Swirling Winds of Life

I think my brain is mush.

We get so caught up in the culture of our time and place. (Think: magazine covers in the supermarket line, basketball finals, new Rockies baseball manager, movies, Obama's latest apology tour to Europe, etc.) We forget the "real" world. The world out there, that is hurting, wounded, and in need of the Savior.

This past Sunday, we had a visit at church from a missionary from Free Burma Rangers. They minister to the displaced ethnic peoples of Burma. He was accompanied by about 50 refugees from Burma who now live in Denver. They sang some hymns in their native Karen language. We also saw pictures of Burmese people running from the occupying army. They carried everything they owned in large baskets strapped to their backs. Sobering.

Just found out yesterday, my mom may have cancer in her bone marrow.

I was rear-ended by a car yesterday on my way home from taking my mom to the doctor. Neck is a little sore.

This afternoon we watched a funnel cloud forming in the skies north of us. I've never seen the funnel cloud actually swirling like that before. The funnel went horizontally and never came close to touching down, but it was awesome anyway. It makes you feel quite insignificant and in awe of God's creation and power to see such a sight.

I found out tonight that one of my brothers probably had two strokes last weekend. He's only 52 and not a Christian.


On a lighter note, but monumental in our immediate lives nonetheless: our almost fifteen year old son is now being texted by two girls from church. Literally overnight, he's entered the world of boy-girl stuff. We weren't ready for that!

Both kids were gone tonight (sleepovers), and my sweet husband agreed to watch Sense and Sensibility with me. (HIS idea! Theater version with Emma Thompson and Hugh Grant.) It was a nice diversion from the turmoil in my life.

I'd appreciate prayers for my brother, Scott, his wife and three children. They live in Ireland. Quite a ways from me in Colorado. Hopefully, he will soon be released from the hospital in Dublin.

I know that God is always in control. He is always with me. I seek to do His will.

(Photo comes from the web--taken this afternoon by newspaper photographer, David Jennings. This is the tornado we saw.)

Resting Wholly Upon God

Excerpts from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis
Book 1 Chapter 12
Of the Uses of Adversity

It is good for us that we sometimes have sorrows and adversities, for they often make a man lay to heart that he...not put his trust in any worldly thing.
...a man ought to rest wholly upon God.

I just returned Sunday from a week in West Virginia. My younger brother broke his femur in late February and was hospitalized for a month and a half. My mom went to help him, broke two vertebrae in her back and had to have surgery.

I fretted with deciding about going. What would happen to our daughter? She was frantic about me flying, and being away from her. When would be the best time to go? Who needed the most help and when? Could I get my mother to fly back with me? What would we do with her car that was in West Virginia?

There were so many questions, and I didn't know the answers to any of them! I prayed. I had friends pray. I read my Bible. I prayed some more. I tried to rest in Him. Truth be told, I fretted more than rested, and didn't see an easy way to solve all the problems.

But, I went anyway, hoping to solve a few of the questions that had perplexed me for days. I went to help my brother and mother with their immediate needs. I finally realized I couldn't solve every problem. I just had to focus on what needed to be done now. And then, God, in His infinite mercy and grace, solved EVERYTHING else, too! It didn't work out as I suspected, but He worked it all out. It still seems like a dream. But it's all very real and mysterious and amazing.

Thank you, Lord, for adversity. And thank you for praying friends, mercy, and answers to questions in ways we could never imagine.

(Photo of a West Virginia forest comes from
this website. When you drive down the hill from the airport in Charleston, you are welcomed by a beautiful wooded area similar to the photo above.)

Thank You, Lord!

Last week my mom met my son and I at a lake near her place. My mom and I walked around the lake, sat in camp chairs I toted along, and watched the sunset while my son fished on the opposite shore.

Our son has been wanting to catch a carp for a couple of years. He's been trying very earnestly at this particular lake several times this summer. Well, he finally caught one! You should have seen his face when he brought that carp to me. He walked halfway around the lake just to proudly show it off. Then he gently rocked the fish in the water to send it back into its home.

What a view! My contented (and appreciative) mom, the lake, the trees, the mountains, the sunset, and a beaming thirteen-year-old angler.

Simple pleasures.

Thank you, Lord.

(photo taken at the lake in a previous autumn)

No Wasted Words

I'm a little numb. This school year has been the "Year of Hospitals" for our family. Our son was in the hospital for three and a half weeks in the fall. My mother was in the hospital for three weeks in December. Then, she was very recently hospitalized again for a week and a half. A brief spell in the ER where she stopped breathing was quite sobering. She is now being treated for pneumonia and an as yet undetermined lung ailment.

My mother is not a Christian and I pray continually for her salvation. Every day that I have her in this world is a gift. She let me pray for her every night as I "tucked her in" before I left the hospital. I always reflected how inadequate were my prayers.

I recently read in Numbers about God giving Moses and Aaron the exact specifications regarding the arrangement of the tribal camps.

On the east, toward the sunrise, the divisions of the camp of Judah are to encamp under their standard.
Numbers 2:3a

I believe there are no wasted words in the Bible and that the Old Testament points toward our Savior far more often than we observe. Could God have been preparing the Israelites for the sunrise that would illuminate the empty tomb? May my own speech have no wasted words, and point towards my Savior.