Desert Colours

This morning a friend and I hit the road to find a place to run up the side of the mountain. We made it to a trail head, ditched the car, and spend the whole morning wandering around the desert mountain, exploring the unique beauty of the flora and fauna. There are so many different types of cacti, and so many different thorns to step on. And then there are the little splashes of purple and yellow as flowers bloom in the cracks and crevices of the rocks. The thing that got my attention though was the moss. On what appeared to be the smooth surfaces of rock, this little fuzzy plant would find a way to grow, and the colour it emitted was that of neon green! Living in the midst of the desert, I was surprised by the presence of such vibrant colour and life.

Smile

Today, in exchange for a smile, I got a feast!

Every once in a while I like to go back to the first home I had here in El Paso. Today is one of those days. I wanted to use the internet and see some old friends, so I headed over to the hotel right after church. On entering, I greeted the guy behind the desk, asking if it was ok if I took over my usual corner. He was on the phone, so he gave me a quick thumbs up. Sitting down and setting up my stuff, I saw the man I mentioned HERE, and started smiling just thinking about our last conversation. He looked up to see me smiling, and broke into a grin himself, asking me what I was smiling for. He then introduced himself as "T", asking me if he could get me anything: yogurt? cereal? waffles? bagel?   I asked him what the kindness was for, and the only explanation I got was that I was smiling.

Knowing that all I had brought was a granola bar, I accepted the offer and ended up with a toasted bagel topped with cream cheese, some water, and some chips. 

T's advice for me today: Missi, you betta watch yo back. 'cauz if'n you don watch i', you's a gunna end up with a back like mine here. You take care o' yo back. you watch out fo' it, you hear? 

So watch your back everyone :)

Are You Squeamish?

I enjoy listening to stories, especially when the story-teller creates a story in such a way that it feels like it were happening right at that moment. I don't know about for you, but there are some things that don't need a good story teller in order for me to feel the story. Stories of miracles make my heart dance. Stories of worms make my stomach churn. Stories of lice make my head itch. 

In an earlier post I was telling you about the pantry in my house and my discovery that a lot of the food was unclaimed. Well, the other day I was making something with an egg, and I wanted to stretch it, so I decided to add a bit of flour. Taking out a leftover bag of flour, I took a partial cup of it and was about to dump it into the bowl when I saw it. Subtle, yes; but one of the mounds in the flour moved. Taking out a sieve, I let the flour fall through, and, when all was said and done, there lay three little bugs, writhing in the bottom of the sieve. ...

What was I supposed to do? 

After a short time of contemplation, I ate my supper, trying not to think of the bug eggs that might still be in it, then made a mental note to freeze any flour I would buy in the future. 

Food

Do you have something in life that you absolutely have to have? something that you can’t live without? something that takes your attention?

One focal area in my life is food. I have a love/hate relationship with food. I know that I need food to stay alive, but I don’t always feel like it is a great use of money to go spend it all on food. It hasn’t really been on my list of prayer requests, but in these past months I’ve seen God’s provision again and again, through generous donations, friends asking me to house sit and eat their perishables, co-workers bringing their food when they go on cleanses, and just the other day, I looked in the back-yard, saw that the garden was ripe for harvest, and there is now an abundant supply of tomatoes and peppers in my freezer. My latest food encounter: baking supplies. I had given an open invitation to a friend to come over for some homemade bread, but baking supplies had never been on my shopping list. The other day, as I was trying to clean up part of the pantry, I was asking about a shelf of food that seemed forgotten, and it turns out it was. Some of the past house dwellers left their baking supplies behind as they went on to seek their future. So I now have FOUR shelves of random baking supplies and non-perishables at my whim and fancy. God has a way of surprising me in ways I least expect. J

Prayer

I was out in the garden today, picking containers full of tomatoes, peppers and egg plant before anything freezes. As I was making my way inside with my treasures, I almost stepped on this little guy:

Isn't God so creative?! For me it was just a little something to remind me to keep my line with God open. I mean, if a bug can look like he's praying all the time, I can at least let him be a reminder for me to pray. :)

Coldness

For those of you up north who are dealing with snow storms, I will make a confession. I have acclimatized to the weather down here. Or in other words, I'm a wimp when it comes to dropping temperatures. 

I woke up this morning, half in my sleeping bag, and half frozen. I lay there for a long time, not wanting to move lest I let some of my precious body heat escape. I finally came to my senses enough to realize that if I didn't move, my situation would just continue to worsen, and I would get colder and colder until I'd eventually get up anyway or succumb to the cold and freeze to death (I've heard that when you freeze to death, when you get to the end, you don't even realize you're cold). Listening to reason, I sat up, jumped out of bed, and immediately started doing jumping jacks, which transitioned into high stepping, sit-ups, and finally push ups. I'm not normally this ambitious in the mornings, in fact, I haven't done exercises in the morning for months now, but once I was through with them, I was warmed up and ready to face the day. 

Now, if I think of this scenario in a different light, I see it's the same way in my relationship with God. If I just lie immobile, without making any effort to practice what I believe, I will get colder and colder (less and less responsive) until I don't even realize what state I am in. If I want my situation to keep from worsening, I need to jump out of my immobility and start exercising my faith and faithfulness.

Now, just to keep this all in perspective, I just checked the temperature outside, and it's only 2*C out there, still WAY above freezing :)

Darkness

A couple of weeks ago, my car died. After so many years of faithful service to our family, I buy her, and she dies. The problem, thanks to a diagnosis from a mechanic in the church, was the starter.
This slight hiccup didn't throw my life into chaos (in fact it was through this that I now have a bike); but for my job, and also for the rate of my life, a car is sometimes necessary. I checked out different mechanics and their prices, and decided on one. Then, early one morning before I went to work, I prayed really hard and went outside. I hit the starter as hard as I dared with a metal rod that happened to be in my trunk and went to try starting her. The car vroom-ed to life, and I made my way to the mechanic shop.
I got to my destination, parked the car, and left a note on the steering wheel since the shop wasn't open yet. With everything in place, I hopped out of the car, wrapped my scarf around my head to keep warm, and I started off.

Having the tendency to sometimes display characteristics of my father (such as his timing), I had timed my morning perfectly, so that I'd have enough time to go there, walk back home, and pack up before biking off to work (and I'd still get there before anyone else), but what I hadn't taken into consideration was the sun. Just because I was up and running around the city, that didn't mean that the sun was going to change its schedule for me. Though I thought it would be up already, since it usually was starting to shine at this time, it evidently didn't take my expectations into consideration.
I knew my way home perfectly well, but somehow the darkness changed my state of mind from confident to wary, and even a bit jumpy. Finally, wondering what was taking the sun so long, I turned around and was faced with the most glorious sunrise lighting up the sky. Knowing that the day was coming, I turned my face toward home, looked at the black sky with starts still twinkling, and I went on my way without fear.
That just goes to remind me that, even in the hardest times when hope is hard to find and darkness seems to suffocate, I only have to shift my gaze and I will see the light.

The Unexpected

I'm used to getting answers from my parents. When I used to ask them to borrow the car, the answer would be "is your room clean?" When I'd ask who'd pay for gas, there'd be a reminder that I too had a job. ...the point is, when I asked a question, there would be an answer. I didn't just ask a question then walk away because the answer was slow in coming. I'd wait. I know my parents well enough to know that as long as they hear the question, there will be an answer...unless the question is shouted from the other floor of the house. Then there is be a pause long enough for me to understand that I need to go to where they were before the answer would come. 

Why does it seem so easy to expect answers from my parents, but then when I ask questions from God it usually takes intentionallity and self reminders to wait in expectation for an answer? How is it that I can ask a question of God, then, without even pausing, my brain is already on to something else, having forgotten for the moment the conversation it had started. How can I accuse God of not speaking to me when I don't stick around to listen? If somebody asked me an earnest question, then started talking about this, that, or the other thing without giving me time to answer, I just wouldn't answer. I would keep quiet until they took time to listen. 

...for the past couple of weeks I've been praying for a musical outlet; more specifically, a place where I can play piano or tinker around on a guitar free of charge. In the beginning I'd asked around a bit, but no one at work seemed to know of any place. In spite of that, God happened to know how to get these things. Though  I tried to expect Him to answer, I know sometimes what I ask for isn't what's best for me, so I also tried to be realistic. 

First came the guitar. One of my roommates pulled out her guitar for a bit, and she must have noticed me looking at it, because she quickly offered that whenever I wanted I could use it.  Then, after music practice on Thursday, the leader mentioned that I should take the keyboard home with me in between practices...

That just goes to show that if we "know how to give good gifts [and answers] to our children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" (Matt 7:11)