I know that by now most of you are wondering how it went, especially after living through all of the pre-event hype.  I’m talking about the first-ever “SIBS Half-Marathon… Walk.”  It all started with one sister mentioning something about wanting to walk a 1/2 marathon.  The second sister mentioned that that sounded good to her, let’s plan on June when she’s in Michigan.  The brother, me, not wanting to get shown up by his younger sisters, joined the siblings making a group of three for today’s 13.1 mile walk.

So how did it go…?  It went great!  We (the sisters) started out with enough gear to hike the Appalachian Trail.. so we had everything we needed.  The route we traveled was carefully laid out to provide interesting sites along the way to enlighten us, including a stop at the DQ.  Conversation pretty much filled the entire 5 1/4 hours we were out.  There were lots of laughs.

So today’s gift – a great time with my sisters, getting reconnected.

Yesterday, Saturday, was the first really springy day we’ve had in awhile.  Certainly the first since the cold, rainy,  snowy spring vacation just a week ago.  Sunny, warm – perfect.

It was one of those ‘firsts’ days when I wanted to mow my lawn for the first time, wash the car for the first time since the last time in winter at the quarter car wash place.  Perhaps I could wash the windows, weed the flower bed, rake the fall leftovers from the yard.  Maybe trim a tree, apply fertilizer, clean out the garage, fill up the bird feeders…. chat with the neighbor.

Which I did, chat with the neighbor, that is.  I expressed my thoughts on the day, to which he replied, “Yeh, I’m feelin’ that vibe, too.”  Now, he’s considerably younger than I am, but when it comes to the first nice Saturday of spring, we are speakin’ the same ‘vibeful’ language.

 

Spring vacation started last Thursday afternoon. It was a good start. 

Since then, I made progress on the eternal basement remodel project. (Next steps… find a friend with a pickup truck, get some drywall and hang it.) 

Then, since it’s Michigan, there was a day of snow.  

I also had opportunity to take my camera for a walk and found some interesting things. 

Check out a few of the pictures…

     
   

    
   

Yesterday, the day after Thanksgiving, Black Friday, I played golf! There’s no need to go into how it came about that on this late fall day I ended up playing golf with my brother-in-law and a former college roommate. But I’m here to tell you that we did and we had some fun.

As far as the golf went… 

I hit the ball far … and not so far…. waaaaaay left, waaaaaay right, seldom straight. On some holes I used multiple fairways, but mostly the rough. I explored woods, swamps, ponds, sand traps and backyards in search of my golf ball. If you’re keeping track, I lost more golf balls than I found….. and … If I can brag a bit, I shot my best score of the year… um … my only score of the year, several dozen strokes above par. High score wins, right? Sheesh.

As for the rest of the experience….

I enjoyed the warmish fall day. It was nice to be outside. We three, all teachers, had good conversations, shared stories, talked golf. We groaned about poor shots, almost got hit by one from the group behind us and praised the good ones (in my case the good one…). We talked school, caught up on life, laughed a lot, had fun. For me it was better than the golf. All in all a good few hours spent on a late November day.

I’m just gong to say this right up front. Don’t look for any profound insights as you read along. I’m on vacation, riding the Amtrak rails to NY for Thanksgiving. So here are some random thoughts as we ride along. 

The sunrise… I can’t say that is was spectacular. I’ve seen better. We’re sitting on the ‘sunrise side of the train. The sun oozed its way through a thin layer of fleecy clouds, getting the job done in its not-to-flashy way this morning. A new day.

The train bathrooms… We got on the train at midnight plus thirty minutes, plunked down in our assigned seats, constructed our nest and went to sleep. My first experience with the Amtrak bathrooms was this morning. What would I find? I was pleasantly surprised. The space was neat, relatively clean. Apparently, my traveling companions adhere to the philosophy of leaving things better for the next guy.

Vineyards... A lot of the view from the train window is of the backsides of towns that you travel through. I guess the folks that build the big, nice houses choose to build far away from the ‘wrong side of the tracks.’ However, this morning as we chugged through a bit of Pennsylvania, we were in the middle of rows and rows of vineyards. Bare vines twining along their supporting wires, resting, taking the winter off, before getting back to the business of bearing fruit. A vacation of sorts for them, I guess.

The car attendant… Here’s my only encounter with the car attendant. As she was bustling up the aisle one of the passengers asked her for some attending. The attendant put her off momentarily with, “I need to be where I am first…” Hmmmmm… aren’t you always where you are? I guess what’s important is what you do with the opportunities you have when you are there.

Free coffee…? Yep, no questions asked.

Why NY…? Since the time my Mom couldn’t travel because of age and health, we’ve spent every Thanksgiving at our house. The family that could trekked to our house. Always a good time. My mom passed away last June, an eternal Thanksgiving for her, you might say. So, we are venturing off….

Thanksgiving…. I will be looking around the table later today and quietly thanking God for the people ‘where I am’ and thanking him also for the others ‘where I am not.’

Final destination….. We’ll be arriving at our stop soon. The nest has been dismantled and we’re ready to go. I don’t know exactly what the plans are for our time there, but I’m sure it will be great.

I wasn’t going to bring this up tonight. Maybe people get sick of hearing the same old thing from me, but…. As I headed east I noticed the rising almost-full-moon, pale, peaking up over the trees close to the horizon. It was HUGE! or at least ‘appeared’ to be huge.

I knew that if I took my hands off the wheel and stuck my arm out toward the moon, thumb out next to it, the moon would shrink back to the normal high-in-the-sky moon size… nice, but not huge.  What I’m afraid some people may be tired of hearing about is the “moon illusion.”

What’s all too real is tomorrow’s funeral. Many of us will attend a funeral for the husband of a close friend. He loved the Lord, was a good husband, father and grandfather. He will be missed by those who knew and loved him.

I’ve been to more than a few funerals. There’s a pattern and a certain amount of predictability that comes with funerals of believers. Perhaps we will hear a story or two that will cause us to smile or lead us to tears, probably both. We’ll hear words of comfort that will be needed now and for the days to come. We’ll hear words from scripture that remind us that Jesus is “the resurrection and the life.” He conquered death and hell and that we belong to him ‘body and soul.’ Through all of it God will be worshiped.

I may sound like I’ve heard it all before, the same old thing. But, I’m here to tell you that what we will hear about and experience tomorrow is real. Real comfort, real truth about the way things are – in life … and in death. Unlike today’s moon, it’s not an illusion.

I really wasn’t going to write this tonight, but it’s a story worth telling and hearing over and over again. And in spite of the pain, sadness and tears of saying good-bye to one much loved, experiencing Jesus’ grace and love will be tomorrow’s gift.

Once or twice a year teachers at my school are assigned an ‘opportunity’ to do devotions for the staff. Not my favorite assignment..

In the past I’ve read a Psalm, picked out something from a book, used a song, wrote a story… and … forgot all about it and just prayed. It’s my turn next Monday. What to do? What to do?

I feel just a wee bit of pressure coming up with something to do devotion-wise for the staff. It can’t be too long (Leave them wanting more, right?), but it needs to be long enough to be worth it. When ‘performing’ in front of one’s peers you want it to be good after all. There’s a lot to think about when trying to produce one of these things…. pressure!

I tell my students that when we do devotions at the beginning of the day we are focusing on God. Devotions help us praise God for what he’s done in the world, in our lives. They provide reminders of God’s providence, giving us peace in trying times. They remind us that we belong to God body and soul. So I guess I should practice what I preach for my edition of faculty devotions. Its not about me… devotions are about God.

So for Monday… I put together a little something about God, the creator. The more I worked through it the more I was reminded how the wonders of Creation point us to God. In our tough times and in the good times, the God who cares for and loves his creation, all the more loves and cares for us.

Tap on the photo or click on the arrow below for  Monday’s faculty devotions.