Night Visitors

I'm as friendly as most and probably more than many but some creatures are not welcome. Last week in my abode in Swaziland, I was visited by a black snake, giant millipede, monstrous locust thing, several wasps on steroids, and a whole convention of gnats, flies, and moths. Not willingly, mind you, I was inhospitable to the point of whacking with a whip and chasing with a candle flame. I never did see the mice that bulked up on my oat bran and that's just as well. I squashed numerous spiders in my shower and brushed a couple of beetles out of my bed. It's good to be home.

How Great is Our God

How can I keep that concept centered in my mind? I am ashamed of how easily I lose sight of how God is beyond the limits of any description I can attribute to him. But shame is not his way with me so I gratefully acknowledge his amazing love and grace, which is also beyond my comprehension.

Thank you, Lord

Thank you Lord for such a wonderful day. I was so blessed today. I ask for your blessings and guidence for those you have placed in my life. In Jesus' name, amen.

Retreat takes a lot of work.

This weekend we have a company "retreat". I should be excited to have a free weekend in a very nice hotel with all the activities planned and paid for but I'm not. I'm ashamed to say I worry about whether I will have stylish attire for the various activities. Not worried enough to run out and buy new clothes for the event, just worried enough to not want to go. It's shallow to care what others will think of my sense of style but it's like an advertisement of how savvy I am.
I need to focus on the persons I am with and care more about them than what they may think of me. I need to love the people around me and in order to climb out of the circle of me, I need to connect with the One that loves them more than life itself.

Where is the Line?

Where do you draw the line? Should there even be a line or is holiness an open shaft upward we are to strive for? There are so many factors to consider; how will my actions affect others and how do I please God?

Does the hermit please God if he withdraws from others to continually read and pray? Does the church-lady please God if she is so involved with committees and programs that her family learns to live without her or the family devotee that saves all free time for home and family?

Knowing how to spend one's time and energy righteously is difficult. Does the word "righteously" put the question in a different light? Does that word open the door to feelings of guilt because, short of praying, there's always something more we could be doing. Or, is our circumstance part of God's design and how we spend our time largely dependent on our circumstance? Do we each have an individual plan, with individualized goals, and personal obstacles known only to God?

I don't know, and because of grace, amazing grace, I don't need to know where to draw the line. There is nothing I can do to make Him love me more, and nothing I can do to make Him love me less. God is not an accountant balancing my debits against my credits. My name is written in in the Book and PAID IN FULL is written beside it.

Learning about Grace

It is very difficult to internalize a concept when all your life experience tells you it doesn't work that way. "Work for what you want", "get what you deserve", "you make your bed, you lie in it", "you can do whatever you want if you are willing to work for it", "you reap what you sew", are what we live by, how we motivate and were motivated to achieve.

Understanding the vast reaches of God's grace is something my fingertips are brushing but I haven't yet been able to grasp and secure a good hold. That is not to say I have not received God's grace. It is to say that I believe God's grace expands beyond human knowledge and understanding, even as it applies to just me.

For most of my years I have struggled with comparing others to myself. So, I view my sins relative to other's sins, knowing we all are a chasm from God's holiness. So wrong, so, so, so wrong! And now I am trying to visualize how inaccurate that view is.

I'm asking God to gently show me how undeserving I am and yet, His grace is sufficient to cover my inadequacies. I'm reading Phillip Yancey's, "What's So Amazing About Grace". It's a slow read for me because it is so meaty.

I really think I'm beginning to see it and will continue to study. I want to appreciate all that has been given to me.

224 Years on a Roadtrip

If you think taking a road trip with your 58 year old mother sounds like trying to stay awake on a warm Sunday morning during a long-winded sermon, we're not on the same page. Try being the 58 year old taking a road trip with 83 year old parents.

We were often traveling faster than prudence and the law allows and my breath caught each time we passed a semi on a two lane road while the on-coming semi rapid grew in size. My driving was much smoother, at least for me, and running off the snow-covered road in Yellowstone while I tipped my pop can to get the last drop was much more upsetting to my step dad than to me. I did appreciate his cry, "look out!" when I almost sideswiped an on-coming car but I don't think the other driver noticed since he was looking at the buffalo, too.

Actually it was a lot of fun, considering the age of the participants. Our first night at a very nice motel in North Platte, including a cooked to order breakfast for less than $50. North Platte is where Buffalo Bill Cody drew together his "Wild West Show" which included Annie Oakley. Sorry but that's the best I can come up with for the drive from Bethany to North Platte, NE.

Both day one and day two we had wind gusts that required a constant two-handed grip on the steering wheel and a few strips of highway could be called white knucklers. Seeing the 18 wheelers tilting in the force made each safe mile something to be thankful for.

I don't want to tell all the exhilarating experiences we had those 4 days just now. I'll save a few titillating details for future posts.

Time: good, or bad?

Okay, no wonder no one has read or commented on my blog, it took me half an hour to find my own! I guess "Where am I?" is an appropriate title.

I am really trying to spend my time well. It is difficult because I have very few demands on my time which leads one to waste an incredible amount of time and, thus, feel guilty; bad sequence of events.

Well, I've got a list for today so that's a good start.