Lord I'm Amazed by You - or - Simple Pleasures

Psalm 8

1O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.

2 Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.
3When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
5Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

6You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet,

7all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,

8the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!

At about 4:54 this morning, I awoke to the sound of my dog, Nick, running into our bedroom door (for those of you who don’t know, Nick is blind). He has been sleeping in our bedroom since we moved – for some reason the crate in the laundry room is no longer acceptable to him, haven’t quite figured out why, but so it is. Anyway, I knew he was either in need of the backyard, or of water. So, I got up and first took him to the backyard (seemed like the right priority). As I set him down in the grass, I looked up to see the most amazing sky full of stars – right here in my own backyard, when I wasn’t even looking for it. The absence of moonlight made the stars more visible than the times I had gone looking for them (earlier this month I had purposefully gotten up at about 4 am to see the meteor shower – although I was excited about the 8-10 “shooting stars” I saw in about 30 minutes that morning, I had been a little disappointed at the lack of a canopy of stars in the sky). I stood amazed and excited, then I went in and got my binoculars for a closer look. Again, I stood amazed and excited, and in complete awe of the majesty of our God that surrounds us all the time, even when we are not aware of it. I was humbled, and I confessed my lack of pure satisfaction in God alone – too caught up in the rhythm of day to day life, and lately burdened by the difficulty of life – to continually be amazed by my God. But my God is amazing, all the time, even when I’m not expecting it, especially when life is hard.

You dance over me

While I am unaware

You sing all around

But I never hear the sound

Lord I'm amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed by You

How You love me

How wide

How deep

How great

Is Your love for me

How wide, O how wide Lord

How deep, O how deep Lord

How great, O how great

Is Your love for me

Lord I'm amazed, amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed, amazed by You

Lord I'm amazed, amazed by You

How You love me

Exploring Kansas

Have you ever seen a Prairie Chicken?

We were amazed how far we could see - keep in mind, Kansas is pretty flat, we are not way up high here!

Well, obviously the courthouse is not operating right now, but aside from the current temporary closure for renovations, this is the oldest operating courthouse in Kansas. It is in a pretty little town called Cottonwood Falls.

Here we are at the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. Somtime when we have more time we will go back and explore the land around this farm area. It is in a beautiful part of Kansas called the Flint Hills, and it is part of the only Tallgrass Prairie left in the world!

We also spent some time in a town called Council Grove. The Santa Fe trail came through this area, and crossed a small river here. The town got it's name because of a council that took place in a grove of trees in 1825 in which the United States Government signed a treaty with the Osage indians obtaining the rights for a public highway, the Santa Fe Trail, to pass through this area crossing the river.

So that was our trip through the southern part of the Flint Hills, next on our list is the Gypsum Hills - how did this flat state get so many areas named for the hills?

Anonymity

OK, so I think I may have found a definite advantage to no one knowing me. Yesterday, I went to the Y for my workout after I dropped Kim off at the airport. Now, usually I get dressed in my workout clothes at home, go and workout, then come home and shower (I could shower at the Y, I just like my shower better!) Anyway, yesterday I quickly threw some exercise clothes in a bag before leaving for the airport. When I got to the Y I opened my bag and quickly realized that the problems we were having with our washing machine definitely affected how well that load had been cleaned - either that or it had sat in the washer too long, anyway, it did not smell nice at all! I'm pretty sure the folks on either side of me on the elipticals noticed it, I'm not sure how they could have missed it. But all they knew was that the lady next to them didn't smell good, they didn't know who the lady was, just some stranger. Of course, next week when I go to a class and run into some of them again, maybe they won't be strangers anymore. Oh well, hopefully it won't be memorable enough for them to say "oh, your the lady that stunk so bad last week!"

Church Hunting

Well, I don’t know if this is the something interesting I have been trying to urge my brain to spew forth, but it is what my brain is spending a lot of time grappling with these days.

Church Hunting. Seeking to find the community of believers with which to associate. It sure seems like it would be a whole lot simpler to just have “The Church”, to just have one common gathering of believers. But in the two thousand plus years since Jesus walked this planet in the flesh, people have decided for various reasons, perhaps some more justified than others, that they must separate themselves or define themselves beyond whether or not they are believers Jesus Christ, the son of God, the way of salvation. We disagree on worship styles, when and how to be baptized, the sufficiency of scripture, the role of women in the church, which sins are “big” enough to keep someone from being a teacher or preacher, the activity and manifestation of the Holy Spirit in our lives, what the words “infallible” or “inerrant” really mean, how and when to take communion, and on and on and on! It all becomes very confusing after a while.

So, here we are, looking for a church home – church hunting. We are finding that we have to focus on the “essentials” (I have always cherished the saying – “in essentials - unity, in non-essentials – liberty, in all things – charity”). So for me, for my family, what are the essentials? What we hope to find is a community of believers (we assume believers to mean believers in Christ, the fully human, fully divine Son of God – who died and rose again, who conquered death, and who is the only acceptable sacrifice, the only acceptable atonement for our sin, the only way to the Father) who look to the Word of God as given to us in the Holy Scriptures as the only true and infallible authority in our lives and seek to apply it day by day and moment by moment – challenging each other to be in the world but not of the world, and who gather together to worship our Holy God in Spirit and in Truth and to encourage each other in walking each day as followers of Christ and servants of His church. In the end will it really matter if that group of people happen to be part of a denominational church or not, if they happen to worship in traditional or contemporary style or some mixture of the two, if they raise their hands and jump and shout or if they quietly but completely immerse themselves in worship, if they recite the Lord’s prayer and apostle’s creed or not, if I hear or see people around me speaking in tongues or being slain in the spirit or not, if, if, if……

All we can really do is ask God to lead us wherever He will lead us, to do whatever He will have us to do, and to always, always glorify His Name. After all, His church is about Him, not about us. I hope you will keep us in your prayers as we seek after the congregation God would have us be a part of.

My brain is frozen!

Maybe i'll think of something half way interesting some time soon! Seriously, I think we're in the boring stage of this thing. We are basically unpacked and moved in, we are still finding things to enjoy - like our bike ride down on the river bike path on saturday morning, walking for ice cream one evening last week, getting to the Y several times a week to exercise, Kim getting behind the wheel again, shopping at the farmers market, visiting churches, and so on. But it all seems a little mundane right now. I am grateful that Kim made the move with us - not only because I like having her around and i think ultimately this will be a good thing for her, but I would REALLY be bored and lonely without her right now! She is in the process of trying to get signed up for a couple of classes at Wichita State - but has to go through the application process and getting transcripts sent and such before she can complete that task. We have met a couple of neighbors and folks were really friendly at church on Sunday. I am trying to decide wether or not to attend a Beth Moore event this Friday night and Saturday, I probably will. So, there you have it. Maybe my brain will unfreeze and I'll think of something worth sharing sometime soon!

Chocolate Pie

It's been a few days, sorry. I have actually been "chewing on" this post for a couple of days. Some of our new neighbors stopped by on Sunday evening with a delectable chocolate pie and a "welcome to the neighborhood". The chocolate pie has been delicious, most assuredly one of my favorite things about Kansas so far, but what is even better is the sentiment that it represents. This sweet couple's stated purpose was to welcome us to the neighborhood and to apologize for the glimpse of the neighborhood we had seen Thursday night at the annual homeowner's association meeting. While the meeting was a little less an opportunity for meeting my neighbors than I had hoped for, I hadn't thought much more about it. But here were some of my neighbors standing in my home, offering the work of their hands - her specialty, a homemade pie, to welcome us to this community. Community. We are now part of the Greenleaf community just by living at this address. We may or may not have any more than that in common with our neighbors. But it was important to these precious people to let us know that we are welcome here, and that because we are neighbors, we are part of the same community. They wanted us to know that this community is really not as cold and unfriendly as it may have appeared at that homeowner's meeting. It was important enough to them to not only take the time to ring our doorbell and introduce themselves, but to also put the time and the personal touch and energy into bringing a homemade chocolate pie with them. It was still warm! We enjoyed the short time we spent together, and we look forward to getting to know them better.

Just an Update

Just an to update my list of things I like so far about Kansas:

Day 8: The Wind. I can hardly believe I'm including this, since I thought it would be one of the things I didn't like about Kansas. However, in the summer it can be a blessing! Air movement on a hot day can most assuredly be a good thing!
Day 9: Day 9 in Kansas just happened to also be my birthday! What started as kind of a dreary day perked up quite rapidly with the traditional telephone rendition of "Happy Birthday" from my Dad and Mom, followed by another phone call from my precious daughter, a nice phone chat with my mother-in-law and then the surprise lunch time arrival of my husband home from work! Steve and Kim had the afternoon and evening all planned out and it was fabulous!! We spent a couple of hours at the Wichita Museum of Art in the afternoon, followed by a yummy dinner at the Mediterranean Grill, on to a stroll in Old Towne, and then the highlight - being treated to a performance of "All Shook Up" by the Music Theatre of Wichita. It was a great day!
So, my list item for day 9 will have to be the Music Theatre of Wichita- we look forward to enjoying it again, soon!
Day 10: Getting around in Wichita. Since the terrain here is flat, the roads are straight. This allows for the city to be set up on a grid. The main north/south roads and the main east/west roads all run in grid fashion 1 mile apart from each other. The east/west roads are Kellogg, Central, 13th, 21st, 29th, 37th, 45th. The north/south roads on my side of town (the east side) are Oliver, Woodlawn, Rock, Webb, Greenwich, 127th, 143rd, etc. This means that as long as I know my neighborhood lies near the intersection of 21st and Webb, I can always find my way home. 21st is an east/west road so even if I am way on the west side of town (we live on the east side), if I get to 21st street (which will ALWAYS be 1 mile north of 13th and 1 mile south of 29th), I can follow it home. Or if I get way to the south or north, I can always find Webb ( which will ALWAYS be 1 mile east of Rock and 1 mile west of Greenwich) and get home. So, I have never gotten lost in Wichita- even when my GPS is turned off! I have made wrong turns and gotten a little turned around ( I know many of you are not at all surprised!), but I am always able to figure out where I am within a mile!

I am excited that so far it has been easy to come up with 10 things I like about my new home! We'll see how it goes from here!