Buggy Thoughts

A Weekend To Remember

Labor Day weekend around our house is generally pretty quiet. Jon and I usually just  kick back and catch up with ourselves and those long forgotten chores around the house. So as we headed into this past weekend the proverbial question was on the table- “What’s on the docket this weekend”. Friday and Saturday were pretty much scripted for us with a wedding at church. But we had no idea what we were up to the rest of the weekend. As it turns out this was a weekend to remember. Thinking back on the beautiful wedding that joined a young couple together as they begin a new adventure in their lives, a day trip to Galena to enjoy the beauty of the area, some shopping and beautiful weather and then an expedition up north to Effigy Mounds National Monument I’m reminded of how blessed we are by the beauty and the grace of God that so totally surrounds us each and every day. Standing up on the bluff at Effigy Mounds overlooking the mighty Mississippi, watching eagles soar overhead, enjoying time together with just each other and friends made this a weekend to remember. I hope you all had such a weekend!

Just a thought

I love my new desk calendar “By the Light of the Psalms”. Each day brings a new verse from the Psalms, along with a sweet thought about that particular verse. This morning it really caught my eye. Here’s the first part of today’s Psalm.

“The Sparrow hath found a nest.” Psalm 84:3.

About 4 weeks ago we noticed a momma robin fervently making a nest on one of our upstairs bedroom windowsills. As she was creating this new home for her soon to be babies the weather turned cold with gale force winds and tons of rain. We kept checking to see how she was doing and found her constantly hunkered down in her nest protecting her new home from the elements. Soon there were 3 eggs in the nest. We thought for sure we would find the eggs blown down off the sill and laying on the sidewalk below. Then one day -- 3 baby robins appeared. The wind kept blowing, momma robin kept sitting in her nest protecting her new babies just as so many of us do with our children. How quickly they grew in a couple of weeks! And the other day we see three little robins lined up on the windowsill waiting to test their wings! It has made me really think about God’s creation surrounding us that we so frequently take for granted. Momma robin could’ve so easily chosen a safe spot on a lower branch of a tree protected by the wind. Instead, in my mind, she took a step out in faith, built her nest on a second story window sill pretty much in the open with nothing to protect her from predators, the wind, rain, or cold except the little corner where sill meets house. Did she know that God would protect even her, a little robin, just a bird? Do we have that kind of faith and trust too? Here’s the second part of today’s calendar:

No detail too small in the Kingdom of God

Il Divo " Amazing Grace "

We've been watching clips from "The Passion of the Christ" during Lent, each one just as heart wrenching as the next.  So I thought that it might be a little hard to find something that might hit my heart like those have been, but this video clip was sent to me by a friend.  "Amazing Grace" sung by Il Divo in the Colesium in Rome-the same place where Christians were martyred for their faith in God's amazing grace..  A wonderful turn of events!

Stop searching and just surrender!

This past week I was responsible for the devotions at our Lutheran Services of Iowa Board meeting. I have to tell you that I really struggled with this devotion. I do have to admit, and I know for some you will find this hard to believe, that it was somewhat intimidating for me to have to do the devotion to a room full of several Pastors, and 3 Bishops. I’m not a pastor or theologian, I’m just the PW and so those little lay person inadequacies live within me! But I really wanted to bring something that would touch their hearts and maybe even be somewhat thought provoking. I had been racking my brain to find a good devotion, but nothing was coming to me. I dug through my many devotional books but still nothing. I threw some ideas out to Jon as we were driving back and forth to the cities last weekend, but nothing was gelling. I prayed for God to lay something in front of me, but I wasn’t seeing anything. I read the lessons for last Sunday, but nothing. I even said to Jon the day before my meeting that maybe my devotion should be on how sometimes God just doesn’t speak to us and give us the words to say. He kind of looked at me with that okay, whatever look that he does when I come up with something off the wall. I was really fretting over this whole thing! But, I just wasn’t seeing what God was putting in front of me. It was there all the time, but I just wasn’t hearing it. We’ve been talking about it at Progression on Thursday nights, I’ve been reading about it in a book I’ve been reading “The Sacred Echo”, it was in the Gospel for last Sunday but I didn’t see it. It was at the Matthew West concert that we went to on Tuesday night when he was talking about his vocal surgery that he had to have last year at this time. He didn’t know if he was ever going to sing again. It was while the water of the shower was washing over me that it was in that stillness I heard God say “ha- you only think I’m not giving you the words”. And there it was- Surrender. And then it came- the thoughts came flowing out so fast I couldn’t get dressed quick enough so that I could get it all down so I could remember everything I was thinking. surrender- that’s all that we have to do. We only have to lay it all down at His feet and totally surrender everything, trusting in Him. But, we’ve learned to be control freaks. We want to fix everything. We want to make everything right. Why is it that we can’t just learn to totally surrender, give it up and leave it at the foot of the cross. Why is it that we can’t see things through the eyes of a child. Through the eyes of a 3 year old that Jon’s baptized not to long ago that as the water flowed over him he said “ooh- that feels good”. Through the eyes of Mara, one of our 7 y.o. kids at church that has written the following lyrics.

The Praise

The praise is with us, by us,tutching us,telling us to praise.

Glory

Glory is with us for always. And God has glory.We have glory.How is glory in us?But it is, it is, it is.

God Helps

God Helps us when were fealing down.When i think of God I crie outloud.God helps us when were fealing down.When I see God I smile.God hleps us when were fealing down.

It was all there in front of me all the time and I never saw it. Surrendering myself to stop looking for what I wanted to say, but to just let it go and trust that God was going to give me the words to bring to you. Imagine what our lives would be like if we totally surrendered our lives to God. This past week’s Gospel- Matthew 22:15-22- Vs 21-22. “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s and to God the things that are God’s.” Surrendering our lives to God- Imagine what it would be like.

A story of a Father ' s love, and an unfathomable choice . . .

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God Pie

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