It was a coffee kind of day. But then again, that’s every day. There is not day in my universe where there is not coffee.

Lately, I’ve started drinking cold brew coffee. Target has a brand that I really like (but also really can’t remember the name) that keeps me going when I need the caffeine but lack the will to make actual coffee.

I’m not picky about hot versus cold coffee. Well, I take that back. I’m not a fan of cold coffee that used to be hot. Coffee that has been sitting out until it’s transformed into lukewarm goo is disgusting.

What I mean is that I like hot coffee and iced coffee. Yeah, that’s it. Also, I like cold brew coffee.

Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee.

Lately, my mind has taken me back to people and places I knew that are no more. I think about my grandparents’ houses on Dee Road and Alcy Road where I spent so much of my childhood.

Part of me would give anything to be able to go back– even if only for a moment– and relive those memories, take in the scents, and see the faces.

Part of me is thankful that I have these memories to cherish and that these people and places were part of shaping me into who I am and who I am becoming.

Truly, I’m grateful it happened. And yes, it all was grace.

Rich Mullins would have turned 64 today. I can truthfully say he and his music had a huge impact on my life and my faith. The Christian music industry lost a true artist and a beautiful soul when he passed away over 22 years ago.

Here’s something he wrong that is a worthy read:

1. Forget about finding happiness. Happiness is not worthy of your search.

2. Bake a cake – a really rich cake, preferably from scratch and especially if you are an inexperienced baker or a tested, tried, & notoriously awful cook. The value is in the baking more than in the cake.

3. Call up some enemy of yours and invite that enemy to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good you may lose an enemy and gain a friend. If the cake is bad, at least vengeance is sweet.

4. If you can’t think of a single enemy, then call up a friend. Invite your friend over to eat the cake with you. If the cake is good the favor may be returned. If the cake is awful your friend may go buy one from a bakery for you. If you are without any enemies or friends, take your cake to an old folks’ home. Eat it with them! If the cake is good you will no longer be without friends. If the cake is terrible you will no longer be without enemies.

Finding a friend, making an enemy – now those are things worth pursuing. Happiness may come tagged on – but even if it doesn’t, at least you will have done something and established some relationships.

5. Memorize Isaiah 40 or the first Psalm or Psalm 91. Read the closing chapters of the Book of Job. Meditate on the Beatitudes (Matthew 5). Write out one of the Prison Epistles (Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Collosians) and send them to some other unhappy person.

All of this may not make you happy but it will tell you how to be holy. Once you tie that knot you may find yourself in a position to be made happy.

6. Work hard. Clean something. Find new and more space-efficient ways of folding your clothes. Rake someone else’s yard for them. If you are unhappy maybe you can help someone else be less so.

7. Go back to the third chapter of Lamentations and then repeat after me:
“It is good to wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
It is good for a man to bear
The yoke while he is young.
Let him sit alone in silence
For the Lord has laid it on him.”

8. Reread the 23rd Psalm and remember that if the Lord is your shepherd, then you are in a lush pasture. You are by a still stream. If it seems otherwise to you, it may be because you would rather be happy than be God’s. If this is so, then you have more reason to be happy than anyone. God has chosen you – ungrateful, decadent you – and being His is a joy and a happiness that goes beyond anything else you may seek, and in your folly settle for. God will (in His mercy) make you discontent with anything less than Him.
So we have only one step left…

9. Rejoice.

“THE GOSPEL IS BAD news before it is good news. It is the news that man is a sinner, to use the old word, that he is evil in the imagination of his heart, that when he looks in the mirror all in a lather what he sees is at least eight parts chicken, phony, slob. That is the tragedy. But it is also the news that he is loved anyway, cherished, forgiven, bleeding to be sure, but also bled for. That is the comedy. And yet, so what? So what if even in his sin the slob is loved and forgiven when the very mark and substance of his sin and of his slobbery is that he keeps turning down the love and forgiveness because he either doesn’t believe them or doesn’t want them or just doesn’t give a damn? In answer, the news of the Gospel is that extraordinary things happen to him just as in fairy tales extraordinary things happen. Henry Ward Beecher cheats on his wife, his God, himself, but manages to keep on bringing the Gospel to life for people anyway, maybe even for himself. Lear goes berserk on a heath but comes out of it for a few brief hours every inch a king. Zaccheus climbs up a sycamore tree a crook and climbs down a saint. Paul sets out a hatchet man for the Pharisees and comes back a fool for Christ. It is impossible for anybody to leave behind the darkness of the world he carries on his back like a snail, but for God all things are possible. That is the fairy tale. All together they are the truth” (Telling the Truth, Fredrick Buechner).

I love that the gospel is all three– tragedy, comedy, and fairy tale.

I love that the gospel is too good to be true, yet true.

I love that the gospel is for everyone, including me and you.

I love that the gospel is the power of God to save anyone, at anytime, anywhere, at any point. It’s never too late.

“Lord, when I don’t like me, 
You still love me, You still like me, You still lavish me with acceptance.
When I am fed up with me, You invite me to Your feast,
When I am done — with me, with life, with everything, 
You whisper, “Hang on — I am making *all things* — *you* — new.” (Rev21:5)
And when I want to quit, You cup my face: “This great work I started in you? I won’t stop that beautiful work until you are fully, completely, gloriously beautiful” (Phil1:6, 1Cor2:7) 

So this becomes our brave & broken-hearted hallelujah, the one we sing into the dark, even when it’s hard to believe: 
I am His Beloved, His Beloved, His Beloved… and even now I will be held.
In the name of the only One who loved us to death & back to the real & forever life… Amen” (Ann Voskamp).
#SharingPrayerTogether

Maybe this will speak to one person. Maybe this will give that one person hope and courage to continue for one more day.

Maybe the one reading this who needs it right now is you.

Remember, our God is making all things new. Including you. Including me.

Those parts about your character that you don’t like so much? Those intangible attributes you wish you could fix?

They won’t always be there.

Also, remember that you are still fearfully and wonderfully made, despite all the brokenness. The image of God is still in you.

Here’s to making Monday a good day. Here’s to making each moment count because each moment will be a moment filled with counting your blessings and laying down your life in surrender to the One who holds your whole life together.

Amen.

I got to hang out with this little critter mostly all day. I did very little venturing outside of the homestead, choosing to stay indoors and binge some classic Doctor Who instead.

Having dogs or cats around does a lot for your mental health. It also helps lower blood pressure, reduces anxiety, and overall makes you feel like a better person.

This gal climbed up on my lap and took a few naps. She’s very heart-warming (not to mention lap-warming as well).

I think I’ll keep her around for a bit.

“It is a better thing to have a trouble, and know how to get grace enough to bear it. And we get grace enough to bear it — when we run into the arms of Grace who bore it all, into Him Who is more than enough.
I run my hand across the page. Gather the manna up into hands, what really is, and all that feeds:
“Our cries to the Lord — are what give us communion with the Lord. It’s the dire distress that drives us into the deep devotion. 
It’s when all fails, His love never fails — and this is why we are a people who can always give thanks.”

I wish I’d written that, but at the same time, I’m thankful someone else did.

It’s a hard lesson and a tough truth. One writer called it a severe mercy that we only truly know the deep love of God in difficult circumstances. We only know the fathomless grace of God in the midst of suffering and pain.

When everything goes right and all is well with the world, the default setting is self-sufficiency. It’s only when our plans crumble that we cry out to God.

I’m not asking God to give you trials but only that He will be with you in the midst of the ones you’re already in. Jesus didn’t say if you have troubles but when. They are inevitable in this world.

I’m asking for God to strengthen you to bear the burden you’re under. I’m asking for the Grace that is always sufficient for you.

May God always be enough for you, no matter what.

It’s crazy how fast time goes these days.

I looked at my calendar today and realized that it’s only 2 weeks until Halloween.

After that comes Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas, and then 2020.

What?

I’ll just be done processing Halloween when it’s time to sit down and eat turkey.

My turkey will still be digesting in my belly when it’s time to open presents.

I’ll barely have the wrapping paper off when it will be time to ring in the new year.

Well, happy Hallowthanksmas and a happy new year.

I honestly don’t know what it is about fall that stirs up nostalgia in me. It seems like every time an autumn breeze sweeps over me, it conjurs up a childhood memory or makes me feel things I did when I was little.

I can remember one time when I was very little and got sick at my pre-school (or maybe it was daycare). I recall that my grandmother came to get me and take me home. I distinctly remember passing by a courtyard filled with those tiny rocks that they used to use for playgrounds. At least that’s what it seems like in my memory.

That is one of my favorite memories of my grandmother. I don’t know why it (and other memories like it) seems to come back to me in autumnal weather.

Today was one of those days where I could have curled up with a blanket in a hammock and been quite content to take a nap all day. And possibly dream of days gone by.

I do love fall days.

“Trust God from the bottom of your heart;
    don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go;
    he’s the one who will keep you on track” (Proverbs 3:5-6, The Message).

“Place your trust in the Eternal; rely on Him completely;
    never depend upon your own ideas and inventions.
Give Him the credit for everything you accomplish,
    and He will smooth out and straighten the road that lies ahead” (Proverbs 3:5-6, The Voice).

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

That’s how I grew up reading this familiar passage.

I probably read over it a thousand times and never really grasped it.

It’s all at once simple to understand and exceedingly difficult to live out.

In fact, it’s impossible in my own strength.

How do I trust God completely instead of trusting in my own understanding?

How do I cling to Jesus when it goes against every natural instinct in me?

My default setting is to lean on my own understanding, incomplete and faulty as it is, and to shun God.

My own experience has been that when I do trust God completely, I’m amazed at what happens. When I trust my own understanding, it doesn’t go well.

Lord, help me to trust You when it doesn’t come natural to me. Help me see that Your ways are always best. Help me remember that You are big enough for my doubts and questions, and You are strong enough to deliver me when I only have the tiniest seed of faith.

Amen.