Spring Time

As I sit by the pond it's surface barely moving clear enough to see the mossy bottom on a clear cool evening filled with floating swarms of tiny nats and a hint of coming summer I glory in all of gods wonderful creation. Ducklings. Tiny baby bunny rabbits gray swan ducklings a first for me. So many new little creatures that have only been alive for maybe a week their parents cautiously watching me walk by and find my seat on the nearby picnic table softly quaking or rustling about in the bushes just to warn their children there could be possible danger. As I sit down a mother duck and two ducklings splash quickly away across the pond to the opposite bank I think of how this is one of the most glorious pictures of our god I have ever seen. He watches over so diligently so caring and so gentle. But always there to tell us to run to watch out for the danger that is so much dangerous than me sitting down at the table. I watch the ducklings dnking into the water just as their parents do tryong to copy them they are learning survival skills right in front Of my eyes skills that will keep them alive. Important things just like the important things I have been learning here at capernwray. Things that will kep me alive for well eternity. Skills that I have learned starting with my parents at home and now with many "parents" here. Skills I learn direct fr god through his word and through my brothers and sisters. With spring in full swing great excitent is in the air but also extreme sadness and anxiety. I have to say good bye to this place soon say goodbye to this country. Say goodbye to the absolutely amazing people I have come to love. Is itnot fitting that at this time in the year when everything is new fresh and starting over that I to must start over be fresh and have yet another "new life". I have to grow up now. Be on my own next year. It's spring time. I've seen lots of them and yet this one holds great significance in my life.
But there is still a little chill in the air a little bit of the hard winter England has seen this year is holding on. The winter in me won't fade that easy either it clings on with all it'd strength and some help from the enemyas he tries to foil gods wonderful plan for life. He doesn't like the spring Happening in me he hated it and he will do all he can to freeze it over again. I must fight back swith all the spring I have with a much greater help from god the father. His springtime is so much more powerful than any frost the enemy can send my way.

Sun

The past two days have been insanely warm here at Capernwray. It was literally 80 some degrees yesterday for Open Day there 976 people here visiting and they even got the huge slip inside out in the pasture out front. All the students got a go in the evening after our dinner. It was a blast but now I am so sore from all the running and sliding! But it was worth it.

I'm forlorn today. Even through all the sun and warmth and beauty of coming summer, I am forlorn. What does that word even mean? "pitifully sad or lonely." what a crap word, but it's true. forlorn.

Charity, our wonderful RA here at Capes, gave the message this morning at church. She spoke on the power of our thoughts, the control that the enemy can have over them, and how they just eat us up.

Isn't that just so true, our thoughts are so powerfully helpful or hurtful. I mean like really powerful. I have spent the last 9 months thinking to myself..."DO NOT GET SICK, DO NOT GET SICK, DO NOT GET SICK." and you know what, I have not been sick once in the past 9 flippin' months! It works. But also our thought can be hurtful. I find myself just beating myself up inside, worrying, thinking and reading to much into situations and how I and others in my life are feeling. My thoughts eat me from the inside out. Even when it is absolutely beautiful outside.

I ask God for the courage to take His Joy that he gives us everyday fresh and new. A joy better than the springtime a joy deeper than the core of the earth itself. A joy so wonderful that we cannot manufacture it here on earth.

Joy, I take the joy of the Lord Almighty.

the amazingness of God's word

Is it not the coolest thing when the God of the universe just speaks to you straight out of his word?

And on top of that, getting to share that with someone and having it speak to them in the same way!

Our God is incredible!

Psalm 16…read it, over and over and over…

What promises, what contentment can come from the verses contained in this song, this psalm, this little poem. As I read them on 16 May, God was speaking straight into my heart from his word. One of the most incredible experiences of my life, and yet so simple.

Galatians 6:11 Paul writes,

“See what large letters I use as I write to you with my own hand.”

Reading this in Galatians just gave me a picture of Paul, sitting somewhere, penning this letter to the people of Galatia, and as he comes to what is now chapter six, he changes his handwriting and begins to write in big block capital letters. He is driving his point home, he wants to make sure that the Galatians really do get what he is trying to say.

I do this all the time when I write letters, if there is something that I really want the recipient of my letter to get, to understand and to truly feel, I USE BLOCK CAPS! I just love that Paul did this too. And what better to do it for than for the glory of God? There is nothing better is there? NO!!!

This verse just made the fact that this book I am reading thousands of years later, really was a letter at one time, sent in some prehistoric way, no stamps, so post code used to let the mail service know where it was supposed to go. Just a scroll, maybe tied together, or sealed with wax, just a letter. May the church in Galatia was waiting for it, maybe they had no idea it was coming, maybe it was a wonderful surprise to see Paul’s greeting at the beginning of the letter, maybe all the elders gathered around as someone read it out loud, then maybe everyone listened raptly as they read it to the greater congregation.

I love getting mail. It is something to think that a little piece of paper has been under a dear friends hand, has had a little bit of their soul placed onto the paper in blue, black, green or red ink. Their mind has thought about what words they were putting down on that thin piece of tree, maybe wondered if I would laugh at what they had written, or wondered if their words were really enough….I know i think those things when I write letters. Then this letter has traveled thousands of miles across a huge expanse of ocean to make it right into my pigeon hole labeled with ‘N’ where I run up from the conference hall at coffee break to find it there sitting, waiting for me.

The beauty of the written word is beyond. Thank God he gave us the gift of words and writing.