Saying Good-Bye to an Inspiration

On Friday morning, my aunt Lois passed away in her sleep.  I will be traveling to Indianapolis today to attend her funeral tomorrow.

 

Lois Ricketts is my Dad’s oldest sister.  She lived for 74 years, and 36 of those years were lived as a victim of m.s.–and yet my aunt Lois never lived like a victim.  She had a beautiful smile that broke through nearly complete paralysis, hearing loss and more.  During almost every one of her last years, she enjoyed a trip from Indianapolis to Florida for most of the winter.  And while m.s. may have taken its toll on her body, it never took her mind or her spirit.  I would like to count Lois’ passing as more of a triumph than anything…and a celebration of the hope that every Christian holds.

Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.                                                         2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Please keep my uncle Frank in your prayers.  He tirelessly and lovingly cared for her through thick and thin, and I know that he must feel now that his better half is missing.  Also, please keep my grandmother, my Dad’s mother, in your prayers.  She is 94, not in very good health, and saddened by her first experience of the loss of her child.

Thanks for being people who pray for one another.

From the rising of the sun…

I’m at the beach this week–Tybee Island, Georgia.  It’s vacation time, and we’re having a great time with the kids and extended family in the sand and surf.  I brought along a tripod and camcorder, and I really wanted this year to get some video of the sunrise.  Yesterday turned out to be the day.  I did a leisurely ten-minute stroll down the beach, got the tripod and my camcorder into the perfect position, and then tried to turn it on (at which point I realized that I had left the battery in the charger).  And so I ran with all my might back to the house, got the battery, and then ran with all my might back to my spot.  Even though I hadn’t planned a run on the beach, I was fortunate that two things hadn’t taken place:  1) the sun hadn’t yet risen, and 2) my camcorder and tripod hadn’t been repossessed.

The following is some (slightly sped-up) footage of the sun coming up over the Atlantic Ocean…

Some random things that I can learn from watching the sun rise…

1) Sunrise doesn’t work “on-demand.”  I can’t TiVo it, or use a DVR to get it.  I have to be there, at the right time.  The Lord’s in control of the sunrise, and I can’t slow it down, speed it up, or make it wait until after I’ve slept in.

2) The sun comes up pretty much every day…but most days I just tend not to think about it, realize it, or slow down to watch it.  The Lord is faithful, even when I’m unaware or unappreciative.

3)  Like everything else good that the Lord does, you just “have to be there” in order to appreciate it.  Video, blog, written descriptions or even YouTube can’t accurately convey how good it is.

I hope that you take some time today to enjoy what the Lord is doing–and wants to do–in your life!!!

“From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets, the name of the Lord is to be praised.”  Psalm 113:3

Waking Up to the World

We have always had great sleepers in our house.  Part of this is thanks to a course called Growing Kids God’s Way (also now marketed as BabyWise), which helped us help Ashley get into a great sleep pattern by about two months old.  With our younger three, their sleep pattern in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was carried over to their home life once they were discharged from the hospital.  People look at us and think that we must never get any sleep, and they are absolutely wrong about that…

…until just recently.

Ashley, who turned four a couple of weeks ago, recently went from wearing a pull-up diaper at night to having full middle-of-the-night potty privileges.  Certainly that has been a great steppingstone, but it introduced an all-new phenomenon into our lives:  the kid who can walk into our bedroom in the middle of the night and rouse us from sleep to ask us about anything.  The topics are unlimited, and have included…

• “I need some water”
• “I can’t find my night-night” (her name for the blanket she sleeps with)
• “I just saw a bug”
• My personal favorite:  “Can bears jump?” (try figuring that one out while in a sleep-induced stupor)

The truth is:  Ashley and our other kids are all waking up to the world.  They are seeing things, experiencing things, and repeating things (oops) that up until now made no sense to them.  Because of this, we as parents have greater responsibility, but also the opportunity for a greater relationship, more teachable moments, and the kind of bond that we dreamed about when we asked God for kids.

That reality of ‘waking up to the world’ is also what’s supposed to be happening in my spiritual life as well.  In my walk with the Lord, I’m supposed to be like a child–a growing child who is in the process of listening, understanding, learning to talk, learning to walk, resting in Him, and slowly ‘getting it’!

From Colossians 2:2,3, it goes something like this:  My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

This summer is supposed to be a great chance for you to slow down a little bit, to enjoy some great family time and some rest and some re-energization and some waking up!  We have a great leadership and congregation here, and a couple of staff positions soon to be filled by some very sharp people who love the Lord very much.  Enjoy some rest, but remember that in September every member of Hill-n-Dale needs to wake up and GET READY TO RUN!!!

I’m glad to be on this kind of journey with you!

In Christ,

Phil