I suppose everyone who has ever owned a home has had the privilege of learning the lesson “Been There.   Done that.  Won’t do it again.” 

That is exactly my sentiment about wallpaper.  When we built our home 17 years ago, wallpaper was the thing.  The wallpaper department in Home Depot was larger than the paint department and larger than the lighting department.  Nowadays it has shrunk into a cubicle and all for the better I say.  So 17 years ago we did the wallpaper thing and papered both brand new bathrooms.  It took about one year for me to figure out that this made no sense even though every model home I had been in had wallpaper in the bath and kitchen areas.  My research revealed that wallpaper is not a good choice for warm and moist areas.  And just a few months after our paper went up on the walls, I discovered stenciling.  The techniques and possibilities appeal to me because they can be personalized and designed so originally instead of the prepackage design of wallpaper.   So the rest of the house has been stencilled by my mathematically meticulate measuring husband who also has a flair for art forms.  This includes the seven stencilled mice in the girls’ wings who are poking their heads out of the walls, my son’s great outdoors with moose and fish, Emily’s lattice and flower motif, Karen’s horses galloping across the wall, Kathy’s chickadees, and the living areas in their roses with a bit of Victorian flair.

Kathy was the first one to help us rid ourselves of wallpaper.  Once she started figuring out mysteries and detective activities, she peeled wallpaper in one bath in order to hide her secret clue to who-knows-what underneath the tear.  It was not too long before I had an excuse to remove, although our little detective lost her treasured spots for clue hiding.  That bath has been repainted and I have yet to stencil it but have an idea in my head for it. 

Because the master bath in our house has much wall area due to turns and extra half-walls, it seemed a monstrous job to take down the paper, one that we have turned aside from attempting for several years.  It finally became inevitable so over a month ago we began stripping the paper which has proved to be quite a hassle.  The first layer five of our girls scraped off with my help, but the underlying layer and the glue were so stubborn that we kept Lowe’s in business trying to find something that would take it off the walls.  Yes, we tried the hillbilly home remedies first, but to no avail.  We finally found a stripping gel that worked although the effort was still something I had not bargained for.  Again, several of our girls tackled this and finally this week we were down to the last layer of paper and glue.  At that point, James brought in his electric sander and we decided to sand all the walls to get everything off.

Coming to the end of my rope, I decided that this was the weekend to end all wallpaper.  So, without thinking, I set up the older girls and me to electrically sand the walls without covering anything in the adjacent room which happens to be my bedroom.  Many hours later, my room was covered …. and I mean covered … with a layer of dust.  I was just sick at myself for not having put drop cloths over everything.  My heart really sank when Abigail jumped up on my bed and a cloud of dust poofed out of my bedspread. 

Needless to say, all of James’ books were covered.  The bookcases covered top to bottom and the sides.  It was one of those “how could I have been so stupid” moments.  Then I noticed that there was writing on the bookshelves.  The culprits did not need to be tried in court as I could figure out who wrote them by what they said.  I was relieved as a home school mother that they had spelled their funnies correctly.

At the feet of John Gill’s commentary.

You will have to ask our children to reveal who egg woman is.

I cringed at the task ahead to begin the dusting.

I wished I wasn’t there looking at the mess.

Hmmm…. this is an old pirate term that means “I’m surprised.”  I think this is because my pirate knows that I keep my ship clean and this was a very messy ship.  This is also a famous phrase in literature.   I finally was able to laugh a little.  After all, we had created a very dusty looking library, somewhat reminiscent of those I had seen in Oxford, England many years ago. 

So I went to the find the pirate and there he was taking off the last pieces that no one else had been able to remove.   These types of things are no longer easy for him since the medication he was on this past summer has affected his shoulders and his stamina.   He has a long road ahead of him in this bathroom in putting in electrical boxes, wall repair, painting the ceiling and walls, installing towel holders, and replacing a small vinyl part on the floor.   He makes a good captain of the ship.  His home repair list at present has 38 items on it, 4 of which are large jobs.    We figure he needs to take a whole month off of work to get it all done.  He went from the wallpaper to installing a new faucet in the utility sink to putting a flourescent light in the garage that we removed from the kitchen. 

The end of the dustbowl goes like this.  Karen and Kathy, through a labor of love, took ALL of today and cleaned my bedroom top to bottom even though they did not feel physically well due to an illness going through our house.  They washed all the curtains, all the bedding, and the doilies.  They wiped and vacuumed everything.  They moved furniture.  They cleaned windows.  And now my room is more clean than the day before the dust explosion.  I have a treat in mind for them as a thank you for their tireless efforts and the many days they worked on wallpaper removal.  I am so glad to have my wits about me at this stage of life.  (WITS = women in training) 

As to the bathroom, the walls are close to priming and then I am contemplating putting sand on them.  Yes, sand.  After all, a garden theme with a little sand sounds perfect to me.  Not a sandy color, but a sandy finish.  We’ll see how that goes in a few weeks.

What does a 12th birthday look like?  Well, it starts by honoring the request to learn how to make Pennsylvania Dutch Apple Dumplings.   This tradition was handed down from my Aunt Irene to me and I passed it to Karen and Kathy.  Karen turned around and passed it to Em.  The added plus was that company was coming the next day so we were able to share dumplings with another family.

Emily requested a day in historic McKinney square so off we went to the Pantry after a short stop for a haircut and a trip to Hobby Lobby for beads which were 50% off that day.  Emily loves to bead on a loom so we found some gorgeous colors and blends.  Here is the Pantry.  This restaurant has been around for a long time and is in one of the historic buildings in McKinney.    Open only for lunch, and famous for their chocolate chip pie, we had a great time.

Emily with her haircut and her chocolate chip pie.  Oh, that happens to be a baked potato and a Coke on the side.  A soft drink is a treat on birthdays, although some of our children prefer strawberry lemonade or raspberry lemonade for a treat. 

Off to shop.  And we shopped ’til Mom dropped – a total of 7 hours on our feet.  Here Emily is in front of The Book Gallery, her first pick of the day.  This store has rare and old books.  Spanglers love books.  There are signed first editions of Marguerite Henry’s books in this store along with some Tasha Tudors that I would like to own myself.  We did not buy a thing, but we had so much fun.  I also favor the checkerboard old-fashioned floor of this store and the wonderful, wonderful smell of old books.  I could do without the resident Schnauzer.  I love dogs but not terrorists, er, I mean terriers.

We did shop and shop and shop.  But it was more of an historic experience than anything which was what Emily had hoped for.  Although our family appreciates the great names and places and events in all eras of history, we find great value in knowing our local history.  Even when we vacation somewhere away from home, we delve into the local history with fervor.  It is the little person, and the everyday families that weave the fabric of a town, a region, a state, and a nation.  So we find much interest in knowing what has happened in our hometowns of Fairview, Allen, and McKinney. We have visited old creeks, buildings, and read quite a bit.  Recently the McKinney Square has been made over and I found it of great interest how different the square is from 17 years ago when we first moved here.  I remember the antique stores, the old timers, the fountain bar at ol’ Smith’s Drug Store, the wonderful junk in Clydes, and so forth.  The 2008 make-over reflects a different style, a different attitude, and a different appetite.  It is turning into upscale restaurants, spas, elite cosmetics, and so forth.  And the music has changed.  Boy, has it changed.  I was glad that there were enough of the ol’ little spots to make it more historic for Emily and me.  At the same time, the new doll shop was pleasant along with its owner.  A mixed blend of many things on the Square.

Upon returning home, we had homemade four-cheese calzones courtesy of Karen which is Emily’s favorite.  Kathy had made a homemade butter cake with REAL buttercream icing.  By this I mean there was no 10x sugar in it and no Crisco.  (We Yankees call it 10x.)  Instead she had made a syrup out of cane sugar and added butter and who knows what.  The color of the yellow frosting is the natural color of the butter.  Emily likes pansies so the flowers were varying buds and full bloom pansies.  Yum!   

While up on the Square we had purchased an old-fashioned treat at the old-fashioned candy store: Bazooka bubble gum.  It has been a frequent request over the past year from our children that they learn to blow bubble gum.  We had not had bubble gum in our home to this point as I don’t favor it much, but here was a part of history for me.  Bazooka was a staple in my childhood so I bought a piece for each child and after the birthday cake ceremoniously had them unwrap the Bazooka to reveal the Bazooka Joe comic.  I was surprised that the gum piece was much smaller than my childhood yet cost so much more.  

Like a good mother who is trying to train her children in all good things, I dutifully instructed them in how to get all the flavor and juice out so that the wad is ready to blow.  Then much instruction on how to get it in the right place and then how to put air into it.    Kimberly was amazed.

Matthew discovered that sometimes a bubble has a sticky ending.

 We finished a 12th birthday with lots of hugs and kisses, a few presents, and praise to God for our “bonus.”   After having Karen and Kathy, everyone said … don’t have more kids because you are too high risk medically and you get too sick and you will destroy your lives.   Miraculously we then had Matthew, but after his birth I was still quite ill for months in addition to experiencing a thyroid deficiency that caused postpartum depression.  Emily was conceived in the middle of that when Matthew was only was only  5 months old and so again we went into pregnancy crisis.  I asked James what was God doing?  He said he was giving us a bonus.  So here is my sweet 12 year old bonus.  Happy birthday Emmy.  I would do it all over just to have you.  And thank you to my husband, who never flinched but walked in total confidence whenever I said, “Dear, I have something to tell you about why I’m feeling funny ….”

Now she is five.  Our baby is five.  She did not want presents.  She wanted balloons.  So we did balloons. 

And she asked for a cake.  A jungle cake.  So we did an elephant-gorilla-cheetah-snake cake.  Recently Kimberly lost her first tooth as shown in this smiling face when we cut the cake.

We had sold boxes and boxes of materials to Half Price Books.  The proceeds from that with some help from Grandpa and Grandma produced a new sandbox.  Kimberly loves her new play area and has reminded me continually that this sandbox has a lid.  She has been so enthralled with the lid that I told James that next time let’s just buy a lid!   When we were discussing where to locate the sandbox in the yard, James teasingly told me we could put the sandbox in the living room.  When it is cold outside, Kimberly reminds me that Daddy said we could put it in the living room and couldn’t we move it inside?  She’s serious.  James wasn’t.  At least I don’t think he was.

Kimmy was born when I was 45 years old***.  Besides having gestational diabetes, high blood pressure, and other medical complications during my pregnancies and deliveries, Kimberly presented another twist in childbearing.  When Kimberly was born we found out that her umbilical cord was knotted close to her body.   This meant that sometime before the half way mark of the pregnancy, the cord formed a loop and she swam through it.  For all those months God’s hand was upon her and this knot did not cause complications, nor death.  At her birth, the attending midwives gasped when she arrived and they saw the cord.  James had the insight to name her Kimberly (from the royal fortress) and Joy.  So Kimberly Joy  means “God joyfully extends His protection.”  We pray this upon her life every day.

Happy Birthday to my little caboose.

*** The research used in modern medicine that states women age 35 and older are high risk is based upon statistics collected from women in the slum areas of New York and groups of women who had poor nutritional health and exposure to heavily polluted areas prior to their pregnancies and during their pregnancies.

Yesterday Annie received a beautiful card from Locks of Love for the donation of her hair.  We could not get it to scan even close to how beautiful the glossy card is, so here is a mediocre scan of the card.

Is there a grief in your heart which groweth into a sore pain?  Is there a shadow of a coming sorrow that you see drooping down over you?  Remember it is the shadow of God’s wing, and therefore it is a safe shadow.  Creep closer under it, closer yet.  Earth has nothing human so gentle as true mother-love; but God’s wing that folds down over you then is gentler than even mother-love; and you can never get out from beneath it.  It holds you close to the gentle heart of the divine Father.  You need never be afraid while resting there.  In all the universe there is no harm that can come nigh you  From your eternal shelter you can look out with confidence, as from a window of heaven, on the fury of earth’s storms, and be at peace.  The wildest of them cannot touch you in your pavilion.  (J.R. Miller)

Road News #1

Last night, the Town Engineer of Fairview met with local residents to propose a drainage solution on Seattle Slew Lane.  Mr. and Mrs. Spangler commented on the meeting by saying, “We have prayed for this for ten years.”  Construction on the street will begin in two weeks and will last for two months.  The Spangler children are thrilled with losing their driveway for several weeks as it will give them opportunity to carry all the groceries to their home from the street.  They also look forward to watching bulldozers form a new culvert drainage system and install new pipe by drilling underneath the road to the opposite side.  In addition, the availability of mud is attractive, although Mrs. Spangler made no comment on that one.  The downside is that fewer frogs will be hatching at street-side in the future resulting in fewer pets on the Spangler’s porch. 

Asked why they bought such watery property in the first place, the Spanglers replied by revealing the fact that they had taken a video of the land back in 1991 during the rainy season and after 10 days of pouring rain had walked every property for sale and chose the driest one.   Later housing construction on adjoining streets altered the drainage on the land along with repairs to the road that eliminated existing drainage areas.  In 2004, technological advances brought about the construction of a remote terminal on the street that further clogged things up.  The Spanglers have concluded that the old saying “what you see is what you get” is only a temporary statement.

The residents of Seattle Slew are thankful that Lake Fairview will soon be a thing of the past.  Lake Lavon is close enough. 

Other advancements in the area are down the road.  Stacy Road, which connects with Seattle Slew, will begin construction soon.  This three lane concrete road will have a turning lane and room for bicyclists as Stacy Road is a major fare way for bicycle clubs.   The fire station on Stacy has just broken ground along with a new water tower.   This flies in the face of realtors who 17 years ago told the Spanglers that the area would be undesirable, the roads would be pot-holed, and that Central Expressway which connects with Stacy, would be a dead area.  Instead, the New Villages of Fairview with anchor stores of JCPenney and Macy’s, along with the newest Whole Foods Market in the nation, have indeed proven the fact that realtors are not prophets but salesmen.  Purchasing cheap property might not be a bad idea at all.  Just ask the Spanglers!

Road News #2

Excerpts From World Net Daily: 

Sudden death for NAFTA highway plan
‘To be clear, the Trans-Texas Corridor as it is known, no longer exists’

Tens of thousands of opponents to a NAFTA highway project that would have crossed Texas with a corridor the width of four football fields have been given good news by the state: the Trans-Texas Corridor plan is being dropped.

Official word came from Amadeo Saenz Jr., the chief of the Texas Department of Transportation. during the state’s annual transportation forum in Austin this week.

The $184 billion TTC project originally called for a 4,000-mile network of transportation corridors, 1,200 feet wide, to be built across Texas. The plan would have taken about a half million agricultural acres out of private hands, leading to a maelstrom of objections from Texas landowners

“Major corridor projects will now be comprised of several small segments closer to 600 feet wide and will no longer be called the Trans-Texas Corridor. Instead, the department will use the highway numbers originally associated with each segment, such as I-69, SH 130 and Loop 9.”

Hope’s Note:  Could this be true?  Has the TransTex Corridor been dropped?  Having researched this since 2002 and having frequently been on every major website  that details the super highway, I wondered if the Corridor could truly be dead as reported.  This morning I visited numerous official Texas Department of Transportation sites, and poured over keeptexasmoving.com which is the major vehicle for public information on the Corridor and concluded that the report from World Net Daily is not conservative enough.  “Dropped” is the incorrect verb to use.  “Somewhat Reduced” would be an accurate description.  Comparing maps ingrained in my brain from former visits, including those I have printed out in my files, with the current maps for both 35 and 69 on the revised website, the routes have remained the same.  The project has only been scaled back due to the economy and Alamo-minded Texans who will fight for their land to their last breath.   Hmmm.  That means we need more Alamo-minded Texans out on the farms and in the state government.   Let’s raise our sons to be Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie.

The other thought that came to my mind is how important words are.  The TransTex Corridor has such a bad reputation that any revised plan needs a fresh name so here it is:  Innovative Connectivity in Texas/Vision 2009.    This whole thing reminds me of ice cream.  Reduce the size of the container, change the price a little, add some new flavors.  It’s a twist on the old product but packaged differently and it sells.  Advice:  Stick with Blue Bell.  It’s still a half gallon, still gold rimmed, and still the same great flavors year round.  That way you know what you are getting and you have the choice to buy or not.  Do Texans really know what they are getting with Innovative Connectivity?  If the economy picks back up, will the revised plan inch over toward the original plan?  Both TTC-35 and I-69 TTC link directly into Mexico with the revised plan.  The original plan was to have goods (and possibly people in closed trucks) come in from Mexico, unchecked until they entered Kansas City and has this been cancelled?  I suggest that it is pre-mature to throw a TransTex Death Party.

Road News #3

Here is old road news that is still the best road news.

Psalm 16:11  Thou wilt show me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

Psalm 25:10  All the paths of the LORD are mercy and truth unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Psalm 119:35  Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

Psalm 119:105  Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Proverbs 3:5,6  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Proverbs 4:18  But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Road News #4

By Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Tow roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

This week we were blessed with a visit from the Bringe family from Missouri.  Once again we were blessed by fellowship with a solidly Christian family who loves our precious Lord and lives their lives for His glory.  The Bringes were so kind as to host James and Matthew in their home last year during the Men’s Advance Conference in Missouri and I heard rave reviews from my guys at that time.  The Bringes are a multi-talented family.  Mr. Bringe is a food scientist and researches the effects of various foods on the human body.  He has been researching soy but will soon be moving on to new projects.  Mrs. Bringe is a musician and excellent home schooling mother.  Each of their five children brightened our home for the evening.  We are still talking about them and all that we learned from them!  I truly hope that in the future we will get to be with them again. 

I can’t say that we profited them any, particularly as we introduced them to the nose flute, which here Matthew is giving some tips to Peter, John, and Thomas.

We had family worship together.  Here we are reading from Genesis, each reader taking a verse as we went around the room.

This is our third year to read through the Bible with a plan that our church does together.  The first year we read each day and answered Mr. Wenneker’s (alias The Professor) questions on each passage.  The second year we tried to find Christ in each passage.  This year James has chosen a different perspective.  We try to find a key verse in each chapter.  I thought this would be an easy task, but it has sparked discussions up to 45 minutes in length.  Here the girls are hunting for the key verse with Gloria Bringe in the middle helping.

Mrs. Bringe was an encouragement to me in many ways.  She has paid particular attention to the development of her children and adds many enriching activities to their lives that have benefited them in numerous ways.  It is a beautiful thing to see the devoted heart of a mother.  The Lord has given her a specific project for her life in that their youngest child is a special needs child both physically and mentally.  As I thought of her situation and her devotion and her focus on the days to come, I thought of Isaiah 30:20,21.   And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy teachers be removed into a corner any more, but thine eyes shall see thy teachers:  And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.   I would not call this beautiful child an affliction, but this child presents a path that few mothers who educate their children at home will travel.  (In fact, many have refused such a journey.)  I know that God will not leave this mother stranded in the raising of this precious child and that He will show her daily what path to take and whether to go to the right or to the left.  And God is going to bless this little boy because he is being raised by a family, not a school, not a government, and not a village.  He could not be in a better place.  God’s grace is abundant.

I’ll end this post with a video of Peter playing his fife.   He is a Fife Sergeant with the Lewis & Clark Fife and Drum Corps.  If I remember correctly, he can produce 120 tunes on his fife without a piece of music in front of him.   He recently acquired bagpipes and perhaps we will be blessed in the future to hear them.  Click below.  By the way, Peter produced this music without warming up and after a long day in the car driving from Missouri to Texas.  He’s quite talented.

Peter’s Fife

Proverbs 31:19   “She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.” 

There’s a new thing going on here at our house and it has to do with spindles.  This is Kathy’s new thing that looks like a winner and a keeper for her.  I catch her in free moments spinning away.

This is a top whorl spindle or a high low spindle.   The whorl (the round part) is on the top.  This spindle can be reversed with the whorl on the bottom.

Kathy spins the wool into a strand of yarn until the spindle reaches the ground.   Then she winds it up on the bottom of the spindle.

Here she is drafting.   Drafting is taking the wool and changing it from a clump into a thinner mass so that it can be spun into the yarn.

Kathy and Karen have researched spinning for some time since they desire to make natural fiber articles.  A recent conversation with them revealed some interesting facts.  What can be spun?  Sheep, goats, llamas, camels, rabbits, dogs, flax, cotton, and silk.  Technically you can spin any fiber but I picked up on “dogs” in the list.  What a great excuse to get a collie or a sheltie.  What a wonderful use of the undercoat when grooming them.  The raw fiber is scoured (washed), dried, teased, and then carded.  Carded means that a fine wiretooth brush is used on the raw fiber and basically brushed out.  The brushes look like the same grooming brushes used on a sheltie.  The carded fiber is then ready to draft and then spin.

Hmmm… This just plants an idea in my mind for the future.  I just knew that a kennel of collies was a worth while endeavor. 

Kathy hopes to obtain a floor spinning wheel with a lazy Kate which takes the yarn and plies it.   Until then she is hand spinning several kinds of wool:  Corridale, Welsh mountain, and Norwegian black.

Here is something you never have seen before.  What is it?

It is 16 year old dust in my closet.  Or perhaps this much dust is called dirt.

Whatever it is called, my daughters aided me in moving something that is so heavy that I have not cleaned underneath it since we moved into our house over 16 years ago.  It is the only item that has not been cleaned in our annual spring cleaning project which has been faithfully executed since 1992.

While my eldest daughter prefers to photograph landscapes, I think she actually enjoyed this photo shoot.

In fact, she really got into it.  I guess baseboards can be interesting when they have a little nature attached to them.

All of this dust removal is part of a major reorganization and cleaning of our home which has been going on for two months now.  We have definitely reduced in size.  The garage and attics were reduced by fifty percent.  The kitchen by thirty percent.  Then on to Emily’s room where I estimated another thirty percent was given or thrown away.  By this time Matthew was just about in horror for The Cleaning Team to visit his room.  He asked if anything would be left – would he have a bed?  To my delight Matthew and I spent a day in his room and he did the work himself.  He made great decisions and has a streamlined room and closet. 

You know you’re getting old when …. you gather all the electronic and photography equipment from all over the house and the attic and realize that you have gone through four technology mediums in your lifetime, and you have no idea of where to start in throwing, keeping, and transferring.  Slides, reels, videos in 8mm, VHS, photographs, negatives.  This collection is on an eight foot table in my bedroom, with the floor under and around it piled with all kinds of stuff that aren’t media related.  It, combined with all of our musical recordings (albums, cassettes, CDs, but no 8 tracks!) is the last major sorting project.  After that there are four medium size projects left for the women of our household to complete.  The “honey-do” repair items for the men at our house has 38 tasks on it, with 2  large projects that really need a lot of time and attention.  I’m beginning to wonder if we will complete it all in 2010 and not 2009.  Or maybe 2011?

The reward?  Newly painted closet shelves!  When James asked me to take on this all-encompassing task of overhauling our residence, I thought of the verse “She looketh well to the ways of her household.”  It has been a joy for me to see a pleased look on his face and I did giggle a little when he walked into our closet yesterday and said,  “There’s a lot of room in here, hon!”  My children have also learned skills and thinking processes from working through this process.  It has been a classroom in itself. 

A common theme that trailed our family in 2008 was how to know God’s will.  We have watched people come and go.  We have listened to and read thousands of words on the subject.  We have seen the mobility and wealth of our society write the front page of Christian decision making.   We have watched people congregate to geographical places and churches and friends based upon what they feared the most.   We have evaluated the thought processes of blogs, books, seminars and conversations.   We have observed life-changing decisions interpreted by emotions, or what has been claimed is the “Spirit-led” way to do things.   It has been mind boggling to say the least.

New Year’s Eve brought me to a sort of sadness over the whole thing.  I was not ready to hand this world over to 2009.   It seemed to me a better idea to go back and re-work 2008.  Where in the world are all of us going?  What is it that we value today?  Why is it that what we fear becomes the single most driving force in our decision making?  In fact, fear is overwhelmingly central to it all.   What we fear is how we decide where to live, how to spend our money, how to plan for the future, how to treat other people and I guess every other “how to” in the book.  Well, maybe not all.  Throw in a good measure of Prosperity Gospel.  And the Control Factor.  Let’s gobble up as much control as we can.  Except that one goes back to fear too.

The Great Commission has seemed to be out-of-place in this seek-and-find game.  Losing one’s life in order to find it has become an extinct thought.  Partaking of the sufferings of Christ or walking the well trodden-paths the saints of old plodded is rarely a consideration.  Understanding life purpose is hazy at best.

How thankful I was that New Year’s Day brought hope, clarity of vision, and more direction on how to handle the Fear Factor, the Prosperity Factor, and the Control Factor that has been hammered into my head this past year.  The following quotes from J.R. Miller were helpful to me today.  

The Lord Will Provide

Write deep in your heart this New Year’s day this word of sublime confidence, JEHOVAH-JIREH.  It tells you that you can trust God always; that no promise of his ever fails; that he doeth all things well; that out of all seeming loss and destruction of human hopes he brings blessing.  You have not passed this way heretofore.  There will be sorrows and joys, failures and successes, this year, just as there were last year.  You cannot forecast individual experiences.  You cannot see a step before your feet.  (Nor can anyone else regardless of how confident they are of prophesying pending doom.)  Yet Jehovah-jireh calls you to enter the new year with calm trust.  It bids you put away all anxieties and forebodings – The Lord will provide.  (So this should be at the forefront of our conversations with other believers so that we will not perpetuate the Fear Factor that is running rampant.)

The Losing that is Saving

The way to make nothing of our life is to be very careful of it, to hold it back from perilous duty, from costly service, to save it from the waste of self-denial and sacrifice.  The way to make our life an eternal success is to do with it what Jesus did with his- present it a living sacrifice to God to be used wholly for him.  Men said he threw his life away, and so it certainly seemed up to the morning of his resurrection.  But no one would say that now of Chirst.  His was the throwing away of life which led to its glorifying.  In no other way can we make anything worthy and eternal of our life.  Saving is losing.  It is losing it in devotion to Christ and his service that saves a life for heavenly honour and glory. 

Finding Our Mission

We need never be anxious about our mission.  We need never perplex ourselves in the least in trying to know what God wants us to do, what place he wants us to fill.  Our whole duty is to do well the work of the present hour.  There are some people who waste entire years wondering what God would have them do.  But that is not the divine way. If you want to know God’s plan for you, do God’s will each day; that is God’s plan for you today.  (So it would be difficult for one to know God’s will if he is not fulfilling his present responsibilities in the three jurisdictions of life … church, family, and civil… and in his personal walk with the Lord.)

The Safest Place

The safest place in all this world is ever the place of duty.  God’s wings are over it.  God’s peace guards it.  (This would include living in a city, in a jungle, or in a slum.  This would include being surrounded by the very enemies of God.)  At the center of every peril on earth is a spot of holy calm where even the feeblest would not be harmed.  It is the place of duty, of obedience, of the doing of God’s will.   He who stays there amid peril and trial is perfectly safe.  He who departs from this center finds himself in a wild swirl.  (God’s protection and care takes spirtual wisdom to understand.  It is not an earthly concept.)

The Splendour of Common Duty

Every common walk of life is glorious with God’s presence, if we could but see the glory.  We are always under commission from Christ.  We have sealed orders from him every morning, which are opened as the day’s events come.  Every opportunity for duty is a divine call.  The work which the day brings to us is always his will, and the sweetest thing in all this world to a living, loyal heart always is God’s will.

Finding Your Mission

To find your mission you have to be faithful wherever God puts you for the present.  The humbler things he gives are for your training, that you may be ready for the particular service he has for you.  Do these smaller, humbler things well, and this will provide steps in the stairs up to the loftier height where your mission waits.  To spurn these plainer duties and tasks, and to neglect them, is to miss your mission itself in the end, for there is no way to get to it but by these ladder-rounds of commonplace things which you disdain.      

A final thought.   It occured to me today that mobility is a detriment to Christians in many ways.  Perhaps the worst is that a person who is continually hopping churches, employment, friends, and geographical location never really matures.  Time in one place with constant service and working through the nitty gritty problems that come with it develops character, faithfulness, and perseverance that will not be learned in temporary relationships and temporary work.  It is the diligence of duty over time that matures a person.   And a lot of wisdom is learned from having to deal with long-term friendships, the cycles of church life, and the commitment to employment that lasts longer than a year or two.   The treasure found in “staying put” is learning the lesson of contentment, which is too often never found when hopping around.  Mobility can also be a sign of lust.  Lust for a new beginning.  Lust for a new house.  Lust for new places to see.  Lust for new employment challenges.  Lust for influence with new people.  And so forth.   Sometimes when we are looking for that new thing, we should ask ourselves if God would want us to remain faithful for the old thing.  This is just a lesson I am learning since sometimes I seek change when I am bored, listless, discontent, or not seeking God as my ultimate Treasure.