Monday, December 15, 2008

The Morning

I wish that you could smell this scene and feel the cool ocean breeze touch your face right now. I wish this photograph could jump off the monitor screen and I could walk along the shore again-- if only for a few minutes this morning.

Starting around the beginning of November I promise myself that I'm not going to overeat on Thanksgiving and every year I end up waddling away from the kitchen table. This year it was especially true because we went to my mom's house and you can't walk away from her cooking. It's that good. What's worse is that before the day is over, I've gone back to the refrigerator a handful of times for seconds and thirds and fourths.

I took the picture above, the morning after Thanksgiving. Daniel and I took the girls to a beach off the Oregon/Washington coast. Morgan and Ariel ran several miles and Daniel and I walked maybe one and a half miles. The Pacific Ocean was the perfect remedy to our turkey day food-hangover. It was in fact, somewhat magical, an experience of relationship with God.

I believe that God is a morning person. He's always doing important things and making stuff happen during morning time. All the way back into the early part of the Old Testament, He told Moses almost daily to do all of his confronting to Pharaoh in the morning. He said, "Get up in the morning, confront Pharaoh and say to him, the God of Hebrews says, 'Let my people go so they may worship me'".

I got one of those forwarded emails the other day from a friend. It's one of those letters that you put your answers to some questions and forward on to another friend and they read your answers and email you back with theirs. One of the questions was, Have you ever cried yourself to sleep? I was going to say "No", but I told to truth to this cyberspace place. Yes, I've cried myself to sleep many many times. The night has lasted so long before that I thought it would never end.

But by morning..... things looked so different. In fact, they were so different that it was almost too embarrassing to look in the mirror. Whatever it was that triggered me to an emotional meltdown, diminished overnight--- down to almost nothing. I'm fueled back up to face the next guaranteed crisis. There's just something about the newness of the day that gives a completely new dimension to life.

Almost every writing class I take, students are advised to sleep on their material before submitting it. It's good advice, but not just for submitting written material. It's good advice for everything.

Psalm 30:5For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.The most important morning go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFjVXrRKwsU

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Finding A Place of Completeness



How many times have I moved, only to find out that even one of the most beautiful places on Earth --- still does not perfectly fit?

I attended High School in Montana during the beginning months of my Sophomore year. Not having my drivers license at that age, I walked to school on the railroad tracks by my grandparents home. There were mornings during the Fall time that the air would be pure yellow. It was as if I could grab chunks of yellow with my bare hands and stuff them in my coat pockets.

Montana truly is big sky country and that's a ton of yellow. Once the sun came out, everything woke up to its original color. The railroad track today, is a symbol of a huge life marker for me. It leaves tracks that I was once here and walked along the western frontier with opportunity waiting around the bend.

As memorable as those days were, now they are mere memories. I'm still traveling the line by the rivers' edges and stopping in remote towns to visit with the locals. I can admit now, that I'll never be a local -- not even in my hometown.

Father Abraham is described in Genesis, attempting to leave his own railroad tracks in the form of a Tamerix tree. A symbol of sorts to mark his life legend. He was gently reminded by his fellow-man that he would always be a foreigner, even in the land that God had given to him.

After the call of God, we feel less at home even when we are at the center of God's will. Strangely when we are operating close to God's spirit, life hits us that we are nothing more than misfits on this planet; we are aliens. Constant conflict ends up being a divine spiritual setup. A continual restlessness is ever present, and thankfully, that makes me normal.

The Hebrew name for God in Genesis, is El Olam. This means, The Eternal God. Like Abraham, we are programmed for eternity. Based on the context in Genesis, when Abraham planted his tree, I imagine he felt like his time was running out and his life on earth was soon to end. He was showing his conflict with time by planting something that would hang out long after he was gone. It's in our nature to leave something behind when we go.

God has planted a tree of eternity in our hearts. Wherever your home is, there is and always will be a forwarding address. It was appointed for a man once to die and after that is an eternal place of completeness. A place where the divine train takes you to a place unkempt by time and space.

All Aboard!

Ecclesiastes Chapter 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

A Season For Everything


I don't know what it looks like in Alaska right now, but I'm sure to find out next week. For now, Daniel and I found this priceless place over the weekend in the Fourth of July Canyon, right here in New Mexico. Nothing could have made the scenic view feel more Fall-ish except perhaps a misplaced pumpkin balanced on the fence post or something.
The death of a Maple leaf gives birth to a new season with a burst of pinkish-red color mixed with yellow stars that carpet the ground. There's something about an afternoon chill combined with fall foliage that creates aliveness and a sense of new beginnings.
We walked a short path and took a ton of pictures, stopped and talked to people and watched them set up camp for the night. Dogs barked, children played, campfires roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Sections of sun speckled the ground but offered little warmth. It was a perfect day.
Without warning, the wind picked up so hard that it gusted up every square inch of stray leaf. They swirled in the air until the hail beat them back to the ground. Branches snapped, campfires sizzled and family's bundled in their vehicles for protection. Daniel and I drove away with the storm chasing us back to town.
When we got home, it was clearly evident that our yard had been ransacked by the same force that invaded the Fourth of July Canyon. A story I read many years ago was written by a woman from the pre-refrigeration era. Her husband had arrived home to the farm, fresh after a tonsillectomy. He started spitting up blood. After a couple of coughs, he was hemorrhaging. It was in the early Fall and she didn't have any ice to apply to the affected area. People from that era would preserve ice and snow from the Winter-time by packing it in cartons filled with sawdust. But it wouldn't keep a full year.All she had was prayer. She asked God to save her husband. Without warning, the wind picked up and large chunks of ice fell to the Earth. The wife gathered the ice and packed the hailstones around her husband's neck. The bleeding stopped.
When you have storms like that, they can take on an entire different meaning. They no longer rain on our parades, inconvenience us from doing something we wanted to do. They were put there on purpose and for a reason.
To everything there is a season,
a time for every purpose under the sun.
a time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
a time to kill and a time to heal ...
a time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance ...
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to lose and a time to seek;
a time to rend and a time to sew;
a time to keep silent and a time to speak;
a time to love and a time to hate;
a time for war and a time for peace.
ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

What The World Needs Now

Gasoline prices are skyrocketing, foreclosures are on the rise, the threat of banks closing is near, and now they are talking about rationing food. Add to that the Iraq war. Things are forever changing. We live in a fallen world where many people respond to all the changes with anxiety, despair or perhaps just find someone to blame for all the trials and difficult times.

Revelations, the last book in the Bible, is scary to read. It appears to me that the whole world is going to be having a massive seizure. Maybe we are having several small ones right now. In Chapter 16, there is a terrifying passage that makes you wonder where the love of God is. But this is a statement of prophetic history given to us in advance.

The Apostle Paul lived in the day and time where most people on the earth were slaves.Most of their time was spent trying to make a living-- just to exist. A much different picture of the reality of life back then than the picture above displays. The picture above was actually taken in New York city on the side of the Chapel that Stood across from Ground Zero.

The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans about living in and through difficult times. There are four truths to be found concerning all our circumstances of daily living found in Romans, Chapters 7 & 8.

  • God controls our circumstances Romans 8:28 For we know that within all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to his purpose. If you don't believe that then you are the only one in control of your circumstances -- How is it working for you? There is no such thing as absolute free will, it would be unsafe to be alive if there was. No matter what is going on in your life, some- body is in control.
  • God will meet our needs: Romans 8:31--" What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us." We as believers have the privilege to live on a higher level. Our God knows our needs before we ask Him. He will freely give us all things that fit His purpose for our lives.
  • God is with us : Romans 8:38-39--For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels or demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. He is with me, He is with us. We operate on a basis of feeling and because we don't always feel his presence, it has nothing to do with his presence. The cross covered the gap over 2000 years ago. He sealed us. You can go nowhere to hide from God.
  • God loves us with eternal love Romans 8:35: Nothing can separate us from the love of God. Nothing we could ever do or say could ever match the knowledge of knowing that God's loves us eternally-- even when our conduct is out of control.

People, events, and governments are out of control for the most part. Look at the differences in the countries and how much the disaster they experience, actually parallels with the amount of Bible that country chooses to allow. Even in our own country, many people have chosen a path that is so far removed from God that they reject their own family members without remorse. More and more we are reaping the consequences of our own deliberate rebellion.But what about those of us who choose to take a stand despite the persecution as the Apostle Paul?

John 14: Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.

Monday, September 8, 2008

We Retain What we Cannot Forgive



We Retain What we Cannot Forgive
The eyes that held the numerous secrets of the past are full of compassion, love and pain. Behind the viewing window was a universal drive to survive. And I now understand why she hid the truth for the first eighteen years of my life.
A fragile little girl with black curls framing her face--the runt of the bunch from the back hills of Tennessee. Looking out for a family that suffered through the depression era, sometimes milling through dumpsters for something to eat, she'd sneak her sister's costume jewelry and pry the stones out with a fork. Anything that glittered would shine brighter than any of the days that darkened her life for so long.
My mother went on to high school where she blossomed into beauty queen, majorette and then married before graduation. A couple of years later and two children eighteen months apart -- she divorced . While living in Lordsburg New Mexico, she remarried and renamed her two babies to her new husband.
My older brother and I grew up never knowing the difference between a father and a dad or grandparents that felt they had to pretend. Words like adopted, half-brother and blood relative never entered into our minds much less our vocabulary.
Until 1978. That's when mother broke the silence. The years she'd spent protecting the buried truth were dug up in a seconds' time and my life was like a school girl repeating kindergarten for umpteen years in a row. How do I spell my real last name? Who am I for real?
I swore I'd never make the same mistake, but I did just that. I tried not to. All three girls had the same daddy and I made sure all three were born in the same town in the same hospital. I had this crazy idea that this would ensure my ability to break the crux I'd been born with.
Being unable to forgive my own mother's transgressions, I retained the very things I couldn't let go of. I wrestled them to the ground and couldn't get up. My mistakes were surpassed by anything my mother would have ever imagined to make. I repeated them over and over because I looked at my life as being an abandoned child. Consequently for years I lived out every day as an orphaned child might choose to live.
Over time, I learned to forgive and that forgiveness is a choice, not a feeling. My eyes were opened. I learned that I was actually a child of prodigy because of the extraordinary situation.
God gave us two eyes to view situations from at least two different ways. Instead of being an abandoned child, I saw the realization of being a wanted child. There are probably not too many unwanted adopted children. My parents weren't perfect and I'm not a perfect parent. But God isn't looking for the perfect, He's looking for the faithful.
"For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth, that He may
strongly support those whose hearts are completely His." 2 Chronicles 16:9








Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Brainless and Beautiful



Never before have I seen such beautiful starfish than in the Pacific Northwest. They weren't your average thin and delicate coral colored starfish that you see washed up on the shores of the ocean. These were plump, soccer-ball size critters that were clinging to the pole of the boat dock on Annette Island Alaska. They were very much alive and feasting on a variety meal of marine life.
An interesting fact about starfish is that they have no brain. They're just a five spiked star with a central disc which acts as a water filter. Somehow all their parts can act independently of each other and even grow back a lost appendage. Within themselves they have the capacity to survive without thinking. They are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Can you imagine a species living for hundreds of thousands of years without a brain? No love, no fear, no attraction -- in fact they reproduce by free spawning. For the most part, they just glide around on the ocean floor and pig out.
One thing that both humans and starfish do have is laminin. Laminin is an adhesive protein in the cell membrane that holds everything together inside of us. Basically it's the glue that hold us all together. A scientific diagram of laminin looks exactly like the cross of Christ. To see the
video and exact picture click here:
We are all fearfully and wonderfully made by God and in Colossians 1:17, itstates: "He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together"How awesome is it that we are held together by supernatural glue that is unmistakably without any credit to our own thinking.
Almost as if it were totally brainless. It's just there, always has been and always will be.

















Everything is Looking Cherry




Clichés are so out of style, but this one has got to be resuscitated. While those bright red cherry's are sweet to eat and eye candy hanging on the vine, life is everything but a bowl full of cherries.


I'm such a jealous mother. There was no other mother that could take my place with my daughters. And yet as the time passed and my children grew, the intruders gradually took my place. Intruders are boyfriends, myspace.com, Facebook.com, cell phones, imposter parents (overnight heroes that claim paternal/maternal rights because they let your kid spend the night), cars and sometimes -- their own father. Obviously, he's the ex.


Life can be so unfair and while I hated being the first to humble myself by spitting out the pit, it's better than being the last person to strip away the pride. It's painful. I didn't know how to do it. I was terrified that any attempt would backfire like everything else in the past. Someone out there reading this can relate to what I'm saying. How could your children so easily forget seeing you wear the same shoes to work every day. Could they not put two and two together to understand your sacrifice for them to have new shoes? Perhaps you've worked diligently for years and raised your children by yourself. The bond you created was never supposed to be broken. But it broke and now things are different and there are parts of those precious children that you just can't understand. At one time they would listen to you and learn from you. But now you are competing with the intruders.


I took cherries for another spin. Perhaps there are some of them that are capable of bringing the blossom back to life -- despite the fact that children grow up and find life outside the bowl more attractive. I began looking at my daughters and the intruders in a different way. I began to meditate on these things: Finally, whatever things are true,
whatever things are noble,
whatever things are just,
whatever things are pure,
whatever things are lovely,
whatever things are of good report,
if there is any virtue
And if there is ANYTHING praiseworthy--
Meditate on these things. Philippians 4:8

It's clearly that simple if you think about it. You can find some really sweet things to think about in people that drive you absolutely crazy sometimes. The bitterness that clings to the vine has slowly been cut away along with the past mistakes.Think on these things about your children -- They are lovely if nothing else -- the fruit doesn't always fall so far from the tree.

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Wooden Potato Barrel

Who would have thought
That at ten years old
I would treasure a barrel
Much more than gold...
It was back east
At the tip of Maine
The bitter cold mornings,
When potato season came.
I would walk through the field
With the other workers there,
Was given my section for picking;
Potatoes, more than my share.
My hands clothed with gloves
That were new from the store
Still held cold dried dirt
From the day before.
My fingers half around a handle
Held a basket big for my size,
I searched to the sky,
Praying for the sun to rise.
The digger came by
Exposing two fresh rows;
I prepared myself by stretching,
My palms to my toes.
When once the whistling wind
Possessed me inside,
I desperately started searching
For a sheltered place to hide.
I looked all around me,
Nothing but miles of field...
When I spotted my refuge..
My barrel......my shield.
I laid it on it's side,
The bottom against the wind,
Knelt down to the ground
And crawled safely in.
Savoring the moments
Of the comfort I'd found,
My boots turned to slippers,
My woolen cap to a crown.
My old faded coat
Became a gown of lace..
And the barrel around me...
Became God's embrace.