San Antonio Recap Video & Siesta Fiesta Picture

I will write a recap later... I am exhausted right now.

I tried to embed the video and it didn't work so... to see the larger sized version, click here. You can also see it on the LPM blog.

And this is the "small" (I just have to laugh at that) group picture that I happened to be in with Beth, Amanda, Melissa, Travis and Kelly Minter and Vicki Courtney... and as a bonus, Lisa McKay (The Preacher's Wife) who, all weekend long, I was too shy to introduce myself to (more on that later).

So I made it...

I made it!!

I had a bit of drama when I got to my motel - "armpit" is an UNDERexaggeration. But I got over it. I had some more drama driving around downtown San Antonio. And even more when I spent three hours walking through the RiverCenter mall by myself.

I wanted to go home.

I got over that too.

See, the real problem is, this whole trip is entirely outside my comfort zone. Going to a new place, surrounded by people I don't know... The unfamiliar frightens me and I had a meltdown. And because I'm 1,500 miles away from everything I know and love (I actually REALLY miss my kids) I was terrifyingly alone. I had no one to reach out to.

Except God.

So I spent the bulk of my awake time over the last 24 hours praying to the God that will never leave me or forsake me, even if I am 1,500 miles from home.

I'm never far away from Him.

I'm never alone.

Pretty wonderful, isn't it?

Oh, and can I just say that our Creator God has a stupendous imagination? I flew over the Grand Canyon yesterday. It looks amazing from the air - when you can see for miles and still not see all of it. Our God is an awesome God.

Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.
The whole earth is filled with His Glory.
(Isaiah 6:3)

Lean On Me

There's a song my mom used to sing when I was a child that I haven't thought about for a while. It came back to me today. I don't know who wrote the song or where it came from, or even if there are any verses. But here it is:

Lean on Me
When you have no strength to stand
When you feel you're going under
Hold tighter to My hand.
Lean on Me
When your heart begins to bleed
When you look and find I'm all you have
You'll find I'm all you need.

If I have had any lesson to learn recently it is that Christ is sufficient to meet all my needs. To be honest, this is a lesson I've struggled with for most of my life.

I know that I have a lot of emotional ups and downs and I seem to be in such a funk these past few weeks. Worry really takes its toll... and it is so pointless.

It does feel, sometimes, as though I am on the verge of drowning. But at the same time, I know I am always only a whisper away from the help my Savior has to offer.

I have so much more I want to say, but the words are failing me tonight. And sitting up really really hurts (stupid shingles!).

Oh, and in about 32 hours I will be getting on a plane on my way to the Siesta Fiesta... Wow!

WordRiot Clue #1 - Roofing Tiles

I mentioned how un-fun my camping trip was... aside from the dreadful heat and the out-of-control kids, I was also plagued with an excruciating reaction to a whole host of bug bites.

Only they weren't bug bites.

They started itching about a week ago. Before that, I was having weird shooting pains in my side, but I thought it was just some muscle twitching from doing a major clean-up of my house.

I was wrong on both counts.

It appears that I have shingles. AT THIRTY!!

Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, the same virus that causes
chickenpox. After you've had chickenpox, the virus lies inactive (dormant) in
your nerves. Years later, the virus may reactivate as shingles. ~ MayoClinic

I know that I whine and complain a lot. But honestly, I have a pretty high pain tolerance. I mean, I had a 9 1/2 pound baby at home, on purpose, for pete's sake!

So when I say "excruciating"? Well, I mean it is the absolute WORST pain I have felt aside from the partially unmedicated root canal I had about 4 years ago (won't terrify you with the details).

And there isn't a whole lot that can be done.

Ibuprofen, topical treatments, time. Maybe. All because it never occurred to me to spend a small fortune to see a doctor for "bug bites."

So when I was hot and miserable and yelling at my kids... perhaps they weren't as bad as I thought and I need to do some apologizing (again).

Thankfully, I'm not exactly contagious unless I'm around someone who has never had CP. And even so, if I keep my skin covered (its on my abdomen so no real problem there) and don't scratch I can go to the Siesta Fiesta without worries. But it might be a little less fun.

Urg.

Oy.

Camping.
Four children.
+ 103 degree weather.
Bad news for all parties involved.

What was I thinking?

I was crabby, they were crabby. We came home early.

And since I am perilously close to a great deal of whining... I'll write more later, when I feel a bit more civil.

Off Camping!!

I'll be off camping until Sunday.



I am looking forward to four days of relative peace and quiet (my kids are coming with me after all) and fun times with my church family.



I am likely to come back covered in mosquito bites, burnt to a crisp and wearing an inch or so of dirt... yippee!!! =) My kinda good times!

May the Lord bless you and keep you (and me, and my children) over the next few days!

Catch me on Twitter. There is sporadic service at camp.

Unreal... Unthinkable... Irresistable

Last week at Camp Meeting the theme was "Stand Firm" and was based on 1 Corinthians 15:58, which says:

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give
yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in
the Lord is not in vain.

And the emphasis of the sermons, over and over again, was that we stand firm by standing on the truth that Jesus died, rose and is ALIVE today. And that He did it for us.


On the last night, the speaker told a story that drove the point home:

A pastor spoke from the pulpit about a father and his son and his son's best friend who planned a fishing trip on some river out in the middle of nowhere. One afternoon a huge storm came in and caused flash flooding. The river that was once calm became a churning mess and their boat capsized.


In an instant, the father knew that he could only save one of the boys.

He looked at his son, who was everything a father could hope he would be. He knew and loved Jesus and wanted to serve Him. And he looked at his son's friend, who wasn't saved and was getting into a lot of trouble lately. There was only one choice the father could make.

He saved the friend.

After the service an older gentleman in the congregation asked two teenagers what they thought of the story. They told him it was silly and unrealistic because no father would pick the friend over the son.

Then the older gentleman revealed that he was the father and the pastor who told the story was the friend who was saved.

If he was willing to let his son go to save someone who was lost, imagine the lengths Jesus was willing to go to save us all.

When you think about it, it does seem a bit unreal, doesn't it?

The Creator of the Universe cared so much about all the ungrateful, wretched little humans running around on His planet that He cast aside all of the glory of heaven to become Immanuel. God with us.

And not only that, He laid down His life.

Make no mistake, the Romans did not take Jesus' life. The Sanhedrin did not take Jesus' life. We did not take Jesus' life. Jesus gave it up.

There wasn't a single moment of his arrest, torture and Crucifixion that occurred without Jesus' permission. There wasn't a single drop of unwilling blood shed from His body.

God did the unthinkable. As Father, He let His Son die so He could save us - people who consistently and habitually break every commandment He lays out and defy His authority. As Son He poured out His life for a world that didn't deserve it.

Oh the lengths God has gone to reach out to us! Can you resist Him?