Buttercups in Bloom

     I remember visiting a friend in Colorado and being in awe of the crisp, clear blue winter sky and looking over at the mountains stretching into the horizon and asking "do you ever get tired of this?" I asked him "Do you ever forget where you live and what you see?  Does the beautiful ever fade away?  Do you ever take it for granted?"  My friend quickly responded "nope, never!"     Now that I live in the mountains myself I can say that I don't grow tired of the beauty...it doesn't fade away. But if I am honest there are other things that fade away.          The other things that often fade away before I have realized it are all around me.  The things that seem to fade or slowly run together like the water moving across a painted canvas are the things like deep friendship.  Friendship that seems to span the miles; friendships that have carried the burdens; friendship that have cried from the depths of one's being and yet continue to g

     When I sit down to blog usually it comes fairly easy but this time I have started over many time. Tonight, I am still sitting here staring at these pictures.  I feel like I am meant to share these pictures and the story that is unfolding.  It isn't anything that I expected and yet it is consuming me because I see what it is doing for the people that have been entrusted into my care and I want to do my part in fulfilling all that God is unfolding.     To be honest I wanted to do something for Lent that I had already done before.  I felt like it would give be the ability to be with my people during this season of Lent. I also wanted an opportunity to 'get ahead', so I turned to something that I had enjoyed preaching and teaching before.  This time I wanted to come at it from a different angel.     As I prepared to preach on the Good and Beautiful God: Falling in Love with the God Jesus knew by James Bryan Smith the imagine that kept coming to me was a sense of

Fog... It isn't just present in the mornings, it can last half the day and today was one of the days that it just didn't seem to want to lift.   It wasn't just the fog here on the mountain that didn't want to lift, it was the fog inside my head that didn't leave as quickly this morning as I had hopped.  The fog of being disorientated and dizzy would not stop as I tried to lift my head.  Yep...it was the fog of vertigo.  This fog has been with me for almost a week now and it's amazing how difficult it is to maneuver when the fog in our lives doesn't lift. Vertigo definitely brings about it's own kind of fogginess but I'm guessing that each of us have experienced some sort of fog in our lives.  The fog of disappointments role into lives and it doesn't matter what we do it feels as though we cannot catch a break...or the kind of fog that comes from not speaking the truth and the consequences of our poor choices continue to come when we l

     Today I have been sitting on the fence between being happy for others and the things that God has brought into their lives and sulking at what I have not been able to obtain; or what I haven't been given.      It's a weird place to be.      I want to be happy for my friends.           Happy that they have succeeded.               Happy that all things have gone well for them.                 Glad that the words that they needed came and just the right time.    And yet if I am honest, deep down I am jealous and a bit hurt.           Yes, jealous that the pieces of their puzzle seems to fall into place.              Sad, that I am angry that they get to celebrate such a goodness of a day.                 Hating myself that I want the recognition from others.   As I sit here today, pride has been welling up within me.    Pride is always a funny thing.....   Pride always makes us want something more or different than what we have.  It makes us question the ve

         Some days are not at all what we think they are going to be.            Actually some weeks are not what you think they are going to be .....and this has been one of those....... It's interesting, never in a million years did I think that I would be traveling to the Holy Lands more than once in my life but here it is, I am returning this year....not just as a pilgrim but as a Leader; helping to open the Land of the Holy to those entrusted into my care.  It's an amazing thing and one that I don't think that I have wrapped my head around but that's another story for another time. I have been making a list of persons who have been telling me that they were interested.  If I saw someone that picked up a brochure I added them to the list.  I simply wanted to create a list of persons in whom I could pray over and in whom God could reveal those who were to be a community for this two week journey.    My list has been growing... Honestly there