Gratitude

Sleepless in Arizona

“Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep.” Psalm 121

I was pondering this fact early this morning when I awoke at 12:30 AM. If God does not sleep, I thought, then what does He do? He certainly doesn’t need to keep the universe going. That was all set up long ago and He has no problem keeping it all running. That leaves one thing……He is watching over me as He watches over Israel. I can never catch Him by surprise. I never catch Him dozing off……Even as I toss and turn at 12:30 in the morning.

I heard the outdoor flag flapping in the wind, which had picked up. I heard my little outdoor decoration sliding back and forth on the wall. I got up and took them both down…..there was dust in the air. I came in and laid back down…….All was quiet except the cat snoring, fast asleep in his place on the bed.

After I determined that sleep wasn’t soon to come, I burrowed through my pile of books by the bed until I found “Big Red.” It is the Bible I always turn to when I need a special comfort. It has years in it. It holds them all lovingly in its pages. I turned to my notes in the back……notes from sermons, studies, things I have thought and read. My eyes fell on this printed in red:

Know how to meditate on the Lord. What do I do when I can’t sleep? Do I quiet my soul and spirit with meditation on God or do I run for a sleeping pill? What am I to meditate on?

God’s word……..God’s promises……..the person of God

I continued thumbing through and thought about the years held there in those pages. It’s about 34 years old now. I listened to the rustle of the pages and something about it quieted my spirit. I noted the changes in my printing style over the years, sometimes slanting left, sometimes right. Some of the notes are faded with time.

Most important are the words it holds. God’s words to me, to all of us.

I turned out the light and rested my old friend on my chest and felt its weight and it felt good. I thought of all that precious book and God have brought me through. Saved my life more than a few times. Maybe more times than I know. I couldn’t help it, a few tears of gratitude slid down, and I thanked Him. My heart slowed its beating…….my spirit calmed. Outside, the wind may have been blowing, but I no longer heard it.
I drifted into a peaceful slumber at 2:00 AM.

At times like that I think that maybe God just missed me and wanted my undivided attention.

Counting the Gifts

“Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters.  Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.  He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.” James1:16-18

Between last night and this morning we have had some wonderful artwork in the sky. Though we suffer through these stifling summers, who a Pastor last week very aptly described as being hit with a blow-torch, this time of year yields the most wonderful skies with the afternoon rains we sometimes get.

This morning I went out in my usual spot in the corner of the yard, where I get a bit of a crosswind, and watched the world wake up as I awoke with it. There was a puddle the rain left behind and I watched as a group of birds ingeniously dunked their bits of food in the water and alternately bathed……it was quite a show……

Then I went around back and caught Mama and Papa quail and their little one on the wall….
I am thankful today for my camera, which allows me to stop and take a second look at the world and all of God’s good gifts…..
For God who provided me with the money to buy it……
For my best friend who forced me to buy something for myself even though I walked around and around Costco before I did it……
All these things which remind us that God is good, and so is the world He created.
For His word, our compass to show us where to go……
What path to take.
And the Holy Spirit who helps us do those impossible things that we could never do on our own.
For the people who love and encourage us every day.

Celebrating Multitude Mondays along with many others in the gratitude community today……..

(sorry, the little graphic for Ann’s website wouldn’t download today)

All Creatures Great and Small

“If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.” Saint Francis of Assisi
Today I honor our animal friends with a photo essay of “Briggs.” I am so thankful for the joy and the laughter our pets bring to our lives, and for the comfort they so unreservedly give, expecting nothing in return. They leave their footprints across our hearts and change us for the better. I am thankful for all those who volunteer in shelters, giving their love and time and extending their compassion to all God’s creatures who have been left behind and abandoned.

“Oh, no she has that black thing out again that clicks and flashes the bright light………must you do that nooowwww?”

“Okay, if you insist on doing that, I will just do my best to ignore you and take a bath……”

“Doing my best to look thoughtful and pensive……how am I doing?”

“This is all so very tiring…..I think I will just lay here and guard my mouse.”

“A cat’s work is never done……”

Thankful today for all the ones I have held and known, run and played with throughout my life. Thankful for a loving God who saw fit to create them for us as wonderful companions in the journey of life.

Briggs is the king of the house and loves everyone…..Sydney adopted me as his own and follows me everywhere, flopping upside down in my lap every night…..

All things bright and beautiful,
All creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful,
The Lord God made them all.
Cecil Frances Alexander

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Even while we sleep……

Though you probe my heart and examine me at night, though you test me, you will find nothing; I have resolved that my mouth will not sin…….my steps have held to your paths; my feet have not slipped….Psalm 16:3,5

I was tossing and turning over a situation. It was a fitful night, but this morning I awoke to the sound of rain….welcome rain on the rooftop. I heard the gentle patter of it off and on while it was still dark, and though my sleep was not totally restful I was somehow always lulled back to sleep.
I needed the comfort of the Psalms this morning and so I opened my Bible to my old friends that never fail to give me the peace I need in every situation.

Imagine, even while we are sleeping, God is working for us……..”I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.” Psalm 16:7,8

I am praising and thanking the Lord today, for Godly counsel. For the wisdom I find in His word and for those He has lovingly placed in my life who say just the right thing at the right time.

holy experience  I am giving thanks for my Mom today, who said just the right thing this morning when I needed it. What a solid rock you are! I can always find the right perspective when I talk to you. I thank God for you.

Remembering my gratitude

Psalm 26:7 “That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving,and tell of all Your wondrous works.”

I momentarily lost my gratitude this morning, I awoke under a cloud. The heat is oppressive, and it has only just begun. But my desire to be thankful drove me outside……I needed to feel the air, however stifling. To be outdoors, to know that life was still good, very good. In fact, to feel a certain way is so much a choice. I chose again and will choose again and again……Gratitude.
I walked along and like a whispered breeze it flew through my soul as if through an open window……I thought of vacation just passed. The walk we took along the beach, peering through little alleyways. Feeling the ocean rush over my toes……It already seems so far away. Reality rushes in so fast. But I remember moments frozen in time. Held close.

It worked……my fog lifted once again. A bit of the gloom melted off and I could see the sun peeking out once more.

This freedom we celebrate today is born of many people making a stand……sacrificing so that we could, as a country, as a people be unoppressed by others. Freedom is an incredible luxury that must never be taken for granted. Sometimes I still do though……

I forget what Christ did for me……..what He set me free from. So today, I remember the many ways I can celebrate and be thankful for freedom.
#711-721
Time spent away…..relief from the heat of an Arizona summer for a little while….to enjoy open windows for a few days…..I am thankful for the freedom to feel, think and be a certain way, knowing that others have severe limitations on their choices……Freedom of the road, the joy of the journey…..Time together with friends and family, making memories……Thankful for a special person who took care of everything while we were gone…….Thankful always, for God who bestows so many undeserved blessings, even when I grumble and complain when I shouldn’t.

 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God…..1 John 1:3

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Happy Fourth of July everyone! We are free indeed………

Soul Washing

“Who shut up the sea behind doors
when it burst forth from the womb,
when I made the clouds its garment
and wrapped it in thick darkness,
when I fixed limits for it
and set its doors and bars in place,
when I said, ‘This far you may come and no farther;
here is where your proud waves halt’? Job 38:8-11

This is a must do when you’re at the beach………Ah!!!!!! To see those waves come rolling in, to hear that thundering surf…..to look out over the horizon and see nothing but water meeting sky……To think that God has set these boundaries……Fills me with immeasurable gratitude for just being here…..

This makes the whole trip worth it……..
To see what the shore offers up
To see it wash back.
Gives the soul a cleansing too….refreshing for the spirit as well as the body.
I feel like God washed my feet yesterday!

Finding God from where we are

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” 2 Corinthians 3:17
My friend, who has become the caretaker of her parents in recent months, told me of a nightmare she had the other night. She said, “It was so terrible I didn’t want to tell anyone about it.” She was trapped in a pipe and she couldn’t get out. She couldn’t turn in any direction and couldn’t go back or forward. She says, “The worst part? Everyone knew I was in there but nobody came to get me out.” She looked at me and said, “That is exactly how I feel right now.”
I know how she feels. Sometimes we are so trapped in our circumstances that we lose hope. People tell you to look at the picture, but the “big picture” has become blurry and out of focus. It no longer means anything. All you can do is think of where you are right now, and you don’t see an end to it. That fact makes it hard to put one foot in front of the other.
You wake, still exhaused from the day before. Leftover stress. You wonder how to feel that freedom that you know is rightfully yours in Christ, because all you feel now is imprisoned in a cell without hope of parole.
There are few things I know for sure. One of them is, Jesus came so that we wouldn’t have to feel that way ever again. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. John 8:36
After all…….we have the very same Holy Spirit that allowed Paul to sing hymns of praise while locked in prison. And it is that Spirit that gives us the freedom to have hope even in the midst of our circumstances, whatever they may be, however they try to enslave us.
As in this picture above, we see life and beauty on the other side, but we just  don’t know how to get there. We feel that vision is for someone else, not us. Not right now anyway.
It is in that very moment God is asking us to seek Him. “But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29
I like how that verse is worded. God is saying that we need to seek Him in that very instance where we feel that hope is lost. That very moment when we are most overwhelmed and discouraged. Hope is lost when we begin to feel like we will end, before our present circumstance does.
Our old enemy wants us to think this way. His goal hasn’t changed since the very beginning, to kill, steal and destroy. He knows he can’t have our soul, so he does everything else he possibly can to steal everything else from us, including our hope and joy. That is exactly what happens when we look too far into the future. We read things into it…… think that things will always be the way they are now. Jesus knew how we are, that is why He had some very good advice.
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Jesus.

There is a way out…….Ask God to be with you in that moment and He will. He has promised it, and God can’t ever go back on His word. He may not remove the circumstance, but He will provide you with peace in it, and give you more than enough strength to deal with it.

In order to counteract those other voices, we need to fill our thoughts with God’s promises found in His word.

Get alone with God. Find some time for yourself. Even Jesus had to go off alone, many times.

Start the day determined to ask for strength for that day and that day alone.

Draw comfort from the fact that others are praying for you.

And last but not least, continue to tell God the things you are thankful for. Satan hates that most of all.

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New Every Morning

Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness………Lamentations 3:22-23
Four days……12 hours long…….working continually……..we made it. This past week we merged two giant factories automation systems and hundreds of programs that make everything work and dealt with the impending disaster that came with it. It was like trying to make fire and oil co-habitate. My part in it was small, but stressful, since factory managers and group leaders were hovering close by. At the worst possible time one of them came up and asked if I needed any help. He must have seen my glazed over look. I was overwhelmed.

Praise God, by the time we all left last night, my area was almost normal. No doubt there were sleepless nights for all involved. I can only praise God for the end of the week. He brought us to the other side, just as He always does.

I am sure there will be glitches, but there are people there working them out. Today is a day of rest for me…….I am meditating on the great old hymn this morning as I anticipate some much needed mental rest for a few days.
Great is Thy faithfulness,” O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. “
Great is Thy faithfulness!” “Great is Thy faithfulness!”
Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—
“Great is Thy faithfulness,” Lord, unto me!
I love the line about no shadow of turning……..God never changes, and that is the one thing we can always count on.
Hymn written by Thomas Chisolm who died in 1960 at age 94. During his lifetime, he wrote more than 1,200 poems and hymns including O To Be Like Thee and Living for Jesus

From death to life…..

“In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life;” Romans 6:11-13

I wasn’t going to listen to Romans this morning on the way to work. I thought…..I listened to this last week. I have heard it all before…..But I forgot one very important thing about God’s word. It has staying power, the power of life in it. It never fails to bring life to the hearer. As I listened to the words of Paul again, speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, I began to get chills up and down my arms.

I was hearing it against the backdrop of everything we have been through these past many months

I got a picture in my mind of impassioned Paul, speaking in front of a courtroom, striding back and forth. One moment Prosecutor of sin, the next brilliant public Defender of the faith, (as if it needed any defending.)

As I listened to the first 6 Chapters the words flowed over me and I reflected on the past 3 days…..that’s where the chills came in. We can go through anything, my friends, because we are a people who have been brought from death to life. That’s how we roll.

That is the reason for the hope that lies within us. That’s the thing that makes it possible to rise up in the morning and do it all again, and with an attitude of hope that no circumstance or person can ever stamp out. That’s the brilliant backdrop, the reality that we can’t see with our eyes, but that we feel with every fiber of our being.

Each one of us knows the truth. We were built to last. Though our bodies are perishing, our God stamp……our spirit, our soul will live on. And one day, we will rise, as He rose, with new bodies. Bodies that can live in God’s world, with Him forever. What a tremendous hope!

 “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” 1 John 3:2-3

And He is with us now. As I look back on the past few months, I cannot deny God’s hand at work….we have talked about it, Elaine and I. I have stood beside her, helping her to navigate this particular valley of death. That’s what it has felt like anyway.

Dealing with all the stress of a Dad with dementia, one minute angry and accusatory, the next minute apologetic….

His move into a rest home……..

Her Mom’s move in with us…….

Learning to live under the same roof with Alzheimers and everything that goes with it……

The emptying out of their house, which we did ourselves, with the help of some very helpful “angels” to cart off some of the biggest items, finishing only just last Tuesday.

Moving everything left into storage.

And finally, the sale of their home…..I can only say that God has been glorified through it all, because we know the truth of these words……”I will never leave you or forsake you……and He hasn’t…..and He won’t.

And in between all these lines there is the everyday life, the toughest part. Where the nitty-gritty battles are fought day in and day out. The fatigue and stress of living with someone who has lived their whole life through a prism of negativity. The life you escaped from.

I look back in disbelief at what we did……the three of us.

I look ahead with hope, because He showed us again that He will never leave us.

Praying Always……

“Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints—” Ephesians 6:18

“Prayer, and only prayer, restores my vision to one that more resembles God’s. i awake from blindness to see that wealth lurks as a terrible danger, not a goal worth striving for; that value depends not on race or status but on the image of God every person bears; that no amount of effort to improve physical beauty has much relevance for the world beyond.” Philip Yancey

I was on my break the other day at work, and decided to sit in my car a bit and listen to the radio. I was just in time for David Jeremiah’s Turning Point which I used to listen to all the time. He was talking about prayer and reading from one of Philip Yancey’s books. In it, he described a man, a desperate alcoholic who prayed and prayed to be released from his terrible cravings, and yet every morning his first thought was not God but Jack Daniels. At one point in his process of prayer he realized that it was God’s mercy that kept the desire there. He realized that the prayer was changing him from the inside out.

Ever prayed for something for so long that you wondered whether it was doing any good at all? I know I have. But then I realize something else. Maybe that change in myself or someone else is not happening as fast as I think it should, but while I am praying about it, something else is changing.

I am drawing near to God……..my faith is not weakened but strengthened. My frustrations in what I feel are unanswered prayers draw me to the Word of Life……and that in turn gives me the peace I need to wait……because I know in the waiting, something very powerful is happening.

And be assured, that thing you’re praying for will happen when the time is right……

I remain confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD;
be strong and take heart
and wait for the LORD. Psalm 27:13,14
I join with many today in the Gratitude Community…….#700-710
Thankful list: Hanging onto cool mornings for a bit longer, answered prayer about the sale of a home, green offerings from the garden, snatched times of peace away, continued good health, air-conditioner on borrowed time that still rumbles to life, good health of my parents at 81,82, beautiful Arizona sunsets, laughter, always laughter that has continued even through stressfulness of caretaking…..friends who pray.

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