Cross Country Adventure Begins Today

It’s 5:00 A.M. and still thoroughly dark outside. I’m up and packed, ready to begin a month long adventure. Before we leave for the airport in four hours, I wanted to write a post to you all.   I have an update on the DeFord family, which I’ll save for next time when I have more time to develop some thoughts.  Continue to pray for God’s grace on them and all the Hotshot families, and pray that Dustin’s life story will continue to speak gospel-grace.

Today is Labor Day.  Paul is driving me to Sky Harbor Airport south of Phoenix, a 1 1/2 hour drive from Prescott Valley.  I’m leaving our green valley (yes, the monsoon rains  have transformed our landscape), and I’m flying to Denver to meet a close friend. Tomorrow, we take off from her Victorian home in her Honda Pilot to travel east to Chicago and on to Ohio.

One of my favorite verses, most rich and intriguing, is in the book of Acts, an action packed book of the history of the early church.  Chapter 17 contains Paul’s Mars Hill sermon, addressed to conceptual thinkers. Thus, Paul describes to them the god they had hither to not known, the Creator-God, the one true God who is truly not far from any of us! Then Paul explains, “for in Him we live and move and exist ” (or “have our being”) (Acts 17:28).

Live. Move. Exist. In Him. Now here are ideas to ponder. Here are ideas with practical implications. As I settle down in my mind to see myself as existing inside of God, not in some pantheistic way, but little spirit within infinite spirit, I become calm. I’m nourished by a divine confidence.  To greatly modify Descartes’ anthropologic apologetic (“I think; therefore, I am.”),  we may say, “He thinks; therefore, I am.” Or we could say,  “I Am, therefore, i am.”

The practicality of such understanding…., oh, I have to run outside to see the sun rise…. delicate hues are splashing across the southeastern skies and mountains. . . .  I’ll be back. . . .   Ahh! I’m back. God’s artwork distracts me so, giving me a glimpse of an understanding into why heaven will be so intensely interesting and satisfying, never boring as some so unimaginatively suppose. If God’s designs in creation can capture our attention and inspire us, imagine what being in His presence will be.  Eternally engaging.

So, back to Acts 17:28, “For in Him we live and move and exist or have our being.”  My dear friend, Judi, and I will roll through Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois, stopping in a Chicago suburb where my daughter, Amanda, lives.  In all our trekking, we’ll be living, moving and existing in God. What heart happiness this brings! We’ll enjoy chatting about our lives and families and callings. We’re going to read aloud The Harbinger, by Jonathan Cahn, and discuss it.  We also have a health book to discuss.

I’m staying with Amanda in Glendale Heights for over a week while Judi travels on to Cleveland to visit her family. Amanda and I will take a week end jaunt to Ft. Wayne, Indiana and Findlay, Ohio to visit relatives. Judi will pick me up in Findlay on Sept. 18, and we’ll head back to Denver with a number of interesting stops, oohs, and ahhs along the way. My husband, Paul is flying up to Denver to join us on the 21st and the four of us — Judi and Dan and Paul and I — will spend a whole week together, enjoying rich fellowship and some physical activity. Dan and Judi bought an old, Victorian home in Denver to revitalize, make it their home, and also a bed and breakfast – tea room ministry.  Paul will help paint and wall paper.  They’ll find some things for me to do too.  We’ll “live, move, and be” together.

So, you can see, this is the beginning of quite an adventure.  With James, we say, “If the Lord wills,”  we’ll do this and that.  With the Apostle Paul I say, in all my adventures here and away, “In Him, I live and move and have my being.”  When being and doing meld — folding in all the disappointments and suffering too — joy and contentment in the Lord emerge.  Alleluia!!

Blessings to you in your living, moving, and being!