Changing Seasons

Last night I went for my usual walk around the lake.  Spring is definitely here!  All kinds of babies from fawns to goslings have their parents scrambling to feed, care and protect.  Under a foot bridge, the cacophony of cries from nests filled with tree swallow chicks was almost deafening.  Moms and dads darted back and forth, gathering insects for their young.  They seemed none to happy to be disturbed by the noise created as I walked across the wood and iron structure.

One of the most beautiful sights I witnessed was this gorgeous creature perched as happy as you please on a rock.  Pretty sure it's a Great Blue Heron.

I slowly, quietly, made my way to the waters edge, carefully testing one of the larger stones to see if I could get a footing.  I lifted my camera phone and voila! A picture worthy of a postcard.  Within seconds, he was off, and I quickly snapped a few more.

As I rounded corner away from the lake and into the wood, I was suddenly struck by how lush everything was becoming.  It had rained the previous two days and everything had a more intense color.

The brown tree trunks appeared almost black, and the leaves were a deep, rich green.  Everything smelled clean and fresh.  I remembered coming this way not much more than two months before when the trees were barren and the only leaves were brown and crisp and strewn across the forest floor.  How very different it looked today. And I know in another two months time it will appear different still. The vegetation will be even more thick, filling out the gaps and totally blocking the view to the lake just beyond.








As I pondered all the changes, I thought back to a conversation I'd had a few days before with a young woman interning in my office. She knows my penchant for baking and to a lesser extent, cooking. She asked me if I'd always been so passionate about it. "No" I laughed. "I HATED to cook when I was younger." She seemed shocked. "It was a different season of my life" I explained. "The kids were young, I was working several jobs to make ends meet. The last thing I wanted to do was spend time in the kitchen when I got home." I went on to explain that I'm a very different person these days.
I love spending a Sunday afternoon cooking and baking for the week.  I get tremendous joy from creating yummy treats to give to family and friends.  Tangible evidence that I've spent time creating something just for them, to make them feel special.

I've discovered a new found joy in being outdoors experiencing nature.  I've taken to having my camera with me on my walks to capture simple and amazing beauty right in the local park. (Okay, it's just a camera phone, but you can't deny I've gotten some amazing shots with it!)  I feel like I'm beginning to develop a bit of an eye for capturing God's incredible beauty in nature which is a totally new interest for me.









I've become an even greater lover of sunsets...reveling in the rich golds, pinks, and purples painted across the sky and the shimmering glow dancing across the face of the water as the sun slowly slips down behind the edge of the lake to ultimately be swallowed up by the trees.  I have always led a busy life, and my calendar is still very full, but I have learned the benefit - the absolute necessity - of slowing down to enjoy life.  Of experiencing it with all my senses.  Of being quiet before God to hear what He is whispering to my soul.  It is an exercise I wish I had learned many years ago.

I've also discovered the importance of friends.  True friends who will laugh and cry with you.  Who don't care if your house is a mess - they come running when you tell them YOU'RE a mess at that moment.  Who when they say they will pray for you, actually do...and you know it because you feel the peace, the calm, the presence of God when you can't utter a word in prayer.  I now say "I love you" unashamedly and often to those friends because I truly do. 

Yes, I'm in a different season in my life.  It is rich, and full, and beautiful - much like spring.  But it wasn't all that long ago that I went through the winter.  Things were barren and often looked bleak.  However, I've learned to see the pockets of beauty that still existed during that time.  And I now appreciate spring all the more because of it.

Author and speaker Priscilla Shirer (daughter of preacher Tony Evans) shared in one of her studies something that stayed with me.  She said her entire single life she had longed to be married.  And when the day came that her now husband proposed, she was elated...for a few minutes.  Then she looked at the ring on her finger and realized that for all intents and purposes, her single life was now over.  And suddenly, she wondered what she had done with all those single years.  Now that she's the mother of young children she sees it happening again.  The temptation is to wish away the time - waiting for the day your baby can crawl, then walk and talk, then head off to school and before you know it, they are married and you wonder where?  Where did the time go?  Each season of life is to be lived to the full and appreciated for what it teaches us.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 are the well known "a time for" verses.  "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven."  Verse 11 goes on to say "He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

The devotional Jesus Calling put it this way a few days ago..."Here and Now comprise the coordinates of your daily life.  Most people let their moments slip through their fingers, half-lived.  They avoid the present by worrying about the future or longing for a better time and place.  They forget that they are creatures who are subject to the limitations of time and space.  They forget their Creator, who walks with them only in the present."

Don't let another moment slip away.  Begin today walking with Him in the present.  He has made everything beautiful in its time, so live the time you're in right now to the full...the seasons will most assuredly change down the road - don't miss a second of the one you're in.

Beyond the Beyond

Last year, I attended a Bible study where, via DVD, one of the speakers was Priscilla Shirer.  She is a wonderful speaker - funny, down to earth, and powerful.  She's also the daughter of preacher Tony Evans.

I have seen many of her teachings on DVD, but one has stayed with me more than the others, perhaps because I've seen the subject played out so many times in my life.  Priscilla was talking on Ephesians 3:20 and 21.  "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.  Amen." 

I've heard the words from those verses spoken many times as a benediction or in sermons, and I confess, until I listened to her teach on them, I never fully grasped the enormity of them.  Perhaps it was her examples.  She gave several, and each time she was done with the example, she'd shake her head and say...no, no, you still don't get it...let me tell it to you this way.

Her last example was of a friend who had a special birthday coming up.  She was lamenting to Priscilla that her husband wasn't the type to make a big deal of such things, and while she loved him dearly, she wished he'd a least make a minor fuss by giving her a card.  The day of her birthday came and her husband gave her more than a card...he actually presented her with a gift!  An...umbrella.  Well, it wasn't candy, flowers, or diamonds, but she didn't want to look a gift horse in the mouth - it was more than he'd done before.  Then, he handed her a card.  It said 'don't forget your umbrella - I hear it rains a lot in Paris this time of year.'  Yes, he had gotten her a trip to Paris! 

Okay ladies - focus - this is not about what you didn't get from your husband on your last birthday...and guys, this isn't a tutorial on how you should right that wrong LOL.  This is an example of how we come at God with low expectations...hoping for a card...and how he not only meets them, but exceeds them...he goes beyond the card by giving us a gift...and then beyond that by giving us the gift of a lifetime!  Beyond the beyond.

As Priscilla describes Paul in this passage, she says Paul is running out of words - he is piling superlative upon superlative to get the point across of how much God is able to do - "far more abundantly beyond"...some translations say "exceedingly, abundantly more".

Why do I write about this today?  Because I'm in the middle of watching it happen...again.  In an earlier post, I described what I learned in Kids Camp, which is my church's name for Vacation Bible School.  At the end of Kids Camp this year, an announcement was made.  An opportunity has arisen for us to take this same program to a location in a more economically challenged part of Trenton the week of August 22nd.  It's the first time in our over 155 year history that we have done such a thing, and our goal is to register and reach 150 children.  I accepted the task of creating a menu and finding ways to feed those 150 kids not a snack, but an actual dinner for 5 nights on a budget that amounted to less than $2 per child.

I immediately began writing to different organizations requesting donations of food, but I know many of the chains like a lot of notice - at least a month - and the day I began writing was a month to the day of when the food will be needed.  One large chain sent me my first turn down yesterday.

Of course, 'me' of little faith begins to fret.  Not sure why my first reaction is so often doubt and fear when I've seen God come through time and again, but, the tiny time frame silhouetted against the enormity of the task allowed them to come in, kick off their shoes and make themselves at home in my mind for a bit.  Then after the person in charge told me last night she was going to have to cut my budget to move monies elsewhere, doubt and fear got really comfortable - they even ordered take out because they figured they'd be there awhile.  Enter God.

A few minutes later I was in my meeting planning what the menu would be, detailing who I'd contacted for donations, soliciting suggestions on how we could cut costs, when one of the team members walked in.  It seems while I'd be courting doubt and fear, she'd been counting stock...and arrived to tell us she had access b to 5 types of entrees - kid pleasing foods - and there was enough for 150 kids.  Did you catch that?  God not only provided food, he took care of ALL 5 DAYS from one source.  We still need to provide some side dishes, but I'm not worried anymore...I'm just looking to see when and how many are coming our way.

As Priscilla would have said, you aren't getting this, let me put it another way!  I walked into a pizza place before my meeting...a place where I know the owners...and said to one of the guys 'do you ever do donations?  I'm hoping to get some free pizza for something my church is doing.'  'Sure, sure' he says...and he hands me a receipt for 1 large free pizza.  I thought...that's not what I had in mind...at this rate, I'm going to have to hit a lot of pizza places!

My efforts netted very little.  But God is not a one pizza God.  God was already going exceedingly abundantly beyond what I was asking for or could imagine he'd do - he was taking care of all 5 meals at once.

How big is your God?  Do you trust him to meet your needs?  Do you trust that he can and will do that and even more?  Don't let fear and doubt limit your perspective of what he's capable of...as I learned again last night, He loves to go beyond the beyond.