Author: LAH

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Cynthia’s Blog

I’d like to draw your attention to a new blog I’ve linked to. The primary author is Cynthia Bezek, a wonderful friend of mine, and editor of “Pray!” magazine. While Nav Press recently announced that it will no longer publish “Pray!” in paper form, features have been added to the website. One of those new features is Cynthia’s blog, “Let’s Talk.”

Prayer is very much on Cynthia’s heart, and her blog will reflect that. I highly recommend you read her bimonthly postings. You will be edified and encouraged.

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What Does God Care About That?

Does God care what color shirt I wear? I hear that question often. Usually it’s rhetorical… the person asking assumes that God could care less about what color shirt they’re wearing. God has more important things to do… run the universe for example, than worry about what color clothes I pick out.

And I suppose that, for the most part, they’re right. Not that God is “too busy” to care about the details of our lives, but that He really doesn’t care too much which color shirt we pick that morning. Usually.

But what if He did care? Would we notice?

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Book Review: “Butterfly in Brazil,” by Glenn Packiam

Butterflyl in Brazil cover001-1If “you want to be part of something extraordinary… something bigger than yourself,”[1]but wonder how to get started, I’ve got a great book for you. I’ve been reading Butterfly in Brazil, hot off the press from Tyndale Publishers. It’s written by Glenn Packiam,  a worship leader and songwriter for Desperation Band, and director of the New Life School of Worship at New Life Church in Colorado Springs. (Yes, that New Life Church—and yes, we attend there.)

I sat down after lunch to skim a few pages, and found myself halfway through the book before dinner time. I kept wondering how much of it I could quote here without running afoul of copyright laws, and finally decided to just encourage everyone to read the whole book.

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Mountaintops and Valleys

12175-howells-rd-view

This is the view from our house. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? That’s Pikes Peak on the right, at 14,110 feet elevation. We live in Colorado, a state famous for its Fourteeners (peaks surpassing 14,000 feet).

Conquering such a mountain is exhilarating. All the effort you expended in the ascent is a small price to pay for being on top. The view is incredible. From such lofty heights, you gain a sense of perspective on the minutiae of daily life. Your senses are full—the wind blowing your hair and drying the perspiration from your skin, the eerie quiet, perhaps dispelled by the piping call of a marmot, the smell of rocks and dust. Unfiltered sunlight glares in your eyes. You gasp for breath in the thin air.

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Boundaries

Andrew @PaintMines-CalhanCO 20090530 LAH 497Lately, instead of blogging about being “Mom,” I got to be “Mom.” Our son-in-law’s brother, Andrew, came to stay with us for nine days. Since I was busy enjoying his visit instead of writing, I think it only fair that I let him be the guest blogger this week. Here are his thoughts, inspired by his flight from Phoenix to Denver:

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I’d missed the metaphor the first half-dozen times I’d flown over Colorado. Somehow it had been staring me in the face for years, but it didn’t click until Thursday afternoon. Waking from a nap as we approached Denver International Airport, I glanced out the window of the plane just in time to see the wings tear free of the thick cloud cover obscuring the ground beneath me. From above the earth looked like a patchwork quilt sewn in agriculture, geometric and surgically precise. To the East, as far as I could see, there were squares, rectangles and “Utahs,” divided neatly from one another by rigid boundaries marking one territory’s end and the beginning of the next. From the ground one would never realize that the state had been so neatly segregated, but from my perspective it was equally difficult to perceive it simply as a whole.

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Everything I’ve Ever Worked For

hearsepullinguhaul“You can’t take it with you.” How often we hear this phrase, usually as a reminder not to be so materialistic. In our consumption-obsessed society, this is a much-needed adage.

But lately, I’ve been rethinking the truth of these words. We can’t take it with us. Or can we?

Contemplating our eventual demise isn’t the cheeriest of topics, and most of us prefer to avoid thinking along those lines. But something I saw recently brought the same concept to a more immediate importance.

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Where Is Our Focus?

Western Bluebird @home 2008jun03 LAH 015rThere is a Western Bluebird throwing himself against the screened window in our dining room. Actually, he’s been here for over a week, from dawn to dusk. While I’ve never heard of bluebirds doing this, they are members of the Thrush family, as are American Robins. Robins are notorious for attacking their reflections in window in a futile attempt to drive off the “intruder” in their territory. I can only assume that this bluebird is doing likewise, and vigorously attacking his own reflection.

It seems like such a waste of time. Shouldn’t he be courting a mate, building a nest, raising a family? Summer is short, and for a bluebird, there is only one item on the agenda. Yet he spends his days at our window, fighting… nothing. A mirage. A figment of his imagination. How sad.

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Kreny’s Hoisin Chicken

Time for a recipe break. With a long-delayed Spring finally arriving in our part of the world, it’s time to fire up the grill. While our son-in-law is a BBQ chef extraordinaire, I too have a few recipes that are family (and guest) favorites.

Corinne Chan Straume“Kreny’s Hoisin Chicken” is one such family tradition. “Kreny” (my college roommate and good friend, Corinne) taught it to me [insert codger voice] way back in ’75. Pete and I enjoyed it at the BBQ following our wedding rehearsal, almost 30 years ago. Then our daughter Karin, and her fiancé, Ian, requested I grill some Kreny’s Hoisin Chicken for their wedding rehearsal three years ago, not knowing we had done the same thing. Last year our other daughter, Teri, and her fiancé, Jeremy, asked me to make it for their wedding rehearsal dinner. Yes, it’s that good.

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Lessons Learned

[5th and last in a series about God’s provision]

By far, the best part of this whole experience is not how God provided for our every need—and even some wants. Yes, that was amazing. I am thankful, grateful. But that was just the physical outworking of an inner transformation.

Some of what we’ve learned was relatively straightforward. Material possessions do not create happiness. New stuff isn’t necessary. In fact, God put me on a “stuff diet.” Not only did we avoid shopping, we cleaned out closets. For several years, we took joy each day in finding three things we owned and giving them away. The surprise? It was easy. We recommend this as a wonderful way to count your blessings while blessing others.

On the other hand, we learned that receiving is hard. As our friends and family blessed us, we had to learn humility to be good receivers.

My biggest lesson, however, was much harder to grasp.

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What I Want for Mother’s Day

The ads began the day after Easter… buy this dress/sweater/necklace/perfume for Mom, or else she’ll think you don’t love her. Take her out to dinner. Bring her flowers. Bring her candy. Mom deserves it. Mom expects it.

Well, this Mom doesn’t! I don’t expect any of that. In order to relieve some stress from my wonderful kids, I thought I’d tell you what I really want for Mother’s Day.

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