Category: my story

Literally.

Since my last blog entry to this, there has been a ‘record’ amount of water under the bridge… and the normally green farmland that surrounds our home now appears to be a lake.  One of the captions in the local paper read, “A series of homes and barns cling to strands of dry land in Snohomish on Friday.”    I don’t know if I’d have described our home as clinging to a strand of dry land, but it was certainly sitting in the floodwater and the LORD surely had it anchored.

Someone commented to us, “You’re fortunate that you have a good foundation on that old farmhouse.”  Just between you and me, I’m not so sure this hundred year old farmhouse does, in fact, have a good foundation.  But I told that friend, yes, I am so thankful for the good foundation we have… come what may, high water or no… we ever stand in His hand.   Praise the Lord for His goodness and mercy — this house only stands bcz of His mercy and one day, it might be in His providential mercy that this house no longer stands as it does today — but we will stand in Him.

We had to leave our home last week as the floodwater was rushing in under the bridge… I stayed watching for a bit – intrigued by many things.  One being, the power of water – the intense sound and speed of rushing water – the power to wash away, the power to damage and the power to set courses — all these thoughts and more were running through my mind.  As we were driving out, I had to just stop and watch — rushing rivers are so incredible and watching rushing water is mesmerizing.

water rushing in…

So after a few more minutes, realizing there was no more time spend there watching the water rise… we made our way down the lane with what’s most important to us — our children — along with some generally unimportant material goods, and we caravanned to the location where we would spend the next week.

It’s a heady rush planning to leave home in anticipation of a flood –unimportant things become sentimental and what might be truly valuable almost becomes inconsequential.  Determining value of personal possessions is such a subjective thing — I mean, it depends, literally, what room of your house you happened to be in during the last few minutes.  Suddenly, you’re faced with a few minutes to make some, in terms of material goods, important decisions.  And your decisions become clouded by the tyranny of the urgent.  I kept laughing as the tremendous sound of the rushing water became more pronounced (I was laughing partly out of nervousness and partly from the sheer excitement of it all).  Drama.

I’ll give you an example… I was gathering the already packed bags and asked the children if they had their schoolbooks — what was I thinking? Were we really going to do school work?  History — I mean *our* personal history — would have told me: no.  No, there won’t be any significant studying in the next week.   And if books were the important matter, why didn’t I take measures to bring out the truly important, much more valuable by comparison, books?   Anyway… that’s but one example.

So the water was higher this time than last… more in volume than last and is likely to stay around longer than last time.  The water did more damage this time than last.  We had our computers with us and were watching the River levels as updates were posted and saw when the water was reaching record levels.  Eleven of our chickens… didn’t get the memo.

Actually, water lines and debris indicate that this photo was taken after the water had receded just a bit.  The trees (there are actually very tall trees on either side of the River) shown near the top of this photo are where the Snohomish River is.  Usually.

This is the Snohomish River the morning before the flood.  Oooo… very, very high.

Just watching the weather reports… working, watching, waiting, working, watching, waiting…  praising the LORD for His *goodness!* to us all.  How great is the love that God has *lavished* on us…

Snohomish River Flood Watch

 

I have a sweet friend who routinely asks me: What’s on your schedule for this week?  and I usually proceed to tell her something like: Hmmm… just the usual;  housekeeping, gardening, baking and schooling… and then I may tell of the significant event of the week or whatever.  And, that’s pretty much how weeks go.  The dailies and some event or another — always keeping in mind the time-tested reality that the week will never go how I thought it would — that I will look back and marvel that the days each seemed long but the week just flew by.

That’s pretty much how life’s gone over the years and now, instead of saying the days were long but the weeks flew by, I say: the weeks are long but the months just fly on by.  Every week seems to have sort of a character of its own and this week looks to be no different.  Here’s this morning’s snapshot of what our week might look like:

This is a static chart… updates every 6 hours or so… here.

So, yeah… I’m ironing today… gardening… thinking of painting a room and I’m laughing.  A lot.

Another Monday…
Monday’s are sort of reflection days for me — maybe they are for you, too. It sort sets the pace for the week in reflection & prayer as I work around our home.  I reflect on what was shared in the Sunday meeting — the messages, songs, prayers… etc., etc.  I also reflect on whatever else happened over the weekend — which, most weekends, is at least one event or another.

My mind sort of floods with thoughts of Saturday. I had the privilege to speak at a retreat in Olympia and the faces of the women are seemingly right before me  — precious women whose hearts are to serve the LORD and serve their families.   As is often the case after such an event, the day sort of replays in the theater of my mind and I second-guess or doubt what I shared – doubt whether they were the right messages or if there was offense or whatever. It always seems as though the enemy slips in a doubt or an attempt cloud to my thoughts as I share some challenging or thought provoking message.

I know this is especially true when I attend a retreat with convicting or inspiring messages, the enemy seems to relentlessly attempt to thwart my attention or a distracting thought comes my way or whatever.  My husband was of great consolation to me as he prayed for me – and shared with me that there must’ve been something significant against the enemy for him to pester me so — something against worldly ways that would be damaging to the enemy agenda.  And I thought on that — or I think on those thoughts today — and realize that whenever I speak strongly about marriage, the different roles of men and women and the biblical design for wives and mothers, there is great opposition – and so I am trusting the LORD today for the outcome and trusting Him for the hearts and minds of each of the women in attendance and their families, too.

Christian womanhood is quite under attack – and when even the ‘teachers’ and ‘preachers’ of the land will not speak Truth, it is no wonder.  It is no wonder there is such confusion when the very Word of God is not revered and taught.  For if the Word were clearly taught, so much of what we’ve come to accept — socially — would have to go; so much of what we think we want, need or like would have to go; so many of our own agendas, preconceived notions and personal preferences would be challenged and judged – and enormous changes would necessarily have to take place.  And… we’d have to face the Truth.  Whether we face it now or later, we will face It.

Timothy posted the following note… I think it’s probably from “Stuff Christians Like”  — a site that’s a take off on “Stuff White People Like”  but I digress.  Anyway, I think this is so true:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very easy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good Christians without the Bible coming too close. Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

— Soren Kierkegaard