As I sat on a bench at the end of the trail that beautiful summer morning, a distant hot air balloon floated into view over the Wasatch. The rays of sunrise capturing its brilliant colors penetrated my solitude. My spirit soared, just a little, above the mundane.
The higher up the mountain trail I hiked that summer morning, the more amazing the rugged beauty became. It is said that aspens quake; and so they do, their leaves in constant motion. Fresh new cones topped the evergreens. The rocky peaks of Mt. Timpanogos rose in the blue, blue sky, a touch of snow tucked in grey crevices. Marmots scampered; birds twittered; a moose lumbered across the meadow.
In my high school days I participated in as many sports as a girl could in the late 50s. Basketball turned out to be my game of choice due to my height. The basketball-cum-track coach figured she could capitalize on my long legs in the high jump, so she added me to the track team. And when she needed a fourth for the girls’ relay at the last minute, I was up for the challenge. Much to my horror I did not make the transfer. I dropped the baton!
So how’s your 2020 playing out? I confess to being an Olympic junkie, so when Tokyo was cancelled this summer, my sole consolation was the reruns of previous highlights. This caught my eye: Rio 2016, just over 3000 meters into a semifinal of the women’s 5K, USA’s Abbey D’Agostino clips the heel of Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand and both runners fall to the track. Dazed after her tumble Hamblin lay there in tears. She had been running a good race; now all hopes of gold were dashed.
The line was long in the store where I was changing out my Wi-Fi router. All masked up and standing on the designated spot, I was practicing patience while waiting. Although I had been in the store earlier that day—two necessary trips to the store—I refrained from being frustrated.
Do you sometimes feel alone in your Christian faith while the world around you takes great pleasure in criticizing your beliefs? It is challenging to stand firm during these days of turmoil in our world while this long-lasting pandemic has become a reality and has robbed us of normalcy.
It astounds me that Apostle Peter wrote these words while in prison in Rome eighteen months before he was sentenced to be executed. The fifth ruler of the Roman Empire, Nero, was unsurpassed in his cruel behavior. Surely Peter knew his death was imminent when he wrote the New Testament letters.
Negative emotions are hard to shake off now. Impatience, worry, fear, fatigue, depression and anxiety are real. Many of us are starting to look inward too much.
I know this to be true because I am feeling these feelings right now!
The trio is back…the mother, the father and their fledgling Cardinals. They regularly visit the platform bird feeder. I like to study their interactions. The fledgling softly chirps while fluffing and vibrating his feathers. Mom and Dad gather seed and pop it into his mouth until the ritual is complete. The youngster looks completely capable of feeding himself. After all, he’s standing among the same birdseed as his parents! Like me, though, he prefers to be fed rather than feed himself.
At first his eyes were wide with fright as he hid behind our little hinny, a cross between a male horse and a female donkey. His odd head and tail confused me when he first showed up in our pasture. His owner retrieved him multiple times, but finally just gave up since this odd-looking animal had claimed our hinny and her pasture as his home.
Wow! I guess it’s not a weed!
I’d sprayed it, trimmed it with scissors, even mowed it multiple times…yet it persevered. Regardless of how I mistreated it, this intruder sent tendrils upward, outward and onward while it clung to the bank of the pond. Now, in a different season of the year, an abundance of tiny pink blossoms brought delight to that same muddy shoreline.
I could hear Mother’s soft giggle at Aunt Annie’s small country funeral as the soloist sang, “In the Garden.” Mother’s dementia had claimed her speech, so her giggle blessed me. Then, when her alto voice joined in on the chorus, my heart overflowed! As Daddy patted her leg and told her to stop singing, I whispered, “Aunt Annie would love this. Let’s let her sing.” And did she sing—all four choruses! That was the last time I heard my mother speak. It’s now a treasured memory of her praising His name.
“Oh no, that baby turtle is way out in the middle,” I cried. “It should swim closer to shore where the water is shallow!” My granddaughter and I watched that hatchling paddle onward toward the deeper water. I feared for the little turtle until I realized, “No turtle ever worries about how deep the water is!” God designs turtles to swim, and this baby swam toward the deep water with confidence.
If you’re like me, you want desperately to pass your faith onto your children.
Yet sometimes we wonder if we’re getting through. Or are we only going through the motions. We hear God’s Word but choose what we want to obey.
I watched from the front row as the man lit himself on fire and danced around. Yes, he was a stunt performer doing this at a beachside show.
Yet I wondered what made him do it. Whatever the hotel paid him, I couldn’t imagine that it was enough to justify walking on fire.
I love spending time in nature because I can see God’s creations so much clearer.
As we approached these domes by jet ski, I thought these domes might be part of some ancient ruins. Turns out, their history doesn’t go back as far as I thought.
Luna was “ours” for about a month.
We found her meowing just outside our door.
This wasn’t the first time we’d seen Luna. Sometimes she would lay around our porch. She had a collar, and we knew she had a family — just down the street.
Wow! The children of Israel had made it through the Red Sea on their exodus out of slavery and Egypt. What a spiritual high!
What did they do in response? They trusted in God, they sang, and they praised him.
A popular affirmation parents use with their children these days goes like this, “Way to be a problem solver. Great job solving that problem yourself.” While one cannot debate the value of problem solving and thinking for oneself, God asked the Israelites to do just the opposite – let him solve their problem.
