Recently I made a visit to the Chiropractor due to some pain in my shoulder and elbow. I had been working in the yard for a couple of days as well as increasing my exercise routine. I saw a new doctor in the office I went to. This doctor noticed that one side of my collarbone was bulging significantly higher than the other. I had never really noticed it, so the doctor had me go look in the mirror to see for myself. I then asked the doctor if it could be fixed. The answer came back to me very gently, but expressively, “No, it can’t”.
Several weeks later, I drove further to see a different Chiropractor we also use. I explained the collarbone issue that had been brought to my attention. This doctor confirmed the problem. When I asked “Can you fix it?”, the answer came back a very gentle and confident “Yes, I can fix it.”
Looking back on my life and even current circumstances have caused me to wrestle with tuff issues when I am forced to cry out “I can’t fix this!” This past week I was unable to sleep, fighting my anxious thoughts, dealing with areas of very real concern. These are the times in the middle of the night when things are quiet enough to hear a wonderful still small voice. I was able to reflect back on my life, to many times when I personally was such a mess that others looking at me would agree “I can’t fix this”. And then I remembered the two stories of my collarbone. I could hear in my mind the precious gentle words “Yes, I can fix this” coming from the One who fixed me. Jesus fixed me. That’s why He came. He already fixed the unfixable. He took it all on Himself.
I was filled with a sense of calm and encouragement. I felt a real sense of victory already won. I was also totally overwhelmed by the Grace that covered all about me what could not be fixed any other way – Grace that took my place and washed me white as snow.
Two beautiful songs about this wonderful Grace flooded my mind. Yes, He can fix “it” (whatever your “it” is). Here are the links to the songs and the lyrics that so comfort me. I pray they can be a comfort to you as well.
There are over 300 verses in the Bible dealing with fear; “Fear not”; “Do not be afraid”… A few examples include Joshua 1:9, Psalm 56:3-4, Psalm 91:4-8, Isaiah 44:8, Matthew 10:31, Luke 12:32, 2 Timothy 1:7, and Revelation 1:17.
As I was reading Psalm 18:4-6 it struck me how David often feared for his life, especially from Saul, who was his own king. This was David – who courageously killed Goliath as a young boy; who fought bravely in battle after battle and was victorious. Not only did he experience fear from Saul, but David pretended to be insane to save his life from Abimelech (Psalm 34). He was threatened by his own son Absalom and was forced to flee (Psalm 3). This mighty man of God – a brave warrior – had seasons of great fear.
I started thinking through other biblical heroes who also experienced seasons of fear. I started with Abraham in Genesis 12:10-13 and again in Genesis 20:2 when he was afraid of being killed so he claimed Sarah was his sister. Moses in Exodus 17:4 states “What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.” Ester 4:16 “…And if I perish I perish.” Elijah in 1 Kings 19:3 “Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.” Peter in Matthew 14:30 “But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord save me!’” All four gospels record Peter’s denial of Jesus due to fear (Matt. 26: 69-74, Mark 14:66-72, Luke 22:55-62 and John 18:15-18, 25-27. Moments of fear seemed to affect them all. Fear can sometimes to overtake us as well.
I love going through the Psalms and listing the character attributes of God. All of Psalm 18, written by David, is a beautiful reminder of the strength and power of God in the midst of fearful circumstances. David lists God as his: strength, rock, fortress, deliverer, refuge, shield, salvation, stronghold, help, support, Savoir, avenger and rescuer.
As we go through our own seasons of fear, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, I find great comfort in the history of the heroes of scripture and the reminder of the might and power of God whom we can trust in the midst of the storms of life.
Anyone who knows me is abundantly aware that I am technically challenged, especially in the social media arena. It has only been in the last year or so that I even learned to text! So here I am, trying desperately to come up to speed with current technology, which includes learning how to navigate a website. I am totally clueless! (Again, anyone who knows me is saying “Let me show you my shocked face.”)
I have an incredible and very patient friend who has taken on the challenge of teaching me all that she knows to help me with this website. She meets with me in person, but she also masterfully talks me through technical mine fields over the phone.
A few days ago, she was trying to teach me how to organize photos into folders in order to find them more easily. This was hysterically complicated for me, but she was angelically patient and kind. As we were both on speaker phone with each other, her husband walked by and lovingly joked that I should call my website “Chaos” due to the craziness of ME trying to gain any understanding of technology at all.
As I was learning how to organize, move and attach photos, the very picture we were practicing on was this beautiful butterfly in my garden. I was needing to practice moving photos and putting them in a post, so we laughingly titled our practice post “Chaos” and attached the picture.
I wanted to write this post to humbly and overwhelmingly thank my precious and very dear friend Janice, who is bringing order to my chaos. She is my springtime butterfly in the midst of website technical winter storms. Thank you for all that you are dear friend.
I truly have been blessed over the years by the book “Jesus Calling”. My first copy was given to me by a precious woman I hardly knew named Vicky in 2011. Since that day, I have given away dozens of copies to be a blessing to others. One of the verses given in the book on this date was Psalm 27:8 “My heart says of you, ‘Seek His face!’ Your face Lord I will seek.”
As I follow the passages I always like to read the entire chapter where the verses are given. I had been repeating a verse in my mind earlier during this day and was excited when I came across it in this chapter. I had no particular reason for repeating this verse; it just came to my mind out of nowhere. I even had a song version in my head. I was immediately reminded of a book that my husband enjoys called, “The One Thing” by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. He brings this book up often in conversations dealing with business.
The verse I had been repeating was Psalm 27:4 “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to see him in the temple.” My thoughts reminded me that the house of the Lord is the inmost part of my heart. I need to dwell there every day. All the days of my life I am to seek His face there in my heart and gaze on His beauty. The beautiful song “Jesus Draw Me Close” came to my mind, so I went to you tube and found this lovely version. I was brought to tears in the intimacy of that moment with Jesus.
Then I read this devotion written in the margin of my Women of Faith study bible on page 882. I was blessed by it and wanted to share it with you. “Every day we are presented with myriad options for how we will spend our time and where we will put our focus. Our decisions reveal what we most value. As Jesus tells his friend Martha in Luke 10:41-42, there are so many things that demand our attention and energy and certainly many are important. But ‘only one thing is needed’–a vital, constant fellowship with the Lord. David understands this, and it becomes his deepest desire. More than anything else he longs to be conscious of his Father’s presence, to worship God’s incomparable character, and to be guided moment to moment by his perfect wisdom. Such goals will always be the “one thing” that gives our lives meaning. Memorize David’s heartfelt words and make them your prayer to the Lord today.”
I know that days are busy and filled with things that each of us must responsibly be about. I tend to become frazzled or even overwhelmed with lists of “To Do’s”. There are many of you filled with lots to get done; working moms with young children, overworked dads, students filled with a mountain of school work, etc…. I find it helpful to make time each day to breath deep and spend wonderful moments in scripture to refuel and recharge. It is my hope that this helps you refocus on a very precious ONE THING.
As I am working today December 30th, 2015 and I have the TV on. Every commercial that comes on has one theme, gym memberships and weight loss programs. It’s New Year’s Resolution time!! I read an interesting statistic that only about 40%-60% of people make New Year’s Resolutions, and only about half or less of those keep them throughout the year.
The concept of making a New Year’s Resolution goes back nearly 4000 years to Babylon and the idea that they would reaffirm oaths to their gods each year around spring for a good harvest. Then we see the tradition continue in Rome around 300 BC where we see it move to pledging oaths to the Roman god Janus. Janus was the ancient Roman god depicted with two faces because he looks to the future and the past, beginnings and transitions. Early Christians used the tradition to reflect on past mistakes and resolve to improve upon those for the year ahead, which is the widely accepted application of the tradition today. With all that history said, if few people make them and even fewer keep them why do we do it?
I don’t know if you are like me, but every year when I set a resolution, come the middle of January when I was back to eating chocolate or watching too much TV, I spent another month of self-loathing not understanding why I couldn’t do something so simple. Well, the short answer is, a life change is not simple! Added to the difficulty of implementing a sometimes drastic lifestyle change, we add all sorts of pressure, by thinking about it for weeks, having a specific starting date, and then publicly plastering it all over Facebook. So what is the solution?
Stop it!! Stop making these big resolutions when you are setting yourself up to fail! I think about my transition to Paleo. I knew I needed to make a life change. I thought about it for quite a while and it still felt daunting. My poor health and poor eating habits didn’t just happen overnight, but over 20 years of putting junk in and getting junk out. If you know anything about a Paleo lifestyle, it is a complete change, eliminating dairy, grains, soy, beans, refined sugar, and anything super processed. Needless to say, to someone who loved fast food and anything covered in cheese, this seemed like a pretty big mountain to climb. So imagine for a minute, if I, who obviously had little will power and even less self-esteem over my weight and health, had waited months to start, plastered it on social media, and tried to take on all of those changes at once! I would have accepted a quick defeat and ordered a pizza to eat away my worries. Instead, after I thought about the big change I wanted to make, I didn’t wait until January 1st to start. I also had a few keys to success that I think is applicable to any life change.
Don’t wait! When you are most motivated take the first steps! If you wait, you are bound to over analyze and talk yourself out of it. What is one small thing you can do today to start your journey? My transition to Paleo didn’t include me eliminating everything at once, but rather one thing at a time before I moved on to the next. Start with one little thing. Take a walk, take cookies off your shopping list. Whatever it is, the important thing is to start when you have momentum.
Be realistic in your goals. You didn’t get into the situation overnight, or even only in a year. I suggest setting 2 goals, short term and longer term goals. When you reach your short term goal set another one. The more you reach the short term goals, you will build momentum to keep going. For instance, set your first short term goal to exercise (walk, gym, whatever makes you happy) for 30 minutes a week, when that is easy, set your next to 30 minutes a day until you look forward to going to the gym. Then maybe your long term goal is to lose that 20lbs. The smaller achievements will keep you focused.
Reward yourself when you reach milestones! Did you meet your short term goal of exercising 30 minutes a day for over a month? Buy yourself a new workout shirt! Hit that 10lb mark and your jeans are too big? Have a little splurge and buy a pair that make you feel great.
Have a support system! You don’t have to overshare on social media to hold yourself accountable, because most of us have hundreds of friends, and the most communication we have with them is hitting “like” on their newest cat video. Instead, find a smaller group of like-minded people who don’t shy away from speaking the truth to you! It also helps if they know enough about how to get past your struggle to give you good alternatives. A couple work friends and I would get together for a quick walk over lunch every day. They kept me accountable to getting active. My mother in law teaches Paleo classes, she challenged me to stay the course!
Finally, recognize and appreciate not only your achievements, but your journey. It sounds fluffy I know, but a good friend would tell me constantly how good I was looking as I started to not only feel better, but lose weight. My response was always, “no I don’t” or “I still have so much to lose”. Her so simple, but thoughtful response was, “STOP IT. Just say thank you.” I thought and thought about that. We are much harder on ourselves than we are on others. Treat New Year’s Day like the early Christians did, and reflect back on your journey the previous year. What was important to you? What did you achieve, and how did you feel about it all? If you had a misstep, did you just keep going? When people praise you, say thank you, and stop there. Never forget to praise yourself.
Don’t go resolution crazy or you will make yourself nuts. Start small, and start now. You got this!!
There seems to be a growing number of reality T.V. shows that are focusing on outdoor survival skills. There is Man vs. Wild, Survivor Man, Alone, and Live Free or Die just to name a few. It has always been fun to watch some of these shows and try to imagine what I might do trying to stay outside by myself.
First of all, I need to clarify that I personally am NOT the outdoorsy type. I am a city girl to my core. About ten years ago we moved from the suburbs out to the country on 45 acres. My husband was raised in the country and had much experience with horses, trapping, fishing, and hunting. He can do anything outside. Just being an hour out of the city life I was used to, was a real stretch for me. My idea of camping includes hot and cold running water, a toilet, a real bed, heat and air conditioning. In fact, we have such an area next to our pond that my grandson called “grandma’s wooden tent” when he was younger.
Watching some of these reality survivor shows stirred up a curiosity in me to ask myself if I could actually go out into the woods alone on our property for three days and two nights.(Only a very short period compared to any real survivalist). We had originally thought about friends and family making sort of a contest with this, like trying to choose ten items and go out into the woods and see who does the best. By the time the date we had set arrived, others had to back out due to scheduling, but there was something in me that really wanted to try this. This was so far outside my comfort level and realm of expertise that it was laughable. I sleep with two pillows, very soft mattress pads, a fan running and room darkening curtains. I have never started a fire without using a lighter and diesel fuel and I have never even considered trying to build a shelter for myself.
Knowing me very well, my own siblings and extended family were very skeptical of my safety. In fact, my brother asked me outright why I was doing this. There was obviously the personal challenge just to see if I could do it, but there were deeper motivations as well. Not long ago, I wrote a blog about my washer and drying going out and reflecting on all the little blessings we take so for granted. Then when I watched the news of the Syrian refugees fleeing and traveling long distances with just the clothes on their backs, as well as so many others around the world that are struggling, I wanted to go out to reflect more deeply on the abundance of blessings we take so for granted by not having them for a short while.
As well as being “unplugged” and having limited conveniences, I also noticed how we are often too busy or preoccupied to just sit and reflect on the beauty all around us. I was filled with anticipation to be outside for an extended period and connect with nature in a way that would be very foreign to me. I was excited to experience the woods on our property in a way I never had before.
Due to my total novice skill level and not wanting to “tap out” I was continually revising my supply list. We originally set a ten item limit of your choosing. The standards being that you had to build your own shelter, start your fire with a flint and steel, and find your own food. We were going to get our water from the river and just boil it, but the decision was changed due to the chemicals from the surrounding farmland that boiling would not take out. So water was to be hauled in and left next to the creeks and river, but still had to be boiled.
I ended up with a total of eleven items. I took a roll of duct tape, a roll of painters plastic, a roll of twine, floral wire, a pair of loppers, flint fire starter, a pot, a sleeping bag, a camp knife,aluminum foil and a hand hoe digger. My decision was to be more of a homesteader instead of a survivalist. I wanted the challenge of building my shelter and starting my fire and staying in the woods for three days, but I clearly understood my total lack of experience with being able to catch or snare any type of food.
I made my own type of survival powered brew that I brought in three small jewelry bags to put one in boiled water each day. I will post the recipe I created. I brought two small Mighty Bars which are 28 grams each of grass fed beef jerky. I split the jerky to last for three days. I made three bullet proof coffee balls to drink one, each day, in my boiled water. Again, I will post this recipe. I burned a lot of calories and I tend to sort of grey out if I don’t take in a few nutrients. Another confession is that my totally concerned and caring neighbor, who was worried about me, brought me a dozen hard boiled eggs out to the woods. I took three eggs, one for each day. He left a dozen out in his field across from my shelter in case I needed them, but I made it without them. My husband wanted me to have the experience of cleaning a cooking a fish, so I had a small bluegill from our pond on my last night.
So what did a 54 year old mom of five children and grandma of seven, with no experience what so ever staying outside alone, accomplish? I cleared a good sized area by hand of brush and debris to set up camp or my “homestead”. I did put up a fairly large shelter made of painters plastic, twine and duct tape that kept me comfortable and safe (only because nothing large decided to challenge it). I used leaves and plastic as chairs, pillows and bedding. I made useable items such as a mug, spoon, a toothbrush, and fire grate out of sticks, duct tape and wire. (I made other items as well that were a total failure, but that will be posted later on a video). I learned a lot about starting a fire and keeping a fire going. There will be a separate blog on just the lessons I learned from FIRE. I foraged items from the creek or in the woods, like pieces of metal and tin. I made ropes to help me get up and down the steep creek banks. I cut “stairs” into the dirt of the banks. I dug a latrine. I stayed calm in the middle of the night when the coyotes decided to surround my camp and make the most hair raising and eerie call I have ever heard. (It got down to 39 degrees and my fire had gone out when they decided to visit me at 2 a.m. My neighborsheard the noise and noticed even their two large Great Pyrenees dogs ran into the barn for the first time in six year). I made it through the challenge of sleeping outside by myself without my special pillows and fan, with even a little rain. I was immersed in the smells of dirt and leaves and smoke on a very close and personal level. Dirty fingernails became just a part of living outside (without soap).
I learned that collecting fire wood is constant and never ending. I understood from a very different and emotional perspective what it is like to be on the receiving end of the sincere caring and concern of my neighbor and my husband. Without being too evasive, they were making sure I was safe and fed. I realized that refugees and others in need absolutely depend on the caring and generosity of others for provision. This experience brought tears to my eyes. I was blessed to experience so many areas of nature that can be used as analogiesin life and I will continue to write more about them.
I thought deeply as I was lying in a warm sleeping bag when it got cold about what it might have been like for soldiers throughout history that stayed outside in the elements with little or no provisions for weeks, or months. I started with WW II and then went back to the Civil War and then to the Revolutionary War. What it must have been like for the soldiers who fought at Valley Forge with no tent for shelter, little if any food, some with no shoes or socks in freezing, snowy conditions; with bleeding feet and maybe other battle wounds. These soldiersweren’t in a survival reality T.V. show just looking out to take care of themselves alone. They were surviving for the soldiers by their side, for their families and for their nation. They had to get up and fight weary and hungry in battle after battle for the dream of freedom. There was no “tapping out” if you had enough. They could be shot for desertion if they gave up. I was humbled and filled with renewed gratitude for soldiers. Without them, I would not have the freedom or blessings I am privileged to experience.
I was just outside looking after myself, as many on the TV shows do. What would it be like to have a baby with me; a two year old; several children not even my own to be responsible for their provision and safety? Refugees and poor women and children in villages all over the world live that kind of reality every day, with a lack of sanitation that breeds sickness and disease. I thought through what I have heard from others; that soap is medicine in these kinds of situations.
I reasoned how blessed I was that this was fall and the daytime temperatures were in the 60’s with mostly sunshine and no mosquitoes to deal with. I was filled with awe and wonder with the beauty of nature in the leaves, the sounds of the birds both at night and during the day. I listened to all the night sounds of coyotes, owls, cows, and dogs that are blocked from inside my warm, cozy, dry, quiet home. I focused more intently on the beauty and majesty of even our small river and all the animal tracks of creation. The cycles of light and darkness; sunrise and sunset determined the activities of my day. Rain, wind, and cooler temperatures needed more focus and attention. The warmth, light and cooking properties of fire became a clearer reality. Smoke was just a part of life that could not be avoided.
I was able to reflect quietly on the abundance of clean water, food, large safe structures to live in, cooking options, appliances, electricity, technology, media, relationships with people, sweet smells and tastes, soap and cleaning supplies, and medical availability, we take so for granted that we miss be thankful for them. Over it all I was filled with the Presence of a Creator God who loves me and was allowing me to share deeply in things I miss out on every day.
I was happy to get back home, where my husband had a wonderful steak dinner with candles waiting for me. I took a long soak in a hot tub with lots of soap and snuggled in my warm bathrobe and slippers. I will continue to reflect and write more on my adventure, as well as plan to go back out setting goals to learn snaring, making my own knife, foraging all my own food, etc.… I was very blessed to have the encouragement and support of my husband or I probably would have given up. Now that it is over, I realize I wouldn’t have missed it for anything.
