One night, seventeen years ago, I sat on my college dorm room bed, with a friend of mine, talking about formative moments. I had already wept through the story of the lost dog that shrank up to me one day during my senior year of high school. That dog never wandered from my side. Instead I committed the ultimate act of betrayal by leaving her with my parents as I left for college. It was one of the greatest tragedies of my life, to that point.

Homesickness was pulling us into the early morning hours with a steady decline in the quality of conversation, but that was the mark of a true friend. We were in it for the long haul, and I had to bring up that crazy day when I was nine.

I had been away at GA (Girls in Action) camp for a week when I felt the Holy Spirit moving me for the first time. The feeling can only be described as unavoidable. It was overwhelming, kind of like anxiety, but happy. My head was telling me to get to the preacher, as my heart was doing the Cha Cha. At that altar call, I confessed my belief that Christ was my Savior.

I will never forget the moments after the service ended. I was giddy. With the least sophisticated comprehension of biblical transformation, I knew that I had just changed. I remembered the feeling. I remembered skipping. I remembered the event.

I needed to remember this event.

By the time I had reached my senior year of college, this event was catalogued as unexplained phenomena. My first religion course was “Women in the Bible”, and there I decided that there were too many holes and not enough intelligent evidence to fill them. I walked away from the church.

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I remember the first horror movie that I ever watched.  My sister and

I rented The Exorcist, when we were in junior high.  We were so afraid.  We had to keep stopping the movie to get some relief.  I am not sure that we ever finished it.

This was only the first part of a scary story, however.  When my mother found out that we had seen it, we saw part two.

So let’s return to the Israelites.  They are not just scared, they are terrified.  It is in a way that I cannot understand.  Horror movies could not elicit this type of response, because there is some comfort in that pause button.  The imagination is allowed to take a break, even if it is only closing our eyes through all the scary parts.

The same thing happens when we read scripture.  There is privilege in our safe place, specifically on my fluffy couch.  Standing between me

and this lesson is 66 books and thousands of years.

Our response would be the same, though.

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When I was in the third grade, I stole chalk.

My reasoning was very simple.  Teachers had better chalk than I, as an unemployed 9 year old still living with her parents, could purchase.  My dream was to be a teacher, and I spent my time away from school trying to get people, and pets, to let me teach them.  I reasoned that teacher-grade chalk was my way to make this dream a reality.

My technique was to back myself against the chalkboard every afternoon as I left, say a hearty good-bye to my teacher, and swipe the newest, longest, whitest piece that I could find.

I was not like any of the vandals that you would see on TV.  I would call my methods, unrefined.  In fact, it was a miracle that I was not caught sooner.  That’s right, I was caught, but let me continue.

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This all started the day that I discovered I

had ruined my dog.

She has an active disinterest in food, and since I believe that everyone should eat, regardless of leg count, it is a dismal part of my day to see her avoid that food dish.  I find that sitting down on the floor for a few minutes, offering up little pieces of food by hand and speaking some type of falsetto baby language gets her excited about the process.  The only problem is that she enjoys it too much, and now insists on this “temporary” solution.

And, that was just what I was doing the other

day.  I was hand feeding the dog.

So, there I sat…conflicted and contemplating this unnatural human behavior.  At least that is what I thought about for the first 20 seconds.  Most of that time I was somewhere else entirely. I imagined, amongst other things, my “to-do” list blooming in my computer.  One 20 second interval brought five more items to put on my grocery list and three more tasks to place neatly on its keys.

I begged my pregnant brain not to forget them before I got off of the floor.

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I love to see him have a good time. He is a wonderful laugh-er, and laughing he was when a blond woman came out of the kitchen. She purposefully strode over to my husband, knelt down,

placed both of her hands on his thigh and began to sing to him. She stared adoringly into his face, and I stared, disbelieving, at her.

After the shock wore off, my husband looked up at me with wide eyes. We exchanged astounded gazes as she poured out her serenade to him. I could see his discomfort while he measured his desire to be polite with his survival instincts.

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The wonderful ladies over at the Internet Cafe, have put together some giveaways this week.  I am already one

day behind, so you will want to move fast on this.  Here is a note that I got from Jennifer…

We here at the cafe want to help you during this glorious season to fall into Jesus and experience His love like never before. How, you ask, are we going to do this? Oh,

my friends…we have some fabulous blessings in store for you. From clothing, to jewelry, to books, to movies, to music, we have treasures galore that will help you to fall into your sweet Jesus more.

This year our “Fall into Jesus” giveaway is a BLESSING indeed! “Fall” Into Jesus Giveaway runs from today, October 25, 2010 through Thursday, October 28, 2010. Two winners will be selected at random and announced on Friday, October 29, 2010.

Head on over to the Internet Café find out how you can enter for your chance to win one of two fabulous giveaway bundles.

The second is such a privilege.  I have been asked to join the Internet Cafe Devotions team.  I even have a title, Full-Time Daily Devotional Barista.  How exciting

that I have a title!  I don’t even have a title on my own blog.  The faithfulness of the women

inspires me, and their writing, mercy…so talented!

So, here is my maiden devotional for Internet Cafe Devotions.  Thank you so much ladies for having me aboard!

The day hit like a hurricane.  More than other days, this one had to be good.  Appointments set the pace and the grand finale was a women’s event at my church.  So much effort had gone into planning each moment of this potluck/speaker/promotional event, and I was determined to pull it off without a hitch.

I put on my superhero cape and headed for a cup of coffee.

To my surprise, something stopped me, and my swirling accessory, dead in our tracks.  It was an inkling that if I did not kneel beside my bed at that moment, my morning would go by without any time with the Lord.  At the risk of accomplishing less, I knelt down.

Oh, how the words flowed.  I told God of my task list.  I told Him of my vast responsibilities and my desire to meet each one.  I told Him how important my efforts were in the grand scheme of things and how grateful I was that He trusted me in these areas.  God was really teaching me to do it all!

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A harvest is simply a time for gathering.

Seemingly, we are talking about a physical gathering, God’s provision as the apex of

God’s abundance. He gives and, therefore, we have. As I read the bible, I cannot separate the physical act of giving with spiritual circumstance. Instead of an exclusive relationship, they seem to breath the same air.

This physical provision even stands intertwined with the laws of nature. If fear is the beginning of wisdom, then one who knows the Lord is familiar with His providence and His harvest.

Harvest demonstrates our relational God. He initiates and reciprocates love of His people. While our love is demonstrated through our capabilities, such as prayer and song, His love is demonstrated through all of His. To be loved through His creation looks like harvest. The autumn rain and the spring rain arriving in their season, granting the blessing of predictability to His people.

All of His resources combine to display the wonder of His love for us. Thinking further, I know little about harvest. I know Him from the vantage point of one

in this world. I know Him through His Spirit. I am limited by my flesh, but I see that He is not limited in how He loves me. By unimaginable means, he has saved me for eternity to show me the harvest.

There are a few precepts to the harvest that I have found to be true.

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I read

a story from a beginner’s bible to my son every day.  I assume that he qualifies as such at a little over a year.  I pull it out of his library shelf before our first nap time and, proudly, he repeats a string of “bible, bible, bible”, which continues through most of our story.

Each message is tied with the prettiest bow that you ever did see.  I can hear the victory in every honorable Sunday school teachers voice as they finish the story of Moses who led the people out of the wilderness, without any bickering or starvation.  Adam and Eve were welcome, indefinitely, in that beautiful garden with all of their pets.  David hit that big meanie in the head with a rock and he fell down.

My son’s bible does not say the nasty things, and that is just fine with me, for now.  I want him to relish goodness and victory, not murder.  He can get an ear full of that later.

I sometimes think how these characters would have preferred these gilded endings, too.  Noah was just trying

to do what God said; yet, between these bird training expeditions, he was floating…somewhere.

The important point for my little beginner is that faith is a living organism because these stories are about people, you and I.

Some of our stories expound on how pretty the package looks, and thank God for these stories!  Others can tell you about the monotony in a world of water, the smell of animals, and the last friend that was seen alive. We still stop to listen, because faith has written it down.

I learned that this year.  Faith writes the truth, even when it comes with a frowny emoticon.

For now, I will enjoy simple stories with my son.  I will enjoy hearing him repeat “bible”, and watch love for God’s Word root itself deep in his mind and heart.  I will sit and watch the innocence of his faith in wonder, and jealousy.

Then I will do the work of a woman who knows the whole story.  In the same glance, I will observe the nasty and nice, victory and defeat, salvation and death.  I will see that they both live in me.

And, that is ok.

Because Faith lives here, too.

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When I hear the word ‘Sabbath’, I cannot help but think of two things, creative work a

nd rest. Like twins, they sit on a fence perfectly complementing the other.

Creative work is different from our common understanding of work, but I never see God

engage in any other kind. It involves pleasure, choice, delight and that good kind of effort that looks forward to the specific task at hand.

The best example of this is creation. God showed us what creative work really is when He created the universe.

Pleasure.

Choice.

Delight.

He shows us the difference between this type of work and rest. He created for six days and He rested for one. On this one day there was no creation, no choosing to create, no delighting in a particular course of action that gave Him pleasure. He just rested in the afterglow of His creative work.

So, what

if we defined Sabbath as the afterglow of attending to our specific kingdom work? It is a day of celebration, still wrapped up in pleasure, choice, and delight.

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