Up the Sunbeam

-- Do you ever wake up and find everything you touch falls down,                                                                                       tips over,                                                                                               won't work,                                                                               ...

-- Are we THERE yet? The universal refrain of children on their way somewhere far away. Mile after mile, the wheels turn and turn and turn, but to them the destination still seems so far off. Yes Lord. Some days it feels a little like that. For now anyway, we live in the uncharted territory between the excitement of getting on the road and the thrill of getting to our destination. There's no telling what lies between. In the ordinariness of daily days (even good days), there is a slow grind of feeling never quite on top of everything, and knowing there's still a long way to go, a person can get a little weary sometimes. Obstacles, real and perceived, from outside sources and from within, can make it feel like you're getting nowhere fast. You can start fussing and worrying over bumps in the road you didn't anticipate, the funky looks you get from other travelers, and a thousand little burrs under your saddle that chafe and rub your nerves to an exaggerated frazzl...

-- "The LORD will march out like a champion . . ." Isaiah 42:13a NIV The Super Bowl has not yet begun as I sit down to write this.  It is a story yet to be written, a battle yet to be fought.  Football fans everywhere are poised and waiting for the contest to unfold.  I am one of them.  Who will win the day?  Whose great season will end in triumph and who will go home in deepest disappointment?  Who will have the game of his life?  Who will make mistakes that affect the outcome of the game?  We don't know!  As they say, "That's why they play the game." Humanity loves a contest!  We just love to watch and/or participate in competition.  The Super Bowl is in an elite category of contests, right up there with Game 7 of a World Series (or NBA or NHL Championship), the 5th Set of a Wimbledon Final, the final round at Augusta, the Home Stretch at the Kentucky Derby, the Gold Medal game in the Olympics.  The drama just doesn't ge...

"There is always another perspective." Dewitt Jones "What are you hoping to accomplish this year?" he asked.  For once, when Hero Husband asks me questions like this, I had an answer I didn't have to ponder long. "I need to get my physical well-being in order," I said, stating the obvious. The weight I have to lose feels to me like I wear my weakness and failure all over myself.  I can't get away from it, can't hide it, can't deny it, can't defend it. Strangely enough, at every weight I've ever been, from high school until right now, I've felt exactly like this--okay, maybe to a lesser degree at lower weights, but the same thoughts were in there, critiquing, fault-finding, guilt-heaping.  I look at pictures of myself from many pounds ago thinking, "Sheesh, I'd love to be THAT size again!"  Then I recall looking at those same pictures when they were new, feeling just as crummy about my weight and my shape and ...

"When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds," Genesis 9:14 NLT God delights in putting examples all around us that can speak to us if we're listening.  Last week I drove all over an unfamiliar neighborhood, possibly even breaking a few traffic rules to find a spot where I could capture this breathtaking rainbow! There is no . . . height without depth, dawn without dark, found without lost, reunion without parting victory without defeat, rainbow without storm. We would never know how high the mountaintop is unless we had been to the valley.  Our hearts would not thrill to the first rays of sunrise without experiencing the long dark night.  If we had never known the panic of a missing child (even if only for a moment), we would not know the utter euphoric relief of the moment of finding that lost little one.   Without the ominous black-clouded drama of the storm played out in a wild sky, we wouldn't know how much the rainbow's pr...

-- Brick by painstaking brick . . . that is how a brick building is built.  With great care and precision, following the exact design of the architect, the mason lays each brick, one at a time, to form the interlocking strength of the wall. Character is built like that.      Experience by experience,      trial by trial,      triumph by triumph,      challenge met by challenge met! Our strength of character is built one brick at a time, under the skilled handiwork of an Artist Builder.  He is both Architect and Bricklayer, Designer and Laborer, Owner . . . and Resident . . . and Cornerstone of the character edifice He builds in us.  He is a Master Craftsman who takes great joy in creating lasting beauty out of mere bricks and mortar, the stuff of this earth-y life.  His is a labor of love, and He has chosen us to be His life's work, His monument, His glory. I write of the God i...

I wasn't planning to write today, but I am compelled to come out of my extended quiet spell long enough to share a heartfelt moment of brokenness and love . . . and hope. On this bright, glorious Sunday, I did not feel like going to church. I did not feel like offering words of worship or songs of praise. I did not feel like giving or smiling or hugging. Crying or stamping my feet? Maybe! Worship? Not so much. My emotions just would not line up with what I know . . . would not line up with the God I know! Old fears and new developments in our personal economy were warring against the quiet stillness of my trust in God, and it was a raging battle. I had to choose sides--one or the other would have me today and the choice was mine. What I know about God and His character was never shaken--I absolutely know and trust Him to be faithful and loving, kind and compassionate, powerful and present to an infinite degree. But my emotions!!! What loud, bossy, obnoxious things ...