During the second half of 2020, participating in Heather Gerwing’s monthly Share Four Somethings linkup became one of my favorite blogging rhythms.
If you’re a blogger looking for something a little different in 2021, I’d encourage you to check it out. And if you’re not a blogger, the practice of jotting down something loved, something read, something treasured and something ahead as each month draws to a close might be a helpful habit to implement in the coming year.
It may not be what most people ponder during a workout, but when I’m running down the trail near my house, the familiar Irish travel blessing sometimes comes to mind.
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
For some reason, these words usually enter my thoughts when the wind is not at my back—when it feels like I am running directly into gale-force gusts.
In the days before we took our older daughter to college for the first time, we watched the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy as a family.
I’ve seen these movies several times. Various parts have touched my heart profoundly during different seasons of my life. If we were discussing films over coffee, I’d elaborate on all that. For now, though, I want to focus on my current favorite line from what is now my favorite movie of the three.
(If you’re not a LOTR fan, hang tight. There’s a universal application coming that I think you will appreciate, even if you have no interest in wizards, dwarves, elves and hobbits.)
As I read through the Bible, I notice how the writers of scripture use literary devices—metaphor, simile, hyperbole, paradox and so on—to paint a picture or impart truth.
One of my favorites is personification—when inanimate objects and concepts take on human traits. In the Old Testament, for example, we see rivers and trees clapping their hands, mountains breaking into singing and shouting together for joy, waters trembling in God’s sight and wisdom calling out in the streets. (Psalm 77:16, Psalm 98:8, Isaiah 55:12, Proverbs 1:20)
It’s been a month, hasn’t it? I don’t know about you, but many of the hopes and plans I had at the beginning of November have not come to fruition. Not the way I envisioned they would, anyway.
But we keep plugging away, don’t we? We keep pivoting and revising and casting our burdens on the Lord. We light candles and take walks and rake leaves. We keep leaning in to our heavenly Father, even as we wonder what on earth He’s actually up to in this confusing world of ours.
The good news for us in the waning weeks of 2020 is that God knows what He’s doing, even though we don’t. His plans and purposes—whatever they are—will prevail. We can’t be sure of much else, but we can be certain of that.
Over time, a medium-sized wild cherry tree near our front door started leaning toward the street, a little bit more every year.
Rather than wake up some morning to find the tree had fallen across the road and into our neighbor’s kitchen, we had it removed last year. When the tree guy was cutting up the trunk, I asked him if he could slice off some “cookies” that I could use as stepping stones.
I have yet to make a path, but Randy has used the wood to carve a few things on his CNC machine, including a garden plaque that now graces the front flowerbed.