"...this far..."

When our eyes are focused on the Volcano in the distance, we tend to miss all the details in between.
Photo by Daniel Klassen

“Then King David went in and sat before the Lord and he said, "Who am I, O Sovereign LORD, and what is my family, that you have brought me this far?” 2 Samuel 7:18

     Let me set the scene.  God has just told David that his house and his kingdom will last forever.  Huge news.  I love David’s response; he goes in and sits before the Lord.  Then, what follows is a time of reflection. And if you will allow me to paraphrase what David said: “Why would you do that God?  I am nobody and yet you have promised me this huge blessing.  And not only for me but for my family, why?”  In verse 28 of 2 Samuel Chapter 7, David draws this conclusion. “O Sovereign LORD, you are God!  Your words are trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant.”

     What if we took this model in Scripture and followed David’s example?  As followers of Christ, we each have been given a blessing which is life changing.  Have we taken time to reflect on all that God has done for us?  Have we taken time to remember all God has done in our individual lives and where He has brought us this far? 

     There are various ways this can be accomplished.  For example you could take your age and divide by four and evaluate each of those chunks of time.  Or you could take each decade, season, whatever is easiest for you to process.  Then spend some time before the Lord, remembering all that God had done in your life during that season. 

     I decided to follow David’s example.  At 51, when I divided my life into four blocks that gave me from birth to 13 years of age, 13 to 26, 26 to 39 and finally 39 to the my present age.  Then I went in and sat before the Lord and prayed for the Holy Spirit to reveal to me and help me to see or remember God’s presence in my life during that particular season.  I cannot express to you how valuable this was and encouraging.  This process took time, you have to be willing to pause your life and be still before the Lord.  At first I thought there would not be anything significant during my earliest years.  I had completely forgotten that at ten years of age my Dad was in a farming accident and, had the tow strap taken a different trajectory, my life would have ended then.  I wrote down in my journal evidence of God’s presence and protection during that episode.  Then I continued on through each stage doing the same. 

     The reason I believe this is an invaluable practice is we need to be reminded of how and when God was working in our lives.  Our human nature is to forget or become so consumed by the present things going on in our lives we simply don’t see or feel God’s presence.  The encouraging part is this: as reasoning people we can say, “In the past if God was present and faithful in my life, we can hold fast to the promise that it will continue into our future.”  

    When I finished the process I came to exactly the same conclusion that David did.  “Oh Sovereign LORD, you are God!”  Because you were present with me in the past, I can be assured you will be present with me in my future. 

"...we had hoped..."

     The prompt for my grief journal was this, “Finish the phrase “But we had hoped…” What dreams have been lost because your loved one is gone? (Hamilton Hess page 10)  I have learned a couple of things about grief as a result of mulling over this question.  The first is, grief is very different for each person, multi faceted if you will and always complicated.  The second is that grief is not just about the death of a loved one.  Maybe it’s the loss of a dream, job, friendship or something, which has caused your heart to break. 

     Our response however is important to Jesus.  Right before the disciples made this statement, “But we had hoped” Jesus had asked them, “What things?” Luke 24:19 I believe part of the process of our grief, disappointment or failure is to just lay it all out there before the Lord.  Let’s face it, He already knows, but I think there is value in expressing the details to Him.  Interesting that the disciples were walking away from Jerusalem.  Don’t you think this is typical of human nature, to walk away, for me it is to build nice walls of protection.  And yet, on the road to Emmaus Jesus met them there, everyone else is in Jerusalem and Jesus went out to find those two. 

Flowers from my Mom's memorial service laid over her ashes at sea

     Then, “buckle up” because my experience has been once I have finally laid it all down before Him that is when the real teaching begins.  This is exactly what happened for the disciples once they told Him what they had hoped Jesus was going to be and do for Israel.  “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” Luke 24:27 Can you even imagine that Bible lesson and wouldn’t you have loved to have been there to hear and take notes?

     Finally we come to my very favorite part of this passage, the great unveiling.  “Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him.” Luke 24:31 This is exactly what I have experienced, once I surrendered my hopes and dreams and allowed the scriptures to teach me, then I became fully aware of the Lord’s presence in my life.  And not just in that moment, but all through the process.  For each of us that will look different, for me it is through the scriptures, times of worship and through other believers He sends my way for love and encouragement.  We need only look for His presence in our lives through the lens of eyes, which are opened.

Three Phrases

     Although El Refugio is currently in its busiest season and I should probably be sharing about the day-to-day activities of the groups we are hosting.  I find myself wanting to share with you what God has been teaching me.  You may wonder why now?  A couple of reasons, first, really it has taken me this long to articulate what it is I wanted to share and second, I am afraid if I don’t get it written down, I will continue to lose sleep because I keep waking up with how best to express exactly the lessons I have learned.

     As with my grief journey, the next three posts will fall under a separate blog entry, which I will title “God’s Presence”.  And to be completely honest, as with my grief journey, I really write this down for my kids and grandkids to hear about what God is teaching me.  However, it is not just for them, it is for you as well.  My desire is for each of you to be encouraged in your walk with our Savior and draw closer to Him.

     This post will serve as an introduction for the three that will follow.  Over the last two years, there have been three phrases from God’s word that have served as a catalyst for lessons I believe God has wanted to teach me.  After a time of reflection I came to realize that all three were connected and the common denominator was the presence of God.  My desire is to demonstrate the presence of God in each of our lives by using these three phrases, “…we had hoped…” from Luke 24:21, "Who am I?...that you have brought me this far?” from 2 Samuel 7:18 and finally from John 11:21 "Lord, if you had been here…”

     Let’s begin the journey…

Loving English

Have I mentioned lately just how much I enjoy teaching English Class.  The two hours on Tuesday and Thursday nights are truly my favorite for the whole week.  The class itself is really a work in progress as I incorporate new ideas to help them each learn the language.  Recently, I put them into three groups and they were given an assignment to give a presentation completely in English for no less than 10 minutes.  Each group was very creative in what they came up with, it stretched them and revealed to me areas that we need to focus on.

Pray for us as we approach the summer months.  My plan was to put the class on hiatus because of our unusually busy schedule and Howard and I both do have day jobs.  Much to my surprise and a bit of dismay the class was very adamant to continue on throughout the summer.  So here were go...

Katy, our Ecuadorian Daughter and one of my "star" students.

Holger's group performed a skit from "Little Red Riding Hood"
L-R:  Holger, David, Angelia, Anita and Jenifer

Patricio's group demonstrated how to make pancakes
L-R: Madelin, Nathaly, Angelica and Patricio

Katy's group performed "A Day in the life of a Family"
Aurelio, Jhonny, Katy, Dayana

As each group prepared they would watch what the other groups were doing

Usually it was memorizing their lines!

"My Goodness How the Time has Flewn"

    How blessed we truly are.  We were so fortunate to be able to spend an intense, fast and event filled twelve days with our family.  Thought it would be best just to let some of our pictures tell about our time in California. Because before we knew it, we were back home in Ecuador ready to start our summer season.

How did it get so late so soon?

It's night before it's afternoon.

December is here before it's June.

My goodness how the time has flewn.

How did it get so late so soon?

Dr. Seuss 

"A Birthday"
Howard celebrated his 55th birthday with our whole family and a few friends.  Anchor and Addison helping Poppy blow his candles out.  Bridget had put together a basket with memorabilia from 1958, plus she had printed pictures from his childhood.  Very fun to reminisce.

Kevin, Howard and Jonathan.  Although Kevin is busy flying to New York and Australia on business, he carved out some time to spend a day with us, which meant so much to both Howard and I.

"A University Graduation"
Danielle's Graduation from Fresno Pacific University was the main reason we booked the trip.  We are so proud of her she graduated "Summa Cum Laude" Bachelor of Arts, with a minor in Spanish.

Gina, Rheanna and Raylin Cline were there to show their support and friendship.  Words can't express how much this family means to us.

All who gathered to support Danielle as she graduated. 

"A High School Graduation"
Maddie Potts our niece and cousin also graduated from high school,  and we were able to attend a celebration for her.

"Mother Daughter Tea"
Danielle, Bridget, Addison Mae, Nicole and I were able to attend a Mother Daughter Tea
Thank you Trudy and Helen for inviting us!

"A Dedication"
We were able to attend Wyatt's baby dedication on Mother's Day.

"A Vacation"
We also managed to fit in a few days at our favorite vacation spot, Pismo Beach.  My dad was able to join us and get to know his great-grandchildren a little better.  Wyatt, who was a bit fussy with everybody else just loved Grandpa Bob.

Favorite thing on the planet is to spend time with our kids and grandkids.

As always after all the dust settles, it comes back to the two of us.
We love doing life together.

As Dr. Seuss says, “You ought to be thankful a hole heaping lot..." 

And we are!!!