Vitamin Tom

I am so grateful for my church family! But today I want to think about my pastor and his family. I'm driving home from a wonderful visit with mom in Spokane. I had all these hours in the car, and I was just feeling the need for some teaching. I shot Tommy phone call, it was just uploading the sermon from this morning. So I had the pleasure of hearing the sermon I missed while I was frantically scouring thrift store clothing racks for treasures. What a gift! I am so blessed to know the Rush family. Truly encouragers in our faith, they are. I pray God listens them up every day, just as they lift up others. When Eric, from Desert light Church in Albuquerque, said he knew God was sending us here to provide us with family, I do believe God had this church and these people in mind. Praise you, Lord, for filling our hearts with good things. How ceaselessly I delight in your mercy!

Vitamin Kristen

I am so grateful this morning for all the Kristins in my world. But one in particular has made my day. I'm driving through the early morning sunrise right now, headed to Spokane for some time with my mom. Chris, my fantastic, amazing spouse, went out to warm up the car for me this morning just to be nice. I am an hour and a half or more down the road, and was just on the phone with my friend Kristen. We were discussing Sunday school, because she and I take turns leading every month. Chris tried calling and while we were on that phone call. So I hung up and called him back. Lo and behold, the keys dangling in my ignition are his keys. And I dutifully packed my own in my purse earlier this morning. His unlooked for act of kindness turned into a horrible moment when he realized he had no way to get Jared to school or himself to work. For me to turn around and bring the keys back would cost an extra three hours of the day. For him to call the locksmith would be so costly and probably a time waster too. But because I had just been on the phone with Kristen, I remembered that usually have an extra car and have recently loaned it out to some friends. One quick call and our whole dilemma was solved! Kristen is off work today, and so eager and willing to go out of her way to help. And what's more, it's not even that far out of her way. She was already planning on stopping by our house to get the Sunday school notebook. I suppose this post shouldn't be titled vitamin Kristen, but vitamin Christ. How does he do it? Take all the snagged and disconnected parts of our life and we them into something so intentionally, amazingly beautiful. It really does seem like even our mistakes and feelings are almost just what he wanted so he could prove his glory. It's pretty awesome to have a reason to praise him this morning instead of a reason to be rate ourselves. Now, I wonder how I would feel if things had worked out quite so smoothly? Could I praise him just as fully? Now that's a question worth pondering for the next 100 miles.

Edit: I wanted to mention that visiting with Kristen about this reminded me of my desire to have a more noble character. God was giving me a good example of a strong character in her response to our need. So often when people have needs, and they are outside my normal schedule or expectations, I become overwrought and shut down.  I think I even resent them sometimes. It's weakness. Selfishness. Thank you, God, for giving me someone to look up to this day. Thank you for being the best example of all.

Vitamin ride

It's been a long time. So much has happened. But will just focus on this moment. The moment I am driving home after dropping my boy at school.v he goes for one class every morning all week long. The drive to get there is a short one, but oh what a joy it is. After the initial hassle to get in the car and situated, we ride together and read. The book we read is usually so interesting that we make it through one or two sentences before stopping to chat. I love those chats. I love the boy I share that with. And I love the man who wrote the book we read even more. The Bible is so timeless that we can study it in any form, for any length of time, with any age level, and come away blessed. I pray that Jarrod finals as much blessing as I do in the pages we study together. Truly, these rides and this read are a highlight of my day.

Vitamin Defeat

There comes a day in each gardener's summer when nothing remains but defeat. In my summer, anyway. It's inevitable. And this year, the raspberries staged my surrender. So carefully I had pruned them. Pulling each stringy imposter, the suckers that steal water and space, I had created a masterpiece. Docile plants, lined up like soldiers, tied to their guide wires for emphatic good measure.

We're the ones in control here. Don't forget it.

But come August, no matter my work in the spring, the berries look always the same. Scraggly things, lolling at odd angles in the sun, ignoring my glare as I pass through their gauntlet with care.

How do they do it? Transform in a season from domestic to Amazonian and strangely unnerving. What's their reason?

It's subversive. I debate their worth from my front room. They've beat me ... again.

And then I discover what they've really been hiding.

Berries - a surprise harvest - hover beneath each errant leaf. It seems that this outgrowth of brambles, unlooked-for and scorned, had reasons I could not have planned for.

I harvest in silence.

Oh yes, it is my defeat. But victory would have tasted so much less sweet.