Photo of the Week: Super Bowl?

Saw this Super Bowl display at the grocery store - was excited for a moment, until I noticed the lone helmet on display was... Packers? 
Come on Mexico. ;)

He's here!

Today in morning devotions a tiny toddler was making a lot of noise - which eventually turned into a lot of whining...  Then I noticed his father came into the room, and he went directly to his son.  He tapped him on the shoulder, but the son was busy looking elsewhere and whining. 

His father tapped him again, and this time his son looked over to see who was touching him.  When he looked up at the face of his father, a smile broke out on his little face and he immediately began to laugh. And he continued to giggle as his father took him in his arms and played with him.

Oh, that we all were like this with our Heavenly Father.  To look up and see Him and feel such joy that it is obvious for everyone to see...

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near."

Philippians 4:4-5

Photo of the Week: The Afternoon Commute

Taken from the front steps of the school,

students walking home at the end of the day.

Spoiler Alert

I came to this place because I truly felt called to this work.  A year ago this was one of a number of things I was considering when I thought about the future, but this past summer it just suddenly seemed like "the one."  But what I kept to myself, and I didn’t really share with people, is that I also came in part because I was feeling called away from affluence.

I was reminded of this recently when I saw a friend on Facebook seriously upset because others were posting about a TV episode they hadn’t seen, without first posting “Spoiler Alert.”  Now, I do understand their frustration, but for the last year I began to look around me and think, I want to not care so much about things like this.  I want to be a part of something deeper. 

I promise I’m not obsessed with Lord of the Rings, but I think it is amazing that the four hobbits leave the shelter of the Shire and go fight mighty battles alongside great warriors.  They could've just stayed home - though eventually the danger would've spread and found them there anyhow.  I wanted that - to get away from the silly worries of “life in the Shire,” and realize and take part in the adventures beyond what I could see from the comfort of home.

And so far it has been hard.  Over and over again I have to be reminded to look to the Lord for strength and love and wisdom.  The following passage from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest really helped me recently:

"Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other." ~Isaiah 45:22

God says “Look unto me, and be saved.”  The great difficulty spiritually is to concentrate on God, and it is His blessings that make it difficult.  Troubles nearly always make us look to God; His blessings are apt to make us look elsewhere…

The very thing we look for, we shall find if we will concentrate on Him.  We get preoccupied and sulky with God, while all the time He is saying, “Look up and be saved.”  The difficulties and trials – the casting about in our minds as to what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God.

Rouse yourself and look to God.  Build your hope on Him.  No matter if there are a hundred and one things that press, resolutely exclude them all and look to Him.  “Look unto Me,” and salvation is, the moment you look.

Photo of the Week - Riding the 3-Wheeler

This little guy rode up to me, stopped to talk, 

and then went on his way - leaning to the side the whole time. :)

If you want to walk on water...

If you want to walk on water, you’ve got to get out of the boat.  That’s the title of a book by John Ortberg – and to be honest, the title is really the only thing I remember about that book.  However, it is a pretty simple and yet profound concept, and really stuck with me.

 

When I first arrived here, I was feeling a huge amount of homesickness.  My heart was heavy thinking of my family so far away and feeling loneliness here.  I also doubted my ability to succeed in this calling.  I kept asking myself – what am I doing here?

The day before I left home, I went with family and friends to see the new Hobbit movie.  Bilbow Baggins had another quote that really resonated with me.  He is finally called to do what he has set out on his journey to do, but the task is great and dangerous, and he is given the option to back out.  Instead, Bilbow says, “I promised I would do this, and I think I must try.”

That is just how I felt.  I promised I would do this, and I think I must try.  So, I got out of the boat.  I got out of the boat of the comfort of home, friends and family, a familiar job I enjoyed – and out onto the water.  Trying to be a school director felt a lot like walking on water – I thought to myself that it’d be kind of a miracle to go from being a teacher’s assistant to a school director in a matter of weeks.

I knew that, like Peter stepping out of the boat, I would need to keep my eyes on the Lord, lest I become frightened by the storm and begin to sink.  So, I rely completely on faith in Him as I continue to take steps forward.  Lord, help me.

Photo of the Week - My Laundry Room

It's a breathtakingly beautiful place I find myself in.
I hope I never forget to appreciate it.

A New Adventure

  Which character from Lord of the Rings are you? I'm sure there's a quiz for that - but I think I already have a pretty good idea. I think I'm like a hobbit. Wikipedia describes them as "fond of an unadventurous, bucolic and simple life of farming, eating, and socializing..."  I much prefer reading a good book at home to most anything away from home. I really love the familiar and I'm not a big fan of change.  I liked Bilbow Baggins' response to Gandalf's offer of an adventure in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. He says, "We are plain quiet folk and have no use for adventures. Nasty disturbing uncomfortable things! Make you late for dinner!"

   But, I seem to also have a little of the Baggins' spirit in me, that says yes to adventure despite my fears. And today I set out on a new one, with a sense that I have no idea what I'm doing. Though I sit in an airport I've traveled through dozens of times before, I feel like the future isn't very clear to me. I step out in faith that God will make the path sure before me. And, like Bilbow, I shout to my friends as I leave, "I'm going on an adventure!"