At Home in Wyoming

A Sore Knee and a Thankful Heart

I was in need of a little peace and quiet last week, so took a drive to the outskirt of town to Newton Lake.  I wish that this was a better picture, because the rock formation is a deep rust color, which contrasted beautifully with the yellow of the weeds around the shore, and the snow on the mountain...

Have I mentioned before that I have three, count 'em, THREE dogs?  Not just little dogs, mind you, but three BIG dogs.  Two golden retrievers and a mutt.  Two of these dogs aren't even mine, they belong to my son.  But he can't have dogs where he lives, so they became my dogs, sort of by default.

Don't get me wrong...I love dogs.  But three is a little much.  It is hard to get anything done without them following me all over the place. My husband calls them my 'entourage'.  Which brings me to my point...they were racing around the back yard when I was taking laundry off my clothesline last week, and my right knee took a direct hit from the biggest golden retriever.

My knee bruised, it swelled, and every bend of it is painful.  And since you can't move without bending your knee, the injury is always uppermost on my mind.  I have about a gazillion other body parts, all working fine...but that tricky knee is my focus.  It has my complete attention!

Isn't it like that with problems in our lives?  I have been going through something that is difficult...no, it is downright hard!  It has been so hard that I have been leaning toward self pity...that is, until I was in the Walmart parking lot and saw a woman my age caring for her adult son in a wheelchair.  The Lord brought me up short.  I have a gazillion things in my life to be really, really thankful for, but my focus, and all of my attention is centered around the difficulty that I am going through.  All the things that are good in my life I was taking for granted...I was not thankful for them, or even cognizant of them.  This is not good for my mental health, horrible for my spiritual health, and God is not pleased!

Instead of focusing on the trial in my life, I need to keep my focus on God.  Instead of zeroing in on my difficulty, I need to recognize and be thankful for all the gifts God has given me, beginning with my salvation.  I need to count my blessings!  Colossians 3:15 says,

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."

A thankful heart, or a heart filled with self pity.  Focusing on the goodness of God, or the trial that has come my way.  The choice is mine...and yours.

This Thanksgiving, let's resolve to focus all of our attention on the goodness of God.  Yes, our trials are still there, but God has promised to walk through them with us.  Deuteronomy 31:8 promises,

"And the Lord, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed."

What I have learned from all of this, and what I am still learning, is that when my focus is on the goodness of God, and all the blessings in my life, my trial becomes diminished in scope.  It takes it's proper place in the scheme of things, not front and foremost, but part of the part and parcel that makes up my life.  My focus has shifted from that of self pity...to that of a thankful heart. 

And that, my friends, is something to be thankful about!  DLB

 

 

 

I'm Dreaming of a Calm Christmas (Part 2)

Maybe it is because I have been reading Edith Schaeffer ("L'abri" and "What is a Family") that I have been thinking about Christianity lived out in the whole of life.  It seems that in the last 30 years or so there has been a trend in our country to divide the religious from the secular in all the aspects of daily living.  The Christian part of our lives is church, or Bible reading or prayer time, ministry activities...you know, Christian stuff.  Secular activities are everything else.

But Edith Schaeffer got me thinking about living the Christian life in the 'whole' of life...where all aspects of your life are lived for the glory of God.  I think that Brother Lawrence (a 16th century monk) said it best...

"The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer, and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament."

Embracing God in the whole of life.  All aspects of life.  Or as Paul said,

"Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." (1 Corinthians 10:31).

So what does all this have to do with planning a saner, more God centered Christmas? Plenty!  If I want to celebrate Christmas to the glory of God, in the whole of life, I am not going to separate my celebration into God categories and secular categories. I want to do EVERYTHING to the glory of God.

This automatically simplifies things, because there will be some activities that I won't be doing.  For instance, I won't be at the movie theater watching the latest Hollywood Christmas movie that leaves me feeling like I have to take a bath after I watch it, I may prefer to stay home with my husband and watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on DVD. I won't be over shopping and spending more money on gifts than I have, because that would not glorify God nor honor the recipient.  I will work on giving more from the heart...for instance, a grandchild that loves my rosebud teapot may find it tucked among her gifts this year.  I may choose not to participate in a cookie exchange...not because it is a bad thing, but because it may glorify God more if I free up that time to visit a widow, quietly listen to Christmas hymns, or take grandchildren for a ride on the Cody Trolley. You get the picture. Every activity is reevaluated by the criteria of whether or not God is glorified in it.    

So this Christmas, don't try to do everything.  Pick and choose...pray about it.  And 'whatsoever ye do', whether it be the church candlelight service, the trolley ride to look at all your neighbor's Christmas decorations, the children's Christmas program at church, praying, going to the town tree lighting ceremony, shopping, decking the halls, time with family and friends, the Nutcracker ballet, reading the book of Luke, baking...WHATSOEVER YE DO, this Christmas do it ALL to the glory of God!  DLB

 

 

 

I'm Dreaming of a Calm Christmas

View of Cody's West Strip leaving the Walmart parking lot.  If you turn right on this road it will take you straight to Yellowstone Park.

I walked through the sliding doors of Walmart this morning, and smack in front of me was a giant Christmas tree, all decorated for the season.  Of course the season is not here yet, it is still harvest time.  But retailers, especially in these troubled economic times, are hoping to squeeze every last opportunity for sales by lengthening the season. 

So, in Walmart and other retail stores, Christmas is everywhere.  As a Christian, I used to complain about the commercialism that started even before Halloween.  But these days I am going to steal a page from their book, and use it as it as a tool that will help me have a more sane, less frantic...more God centered Christmas.  Let me explain.

Christmas is such a time for joy.  We celebrate the birth of Jesus, who stood in our place and took the penalty of our sin, so that we can be reconciled to God.  I deserve hell, but because of Christ, I will not taste  it.  I chose the free gift He offered of salvation, and each Christmas I celebrate with joy and thanksgiving.  Christmas is an intensely spiritual time.

Christmas is also the time that we enjoy town events, cultural events, special music, shopping, gathering of family and friends, decking the halls and cooking.  I don't know about you, but the holiday season can become so busy and frantic ...so filled with stress, that the spiritual aspect becomes diminished while I run around trying to get everything done on my "To Do" list. 

This year I have resolved to not let the festivities of this joyful season overwhelm the spiritual aspects.  In order to do this, I am going to use the tactic that the retail stores have adopted...I am going to prolong the season by starting earlier.  I am going to plan to put Christ first this Christmas, and rework my holiday season into a more manageable scale.  These are reflective times, and we have done everything but given ourselves the space and time to reflect.  As Christians, we don't have to blindly follow the cultural dictates.  He will show us how to set our path, the path to peace.  DLB

 

 

 

Old Trail Town

 Out a little way past Walmart, before you hit the rodeo grounds, stands a cluster of cabins called Old Trail Town.  Most of the cabins come from within 150 miles of Cody, torn down and reassembled here.  All have historic importance...from the Hole in the Wall gang's cabin, the River's Saloon (where bullet holes can still be seen in the door) to the Burlington Store.  One of the buildings houses a lot of Western artifacts.  I guess you would call this a museum of sorts, but it is better than that because you can actually touch things...all is not sealed away behind a wall of plexiglas.  As great as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center is, Old Trail Town really gives you the feel of the Old West. 

Most towns have a cemetery, and Old Trail Town is no exception.  Out in the sage there is a tiny cemetery that is home to the remains of Jeremiah Johnson and other colorful western characters.  I guess what I like about Old Trail Town is that it remains raw, not fancied up for the tourists.  Standing there taking this picture today, with the wind howling and the sagebrush blowing through, I could almost feel transported back to a different time...DLB