When things seem to be crashing down on you, or crowding in on you, you have a choice.  You can choose to get overwhelmed, or (as Tommy says) you can "back it up a notch." Or, his latest saying, "relentlessly eliminate hurry."

Easier said than done.

Sometimes you have to fight not getting overwhelmed, and it IS a fight. Satan would like for all of us to despair. He would like for us to fret and worry—even though most of us know that worry is for pagans. The Message Bible says, "People (pagans) who don't know God and the way He works fuss over 'these' things." (Matthew 6:32)

Matthew goes on to say at the end of verse 32 and verse 33, "but you know both God and how He works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don't worry about missing out. You'll find all your everyday human concerns will be met."

Verse 34 says, "Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don't get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes."

Need I say more?

​Our friend Greg (our son by another Mother) spent the night with us this week. In the course of our conversation with him, he talked about how he had a neighbor once who had a dog who barked continuously. It was very irritating, but he decided (for the sake of friendship) to let the dog bark and not say anything.

In our home recently, we have been talking a lot about the first and greatest commandment, which is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. (Mark 12:30-31) The second, of course, is to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We have had some wonderful neighbors through the years. Some started out not to be so loving, but we decided to just "let the dog bark." We ended up with some really great neighbors that way.

What does it matter if a neighbor doesn't mow quite to the property line?  How long would it take for you to mow it?

What does it matter if their children play more in your yard than in theirs?  Take the kids drinks and cookies.

I had a neighbor once who would bring little treats over and sit them in the chair by my back door. Sometimes it would be half a watermelon. Once it was frozen veggie egg rolls she had found at the store that I just "had to try." One crisp fall morning, I walked out my back door and a huge yellow mum was sitting on my picnic table.

Next time the neighbor dog barks incessantly, take it a treat. Better yet, take your neighbor a treat. Loving your neighbor as yourself might not always be easy. He may have a barking dog. If so...just let the dog bark! 

(Thanks Greg!) 

​We had our quarterly retreat at Appalachian Christian Camp in Unicoi this weekend. As always, I came away blessed, refreshed and ready to tackle the next few months.

Tommy preached on Elisha and the chariots of fire...things that are unseen that go on around us all the time...things that we may not be aware of if we don't pay attention!

We had a white board up front, and at some point during the retreat, someone wrote, "I wonder how many chariots of fire I have missed!"

That stuck with me all weekend. I even got up this morning, the day after the retreat, thinking about it.

I go blissfully on my way every day thinking all kinds of things...

what am I going to fix for supper
when is the room on our barn going to be finished
when will the fireplace man come and do our fireplace
what time do we have to be at our next "gig"
why do we have such a busy schedule

In other words, my brain never shuts off. I am constantly thinking about all the "stuff" that seems to push it's way into my mind, crowding out the chariots of fire that are galloping right in front of me and gathering all around me.

I am going to pray for the Lord to make me aware of chariots of fire, and to forgive me for all those chariots I have missed in the past.   

​II Kings 6

​When does someone finally own something? Most of the time, it's when they have signed on the dotted line.

Often, when someone sells a house, they have what is called a "closing." This is when the final papers are signed, and the person buying finally "owns" the house.

Sometimes, the seller will tell the buyer to go ahead and start moving things in or changing things before those final papers are signed. So...the buyer "owns" the house, but he doesn't really "own" it until that final day when the papers are signed.

We watched a wonderful musical this week called MOSES. The show was written by Janet Speer, Tommy and John thomas. It ran for three shows in Banner Elk, NC. Each night I came away saying, "They owned it!"

Today was the last show. I came away saying, "They REALLY owned it this time." They owned it before, but the last performance cinched that ownership. 

Live every day like God owns you. Then when that last stroke of the pen happens, you will really and truly know you are owned.

"Matthew 7:13-14 says, "You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small and the road is narrow and only a few ever find it."

I recently read about slot canyons.* These places are so tight they only get a few minutes of sunlight each day. They are called narrows. It's hard to see the sun there and nearly impossible to even feel the light. One man said that one thing he had learned in all his years of canyoneering is that you have to keep moving...and the scenery will change. It's the narrows that make you braver. Stronger. It's the narrows that change you.

Unlike our friend's canyon, we CAN see the sun (Son) and we can feel the light when we are on that narrow road. 

*"The Gold in These Hills" by JoAnne Bischof - Publisher: Thomas Nelson

I was talking to my friend Cindy via email this morning, and she said she could hardly wait for our retreat this coming weekend. I agreed. I have had others tell me that the retreats get them through the rest of the months. Again, I agree.

I wrote Cindy back this morning and told her that the retreat was like a breath of fresh air in the spring when I first open the windows after they have been shut all winter. First of all, I have to clean out the windowsills! I always wonder where in the world all that dirt came from. I cleaned them out LAST spring!

As if that weren't bad enough, I have to use a Q-tip to get some of the gunk out of the corners...NOT an easy task! Finally I have it clean, and I breathe deeply of that wonderful fresh spring air coming through the window.

Our retreats do that for me. We have three a year, and it seems that a lot of dirt and gunk gets caked in my mind in those in-between months. And, unlike the window, I don't have to clean out that gunk before I go to the retreat. The retreat does it for me. 

I open the window of my soul, let the friendships blow away all the filth and grime that has collected over the past three months, and let the breeze of the Holy Spirit blow though my heart and mind.

How was your shower this morning? Mine was perfect! Plenty of hot water, just the right water pressure, no creepy-crawlies in the water.  

One of the things our friend Joey Potter does is go all over the world putting in wells for people who don't have good water. They have to walk miles to get the water they DO have...and it's nasty—not clear and pure like ours. 

John thomas read to us this morning how there are places in Africa Joey hasn't been able to reach yet where the people have to walk miles to get water. Then, they have to carry it home and go back for more. Much of their day is spent getting water. The water they do get is filthy.

Some of the people in the article said they were ashamed to go to church because they never felt clean, and because others who were clean made fun of them. 

AND...if this didn't grab your attention, get this: it is beneath the men to haul water. That is solely the job of the women and girls.

In our family, every job is the job of every person.

This blog is finished. Guess I had better go put a load of laundry in.

The first church where we preached had a parsonage on a little dirt road around the corner from the church. There was a small spring at the end of that road. John thomas was a baby when we lived there. After he started walking, he would want to walk down that road to the spring. 

I once wrote Mother a letter and told her that we could hardly walk "3 steps" because John thomas wanted to stop to look at everything....things I quit looking at a long time ago. He would see a tiny rock on the road...."look Mommy!" Next might be a weed (flower to him) growing beside the road. Everything was new and wonderful to him. 

I would show him where faeries lived...where frogs played...where butterflies flitted. It was magical. 

If I had gotten up every day to go to a job, I would have  missed out on so much. When did money become more important than being with your baby?  Seeing the world through his eyes? Listening to his excited voice as he found "treasures" that we just HAD to carry home to show Daddy.

Go outside today. If you can, take a child with you. Don't walk more than three steps before stopping and looking around you, but also looking down. You just might see a faerie peeking back at you!

I am reading a series of books called The Bregdan Chronicles. The books are historical fiction based on the war between the north and south. Many in the south called it (and still call it) "The war of Northern Aggression!"

Bregdan is a Gaelic term for weaving. Braiding.

Every life that has been lived 
until today is a part of the  
woven braid of life.
It takes every person's 
story to create history.
Your life will help determine the 
course of history.
You may think you don't have much
of an impact.
You do.
Every action you take will reflect
in someone's else's life.
Someone's else's decisions.
Someone else's future.
Both good and bad.

We help sponsor a group called HOPE OF THE NATIONS, and today we got a card from them with a picture of some boys in Africa. Now in case you didn't know, most people who live in Africa are black. However, these precious children are as pale as ghosts. Their hair is white, and they look like they are blind. There are eight children in the picture, and the oldest looks to be not more than 10 years old. The others are younger. They live and probably work in the dumps there.

Once when we were in Mexico, we worked close to a dump. Many of the children we saw at our site also worked there, looking for stuff that they could sell so they could eat.

Almost every day I ask myself the question, "Why do I ever whine...about anything?"