, but then I noticed it had black wings.  After doing an online search for red birds with black wings, I’ve concluded that it was a scarlet tanager.  While its color made it difficult to hide completely, it seemed to do its best to avoid being out in the open long enough for a good clear photo.  I don’t know if it was deliberately hiding or had simply found a food source in the brush that it was enjoying, but even surrounded by the green foliage I couldn’t help but notice it.

As I thought about this bird and my current writing projects, I began to consider how impossible it should be to hide the presence of God’s Spirit within us.  We ought to stand out as a bright light in a very dark world.  Wherever we go, whether trying to be unseen or simply surrounded by the foliage of the world, the essence of Jesus ought to be so vibrant within us that it remains visible at all times.

I pray that you and I would always let our light shine in such a way that people see our good works and glorify our Father who is in heaven.  I pray that we would realize that we represent Jesus wherever we are and that His light within us cannot be hidden.  I pray that we would have a desire to make Christ known with our entire being through all that we do.

After a good night’s sleep I felt a little more rested when I went to work to start page 131 with cleaning and building prep.  It was another rainy day so there wasn’t any outside work getting done and no Waist Management walk taking place.  After the building was ready for the day and the students began arriving I spent most of the morning working in my role as the missions’ treasurer for the church.  Doing so is always a fun time for me as I go through recent correspondence from missionaries and pray for them and the work God is doing through them.  As I finished up my work and prayer time with the missions focus, it was time for a weekly mentoring/discipleship lunch with a friend.

When I returned from lunch it was still raining steadily so I settled in my office chair to work on some writing in the daily devotions series that I have in process.  Today’s devotional writing was about various aspects of serving with integrity.  While it can be a very complex topic, one of the simplest approaches to laying a foundation for a lifestyle of integrity is to follow the teaching of Jesus to let your yes be yes and your no be no.  Many times we struggle with being a person of our word because we are too quick to speak and too slow to listen.  We commit to things only to change our mind when we have more information.  We want to sound confident so we agree, or disagree, before we even know what doing so will cost us.  We are so accustomed to a lack of commitment in our culture that we think nothing of “changing our mind” when it comes to broken promises and disregarded vows.  Not that there isn’t a time and place for changing our mind — that’s the very heart of repentance.  

James says that everyone should be quick to listen, slow to become angry, and slow to speak.  That instruction makes for great building material to go with the foundation of keeping our word.  Our integrity is strengthened when we make an effort to listen — both to God and to the people around us.  Sometimes we destroy our reputation, and our integrity, by not being quick to listen so our response is more of a quick to become angry that does much harm to our witness for Christ.  For most people, when they are easily angered they are also quick to speak.  That combination gets people in trouble faster than almost anything else.  To be a person of integrity means that we keep our word and that we listen to others so when appropriate to respond, we sound like Jesus.

As I worked at writing the devotional pages, a woodpecker flew by my window and landed in a tree nearby.  As he made his way up and down and around the tree, he kept pecking away at the bark in search of his “daily bread”.  Integrity in his life could be defined by being, and doing, what God created woodpeckers to be and do.  In a culture that is so rapidly trying to redefine everything according to our own wishes and desires, perhaps the greatest representation of integrity in our life would be for us to simply be and do what God has created us to be and do.

I pray that you and I would be involved in the work of global missions with our prayers, our resources, and our life.  I pray that we would seek to live a life of integrity.  I pray that we would grow to be people of our word in all circumstances.  I pray that we would learn to listen first to avoid speaking in haste or becoming unnecessarily angry.  I pray that we would be content with being who God created us to be.