A delightful weekend

In a stunningly spontaneous act, my dh decided on Saturday that we were running away together for the weekend.  So off we trooped.  We had geocaching adventures, and a picnic in the car under gray January skies.  But here are the views from our picnic spot:

And Sunday found us enjoying fellowship with a sister congregation where we are loved, and then having a gargantuan geocaching adventure in the afternoon, finding 12 (count 'em-- TWELVE!) caches in the afternoon.  In addition to the treasure-seeking aspect of this, we wandered through some lovely areas in the bright New Mexico sun.  It was entirely delightful!

Good-bye year of adventure, hello year of service...

My sweet husband, sometime in January of last year, dubbed 2010 our "Year of Adventure".  We had never had a "theme" for a year in our previous 30 years of marriage, but he was moved by what he observed as a tendency to repetition and complacency, and wanted us to challenge ourselves to be more adventurous: more adventurous in our spiritual lives, our relational lives, and even in our entertainment and reading lives.  So, we embraced a year of thinking about taking what looked to us to be adventurous paths, the road less travelled, the decision that looked less comfortable and more, well, exciting. It was frightening at times! And how did that work out for us? It was a tremendous year!

Some of the "adventures" that came our way included new jobs for both of us: one keeping the world safe for democracy, the other in the world of online teaching. We traveled to places we had never been (like hiking to the top of Pajarito Mountain, buying a car on e-bay and driving it home from California across the Sonoran desert, and geocaching in all sorts of places).  We entered the new world of Grandparenthood.  We also found ourselves identifying the places where we stop ourselves from doing things because we are creatures of habit.  This was a very valuable part of our year! So it was a wonderful year, with little adventures popping up everywhere we turned.

After much prayer and thought, my dh has made another declaration for this year: a year of service.  Our job is to ask, "How would God have me serve this person, or in this circumstance, or through this trial? How can I set my own desires aside and serve God or someone else?"  And already, the options for service are popping out of the woodwork.  This topic is also a little frightening.  The truth is, I love living in the Cosmos of Chris, where everything in the universe revolves around me.  But already, I am seeing how this goal for the year will change my perspective in healthy ways.  I am tutoring some students to serve their families, and it is really exciting to watch these folks learn and change, and to have the privilege of taking part in that process. 

I think this will be another adventurous year, Gentle Reader.  And I hope you will join us.

Health update, and counting blessings...

For those of you wondering what ever happened with my iron infusions, I thought I would give a general health update. There may only be a couple of you, but since those couple have asked, here we go...

The infusions (5 of them) are done, but the bruises and the bills remain. They were not really problematic, especially for the first three.  The last two found my veins saying "No more!", but we accomplished them.  I will have blood work next week, when we hope to find I have a full load of iron on board.  I will get results from the oncologist on the 31st, Lord willing. I'm not sure who I will be seeing, but they assure me they will have a doctor in the office...

I have more tests scheduled for February to look for sources of some slow bleeding that may have added to my problem. I continue to appreciate your prayers, Gentle Reader, as I traverse this rocky landscape of health issues.  As a friend here in town (now almost through her 80's) says: Growing old is not for sissies.  I am trying to learn not to be a sissy..

I am not always succeeding at that "not being a sissy" part, however.  I often feel a little (or more than a little) sorry for myself.  It's at those times that the discipline of counting one's blessings is vital.  And I have many, many of those to count, by God's grace!

May the tough times find us all counting our blessings, Gentle Reader, and fighting for non-sissy status...

A New Year's goal already met...

Over dinner on New Year's Eve, we discussed our goals for the New year.  One of my daughters-in-law stated that her goal was to finally be added to the family tree which hangs in our dinning room.

May all of our goals be so easy to accomplish!

Wednesday without words...(New Years, 2011)

By Night When Others Soundly Slept by Anne Bradstreet

By night when others soundly slept
And hath at once both ease and Rest,
My waking eyes were open kept
And so to lie I found it best.


I sought him whom my Soul did Love,
With tears I sought him earnestly.
He bow'd his ear down from Above.
In vain I did not seek or cry.


My hungry Soul he fill'd with Good;
He in his Bottle put my tears,
My smarting wounds washt in his blood,
And banisht thence my Doubts and fears.


What to my Saviour shall I give
Who freely hath done this for me?
I'll serve him here whilst I shall live
And Love him to Eternity.

Who calls me his child...

Sometimes I get to the end of the day--even good days-- and feel weary, and want to indulge in a little night-time pity party.  Some times, unfortunately, I manage to pull it off.  But more frequently, I find the kindness of my Savior simply won't allow me to go there, despite my foolish trying to do so.  Following on the heels of Sunday's excellent message, I read this tonight:

The bottom line is this: The problem is not that God is not here or that He is inactive; the problem is that we don't see him. Our perspective on life is is often tragically godless. We miss the one thing worth seeing, the glory of the ever-present God. When this happens, our lives are not built on the foundation of God's glory, which was intended to give our lives a starting point and a destination, a reason to get up and strength to go on...

~Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Resources for Changing Lives) p.98

The truth is, I could have quoted most of the 10 pages I read tonight for their sheer application to the sorry state of my own heart.  But the story doesn't stop with my weakness and sin and self-glorifying idol-making. 

Galatians 5 calls us to hold onto two realities. The first is the every-day reality of the war for the heart, the war between God's "within you" kingdom ad the kingdom of creation. I must face the reality of indwelling sin and my propensity to run after god-replacements. I am called to face my duplicity and my idolotry, and the fact that this war is the most significant inner dynamic of human experience...The second reality must be held tightly at the same time.  it is the reality of my idetity as a child of God and the resources that are therefore mine in Christ...

~Paul David Tripp, Instruments in the Redeemer's Hands: People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change (Resources for Changing Lives) p.92

And so, I set my pity-arty aside, and remind myself not of my feelings, but of what I ought to be feeling: love and gratitude for a God who calls me his child.