Category Archives: Outdoor world

Look!

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Jet lag is an odd thing. When our plane was half way across the Atlantic I decided to set my watch for Chicago time so I’d know how much longer I’d have to sit in that tiny seat. After moving it forward 6 hours, I thought “Wow! I napped longer than I thought. We’re almost there!”

But I’d mistakenly set it 6 hours in the wrong direction. So, after undoing my 6 forward hours and adding 6 backward ones for an accurate time change, it turned out we’d barely left Ireland behind.

Once at home, adjusting to the time change was rocky. The first morning I awoke at 2:30 am Michigan time and coaxed myself back to sleep. Then it was 4:20, and I told myself, “Get one more hour.” But 5:05 was the best I could do (10:05 UK time). The sad part was that my body thought I’d slept in.

By 7:00 I’d unpacked, started the laundry, had an extended prayer time, answered emails, and caught up on my reading. It was still dark. Weather.com  told me the sun would rise at 7:20, so I decided to walk to the beach.

We live on Lake Michigan’s east side looking toward the west and are used to nightly sunsets, but in 66 years of coming to this same beach, I don’t ever remember seeing a sunrise. As I arrived, a twilight blue was developing over the dune, dominated by fast-moving grey clouds.

My winter coat felt good, and I pulled the hood on against a stiff wind. Facing the dunes toward the east I anticipated a spectacular sunrise because of the clouds, so camera-in-hand, I stood watching and waiting.

And waiting.

Though the sky lightened, the clouds didn’t. Eventually, pencil lines of gold etched their tops, but not even enough to show in a picture. I knew that eventually the sky would just have to be ablaze with color, so still facing east, I waited some more. Twenty minutes went by, and daylight began to take over the beach. But the eastern sky remained lifeless.

Growing impatient, I turned around toward the water, and here’s what I saw…

While I’d been focused on the clouds above the east side dune, a light show had been going on behind me in the west, but who would expect a sunrise from that direction? The heavens were telling their story in a 180, at least on that morning.

What a perfect parallel to the surprising work God does. While looking at stormy, dark circumstances, we watch faithfully for God’s light to break through. We don’t doubt it will, but get impatient if it takes too long.

But when we decide to turn away from the darkness and actively search for him and his work, we’re bowled over by what we see. He was there all the time, but we’d just been looking in the wrong direction.

“Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago.” (Isaiah 25:1)

TMI

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Back when I was in grad school learning to write captivating ad copy, we were taught a lesson on roadside billboard advertising. Highway billboards are unique in the ad world because of the few seconds of opportunity advertisers have to get their message across.

In order for fast-moving drivers to absorb a road-sign’s idea and information, a billboard should have 8 words or less on it, along with a simple but compelling picture. Color choices are important (yellow on black is the most arresting), and plain is always better than fancy.

Driving from Chicago back to Michigan recently, a clever billboard caught my eye. The speed limit was 70, and the ad was nestled in a row of 6-7 other billboards, so there were probably less than 3 seconds to focus on any particular sign. Nevertheless, I “got it.”

The photo, covering half the billboard, was of a clear drinking glass full of water and… a set of false teeth. Big bright letters said, “Don’t die with your teeth in a glass.”

I laughed out loud and have to say I don’t remember what any of the other billboards said, but I’m still chuckling over that one. The advertiser, the one paying the bill for that sign to sit on the side of the expressway would love to hear from me, I’m sure. The only trouble is, I can’t remember who it was.

Although there were additional words beneath the headline and the photo telling me how to avoid dying with my teeth in a glass, I never got a chance to read them. I assume they promoted a local dentist and vaguely thought I saw the word “implant”, but a name, web address, or phone? Didn’t get any of those for one reason:

TMI.

The billboard, clever that it was, had been funded by wasted money. Even if I knew it was an ad for a dentist, I didn’t find out which one. Although I was willing to absorb that information, my car had whizzed past before I could read it all.

Is God ever guilty of giving us too much information? Actually the opposite is true. We usually want more than he gives us. Maybe if we did have more, it would clutter up his main message to us and we’d end up with nothing. Or maybe a Bible that was 6” thick wouldn’t be read at all.

God gives us the need-to-know info and classifies the rest as TMI. One day, though, I believe he’ll give us all the details about everything, finally satisfying our currently insatiable desire for more. When that happens, we’ll be grinning ear-to-ear…

…just like a toothless person who’s been given a mouthful of gleaming white implants.

“Jesus did many… things. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” (John 21:25)

Enough already!

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This summer much of our country has been short on rain. Virtually every living thing needs water, and without it, shrivel-and-die is right around the corner.

My daughters and I have been attending a Bible study this summer and have learned up-close what drought looks like, not because of anything Scripture taught us but because of a Bible study friend. Marcia is the wife of a farmer who grows corn and soybeans. Several weeks ago, when we asked how her fields were coping, she shook her head and gave a dismal report. So that evening at the end of Bible study, we prayed for rain.

The next week, after months of drought, rain finally came! We all rejoiced with Marcia, asking if her husband thought their crops would make it. “Time will tell,” she said.

The week after that it rained again… and again! Marcia came to our study with a happy report. “The crops are doing better!” she said, and we excitedly thanked God. Our leader initiated a prayer time that evening by saying, “Let’s continue to pray for rain for Marcia, abundant rain!”

But Marcia interrupted. “How about just adequate rain.”

None of us want too much of a good thing… or do we?

History records that John D. Rockefeller was the richest American who ever lived, richer than Bill Gates, Sam Walton, or Warren Buffet in dollars adjusted for today. Guesstimates set his net worth at $663.4 billion.

The wealthy Mr. Rockefeller was asked, “How much money is enough?”

Without hesitating he said, “A little bit more.”

And that’s how most of us think. If some is good, more must be better. Of course Marcia would shake her head at that. Flooded soil can ruin crops just as effectively as dry. All of us understand the principle, but that doesn’t stop us from making wish lists of things we want more of, tangible and intangible, possible and impossible. Most of what’s on our lists are first-rate items, but  sometimes a good thing (like nourishing rain) can morph into something bad (like ruined crops).

Other examples:

  • Taking on a healthy hobby that ends up robbing time from our loved ones.
  • Buying a bigger home that moves us into financial imbalance.
  • Indulging in one passion when God had a different one in mind for us.
  • Spending more and more time “producing” at work but feeling less and less fulfilled.

So how do we avoid going too far? Scripture gives us a key sentence that can be our check-and-balance system: “Thy will be done.” This should be our recurring prayer, and if God puts his stamp of approval on pursuing more of what’s on our wish lists, then we’re free to do so.

Marcia had the right idea. Pray for what’s adequate, and that will always turn out best.

“I (Paul) ask the God of our Master, Jesus Christ, the God of glory—to make… your eyes focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he is calling you to do.” (Ephesians 1:17-18)