Gone But Not Forgotten

One week has passed since returning from our Oregon vacation. Life as usual has taken new root as it usually does while still needing attention in clearing the usual weeds. Getting readjusted to "life as usual" after vacationing is never an easy thing for me. I suppose I'm no different than most in that our vacations tend to be what we wish our everyday life would be and that is what makes returning to reality difficult. I often think how fortunate people are to live in a state surrounded by the splendor of God's creation and wish I lived there too. I usually brush off any thought of relocating and starting over-perhaps making a living doing something else on the basis that it's a wild absurd idea. The idea just seems impossible until I realize that if it was impossible-how do all these people manage that are already there? Hmmm.... It's always been my style that when I know I should do something and lack the courage to do it, that I intentionally put my own back against the wall. By doing this I've always been left with only one choice; to get out of that circumstance one way or another. Things worth thinking about.

Sunsets and Sky

In less than three weeks, Kristi and I are going to experience some "firsts" together. Kristi is going to meet my brother's wife for the first time, she is going to see a mountain for the first time, she is going to see the ocean for the first time, she is going to walk a sandy ocean beach for the first time, she is going to fly with me for the first time, we are going to take a vacation together that is longer than three days for the first time. There will be several more firsts on our Oregon trip I'm sure and that is what makes this trip and my life with her so special-that we still have so many more "firsts" to experience together. Sunsets and sky...sitting on a sandy beach with her watching the moonlight dance on the water. Wherever she is-that's what I call home.

What's Under The lid

Camping has given Kristi and I a lot of opportunity to do some serious "backing-off" and "backing away"; not from each other but from the daily grind. When you take time away from the business of every day life you can reflect a little and "soul search". Where am I, where have I been lately and more importantly, what course am I on? I've kind of lost my way a little bit over the last year and a half. Little by little I find I'm being put back on the path I once was and it feels great. I'm not going to go into much detail other than to share a little revelation; sometimes revelations come from places you least expect them. It is no surprise to me why Jesus often got His point across with parables. I've learned there are parables all around me and maybe these are little gifts from God; and who better than the One that knows me best to put one in front of me just when my eyes need to be opened. Here's one from last weekend:

Last weekend, Kristi and I (for the first time) did some serious cooking in the dutch oven, in the fire pit. The first thing we cooked was a pineapple upside down cake. The significance of this choice was not that we thought it would be easy to do or satisfy some need to over indulge on sugar; no-it was the challenge that drew us. It's one thing to follow the instructions on a box and put the pan in an oven set 350 degrees for 30 minutes-it's another to put the batter in a dutch oven with 10 charcoal briquettes underneath and 14 on the lid and have faith that 30 minutes later you will have something that remotely resembles something edible. For 30 minutes we waited, wondering what was under the lid. We wondered "what will it look like"? I even thought I might have to get the dutch oven sandblasted when I get home. All kinds of thoughts went through my mind. "What's under the lid" I kept thinking. Patience? I'm not a very patient man and I wanted so bad to lift the lid just to check progress. I decided instead to have faith and trust the recipe and the person that wrote it. I decided to avoid the temptation to test this theory by popping the lid. If I pop the lid, all the heat would escape and change the results. I decided to leave the lid alone...oh I tested the progress though-I touched the lid with my finger to see if it was hot! Duh! Long-story-short Kristi got some salve for my finger. I knew the lid would be hot but tested it anyway, and got burned. Meanwhile Kristi looks at me and says "well yaaah...what did you think would happen"? 30 minutes had elapsed. The wait was over! I didn't lift the lid...until the end. I slowly lift the lid, expecting to see at least some compromised result. As I removed the lid Kristi and I just looked at each other and grinned. I was amazed and surprised! Kristi I don't think was as surprised as I was. Her faith in me surpasses my faith in myself. The cake was absolutely beautiful. Wait! This is an upside down cake! The real proof lies at the bottom. This is where the fruit is and the sugar! It is also closest to the heat and if anything got burned it would be the underside-the side with the fruit. I flipped the dutch oven over, down fell the cake onto the plate and what appeared before our eyes was a near perfect cake. The pineapple rings, sugar and cherries were as they should be. In the end we ate some, we shared some and perhaps most of all-we learned something. Interestingly Kristi and I both had the same revelation from this little experiment. The message here is to "trust" and "have faith"..."believe". Life puts circumstances in our path that tempt us to drift and even become skeptical. How often God challenges us to test Him and to trust Him yet sometimes we doubt this or doubt that; we drift a little and test the flames and yes-of course we get burned. The lesson learned on this camping trip was to fight the good fight the best I can. I'm not perfect and like the cake cooked in the dutch oven, I'm a little lopsided and that's OK. The key is patience. Trust God and keep the faith. God has promised me an outcome I can believe in and trust. He has prepared a perfect recipe for my life. I have no reason to doubt what is under the lid. When the time comes, God is going to lift it before my eyes, look at me and say "see Jeff, it's everything I promised it would be-isn't it?"

CAMPING AND MARRIAGE

I’m a firm believer that if a married couple wants to truly find out what their marriage is made of they should go camping.

I must admit that when it comes to camping I kind of know what I’m doing, after all-I’ve been doing it for almost 40-years. I’ve camped on impulse in the north woods of Wisconsin under the stars or an ad-hoc lean-to made of pine bows as well as my Eureka outfitter-grade tent with a queen-size mattress under my back. I’ve roughed it in the Alaskan bush on a backpacking bear and caribou hunt. I’ve canoe-camped the Fox River. The success of any camping trip depends preparedness.

So how does the marriage thing factor into this?-Organization and teamwork…in that order. It’s fair to assume that camping involves doing without to some degree or doing with-but the hard way. You better get it straight in your head right from the get-go that it’s just the way it is and you either like it or you don’t. Both of you will have typical assignments and once you get used to it-you operate like a well-oiled machine and this is what will make setting up and tearing down camp quicker and easier; and leave the two of you on speaking terms afterwards.

I've been witness to some real shows while camping. On several occasions after setting up my camp, as part of my entertainment for the evening, I would watch and listen to other couples set up their camp. Oh this has been big time comedy at times. I remember listening to a couple set up camp in the dark once in particular. She was reading the tent instructions by flashlight and he was erecting the tent by headlight. This tent may as well have been a Rubic’s cube. As the poor guy put one tent pole in place, the previous one fell to the ground. Note-if you must set up at night, be sure to make as much noise as possible by letting the aluminum poles clang together! Anyway the couple began to yell and cuss at each other and this soon escalated. Before long I heard the aluminum poles crashing through the trees in the woods as the guy hurled one by one until done with his tantrum. The two packed up their car and presumably went home. The next morning I went into the woods and recovered those tent poles. You can always find a use for extra tent poles. Now you might be wondering why I didn’t lend the poor sap a hand. Well-this guy was angry and the last thing a lot of guys want is to have another man enter their turf and save the day in front of their wife. Also this was just too much fun to watch in all honesty.

A Time For Everything

To describe the beauty I saw on the way to work today might raise eyebrows; after all it is winter. It’s that time of year when blue skies seem predominantly replaced with gray, trees become exposed in a nakedness of brown and the ground becomes a desert of dormant grass or it is sheathed in a blanket of white snow. You could say perhaps that this neck of the woods is beginning a bit of a seasonal recess that warrants no closer look around because it is all so seemingly the same. Is it the same? Has nature truly taken a recess?
My ride to work is about 45 minutes. Most of my ride is through the country. I suppose that might seem boring to some yet for me-the drive gives me time to think and reflect on things; it often finds me being the listener, so the quietness of this rural drive allows God my undivided attention except for those instances I need to steer myself back onto the road.
In all this wintry dullness that surrounds me I’ve come to realize that the seasonal retreat God has mapped out in nature is not a recess at all. Looking around I see things that I hadn’t before. I question whether what I see has always been there or did I just never notice? As I continue to look I see the plain brown trees are highlighted with fresh snow, I see the little rabbit next to a blue spruce tree, I see a beautiful red fox trotting across a plowed, snow-covered field, I see the pheasant in the brush along the roadside, I see an old red barn barely standing and fallen boards amongst the weeds that surround it and I begin to get the picture-the picture God wanted me to see.
Each season is a time for the usual to step aside and an opportunity for the next to present itself. It’s an opportunity for the seemingly less important, more obscure to shine. So it goes with this life. We allow ourselves to get wrapped up in the things we think are important yet ignore and give little time to too many of the things that are important to God.
The seasons in nature were created to step aside and let all of God’s work have some time to show their colors, goodness and beauty. It is my prayer that those of us in all our vanity, humbly step aside a little more often and allow God to present “front and center” all the beauty and goodness we sometimes keep hidden behind us.

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1

In Front Of-Not Behind Me

I remember hearing somewhere "God isn't concerned about your happiness-He's concerned about your holiness." I've been thinking a lot about my relationship with Jesus lately. Yesterday my pastor, Wes-an awesome guy by the way was giving a talk on prayer and all of the reasons it's essential to the life of a Christ-follower. Yesterday's leadership gathering reinforced this even further for me. I won't get into details mostly because I think each of us have our own thoughts about holiness and what it means.

I seem to have let myself drift from a place of recognizing God as holy to a place where I consider Him a good buddy. I suppose I've contextualized this relationship too much on the literal notion we are on some walk together-almost to a point that I have subconsciously demoted the Lord simply to the status of "friend." My walk has gotten too casual is what has happened-I think. The things Wes talked about yesterday hit home for me and hit hard.

Yesterday I became reacquainted with God through a simple reminder of something that should be second-nature by now. I was reminded that though I'm walking with the Lord He does not walk behind me, sometimes He walks beside me but most often and most importantly He walks ahead of me. He lights my way so I can follow without falling and He calls to me saying "come-follow me and don't be afraid-where I lead you, I've already been and have prepared a path for you." I don't know about the rest of you but I don't have any casual friends that are willing (or able) to do that for me.

This walk I'm on is not with a casual friend it's with the One that died for me and helps me to be a better person. His love is truly unconditional. Changes of heart begin with recognition of where you are at, where you are going and who will lead you there.

Once in awhile we need to be reminded that God is holy-100% holy and deserving of our total respect. It's one thing to "dress-down" in our appearance before the Lord; it's another to "dress-down" our reverence for Him.

Rescue Me

It bothers a lot of people that Jesus is the only way. If you're trapped in a burning building and a firefighter risks his life to bring you out, you probably won't say, "Hey, wait, you mean there's only one way out of here?" No, you grab that rescuer and you say, "Thank God there is a way out." I came across this at one of the ministry sites I visited.

It's very interesting if you think about it; that there are so many around us each day that suffer through life. Some battle addictions and see no way out. Some battle health issues and see no way out. Some even contemplate suicide because they see no way out. I can talk to several people at church on a given Sunday that struggle with a variety of problems. These are my friends that have found sanctuary in Jesus; they allow themselves to be rescued by the supreme "First Responder" time and time-again.

The holidays have a way of putting extra helpings on our plate-not food I'm talking about but people that need help-that need rescuing. Just as Jesus rescued us from our burning buildings he calls on each of us to respond on His behalf in numbers and snatch those in need of rescue.