-
Painting by the Number (continued)
One evening we gathered in the living room of our little home with people seated on chairs, couch and floor. We had worked together and eaten together. Now we were relaxed and spending some time in worship, song, and sharing. Dennis led us, playing a few of our favorite choruses. Judd and John co-led as we jumped into one of our favorite topics. The discussion was one that had become familiar, but this time Kathy recorded what we said. What was the next step? Better yet, what was the big picture that God was painting? Jane began the discussion in her calm, level voice. “Perhaps, when you look at the gifts…
-
Painting by the Number
Whenever God rejects a “wish dream” it is not out of His disdain for our wishes, but it is always that He has something better. In rejecting my wish dreams, God did not hold back His blessing from the farm, its ministry, and its supporters. He had a better plan. Looking back now I can see that what happened over the years was God’s plan painted in pictures that we could only uncover as we lived under His leadership. His plan was like the old-fashioned paint-by-the number pictures I had done in my childhood. The pictures came to life when I followed the numbers carefully, choosing the right colors to fill…
-
Our Christmas at the Farm by Kim Moir
Self-pity was not far from my mind on that Christmas morning many years ago. Currier and Ives images of families gathered around Christmas trees and Norman Rockwell’s ghosts of idealism floated through my mind as we put on our winter coats, boots, and hats. It was only 9 AM and I had already been up for several hours keeping Nicky entertained and out of trouble while he watched Disney videos in his room so he would not wake our other son, Scott. Bill and I packed up what we would need for our Christmas morning cookout, loaded up the car, and headed west to a place we knew would be…
You May Also Like
TRANSFORMATIONS by Kay Bascom
-
Visions and “Wish Dreams” (continued)
Now I was facing a dilemma. My faith was being tested. My vision, my dream, was deteriorating. I knew that God had the power to change Judd’s mind, and He had not. And I knew that since He owned the cattle on a thousand hill, He could have provided the financial resources we needed. I also knew that I needed to support my husband and submit to something that he felt was right. Now it was time to step out in faith, believing that God is sovereign and I must walk a path that seemed so wrong to me. So I began to look for jobs. I had been…
-
Vision and “Wish Dreams”
I do believe that God plants into our souls an expectation of His miraculous presence in our world, and He is pleased when we do not simply submit to the mundane, to the ho-hum life of mediocrity, but press for the life that is “above and beyond all that we ask or think.” Perhaps, the verse “I would have fainted if I had not seen the hand of the Lord in the land of the living,” was the impetus to my vision, my dreams. I seemed to be blessed with vision; my dear mother accused me of wearing “rose colored glasses” in my early years. Maybe it was good that…
-
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…
-
Authenticity: From “Me” to “Who?”
Children don’t know anything but transparency and authenticity. Their freedom to be themselves is quite compelling. It is only later that they begin to adapt to the social pressures in this fallen world. I remember in my wise four-year-old mind becoming aware that the thoughts coming in the form of ideas or conversation with others were actually coming from me. I remember the awe I would feel when I would whisper to myself, “I am Me.” Allowing the thought to reach into my very soul, I was overwhelmed with a sense of my own identity, and I marveled at this reality. But when a child is slowly growing through…
