Blogs for Christian Living

One of the costs of love is loss.  With loss comes grief. Grief is a strange process.  There are moments of joy in the remembrance, lack of hope in not having control, despair in the loss, alternating acceptance and denial of the reality of the situation, anger in the outcome or even the process.  We can have moments of rational thoughts that quickly morph into the irrational.   Today (January 17, 2020) we are saying goodbye to Duchess, our precious Shih Tzu.  Duchess was born October 31, 2004 and came into our life on March 16, 2005. Over the past 15 years she has been a faithful snuggler, energetic encourager, and…

It has been a day! It started at about 2:00 a.m. with our aging dog requiring extra assistance for the remainder of the wee hours.  Of course, it was also our oldest daughter’s birthday, and I needed to be up hanging birthday decorations to “surprise” her when she woke.  This has become a family tradition, and therefore, has transitioned from surprise to the norm, but it is even more important because her birthday is so close to Christmas. It didn’t happen this particular morning.  I comforted myself in the fact that this year I was going to actually have the time to make and decorate her cake, even if the…

We have resumes and CVs, degrees and certifications – things that we promote to others that tell them we are qualified to do the work that they need done.  Even if you are applying for a job that says “no experience required”, they want to know what skills or abilities you have to see if you are qualified to be hired. But in God’s Kingdom, things that qualify us are different than what we would put on a resume.  The Lord regularly asks me to do things that I’m not qualified, in the earthly sense, to do.   I do numbers Dallas and I used to say that I do numbers…

As we are entering winter, and the time of burning fires for heat, I have been working on getting ready by splitting the wood that I gathered earlier in the year.  As I worked, I was thinking about how these trees stood tall on the hillside of Legacy Heights and now they are being prepared to be burned in a fireplace or wood stove.  One of the trees was over 30 inches in diameter and well over 50 feet in height less than a year ago. Now it sits in roughly 16-18 inch long rounds waiting to be split, stacked and burned. At first it seemed kinda sad to think…

A friend was telling me about a recent hunting trip.  He had sighted a buck that then disappeared into the thickets.  After several days of hunting and not seeing much, the buck was a great sight to behold, and he really wanted to take it home.  He prayed that if the Lord would cause the buck to come back out into the open, then he would be able to make the shot and take care of the rest. As a good Father, the Lord answered his prayer.  The buck came out into the open, and my friend proceeded to take the shot.  Missed. Another shot. Missed. And another miss, then…

As mentioned a couple of months ago, we have learned to depend on the Lord as THE Provider.  This week, I want to share specific provisions for housing.   We sold our house in August 2016 with the expectation that the ministry would be getting an RV for us to live in and travel around the country coming alongside pastors and churches.  This would be an example of our expectations not being what God intended. After selling the house, we camped in the mountains on some family land for 10 weeks, traveled some, housesat, spent the winter in a dome house outside Westcliffe, lived in my nephew’s bedroom for 9 weeks,…

There’s been a trail that has taunted me for the past two summers.  It is almost always in the top listings for trails near Westcliffe on Alltrails.com when I’m looking for places to hike.  I’ve considered it many times but have hesitated because of the length (about 12 miles). It’s the Venable-Comanche Trail.  I’ve hiked portions of it before but not the entire loop. On the Venable side, I’ve been to Venable Falls a couple of times.  I’ve also been partway up the Comanche side. Today was the day to go all the way to Comanche Lake.  Really not a difficult hike (comparatively speaking), and Ginger, my 11 year-old dog,…

You may think that my hiking boots are worn out. Maybe you are right, but I think of them as well-conditioned.  I’ve walked a lot of miles in these boots in the past three years (yes, they are only 3 years old). They have been some of the most comfortable boots I’ve owned.  As I was hiking one day, I was thinking about the miles and process of getting to the point where I could hike to the high mountain lakes and not dread each and every next step and how that relates to our faith journey. My first hike wasn’t to the peaks of a twelve or thirteen thousand…

How we see things can be very different than how others see them.  Our perspective is influenced by many factors including where we are in life, our past experiences, and our beliefs.   We live in the Wet Mountain Valley which, while about 8,000 feet in elevation, is relatively flat and low compared to the mountains around us, many of which are above 12,000 feet.  What we see from the valley is vastly different from what we see when on the mountain.   Two views Take a look at the two pictures.  One is taken from our front deck at about 7,900 feet. The other is taken from about 10,700 feet up…

Feelings, feelings, feelings.  We all have them. Some have got that loving feeling.  Others have feelings of dread. We know when things don’t feel right and wonder how long the good feeling will last.  Feelings are all around us. How much influence should our feelings have on what we do? How do our feelings affect our faith? If it feels good In America we are told, “If it feels good, do it.”  Unfortunately, that can lead us down some very dangerous paths.  Doing something that feels good in the moment often has negative feelings and results in the afterglow.  Taking a look at a beautiful woman who is not our…