Do I Hear an Old Man Snoring...Again?

“When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen.” ~ A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh

Look familiar?  On a rainy day in June nearly seven years ago, a younger and rather different me created this little space.  Seven years is a short time I suppose, but it's long enough that it's high time for a change.

So what better time to start something new than with the first post of the new year (yes, I do realize February is not the first month, nor is the 22nd the first day) when resolutions are in full swing?  Supposed to be, anyway. ;)  

My new space is currently "under construction," but as soon as things are operational---as in, I actually figure out how to post---I'll share the link here.

Stay tuned!

A Time For Everything

"He has made everything appropriate [beautiful] in it's time.  He has also set eternity in their heart..." ~ Ecclesiastes 3:11a

Time has a way of changing things.

It can alter our physical appearance.  It can alter our perspectives and attitudes.  It can alter our memories of people and events.  It can mature us.  And it can also heal.

But rarely does it do so quickly.  And never as quickly as we, in our own selfish minds, think it should.  God often has other plans...which tend to include a good number of things we don't particularly like at the time.   

Death is hard.  Doesn't matter whether you're 3 or 103, whether the death was sudden or expected, or whether you felt particularly close to the person.  Neither does it depend upon whether or not you're the "crying type."  It's difficult regardless.  

BUT.

God is still God...God is still good (I suppose those are nearly equal statements, aren't they?).  Dealing with the sudden passing of my dear Mere-mere---a lovely French variation of "grandma"---has been a challenge on so many levels.  It's painful to see how this has affected those around me.  What an imperfect world we live in.

After a week, reality is only just beginning to sink in.  Everything was so sudden that I suppose, somehow, I don't fully realize she's gone.  That she won't be around for my college graduation in another year or so.  That she won't be able to witness my future wedding (if that's the Lord's will for me) or the weddings of my siblings and cousins.  That there's no possibility she'll ever cradle a great grandchild.  Makes my heart sink just thinking about it.

BUT.

God is still God...God is still good.   

Coincidentally (or perhaps not so coincidentally, depending on how you look at it), on the very day I was given the news I read something amazing.  A reminder.  Something convicting.  And yet...overflowing with HOPE.  Death isn't the end as these paragraphs of Paul Tripp's writings so vehemently affirm.

"It is sad how many people constantly live in the schizophrenic craziness of eternity amnesia.  We were created to live in a forever relationship with a forever God forever.  We were designed to live based on a long view of life.  We were not made to live with one eye on now and one eye on eternity.  You and I simply cannot live as we were put together to live without forever.  But so many people try.  They put all their hopes and dreams in the right here, right now situations, locations, possessions, positions, and people of their daily lives.  They load moment after moment with undeliverable expectations.  They ask people to be what people this side of eternity will never be.  They demand that a seriously broken world deliver what it could never deliver even if it were not broken.  They fail to recognize that at the bottom of all this drivenness and insanity is an expectation that now can be the paradise it will never be... 

"The evidence is clear―there just has to be more to life than this.  This broken sin-scarred mess can’t be all there is.  And Scripture is clear―this is not paradise, and it won’t be.  Rather, this moment is a time of preparation for the paradise that is to come, where everything that sin has broken will be fully restored to what God originally intended it to be."

    
Wow.  Reading that is like getting smacked in the head by a two-by-four.  Forgetfulness is ever so easy and true faith ever so hard.  It's my prayer that my grandma truly believed these truths... 

You will be forever missed, Mere-mere.     

Baby Steps

Goodbye, April!  Hello, May?  Didn't we just say "see ya later" March?!  Spring is just one of those seasons.  When all you want is rest, warm weather and the outdoors.  And all you seem to get is pull-your-hair-out craziness, frigid temps and allergies.  By now, I imagine you've gathered that my March-April project...got axed.  Too much homework and too few clever ideas. *Sigh.* 

In the span of my relatively short life, I've realized that things only get crazier as you age.  Pressures increase.  So do opportunities.  But pressures certainly stick around longer than opportunities.  Growing up is hard.  And pining for the freedom of childhood doesn't change circumstances.  Only your outlook.

For younger readers in particular: Do you ever feel like a little kid trying desperately to fill big shoes? You know. The ones you waited to fit into for as long as you can remember. Yeah those. Unfortunately they're not quite as nice as you once thought. From a 3-foot tall perspective those fancy, patent leather shoes were ever so shiny and eye-catching. Now you realize maybe it was just the angle. Not so shiny anymore. A little more tattered. A little more smelly.  A little more uncomfortable. Not so cushy.

Your gaze soon shifts to your old pair...with a hint of longing. The shoes you took your first steps in. Maybe worn red leather boots with soft laces like mine. Memory joggers to be sure. And you find that those shoes start to look a little more appealing.

Then suddenly, something clicks. Like a tiny off-kilter gear snapping into place. You'll never fit into those sweet little shoes again. No matter how much you might wish it. Your feet are far too large. Thing is...there are places you need to walk. Places you need to run. And you can't get there in shoes that are too small. So stop trying. But you say, "Well I don't think I'm ready for them. My feet kind of slip around..."  But who says you can't take baby steps in big shoes?  God didn't say the transition would be easy.

But...He's graciously promised to sustain us when the road seems overwhelming.  
He will carry us through to the end.

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." ~ Hebrews 12:1-2

And as the hymn goes,"Take my feet and let them be, swift and beautiful for Thee."