The Place
-
“Here All the Time.”
There are two ways to reach the rocky road that leads to the pasture. One is through the barnyard which usually means going through several gates; the other is around the top of the barn, past the double sliding doors, along the roof of the old stable, through a wooded area, and upward to the open pasture. I had been busy and was stuck in the mundane existence of daily life. My world had become smaller, duller, and ordinary. No great inspiration compelled me to do my daily prayer walk or even expect my regular quiet time to inspire me. I was experiencing a gray world, one of those times…
-
One Hundred Years!!
I think it was the stately old barn that convinced us to buy the farm. Its age held a nostalgic appeal to Judd and me Though its old red paint had faded to gray, the barn stood steady and strong under the weight of hundreds of sweet-smelling hay piled on its top floor. As the local farmers came to reclaim the hay they had bought, the walls began to reveal not just cobwebs and dust, but memories: old harnesses, tools, and memorabilia. Painted on the south-east wall was a number: (1918). The significance of the number was a mystery, until Judd visited one day with old Chappy. Chapman’s Gas …
You May Also Like
TRANSFORMATIONS by Kay Bascom
-
So Much Happening on Kitten Creek
Milestones: Two weddings. Our grandchildren are growing up. Brother/son/grandson, EJ, was married to Jena on March 18. The next weekend sister/daughter/granddaughter, Emmaline, was married to Sam. Words do not suffice in expressing our joy and thankfulness. Emmaline’s pictures are not available to me,yet, but here us a link to EJ’s and Jena’s wedding pictures. The pictures relate the joy of the couple and also of those who love them. http://www.miravisuphoto.com/austin-wedding-photography-blog/ Actually, there were three wedding in that one week. Our dear neighbors, the Bascoms, were also celebrating a daughter/grandaughter wedding. The original farm acres were filled with guests and celebrations. We are now in relaxation and recuperation mode.
-
Longing
1 Corinthians 2:9 But, as it is written, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— In our daily life on the farm we have been faced with the mundane: a ritual of tasks and chores, mopping up muddy boot tracks across the kitchen floor, pulling off ticks and trying to remember to use bug spray in spring and early summer, dying pets and farm animals, more work to do on buildings that need constant repair. And yet, we continue to search for the sacred in the midst of this mundane existence. We long for the presence of…
-
Fire in Them Thar Hills
A group of thirty to forty of us had gathered in and around the prayer chapel after making our way from the barn, across the pasture, and down into the ravine. Listening to the prayers of thanksgiving and dedication, my mind was drawn back to that fateful day the previous fall. Derrick and I had headed down Anderson on our way home from Kansas State University. The four mile trip home past farms and fields was always refreshing and restorative. Oblivious of the drama going on at the farm, we were enjoying the spectacular fall colors. I had never appreciated the grassy fields and roadsides in the fall before we moved…
-
Crazy or Inspired?
Recently, Teri, my writing partner, and I spent one of our writing sessions walking around the farm and visiting some of the buildings that have been a big part of the ministry of Wellspring. One of those spots was in the secluded hard wood forests north-west of the farm-house. Visiting that spot brought back warm memories of past years. I could almost see the faces and hear the voices of those young men so many years ago as they erected this unusual building dubbed “The Prayer Chapel.” Although it is in dire need of repair today, through the years it has been a place of dedication, tears, lamentations, heart-cries to…
-
Solitude (Part Three)
And so in those first steps on the prayer trail I allow the vestiges of any mask to be gently erased by His love. A little uneven with a stubble of grass here and there, this trail has been tractor mowed specifically for anyone who would like to be alone with God. It has been trodden not only by my feet, but by my children, my grandchildren, by neighbors, by friends, by students, by local pastors. It has become hallowed ground. We have all met with God, discussed with God, been encouraged by His presence, and dropped to our knees on this hallowed ground. As I walk, I think of…
-
Solitude (continued)
This “walking-with-God path” I have loved to share with others. “Go, listen to God up on the trail,” I have said to dear friends and students, fully expecting them to have the same conversations I have had. But not everyone has been able to “hear” God in this way on this path. Hard as it has been for me to understand this “deafness,” up there on the trail, I have come to accept it. I remember one of my dearest students had been searching for answers, for a sense of God’s presence and I had confidently sent her out to walk and listen. She was gone for an…
-
Celebrating Solitude
“The aim of God in history is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with himself included in that community as its prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant.”—Dallas Willard I believe that building community with Him as our prime sustainer and most glorious inhabitant has at its core our personal communion with Him . . . sometimes in solitude. The following is from an earlier entry: I pull my jacket closer to my body and quietly close the back screen door, not wanting to arouse Vince and Tiger. I consider them my loyal “guard cats,” guarding the farmhouse from any additional forlorn feral cats that would like…
-
Authenticity: The “Real I” and the “Real Thou”
At fourteen, a few days before I turned fifteen, I had a crash-bang encounter with the Real Thou…and He spoke directly to the Real I. Having been chosen at the last moment to replace someone on our Youth For Christ Bible quiz team, I had crammed for a week, trying to memorize scripture that we would cover in quizzes against other teams from our North Atlantic District. We were going to represent our group at a large convention in Ocean City, New Jersey. This was a big deal…and I was scared. By the time we got to Ocean City, I was not feeling well. I got worse as the…