Things we take for granted.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine was the guest speaker in church.  He serves in a very closed country, and has had many adventures as a result.  Most of those adventures involved situations in which his life was under some kind of threat if he didn't handle it correctly.

There are no churches in that country, and for most of the few Christians, fellowship involves a coded conversation with one other person.

As I listened, I found myself struck by how much I take for granted, and the small things by which I am sometimes irritated.  I've got to admit, I really have it pretty good.

Trying out blogpress

I have acquired an iPad, and it is fast becoming my "go-to" tool. This is the second time I have tried to post from Blogpress, an app I downloaded, and I am hoping that this post will actually publish.

Hope

I have hope.

Not hope like "I hope I win the lottery" or "I hope I can find a parking space close to the entrance of Target."

Hope like I know that I know that in the end it all works out for Good. That no mistake I've ever made is too big. That Someone else really does have everything in hand, that there is nothing new under the sun, that my life serves an eternal purpose.

I wonder how anyone lives without this hope. And I imagine that living without this hope is at least part of the cause of the general sense of anger so many people seem to have.

God will see to it that everything is put right in the end. As an old song says, it might look like Friday night, but Sunday's on the way.

That's why I have hope.

Do you?

Enjoying God, Enjoying Life

You've just got to laugh.

I mean, yeah, there's a ton of snow, with more on the way.  We have had five snow days in the last three weeks.  And there are one or two other storms that the meteorologists are tracking for next week.

The kids at school are all worried about losing February or April vacation days or coming to school on weekends.  We aren't there yet - actually, we are out on June 22 right now, which is when I remember getting out normally back in the day.  Three or four years ago, I mean.

So, you can whine and complain, talk about how much you hate it, and curse the weather.  You can tell yourself how terrible it is, how it isn't fair.  You can rail against the long winter with short days and no end of shoveling. 

And you'll believe you, and then it really will be terrible. And joy-less.

Or you can find some humor.  Watching a tiny dog struggle to hop around in it.  Seeing kids making a sledding hill out of the mound of snow that was once a trailer.  You can notice that it really is pretty on the trees.

Romans tells us we should be "transformed by the renewing of our minds."  Well, if it works for our lives - living by flesh or living by faith - can't it work for getting through a long, snowy winter of endless shovelling?

Maybe the secret to enjoying life and enjoying God is just finding some joy in the simple things.