13 Hours of Rain

Four courses and three final exams later, with Christmas and New Year celebrations completed, I find myself in this moment, poised to begin a new term of learning. I feel slightly exhausted as I contemplate the work load ahead. The last four months have taught me a few things about myself. First, I can academically compete with the millennium generation. I am not sure if college became easier or these courses are a perfect fit for me or the instructors are better or my life experience has given me an edge over my competition. Nonetheless, my achievement is the highest it has ever been at this level of learning. Now, keep in mind, while the content is not rocket science, it has been a lot of work. I strove tremendously hard at keeping up and keeping ahead. God has overshadowed me with wisdom! Second, I do not envision myself sitting behind a computer entering numbers into a spreadsheet for a living. I possess a passion to teach, exhort, encourage, motivate, present, inspire, res...

I have 1.25 hours to squeak this entry in before the arrival of 2018 in our prairie time zone. My posts were meager this year, which I sense will be the trend over the next while. I even failed to record all the prayers/verses we attempted to memorize during the latter part of this year. For the record, our Fall was spent on memorizing the Peace Pray of Saint Francis and Colossians 3:12-14 . I wish I could say we know each verse inside-out and backwards. But we don't. We are more familiar with the theme of each passage. 2017 promised to be a year at the cusp of something inspiring. But as I glance over the past 12 months, I survived instead of thrived. The biggest focus of this past year was re-entering my previous life as a teacher. However, many aspects have changed since my last full-time teaching assignment. Two children. New community. New school. New curriculum. New colleagues. New technology. And as I encountered the new, I felt old. I love to teach. That has not cha...

" You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it useful again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless. You are the light of the world -- like a city on a mountain, glowing in the night for all to see. Don't hide your light under a basket! Instead, put in on a stand and let it shine for all. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. " Matthew 5:13-16 It is dark outside. Spiritually dark. Morality is more and more socially constructed. The gold standard presented in ancient texts is viewed as... well... ancient. Our secular society, steeped in relativism, is a place of hypocrisy. The other day I was perusing the aisles of Children's Place , a popular story for infant and elementary aged children. I was trying to find t-shirts for my daughter. Here are some of the sayings: "On Fleek: a state of complete flawlessness. The q...

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angles nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any other powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 You will hear it within your lifetime, the perfunctory claim that a loving God would never subject His children to suffering, let alone the ridiculous notion of an eternity without Him. You will be tantalized by the "logical" argument that the nature of God has evolved from the vengeful, hateful God of the Old Testament to the loving, gracious God of the New Testament. Children, beware that you do not create God into a more palatable image that will resolve your discomfort of not being able to fully comprehend the Divine. Do not mishandle scripture. Yes, we are memorizing Romans 8:38-39 as a family. And yes, you can take the verse out of context and completely misunderstand its inten...

And Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth. I am the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life of the sheep." John 10:7-11 {Our memory verse for June.} Our church is teaching through the Gospel of Luke. The purpose of the teaching to exhort us to be disciples of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday's text was the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The Good Samaritan parable is probably one of the most familiar parables in the New Testament, among Christians and non-Christians alike. We all know the story. Traveler is robbed. Priest walks by, and does nothing. Levi walks by, and does nothing. A Samaritan walks by, and does something. The mes...

I checked off one goal on my "Embracing 40" list: Accomplish a challenging physical feat. I ran a 10K on May 28, 2017! I hadn't planned on running any sort of marathon at the beginning of this year. However, a friend of mine desired to enter a 10K race in a neighboring city. She needed a running partner. I agreed. I began my training in March of this year. I utilized a running app entitled "10K Running" by Fitness22 . The app started me off incredibly slow and encouraged me to increase my stamina and endurance gradually. I ran/walked approximately three times a week. I mainly ran outside, but there were a few days in March when I had to resort to my friend's treadmill. My chiropractor, massage therapist and physiotherapist (yes, at my age I often need all three) provided me with various stretching and strengthening exercises to make sure I didn't seriously injure myself. Thankfully, I didn't hurt myself in my training, though race day I ran with ...

There has been a dramatic long pause in my online conversation, one of those moments where you go off on a tangent and come back with the words, "Where was I...?" So... where was I...? I have been teaching and preparing to teach , whether that has been in the classroom as the substitute or in a small room off the church sanctuary co-leading a Small Group with your Daddy. My classroom teaching experience thus far has been mixed. Some days I feel incredibly valued as a few high school students take the extra time to say thank you for a mathematics lesson. Other days I wondering if my time is well spent dealing with disrespectful students who have very little value for my authority. Other times I do wonder if the advancements in cell phone technologies are just one big evil scheme created by a psychopathic control freak out to perpetually distract our youth from the present and trap them in the virtual. Alas, I digress... As budget cuts loom and school boards warn ...

Our March focus... I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty. From there he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of the saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

In a world that often lashes out with evil hate, we embrace Psalm 23 as our February prayer focus. It is a good reminder of how the powerful Tribune God -- the epitome of love and justice -- is in complete control in spite of what we witness.

I just finished reading "Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus", an insightful and powerful story of Nabeel Qureshi's conversion from Islam to Christianity. And while Nabeel's testimony strengthened my faith in Jesus, it also convicted me on how I often lack sincerity in how I approach God. Many Muslims around the world pray to Allah five times a day. True, we can argue whether or not those prayers are authentic outcries from one's soul. However, it is inspirational that a group of believers collectively pray world-wide, at the same time. We attend a Christian church that is part of the Evangelical movement. And while I generally resonate with the beliefs and values of Evangelical churches, I often wish we had a collection of liturgy. One of the benefits of liturgy is that it can be a constant reminder of what the group believes. If a person is asked about her religious beliefs, and she has the Apostle's Creed memorized, then she can succinctly communicate the key...