Sparks of Joy

I recently returned from a delightful vacation which included seeing dear high school classmates at a Branson, MO get-together (no, we didn’t graduate from that area). In addition to enjoying visits with classmates I hadn’t seen in four years, I got to ride in one couple’s Mustang convertible, see a couple of good shows, take a railroad excursion of the area in a dome car, and enjoy my son’s company on the road trip there and back to Ft. Worth.  

 

Branson bridge from train window

The first part of our return trip back was gorgeous because of the beautiful vistas of all the GREEN trees. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many green trees, which, I imagine, have now turned to glorious colors of orange, red, yellow and brown with many shades in between.

Jeff at lookout on Hwy 7

My trip from Elko was actually to celebrate Jeff’s birthday with him on the 14^th but he graciously agreed to drive me to Branson for the first weekend. We were back in TX by Sunday night so he could go to work the next day and I could begin to settle in for the next ten days.

Happy birthday Whole 30 style

I got to do a lot of reading done (and actually some writing on Debra, too) and two of the books I read are really what I want to write about now. In my mind they are linked, but that sounds rather preposterous as the first author is a Buddhist “tidying” consultant and the second, a Christian psychologist:)

Spark Joy is a method of sorting through all your “stuff”, by specific categories, deciding which item gives you joy (meaning you want to keep it). If it doesn’t give you joy, you give it away or throw it away—the last, depending upon its condition. The six categories she lists are Clothes, Books, Papers, Kitchen, Miscellaneous, and Sentimental, and the categories are to be sorted in that order. Once all the sorting is done you are ready to make permanent storage for all the things which give you joy. The book is small and easy to read and she also has some Youtube videos on her method which is called the Kon Mari Method of Tidying.

The next impactful book I read was Dr. Henry Cloud’s Nine Things You Simply Must Do to Succeed in Love and Life.  I have to admit, I found the title a bit cheesy and figured I wouldn’t get through more than a chapter or two. But who can resist chapter headings like, “Act Like an Ant,” or “Hate Well?”

I came away from reading the book motivated to re-memorize piano pieces that I will have to learn a measure or phrase at a time because of my vision limitations, reviewing finger-picking on my guitar—and implementing a lot of what I’d read about what I now call “sparks of joy.”

When Jesus said He “came to give us abundant life,” I believe the sparks of joy we come to recognize in our lives may well be a piece of that abundance. May your day contain many of those “joy sparks.”

Yearning

I was searching for a subject to write about and when our pastor used the word, “yearn” as a central idea for his message on Psalm 63 a couple of weeks ago, I knew I wanted to explore that.

 “Yearn” is not a word we use much in our vernacular these days. My synonym finder listed words like “crave,” “desire,” and “long for” to help define “yearn.” The word seems to have a connotation of great intensity, rather like soul-hunger.

Back at the beginning of time when God created Adam and Eve and placed them as caretakers in the beautiful garden He’d created, everything/everyone was perfect (something we can only guess about). Communion and communication between God and His creation, Man, was also perfect. When sin entered this perfect place through pride or rebellion or whatever you want to label it, that perfect connection between God and Man was broken. And ever since then, that hole in Man’s heart has yearned for God and that perfect connection with Him.

When King David wrote Psalm 63, his kingdom was on a dreadful, downhill slide with his own son, Absalom, seeking to take his throne from him.  David was on the run, not a pleasant sight nor a pleasant plight.

When David said he was yearning for God in a dry and thirsty land, that was literally where he found himself physically because Scripture says he was in the Desert of Judah. Those of us who live in Nevada are well acquainted with dry and thirsty land because we live in it. Nevada’s average rainfall is 7.87 inches. The wilderness of Judah gets a rainfall of 16 inches in a year  yet the pictures look even more bleak than Nevada..

David, the man after God’s own heart, writes in verse 1 that he was seeking, thirsting, and yearning for God. In addition to the harsh country the king was having to traverse, I imagine his father-heart had moved from discomfort and anger to great mental pain. His own son had turned against him and had led many of his countrymen to turn on him as well. This had to be an extremely difficult time for the king.

Yet in the next few verses we witness how God fulfills David’s yearning for Him because David writes in verse 5: “My soul is satisfied…my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.” That doesn’t sound like someone fleeing his enemy in the hot, dry desert. God plainly answered David’s yearning for communication/comfort.

We all have to endure some of that “dry, desert land” time. It may not be in a literal desert like Nevada. It could very likely be a time of illness, a time of loss, whether it be that of a relationship, a loved one, or a layoff at work. As we yearn or seek or thirst or meditate on God’s power and love, we will see His glory and then we can praise Him. Praise leads to a satisfied soul. And a satisfied soul has no need to be concerned about a dry and dusty land.

Travelogue Blog

Team Calgary’s mission was to travel to Calgary, Alberta to help Dan and Amber Sweaza with their new church—Connect Church--which will have its first worship service on September  11 in a movie theater. We left Elko on Saturday morning about 6:30 and stayed the night in Helena, MT—most of the group sleeping on the floor of a church and a few of us fortunates snagging a motel room and sharing our showers with the “less fortunate.” Our group of 19 ranged from age 2 (Genevieve, my seat mate) to age 72 (me).  

Two of our group inside a
huge metal skull sculpture
across from the capitol bldg.

We got to worship with the church who lent the group it’s floor and travelled on to Calgary on Sunday afternoon where Jared, our fearless leader, got very well acquainted with the Border Guard. After about two hours, much trepidation and a phone call to Pastor Dan (Connection Church), the Guard decided we really were not going to be taking work opportunities from Canadians and let us through.

Waiting at the border

We arrived at the seminary grounds where we were to stay the week—parceled among three homes, two having a bath and a half with washer and dryers and the third with two full baths, but no laundry facilities. Monday brought the rain and we headed for Pastor Dan and Amber’s house to fill bags of candy and label left over door hangars for our task the next morning. 

Houses "cheek by jowl"
9 feet apart

We eventually headed for Costco for the largest grocery shopping spree I’ve ever experienced. Food for 19 bodies plus a Neighborhood Block Party fills at least four shopping carts, as we were expecting around 250 parents and kids to show up Tuesday evening.

Four carts full at Costco

Tuesday morning was door hanger time in the area we’d been praying over for several weeks—Panorama Hills. Lovely homes—very close together, all with a flight of steps. Our teams finished in about two and a half hours and headed for Dan and Amber’s where our lasagna was baking for lunch (I think that was the menu).   

Steps and Door hangers

Then we loaded up and went to our park, unloaded the trailer and started arranging our “stations” Our food tent, the face painting station and the crafts station were busy the full time we were there. The “Bounce House” was also very popular as was the Princess from “Frozen.” Dan and Amber were very happy with the good contacts that came from the Party and the Lord orchestrated a gloomy weather forecast into a pleasant evening.

"Frozen" Princess at
Block Party

Lined up for face painting

Wednesday morning saw our group putting out more door hangars for another new church start that Dan found out about. This church will have its start in November (I think) and these door hangers were advertising a block party they were having the next week.  We finished our task, ate lunch and headed for Hope Christian Camp, a camp of disadvantaged children as well as an outreach to the homeless in an another city. 

Yes, it was part of the
"muck-out"

Our job was to muck out a house used for storage, organize an office space, do a woodburning project, mow a portion of the grounds (when it stopped raining) and re-arrange a bunch of picnic tables. 

Cynthia w/a finished
woodburning product

The rain stopped for a while so we could get the outside chores accomplished and then started again just before we piled into the vans.

Thursday we headed for a First Nations Reservation close to Cochrane where we were staying. John the church planter there has been building relationships for four years, starting as a volunteer at the Food Bank. He has been allowed to teach beadwork (he learned how on YouTube) to the women at the Women’s Shelter (a first) and is now known as Santa Claus at the elementary school even though he greatly dislikes the philosophical idea of Mr. Claus. He tutors kids in math and has come up with an idea that the chiefs have bought into for employment for the men there as unemployment on the Rez is abnormally high. John has gotten permission from the tribal elders to use a pavilion for worship (during the warmer months) which has been discarded by the Sun Dance organizers. 

Working on the
Pavillion grounds

Even Genevive helped

Sweep the floor--yes there's
a huge hole in the room

The grounds are what we worked on that afternoon—cleaning out the fence row, tidying up the grounds and sweeping the floor of the pavilion. We left the Rez, enjoying the beautiful scenery but saddened by the poverty of the people.

Friday was Play Day as we headed for Banff, Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Saw lots of beautiful mountain scenery complete with glaciers and shopped until we dropped in Banff. Also climbed into a canyon where several of us reached the Lower Falls (1-1/2) miles) and one of our intrepid group made it to the Upper Falls, a 3 mile trek.

Jared, Skye and
Moraine Lake

Lower Falls of
?? Canyon:) 

The catwalk above the
water impressed me!!!

Saturday saw us heading for Anaconda, MT where we received a warm welcome including dinner. We stayed with church members and I got to stay with my new friend, Teyrl, who turned out to be a native of Anaconda and lives in the hamlet of Opportunity, Wisdom being the first tiny hamlet outside Anaconda’s city limits.

The road signs say it all

 I didn’t hear the stories behind these names, but I’m sure they’re interesting. I have to say that I find the beautiful mountain scenery between Great Falls and Butte, MT to be as awesome as the imposing peaks of Banff, but I’m grateful to be able to enjoy looking at them all—something a flatlander from Missouri only dreamed of in earlier years.

Anticipation still resides in my heart as I look forward to hearing how God works at Connect Church in the next months and years and how He will draw the hearts of the First Nation people to Himself.

(As a postscript to this lengthy missive, if you go to my FB page, you can see many more pictures of our trip as Jared collected pictures from the team and tagged us all.)

Anticipation

The theme of this post was actually triggered by a chapter I read in Ruth Graham’s book, Fear Not Tomorrow, God Is Already There, but I woke up this morning with Carly Simon’s song, “Anticipation” in my head. The beginning lyrics are so appropriate:  We can never know about the days to come But we think about them anyway.

I think of anticipation as an emotion—a really powerful one that can raise your blood pressure, leading you to imagined great joy—or even imagined fear, but I intend to explore the positive aspect.

Remember how you looked forward to Christmas or your birthday, or a trip to Disneyland when you were a child? Anticipating marrying the most wonderful person in the world, thinking of holding your newborn child (or grandchild) in your arms—all of these life experiences are part of anticipation.

Now think of a time when your life’s journey seemed to hit a stop sign or a detour and you didn’t have a clue as to what might come next. That’s when we get to practice trust in God. Remember, He’s already in our tomorrows and He’s promised He will never forsake us. On top of that, He really wants His children to anticipate what He has in store for them.

I’m writing this just a few days before I leave for Calgary, Alberta as part of a mission team from my church. We’re going to help/encourage a new church starting in that city in September. And I am really anticipating what God is going to do in Calgary using me and my teammates. Three of our group are retirees which goes to show usefulness and anticipation are not only for the youngJ

When Israel was in bondage to the Egyptian Pharaoh, they anticipated freedom and were led out by 80-year-old Moses.  In Luke chapter 2, God graciously allows us to meet two aged, Godly people who had been anticipating the appearance of Messiah their entire lives. Finally, in their senior years (I’m guessing both Simeon and Anna were in their 80’s), God just happened to orchestrate a meeting between each of them and the young couple from Nazareth with their new-born son, who just happened to be Messiah.

Talk about anticipation with lasting benefits! I guess this being said, I would encourage ALL of us to anticipate what God has ready for us to join in with Him next. If we are looking for it, He won’t have any problem showing us.:) Are you excited yet?

“A Quick Thrust of Trust"

The title of this post is a quote from Sarah Johnson’s book, Jesus Calling.  I’m a sucker for alliterative phrases and this one caught my eye as I read her Biblical nudges recently.

The whole idea of trusting Jesus every second of your life is, as Johnson points out, not a suggestion, but rather a command. (“Don’t worry about tomorrow” Matthew 6:14). I love the idea of how God created Time from the very beginning—you can check out Genesis 1 re: Day and Night-- and in addition, for we obsesive Westerners in the 21^st century, He has even divided Time into hours, minutes, seconds (and you can carry this further if you so wish).

All of this discussion about our lifetime and worry boils down to the idea of Jesus and His strength and grace being able to safeguard us moment by moment. But He’s not going to show us any more of the future than the moment we are living in right now. Think of it as a protective shield. Don’t we worry enough about the future moments as it is? What if we really knew the future moments of our lives on earth? Talk about the worry factor escalating through the roof!

As I mused on God’s moment by moment there- ness (Presence), I was reminded of the time when the children of Israel were wandering in the desert for those 40 years. God, in His mercy and grace, didn’t kill off His disobedient children immediately (just let natural attrition do it), but instead, He sent manna from heaven—every day—just enough for each family for that day. The rule was if you gathered more than you needed, you discovered the excess amount had rotted. And, when the Sabbath day came around (see how Time is already in use?), adequate manna appeared to feed your family for two days because no one was supposed to work on the Sabbath.

Jesus personally told His disciples as well as teaching the crowds who gathered around Him, not to worry—about anything. It won’t “add to your stature”, i.e., make you taller, more attractive, or wealthier (Matthew, chapter 6). He is capable of taking care of our needs and we may be surprised at how many desires He will also fulfill.  All because He loves us.  That kind of love makes it easy to trust Him--with all of our moments

As Time Goes By

That title heads a lovely classic song made popular in the 1942 movie, “Casablanca.” The song is now the theme song for a British romantic comedy series first televised in the 1990’s starring Judy Dench. Dean and I enjoyed watching the show because it mirrors family life complete with adult children, etc. Our PBS station re-airs the series often and I love to watch it repeatedly as I catch one-liners I missed previously because of the British accents and my poor hearingJ

I'm waxing nostalgic  because the month of July deals with such things—my birthday—completing one year and beginning a new one, and Dean’s graduation to a new life when he left Planet Earth and got to meet the Lord and be reunited with many loved ones and friends.

To celebrate my birthday and Dean’s “graduation,” my boys and I decided to spend the July 4^th weekend in Rawlins, Wyoming, the town Dean considered his hometown. Rawlins was literally Brian’s hometown because he was born there and Jeff was only nine months old when we moved there in 1972.

We tried to go, do, or see the things our family typically enjoyed during our years in Rawlins, 1972-1983. Friday afternoon we picked Jeff up at the Salt Lake City Airport and stayed the night in Evanston, WY. Saturday, we got to Rawlins, bought some silk flowers and a little American flag and put them at the gravesite of Dean and Mom and Dad Diehl.  

We drove out to Bairoil, the (formerly, Sinclair) oil camp whene both Dean and his dad had worked as well as driving by our old neighborhoods (we lived in two different houses during our stay in Rawlins).

Aspen Alley

Belinda "riding" her log pony

Dean’s sister, Belinda and her husband, daughter and friend met us for the weekend which increased the enjoyment. We walked around the town, looking at the interesting architecture and then on Sunday we drove south of Rawlins to what is known as Aspen Alley and picnicked in the mountains above Encampment.   

After lunch we drove down the other side of the mountain and toured the Encampment Museum guided by a very knowledgeable young lady.

Jeff & Gidget-2 story Outhouse

A Forest Ranger tower has been moved to the museum grounds so most of our group (I had to hold GidgetJ climbed the 75 steps up—and the 75 steps down. Since most of them looked a little green when they got back to terra firma, I was glad I had been the designated dog-holder.

To get back to Rawlins from Encampment without backtracking you have to go through Saratoga and it was a beautiful drive. It’s the Platte Valley with beautiful ranchlands—very easy on the eyes. The one thing we did not do as we headed out of Saratoga was go agate hunting which was a favorite weekend pastime for our family when the boys were little.

We had to travel back on July 4 so headed for Salt Lake City after a leisurely breakfast so Jeff could catch his plane back to Fort Worth. Brian and I got home before dark, all of us grateful to have travelled safely and glad to be home. I just finished reading Big Tiny by Dee Williams and this quote from her book is a perfect closing to this blog post: "...home was still the place we all fell asleep, even if some of us were missing.”

As Time Goes By

That title heads a lovely classic song made popular in the 1942 movie, “Casablanca.” The song is now the theme song for a British romantic comedy series first televised in the 1990’s starring Judy Dench. Dean and I enjoyed watching the show because it mirrors family life complete with adult children, etc. Our PBS station re-airs the series often and I love to watch it repeatedly as I catch one-liners I missed previously because of the British accents and my poor hearingJ

I'm waxing nostalgic  because the month of July deals with such things—my birthday—completing one year and beginning a new one, and Dean’s graduation to a new life when he left Planet Earth and got to meet the Lord and be reunited with many loved ones and friends.

To celebrate my birthday and Dean’s “graduation,” my boys and I decided to spend the July 4^th weekend in Rawlins, Wyoming, the town Dean considered his hometown. Rawlins was literally Brian’s hometown because he was born there and Jeff was only nine months old when we moved there in 1972.

We tried to go, do, or see the things our family typically enjoyed during our years in Rawlins, 1972-1983. Friday afternoon we picked Jeff up at the Salt Lake City Airport and stayed the night in Evanston, WY. Saturday, we got to Rawlins, bought some silk flowers and a little American flag and put them at the gravesite of Dean and Mom and Dad Diehl.  

We drove out to Bairoil, the (formerly, Sinclair) oil camp whene both Dean and his dad had worked as well as driving by our old neighborhoods (we lived in two different houses during our stay in Rawlins).

Aspen Alley

Belinda "riding" her log pony

Dean’s sister, Belinda and her husband, daughter and friend met us for the weekend which increased the enjoyment. We walked around the town, looking at the interesting architecture and then on Sunday we drove south of Rawlins to what is known as Aspen Alley and picnicked in the mountains above Encampment.   

After lunch we drove down the other side of the mountain and toured the Encampment Museum guided by a very knowledgeable young lady.

Jeff & Gidget-2 story Outhouse

A Forest Ranger tower has been moved to the museum grounds so most of our group (I had to hold GidgetJ climbed the 75 steps up—and the 75 steps down. Since most of them looked a little green when they got back to terra firma, I was glad I had been the designated dog-holder.

To get back to Rawlins from Encampment without backtracking you have to go through Saratoga and it was a beautiful drive. It’s the Platte Valley with beautiful ranchlands—very easy on the eyes. The one thing we did not do as we headed out of Saratoga was go agate hunting which was a favorite weekend pastime for our family when the boys were little.

We had to travel back on July 4 so headed for Salt Lake City after a leisurely breakfast so Jeff could catch his plane back to Fort Worth. Brian and I got home before dark, all of us grateful to have travelled safely and glad to be home. I just finished reading Big Tiny by Dee Williams and this quote from her book is a perfect closing to this blog post: "...home was still the place we all fell asleep, even if some of us were missing.”