Lessons Learned

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Staying Available

Jump out of bed. Throw on workout clothes. Fry egg, drink tea, spend ten minutes reading the end of Colossians. Rush out the door, head for Curves. Dive into my 30 minute workout; spend 15 more stretching, then cool down for half an hour while chatting with some very interesting ladies. Drive home, clean up, throw on clean clothes. Write blog post, run out door for appointment downtown.

And on and on it goes.

How in the world did I get so busy? Why do I have so little time? And I only work part time! What if I had a job that took up 40 hours a week—or more?

It’s not just me. Everyone I know seems to be running at top speed. We fill our calendars then wonder why we feel so stressed. It’s an epidemic.

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Not My Will…

I’ve been going to PT recently. It seems that as a result of lugging my heavy camera and computer gear around Swaziland, I’ve developed tendonitis in both elbows. In addition to the heat and cold and e-stim and other PT tricks, I’ve been given a number of exercises and stretches aimed at improving my posture and thus relieving stress on my arm muscles. I don’t mind the exercises—they’re pretty easy and relatively painless. But the stretches—they’re killing me! It seems I’m not as flexible as I used to be.

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Following the Instructions

Have you ever suddenly noticed that God is telling you something, and no matter where you turn, you can’t avoid the message? You could open the Bible to any passage, turn on the radio, have a conversation with a friend, read a book—and they’re all on the same theme.

In the past, this happened when I was doing something contrary to God’s will. In other words, I was sinning. I could try to shut out my conscience, but God was truly the Hound of Heaven, pursuing me relentlessly until I finally gave up and repented. Every sermon, every devotional, even totally secular activities such as reading a news magazine or watching TV were a reminder that God wanted not just my obedience, but me.

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Bringing Light into Darkness

Turning off the main highway, our minibus bumped over the rocky gravel road toward Gege, Swaziland. Tree farms, with their orderly rows of pine and eucalyptus, gave way to grassy hillsides, cattle, and the occasional small cinder block building. I tried to snap some photos from the moving bus, with limited success.

About ten minutes into our 40-minute ride, we bounced past a run-down homestead flying a worn, solid black flag. Odd, I thought, and asked our missionary host what the flag signified. He explained that some Swaziland belonged to a cult that worshiped a nasty snake idol/demon, and the flag meant that a snake “church” met at this home. Apparently, Gege was the epicenter of this cult.

Swaziland_LAH_9879-001

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Prayer Works!

I’m back. Or, at least my body is now present in Colorado, United States. The rest of me, I’m not so sure.

CarePoint_Gege-Swaziland_LAH_0187Part of me is here, glad to be home. Part of me is still in Swaziland—with the children and “go-gos”(grandmothers) at the Gege CarePoint and with the missionaries from South Africa, Zambia, and the U.S. who are bringing light into a very dark place. I’m sure some scattered pieces of myself left a trail as we traveled. It will be some time before I can gather all my thoughts into a coherent, organized whole. After all, I only got home yesterday.

For now, what I want to tell you is that prayer works! You know that already, right? After all, why pray if God never answers. That would be pointless. Most of the time, however, we more or less take it on faith that our prayers accomplish something. These last two weeks, I saw answers in action.

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Going to London

But I don’t want to go to London!

1989-5 England 022According to our return itinerary, our Swazi mission team has a twelve hour layover at Heathrow Airport, in London. Of course, my teammates want to take advantage of the time to see some sights. I totally understand—who wouldn’t jump at the chance to spend some time in one of the most interesting cities in the world?

Me, for one.

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Am I a Biblical Woman?

A-year-of-biblical-womanhood-bookI should have read this book sooner.

I’ve enjoyed Rachel Held Evans’ blog in the past, and I knew she was a talented writer. I care deeply about the issue of women in the church—to the point where I’ve read dozens of books and articles on the subject. So why did I wait nearly a year to pick up a copy of Evans’ book A Year of Biblical Womanhood, even after it made the N.Y. Times bestseller list and was recommended by a couple of friends, both of whom are exceptionally good at picking out worthwhile books? I guess I was too cheap to buy a copy.

Turns out that not only did our library have it available, I was able to download it to my phone in three minutes. Now I’m buying copies as gifts for my friends (shhh, don’t tell them—it’s a surprise). It’s that kind of book.

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Enough Already

How well do you deal with your finances? Is everything under control, or is this a major issue in your life?

Pete and I recently had the privilege of going to hear Ron Blue speak. He’s well-known in financial circles as a financial advisor, helping people with estate planning, philanthropy,  and investment management—all according to Biblical principles.

While most in the audience were wealthy enough to need a financial manager, we snuck in on the coattails of others. Still, his advice applies to everyone, no matter how much money we have or don’t have. In fact, it was very simple: practice contentment.

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The Waiting Room

Lately, it seems I’ve been spending all my time waiting. My dad and I waited over an hour for a walk-in lab test. Pete and I waited an entire afternoon for some thunderstorms to pass through the area so we could play outside on our date day. And it seems as though our family has been waiting forever for our new granddaughter to be born! (She’s due soon, very, very soon!)

Even though I’ve been frantically busy, rushing from appointment to appointment and task to task, it’s the waiting that gets my attention. (Maybe because I’ve been so busy, and I don’t think I have time to wait?)

God doesn’t seem to mind waiting at all. In fact, He seems to make a point of forcing us to wait for things. Instead of getting on the ball and accomplishing something, he instructs us to develop patience.

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Losing a Pillar

I’m attending a memorial service this afternoon for a person I didn’t know. And it’s not the first time. I’ve been to a number of services for people I either never met, or was barely acquainted with. Let’s just say it’s a bit awkward.

(The first such service I sat through, years ago, happened to fall on my birthday. Our plans for a special outing were interrupted by the demise of an acquaintance of Pete’s, who dropped dead while shoveling snow off his sidewalk. We endured over four hours of sobbing people repeating stories for which we had no context. I sobbed too—first because it was such a rotten way to spend a birthday, and second because I felt guilty about feeling that selfish.)

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