Psalm 23 In The Time of Covid19

Surely this is one of the most famous portions of Scripture.  I remember learning it as a child.  And for that reason I believe that I sort of wrote it off for so many years.  But over the past ten years this psalm has become a constant hum in the back of my brain.  It is always there.  It is always providing comfort.  It is always available to "call to mind" so that I can have hope (Read Lam. 3:16-26, noting verse 21).

All of the sheep herding images and so beautiful to us.  We love the idea of lacking nothing.  Lying down in green pastures!  I am no shepherd but I am pretty sure sheep only lie down when they trust that they are safe.  And sheep need still waters - fast moving currents are dangerous.

Abruptly the image changes - I am being lead in paths of righteousness.  I am walking in threatening places but I have no fear.  I trust the Shepherd. He is with me.  His direction and correction are a comfort to me.  They aid in my awareness that I am safe.

My perspective on verse 5 changed several years ago.  This passage always brought to mind images of eating at a great big Southern table filled with my favorite foods on fine china with with the most beautiful table cloth and hydrangeas everywhere.  My enemies were so far away I didn't notice them.  They could see me but I paid no attention to them.  I have very few enemies.  However, one day I was at my favorite restaurant in the world, eating my favorite food in the world (mutton and burgoo is you must know!) and in walked one of my only enemies.  Someone who did not want my good.  And INSTANTLY this verse rushed to the forefront of my brain.  THIS is what it means.  I am eating in the very presence of my enemies.  He is not far away.  He is right beside me.  He can see me.  He knows what I am eating.  He can stare.  BUT God (don't you love those two words when they are together?) has set this banquet table.  He is here.  He has set me apart (anointed my head with oil). My cup is overflowing with blessing.  I have nothing to fear.  Strangely, I am not afraid.  (Definitely unsettled, mind you, but not afraid.)

This is what Psalm 23 is all about.  Surely God's goodness and his mercy are mine.  All the days of my life.  God is mine.  I am his.  I will dwell in his steadfast love and faithfulness in His house forever.

How beautiful to think on this psalm in this crazy time of COVID19.  We are being told that we must assume it is everywhere.  We are exposed.  Maybe for you that feels like the valley of the shadow of death or it feels like that banquet table with the enemy very near.  Either way - God is with us.  He is not far away.  He leads us and protects us.  May we suffer?  Yes.  But our heads are anointed - we are set apart to and for Him.  Psalm 4:3 - But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for Himself.  We cannot make ourselves Godly - He freely give us godliness and righteousness in the gift of Jesus.  2 Corinthians 5:21:  For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord FOREVER. 

Thoughts for Mother's Day

I am a mother.  Some of my friends are not.  I can still hug my momma.  Some of my friends cannot. Some of my friends don't even want to hug their mommas.  Mother's Day is such a hard day.  I find it even more difficult in the church.  The capitalistic, American church has developed a devastating value system for women that plays out on this holiday.  The church says:  Married woman, worthy.  Single woman, less worthy.  Wife with kids, the most worthy.  Wife with no kiddos, failure.  What a calamitous thing to do to each other!!   Why would I be seen as more godly, more blessed, more valued, more anything just because of what has been given to me?  How did my value get determined based on things that I had NOTHING to do with acquiring?  ALL women are a reflection of our heavenly Father.  We reflect an aspect of Him that could not be reflected in men or even in one group of women.  We are daughters of the King.  We are loved and valued and cherished by God.  Why do we stand by as shame and humiliation and disgrace are placed on other women.  Please, oh please, my Trailhead women and other fellow followers of Christ, let us love each other well today.  Let us SEE each other and place the highest value on each one of us - married, single, mother, daughter, divorced, widowed, young, old, black, white, wealthy and poor.  Let us choose our words carefully (maybe you even need to write down ideas for greeting others before you leave the house!).  We will all stand before Jesus Christ one day equal in every way.  We have been redeemed.  We have been washed in the blood of Jesus our Savior - the one who paid a great price for us.  See each other in that light.

A Trip for Two to the Florida Keys

This is October.  It is starting to get chilly - which I love.  But it has me reminiscing over the warm days of summer.  Steve and I had a lovely trip to Florida this year.  So I will share a few photos and stories from a lovely week full of little surprises.  Mostly just enjoy the pictures!

This is the view from our condo.  There is a nice little bench right there on that dock.  We saw sunsets and dolphins and basked in the warm sunshine.  (Booked through VRBO - find some great deal there by searching Islamorada.)

We were right on the water - with two chairs just waiting for us!  There was kayaking and swimming by the pool, day dreaming, and lots and lots of relaxing.  

                                                      

We took a quick run down to Key West.  Some of the highlights were the Audobon House to see original John James Audobon paintings.  It is also worth your time to hike on over to Blue Heaven (www.blueheavenkw.com).  Don't miss the loaded black bean bowl.

We had lots of key lime pie on a stick!  I won't even tell you how many times we stopped to pick a couple of them up!  In Key West Visit Kermit's.  Thankfully they also sell them at almost all Circle K's in the area as well.

Best muffins in the Keys!  Try Harriette's Key Lime Muffins served warm.  Makes my mouth water just thinking about it!  Harriette's is located in Key Largo.

The very best part of the trip were the sunsets!  Every. Single. Night.  We saw the most amazing skies.  From our bench at the condo or from a restaurant on the water.  At one particular restaurant Steve and I were sitting on the dock watching the sun go down.  It was the most peaceful evening - we just sat and watched the sun go down while enjoying just being together.  I turned to Steve and said, "I wish someone would take our picture."  Five minutes later two women visiting from Great Britain said that they had just taken the most amazing picture of us and would like to show us!  They texted us this photo!  I have been so grateful to God for this tiny little blessing - and for those two very gracious ladies.  Maybe I cried... 

Perhaps the best choice of the trip was deciding to take a group sunset cruise.  We were on a budget

 

so chose a pontoon tour that held around fifty people. Renting a boat for ourselves was just too pricey.  However, when we arrived, no one showed up but us!  So instead of a packed out boat vying for the best views,  we had one captain and his little boat and the whole sunset all to ourselves!

We started out with the tour guide giving us his routine - but after a few minutes I asked him to turn off the loud music and just hang out with us.  He graciously agreed!  He answered all our questions, confirmed my eagle sightings, watched a shark with us and told us all sorts of interesting facts.  The most important of which, was that he had not found any wayward pythons!  Thank goodness!  He even gave us complete silence to watch the sun go down.  I think we were all three in awe.  It was the most perfect gift ever.  Maybe I cried again...  haha!  I couldn't have dreamed of a more relaxing way to end our week away.  The two and a half hour trip ended with a lightening show as we pulled back in to the dock!  If you are ever in the Keys, check out the tours at Cheeca Lodge (book through Islamorada Boat Tours (www.islamoradaboattours.com).  It was also a great way to see a beautiful lodge that I had been wanting to see for years... just too pricey to vacation at!

This is looking back over our shoulders as we headed back before it got to dark!

All in all it was the best night ever.  But Steve might actually put up an argument about that.  Some time you should ask him about snorkeling - with SHARKS!  He had such a great time.  If you can imagine that being a great time!  He came back grinning like a little boy - who had just seen a shark up close and personal!  I got the added bonus of Steve without a beard (cause you can't snorkel with a beard).  Haven't seen that face in years.  Looks just like the boy I married so very long ago!  (For the best snorkeling experience in the Keys, book through Bahia Honda State Park. at www.bahiahondapark.com/looe-key-snorkeling-tours.html)


There are a hundred different sunset photos and fifty different food pics.  We had great weather and great meals and even got upgraded from our original rental to a convertible Camaro!  Every little detail of this trip was a blessing from God.  We are so thankful for the good gifts he gives.

The sunset on our first night - from the chairs on the beach at our condo.

View from the tables at the Islamorada Fish Company!  Great food, too.

This was right before two dolphins swam past.

The whole week I had hoped to see a manatee - which is apparently unusual for June/July.  But we saw three!!  One was a cute little baby.  So thankful for this little blessing as well.

We ended the trip with a visit to our favorite church away from Trailhead - Core Community Church

in Homestead, FL.  Such a refreshing visit with good friends.  Then on to our conference in Miami.  It was such a sweet week full of little reminders that we have a glorious God who revels in showing off His creative beauty!  And boy, did we enjoy every minute of it!  Even better that we got to spend it together.  After twenty six years of adventures, I am still glad to run away with Steve.  Already planning when and where we can sneak off to next!  But it's gonna be hard to beat those sunsets...

“Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.” – Ibn Battuta( a Morracan traveler from the 1300's)

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. ~Lin Yutang (Chinese writer and inventor 1895-1976)

A Story of Friendship and Kentucky Blue

It is March.  That means March Madness.  My team is doing pretty well.  I am happy.  Today I am actually wearing my Kentucky sweatshirt.  That used to just make me think of my beloved Wildcats team.  Lately, though, I think more of my friends when I where this.  There is a lovely story.  I'll share it with you.

Back in the early fall of 2014 I woke from one of those mesmerizing dreams that leave you wishing you could go back to sleep.  I dreamt that it was my birthday and all I wanted was hot fudge sundaes and time to pray with a group of eight specific women.  So I promptly emailed all eight of them and told them about my wacky, beautiful dream.  They did not all know each other and we all live in far away places, so getting together is impossible.  But I wanted each of them to know how fun my dream was and how someday in heaven we would have hot fudge sundaes together and plenty of time to pray!

Fast forward to my actual birthday.  Wouldn't you know it, but one of those women is a beautiful instigator!  And she worked her tail off to plan a way for all of those wonderful women to secretly come to my house - everyone made it except one who needed to stay home (but she was so very missed!).  The funny thing is that I was actually cleaning my garage when they showed up!  Steve had taken me out to birthday dinner and then I had asked if we could spend some time working on our colossal disaster of a garage!  (Yes, I know, I know.  Not very cool.   But "acts of service" is my love language!)  I teased him later that he could have said, "Yes, dear.  But you may want to put on a cute shirt to do so!"  He did not.  So I was scrubbing mud off of the back door while wearing my big, well worn, very unflattering Kentucky sweatshirt when my first friend walked in!

In comes  beautiful friend #1 with ice cream.  She said she wanted to give me a hot fudge sundae for my birthday.  Hooray for me!  Nothing too unusual.  Then two more beautiful friends showed up.  I should have been suspicious when I noticed my Arkansas friend wearing a UK shirt.  However,  I was so excited I didn't really process that.  Then my most cherished, lovely Kansas City friend strolled in and I could start crying even now when thinking of how elated I was to see her!  We proceeded to make our sundaes.  Then... they kept on coming!  One at a time!  My beautiful friend from Wisconsin.  Oh, the tears!  And as soon as I stopped crying in walked my lovely friend from Memphis!   More sobbing and hugging!  Then, my lovely friend from Florida waltzed in and I was a weeping fountain of tears!  Y'all - there is video.  I am not joking.  But I will refrain from sharing that... you are welcome!  It was so sweet, yet heart wrenching, to hear that my dear, dear beautiful friend from St. Louis had been
unable to join us for reasons outside her control!    (But boy did we pray for her!)

Bonus - they were all wearing Kentucky blue!!

Oh everyone... have you ever been overwhelmed with how loved you are?  I am so rarely overwhelmed (except maybe by fear!).  But they did it.  I am told that I ate a hot fudge sundae - but I truly don't remember it.  And it was the sweetest time of prayer that I have EVER experienced.  Sadly, at the end of the evening - well, in the early morning, everyone had to go back to their homes and families.  It was truly like a dream.

What a story of friendship and sacrifice.  It was hard to leave families and responsibilities and drive for hours (one friend with a broken tailbone even! and one friend hopping several different flights)!  But I am grateful.  They are such a picture of the sacrificial love of Jesus to me.  Every day.  They love me well by praying and pointing me back to Jesus.  Makes me think of the verse in Hebrews 10:26  "Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works."

It is difficult to write a post like this - for I have so, so many good friends.  I cannot tell you where I would be without my Trailhead Church friends and family.  They love me day in and day out and I love them right back!  Truly.  And my husband and parents and sisters and my children!  But these ladies made a dream come true.  Literally.  :)  And I am thankful.

Welcome 2015

Hard to believe that I haven't written anything since 2014... oh, so long ago. But here we are in March already. January and February (and Stevie-palooza) were lovely. But the clock keeps ticking onward.

And in those ticking moments, I have been thinking about community. This calls for a Wendell Berry quote, don't you think?

"A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves."  ~Wendell Berry, The Long-Legged House (1969)

Such a sweet place to be in. "And so I came to belong to this place..."

Twenty Five Years with You, Stevie

How do we celebrate twenty five years of marriage, Steve?  Words just can't do it.  At least not mine - you are the one who is good with words.  So - how about a little walk down memory lane with twenty five songs?  Twenty five songs for twenty five years
of marriage!

1989 - We got married!!  Two Hearts Beat As One - U2  Do you remember that thunderstorm in Louisville on our honeymoon?  One of my Very. Best. Moments. Ever.
1990 - Dancing with you in our first Missouri apartment - Soul Cages - Sting
1991 - We got to see U2 at Busch Stadium.  I was pregnant with Victoria.  It was SO loud.  We saw Bono interview someone from Sarajevo and call President Bush.  Such a good memory.  Mysterious Ways - U2.
1992 - Victoria is born!   Your first words to her were "You are so beautiful.  She's so beautiful.  She's so beautiful!"  We had sung "You are my Sunshine" for months waiting for her arrival.  We had no idea how Baby Sunshine would change everything.  She did.  She still does.  Listen to Johnny Cash sing it and celebrate the enthusiastic, brilliant, driven, beautiful woman she has grown into!  As she says, she is 100% you and 100% me crammed into one body!  You Are My Sunshine - Johnny Cash
1993 - I Would Walk 500 Miles - The Proclaimers
1994 - We first heard Dave Matthews Band on David Letterman.  One listen and we were hooked.  One of our best dates was Dave Matthews at Riverport.  Yay for babysitters!  Under the Table and Dreaming - DMB
1995 - In May God gave us the blessing of Esther.  She was born so alert and pink and beautiful.  She stole our hearts.  And little did we know just how many shark facts we would learn or how many shark movies we would watch! The tiny shark loving girl has grown to be a shark-obsessed woman!  Listen to the theme song from Jaws and celebrate the beautiful, independent, creative, gifted woman she has become.  The Theme From Jaws
1996 - This life is crazy!!  No sleep for us.  Stay Up Late - Talking Heads
1997 - Remember that time we LOVED hearing Jakob Dylan and the Wallflowers but we walked out on Counting Crows?  Another great date night on a hot August evening.  "Laughing Out Loud" with you.
1998 - Isaac is born!  He has made us laugh from the beginning.  Little smiley boy Steve called him.  Little boy blue.  He is growing to be big and strong like his dad and to love Jesus with his whole heart.  Yet he is different from you in so many ways.  Listen to one of his favorite songs, Beautiful Day, and celebrate the joy that he brings, the hugs that he gives, and the smart, thoughtful, caring, handsome man he has become.  Beautiful Day - U2
1999 - Ten years of marriage!   California Stars - Billy Bragg
2000 - New House!  Ringing in the new century! And bluegrass makes a comeback.  :)  I'll Fly Away - Allison Krauss 
2001 - The most healing, spiritual concert after 9/11 was U2.  Such a painful thing.  But a beautiful song.  One - U2
2002  How many times do you think we have sung Man Of Sorrows by now?  Every night for TEN years!  Man of Sorrows - anybody!
2003 - Oh, Norah Jones.  Come Away with Me - Norah Jones
2004 - We found our way to a new church and it changed everything.  From the psalms... a new song! U2 - 40
2005 - For the first time ever we left the kiddos and travelled to CA alone.  I will never forget that week.  The ocean and the hiking and the clam chowder and the rain and light houses and the sleeping to the sound of the waves again.  Do you want to be my "One and Only" love?  One and Only Love - Teitur
2006 - This year life changes forever.  You go to work for the Journey and our next adventure begins.  I will follow you anywhere.   Rocco Delucca - Colorful
2007  - Sometimes you hear a song and know that it will forever be in your brain - because it expresses so much of what is in your heart.  "All of these lines upon my face tell you the story of who i am... so many stories of where i been and how i got to where i am... I was made for you.  Story by Brandie Carlisle
2008 - I turned 40.  We celebrated our 19th anniversary.  We started a church!  AND in the same month we traveled to Ireland and Northern Ireland.  We realized that Snow Patrol was from Belfast.  "Crack the Shutters Open Wide" was released the month we were there.
2009 - Twenty years of marriage.  It went by so quickly.  And still...  "All I Want is You" - Jars of Clay version may even be better than the real thing.  :)
2009/2010 - Mumford and Sons  "Awake My Soul"
2011 - Trailhead begins!  Jesus of the Scars - Jake Gehret
2012 -Trailhead's first birthday!!  Beautiful Things - Gungor
2013 -  God is so good to us.  Approach My Soul the Mercy Seat - Jon Yerby
2014 - Three years at Trailhead and twenty five years of marriage.  Teach Me To Know - Lone Bellow 

Honorable Mentions!
Rain in the Summertime - The Alarm
War Child/Where The Streets Have No Name - Elbow
Joel Lindsey - What Is Love?
Unchained Melody - Willie Nelson

I have been thinking about these songs and these memories for a while now.  Each song evokes so much emotion.   We have had such a good life, Stevie.  I am so very thankful for it.  I know that what we have is a gift - nothing we have earned and deserved or created.  God gives good gifts.

Here are the lyrics to The Story by Brandi Carlile.  

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am

But these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you

I climbed across the mountaintops
swam all across the ocean blue
I crossed all the lines and I broke all the rules
But baby I broke them all for you

Oh because even when I was flat broke
You made me feel like a million bucks
You do, I was made for you

You see the smile that's on my mouth
It's hiding the words that don't come out
And all of my friends who think that I'm blessed

They don't know my head is a mess

No they don't know who I really am
And they don't know what I've been through
Like you do, and I was made for you

All of these lines across my face
Tell you the story of who I am
So many stories of where I've been
And how I got to where I am

Oh but these stories don't mean anything
When you've got no one to tell them to
It's true, I was made for you
Oh yeah, well it's true that I was made for you

Ha!  I just wrote a whole blog without a Wendell Berry reference!  Haha!  Proud of me?

Mother's Day Request

Today is one of those days I dread.  I know so many women do.  So for today, would you do me a favor?  When you pass a woman, one of your friends, would you LOOK at her?  Really look at her?

Take a moment to see her heart - not the external circumstances she is living in.  We as women can be a tough bunch.  "Happy Mother's Day" can be thrown around without much thought.  To many it is a day of sadness - for what has been lost (mother or child) or what has never been.  To many, it is a glorious day to celebrate all that has been given.  And even, it should be a day to celebrate women who aren't mothers (maybe not even married) who have helped you along the way - to be your mom or help as you be a mom.

So please, look at her.  Really look at her.  You may not know what to say, but that is okay.  Maybe that is even better.