Caving In or Just Spelunking?

About once a month we've been making the long trip to Denver to fellowship with the Albertson clan. After service, we share a carry-in dinner together in the parsonage. Hannah is enjoying little baby Jonathan.

We really appreciate their outreach there--bringing in community children and people who tend to be discarded by others, including the homeless and blind. Last time we were there, two blind men were in service, and we got the idea to buy little gifts for those blind men for Christmas time. We ended up not being able to go around Christmas time, but took the gifts up two Sundays ago--to find out that one of the blind men was celebrating his birthday that day! So it seemed providential that the Christmas gift had been postponed--and ended up on his birthday! He seemed tickled to receive something he could "feel" (a soft throw) and "taste," (honey roasted peanuts) since he could not see. It is such a joy to reach out to people who struggle in society and who are touched when you (literally) reach out and touch them--because you have to touch them first for them to know when to reach out and shake your hand.

Even people who have seeing eyes often need the first touch. 

Below, Quill, Micah and our boys look at picture books together--and are we thankful for our eyes?

On the way home, we stopped at the Castle Rock trail to pull over and give ourselves a wake-up break! I leaned back in the warm van and enjoyed the quiet while the others walked up the trail. 

"I will lift up my eyes..." even while sitting in sand,

even while seeing only potholes above me,

and below me.

"Unto Thee O Lord, do I lift up my soul."

"If I can just hang on a little longer, Lord!"

These photos are from Castlewood Canyon at another time. It was such a perfect day to walk that trail--cool enough for coats but warm enough to be comfortable.

"Hold thou me up, that my footsteps not slide."

There are moments when you'd like to just run and hide in a cave--

like this one.

Like Elijah. 

Only to hear, "What doest thou here, Elijah?"

And you put your name in there, and you know you have a choice. 

You can huddle inside in the dark, listening to the wind and the earthquake and the fire,

or you can step outside of the dark into the sunshine of His face.

It is a gentle face. It is a face of authority.

It's gentleness says, "I understand where you are and why."

And it's authority says, "Step out of your cave and get busy doing the job I have for you to do!

You are valuable to me. You are precious in My sight. I am watching over you."

The path may be rugged and steep. There will be plenty of rocks in it, and slippery places.

But the sunshine of My love will light the way. 

Just keep holding onto My hand tightly...

Especially when everything has turned upside down--

and you don't know which end is up!!"

Literally, those pictures are right side up, the ceiling of the cave that Danny discovered when he went exploring up the hillside to find where the little waterfall of melting snow was coming from. It literally looked like the bed of a stream had been upended and turned upside down here. Another evidence of the chaos that happened at the time of the Flood. 

We just loved this little spot, drinking in the sunshine, the amazing scenery, the water splashing from melting snow.

Another day there wouldn't have been snow. Another day it would have been too cold and everything frozen. It was the perfect day to bask in God's goodness and grace--sensing Him bringing healing to our hearts and peace to our nerves. 

And to close out this post--my sister Iva forwarded me this touching selection from last night's post by Ann Voskamp: A Prayer for God to Bless Our Enemies. (And do I have the courage to join her in this prayer?)
She wrote,

"... Can I grab your hand tonight and pray with you for all the hard people in our lives?
"Bless our enemies, O Lord. We bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven us into your embrace more than friends have. Enemies have loosed us from earth more than friends have…Enemies have made us a hunted animal, finding safer shelter than an unhunted animal does.
We found safest sanctuary in You…may too our enemies-made-grace.
We found greatest grace in You… may our enemies-made-grace find Your generous grace alive and radical in us.
We found fullest forgiveness in You… may our enemies-made-grace find faith and freedom in You and Your forgiveness working surprising ways in us.

 The longer we walk with you, Lord, we find we have no enemies: only Your gift of chisels etching us deep.
Bless my enemies, O Lord. We bless them and do not curse them.
In the name of Jesus who loved His enemies to death...
Amen."

"Is There No Balm in...the Medicine Cabinet?"

Today since Jonathan took the two little boys with him, I decided to make some one-on-one time with Hannah after working on report cards for semester end of school. 

We decided to clean our medicine cabinet together. 

Hannah enjoyed pulling out all sorts of bottles and tubes and little boxes and chapsticks....

and then scrubbing those dusty shelves.

It was a fun time together. 

And it was a chance to throw out some old, dirty, unused, out-of-date things that were just cluttering--not really useful, not really healing--just jamming the cupboard and taking up space and keeping the shelves dirty.

Bottles with three old pills in them--like empty platitudes with little worth in them--taking up space but not really helpful or healing.

Plastic bags with powdery, broken, discolored pain pills--that aren't easing anyone's pain and don't even look good.

Nasal squirt bottles and sinus remedies that are only useful for looking down your nose at

rather than clearing any relational congestion.

Torn packages of corn removers--that just need to be removed.

A toothpaste tube that has nothing left in it--unless you squeeze it hard with both hands.

And bottles so outdated you figure there isn't any potency in any of the medicines.

And then there are the what-in-the-world-are-those things?

You clear that stuff away--You toss it in the wastebasket. 

That is where that stuff belongs. 

Now you can clean the cupboards 

We cleaned the shelves inside and out, carefully wiped those curly-cue light bulbs of all the dust. 

Life does that to light bulbs. You don't have to purposely pour dust on them for them to get dusty.

They just get that way. 

A speck here. A speck there. 

The months go by; the years go by; and why is it so dim in this room?

Light of the World, Master Duster, gently wipe the dust that has accumulated from just--

life happening.

And all the time, I wiped very carefully, instructing Hannah that if we weren't careful, 

the bulb could shatter. 

And our Master Duster, He knows our frame; He remembers that we are

dust.

Fragile light bulbs.

We wear out; we get dusty; we need Somebody Bigger Than You and I to gently dust us, clean us, clear the dirt and cobwebs; shine upon us; shine in us; shine through us. 

We choose to throw out, to discard, to say goodbye--

to worthless platitudes, vicious cycles, blame games, things that have no value, that cannot heal.

And then we choose to keep...

 the potent Olba's throat drops that make it possible to go to sleep without that awful scratchy sensation when we are fighting something in our throat-

"He giveth His beloved sleep."  

the asthma drops that make it possible to breathe and keep breathing,

when your chest is constricting with the knowledge that you can't do it all,

the fresh antacids for when your stomach is upset upon eating the wrong combination of foods

or swallowing something that wasn't the truth;

the lip balms for cracked and chapped lips--and to soothe where words have hurt;

the floss for all those bits of tiny things that get so easily stuck in your craw;

the garlic that smells awful but drives away the sore throat--if caught soon enough.

And the nail clippers to keep your fingernails only long enough to be useful--

and not to be used as claws to scrape someone else's heart. 

Sometimes music is the best balm.

Today Crystal had on a CD of hymns, including "How Firm a Foundation."

"Thy soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake,

I'll never, no, never, no, never forsake!

Running Through the Dark

 Surprise of beautiful tulips from my dear hubby on a January day--that had been a bit dark for me.

And after all the children were in bed last night, I read a story about an Australian shepherd, age 61, who won a famous marathon back about 1984. His name was Cliff Young, and he wasn't supposed to run in the marathon because he didn't have any Nike backers to support him. But he ran anyway--after taking out his teeth, which, he confessed, rattled when he ran! 

"Cliff Young runs on through the dark — because he didn’t know you were supposed to stop.
The accepted way professional runners approached the race was to run 18 hours, sleep 6, for7 days straight. But Cliff Young didn’t know that. He didn’t know the accepted way. He only knew what he did regularly back home, the way he had always done it: You run through the dark.
Turns out when Cliff Young said he gathered sheep around his farm for three days, he meant he’d run across 2,000 acres of farmland for three days straight without stopping or sleeping, without the dark ever stopping him. You gathered sheep by running through the dark.
So along the endless stretches of highway, a tiny shadow of an old man shuffled along, one foot after another, right through the heat, right through the night. Cliff gained ground.
Cliff gained ground because he didn’t lose ground to the dark. Cliff gained ground because he ran through the dark.
And somewhere at the outset of the night, Cliff Young in his overalls, he shuffled passed the toned runners half his age. And by the morning light, teethless Cliff Young who wasn’t young at all, he was a tiny shadow — far, far ahead of the professional athletes.
For five days, fifteen hours, and four minutes straight, Cliff Young ran, never once stopping for the dark – never stopping until the old sheep farmer crossed the finish line – First. He crossed the finish line first. Beating a world record. By two. whole. days.
The second place runner crossed the finish line 9 hours after old Cliff.
And when they handed old Cliff Young his $10,000 prize , he said he hadn’t known there was a prize. Said he’d run for the wonder of it. Said that all the other runners had worked hard too. So Cliff Young waited at the finish line and handed each of the runners an equal share of the 10K. And then the old cahoot in boots walked a way without a penny for the race but with all the hearts of whole world.
While others run fast, you can just shuffle with perseverance.
 While others impress, you can simply press on.
 While others stop for the dark, you can run through the dark.
The race is won by those who keep running through the dark."

"When those reporters asked Old Cliff that afterward, what had kept him running through the nights, Cliff had said, “I imagined I was outrunning a storm to gather up my sheep.”
And I sit there in the thickening dark.
With the One who mastered the dark and overcame the storm to gather His sheep and now there is a Light Who shines in the darkness and the darkness can never overcome it.

That excerpt was from Ann Voskamp's blog, www.aholyexperience.com. I had sat down looking for something to hang onto in a time of darkness, and there was the day's thought:

"The race is won by those who keep running through the dark."

Just because it is dark,

just because it is so dark that you can feel it,

just because everyone else is doing everything according to protocol,

doing it the way that is expected of them by--

other people, status quo, unwritten laws and written ones;

While others sleep by the side of the road,

while even critters curl up and make sure they get their daily nap,

 the way to win is to keep running

through the dark.

Studio Styles, Snowflakes, and Sparrows

Here is one of the 3-D snowflakes our children made during December. We made white ones, white and blue ones,  multi-colored ones, and ones like this green and blue one.

This week were asked for a "studio style" photo of Jonathan and me. So we decided to just get it over with while we were talking about it. After a lot of laughing and giggling like school children about us country bumpkins trying to come up with a "studio style" photo (what is that???)   and making our hair over (Jonathan spent just as long as I trying to make his poor, thinning hair styled the way he likes it by his totally unprofessional barber wife look just right for this important picture :)  :) ...

and choosing a couple possible backgrounds in our prairie home that doesn't offer very many "studio style" backgrounds, Sammy did the honors of taking one picture after another till we got the right expressions and lighting and TRIED to get us centered against the background.

This is the photo Jonathan chose to send. I am so proud of my dear hubby. Don't ask me why, but I think he just keeps looking more and more handsome. (Don't ask him what he thinks about that statement, but I am his wife, and I am the only woman in the world who is allowed to say that!!!)

Now, to be honest, I am not sure what our children look more and more like.

Bad hair days?

The three littlest ones got their hair all wet and acted silly for us while we were taking photos. So while they were looking at us in the above pictures, this is what we had to look at! 

Smile!

And of course, Sam has to go around taking unwanted photos of other people.

Please, picture taker, this is NOT my day!

When life has turned upside down.....

And you are trying to hurry and hide underneath a way-too-small cover after doing the worst blunders of your life (until the next one)...

And you feel like you are all alone in the shivering cold...

or lonely in the midst of the crowd,

pecking at the crumbs you find somewhere down there in the dirt....

 About then, a gentle voice will remind you of the song you used to sing years ago,

"His Eye Is on the Sparrow,

Child, 

And I am watching over you."

Today my sister Dorcas wrote an email from Vermont titled, "The Birds sang to me!" 

She wrote about a walk she took in the woods. "I took off
alone and, as I rounded a corner of the trail, I startled a flock of
robins off their perch on a nearby tree. For some reason on any warm day
we may still see a robin or two around here! They flew into the sky
singing with all their power. It wasn't a spring time  song--since it's
not spring yet, but it was a beautiful loud chorus that I stopped to
listen to. It was so encouraging to hear. Then I thought to myself, I
wonder why God had those birds sing to me?! I was the only one there to
hear the song, so it must have been for me. I thought, I am not anybody
special, why are they singing for me?

Then I thought, over the past year
2013, I've been singing a lot to the Lord in the midst or trials and
worries and burdens; I guess, the Lord thought that at that moment He
would send a flock of birds to sing to me as if to tell me somehow that
He'd been hearing me and He would like me to go ahead and keep singing,
too!! It was a moment of joy! "

That was such a special letter to me. It is not always easy to sing. So when I looked out the window on the snowy days and saw so many birds in the tree, I wanted to take pictures. There was something comforting about those sparrows flocking to our trees and to our bird feeders. I always think about how His eye is on the sparrow.

There is something comforting about remembering what our Lord said about sparrows.

Remembering His love gives us the courage to peek outside of the blanket of despair that we have huddled under, and to look out at life (in the form of a silly camera at times!) staring us right in the face all over again. 

God transforms the "I am going to throw water at you" moments

...into "May I give you a hug?" moments. (It all depends on how you interpret the picture.)

And He has such a way of giving us sweet treats every once in a while. 

The flowers are ones Jonathan bought me on a down day,

and Hannah is peeling the wrappers off of chocolate peppermint kisses for peanut butter cookies.

Kitty's New Year's Advice

So when in this coming new year, 

you find yourself in a bit of a mess,

advice from our cat (according to Jonathan when he looked at this picture he took while he sorted plumbing on New Years Day):

"If you ignore it long enough, it will go away!!"

And in the case that doesn't work...

"just lie down and take a nap!

It will still be there when you wake up."

More Advice for the New Year

Accept each day as a gift.

New Year's Advice from Haiti!

Your best work is done upon your knees.

Let the little ones help.

Turn scraps into games!

Lend a helping hand.

It's okay to be different. 

Jonathan showed us the above cocoa bean that was growing on the trunk  of the tree instead of growing normally.

Remember you could always have it worse.

Or this...(carpentry shop)

Life looks better from upside down!

You always have a choice.

You can carry that 5-gallon bucket on top of your head...

...or you can use it to stand on to reach higher!!

It's your choice!

Don't just sit there--Do something!