Which We Have Looked at and Our Hands Have Touched

MY hands have not touched Jesus' body.
I have not looked at His human face
or heard the sound waves of His voice.

But I hold in my hands the words written
by those who did.
The powerful testimony of those who
heard,
saw,
touched;
who witnessed Jesus Christ firsthand
and were compelled
by His presence
to believe.

I cannot adequately explain the mystery
of Christ IN ME -
without having physically
touched or heard or seen,
I, too, HAVE touched
and heard
and seen.
The internal testimony of the Holy Spirit
and the external testimony of God's Word
confirms it.

May the testimony of Christ's life in me
be as tangible and powerful
as that put forth in John's words:

"The life appeared;
we have seen it and testify to it,
and we proclaim to you the eternal life,
which was with the Father
and has appeared to us.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard,
so that you also may have fellowship with us.
And our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son, Jesus Christ." (I John 1:2-3)

There is not one thing I want more in all the world
than for every person to experience
this glorious assurance of fellowship
with their Creator-Savior God.

That they may
hear
and see
and touch
THE TRUTH.

Frittering?

It may seem like I'm frittering away this Monday.

I watched a movie,
took a nap,
enjoyed a leisurely lunch at home,
did a couple of Sudoku puzzles,
and began reading an article entitled "How Computers Work".

All of this in the silence of my empty house.
Glorious!

OK, I also
did laundry,
made breakfast and sack lunches,
brought kids to school,
and made another trip to school with a forgotten item.
Tonight we'll all go to Nate's play at school,
and somewhere in-between
I'll round up after-school snacks,
cook dinner,
make sure homework gets done, and
track down a small gas engine for Sean for school.

Since this is a significantly lighter load
than a day in which I "go to work",
I genuinely feel like I'm frittering.
Seeing it in print, it's really kinda funny.

I'm learning to remind myself that
it's good to seize opportunities to slow down.
When the kids were younger
and we were homeschooling,
a lot of time I was "on" 24/7.
I guess I feel like I've maybe earned
a little frittering. :)
I know I'm blessed to even HAVE
a lightening of the load...
some people don't.

Part of the reason I'm writing this
is for my young mom friends,
so they know it really does change some day.
Ladies - what you're doing right now with your kids
is SO important.
Hang in there.
And one day, you'll be where I am...

I'm definitely NOT ready to be an empty-nester yet,
but the quiet moments are oh-so-nice.
They charge my batteries for
when the kids walk in the door and
I'm "on" again.

Thank you, Lord, for today.
I trust I've done with it
something that honored Your purposes in my life.
Thank you for refreshing me.

Amen.

Best Game E-VER.

I thought LC's OT football win at Friday Harbor last week
was the most exciting game I'd been to in ages.
Well, that was small stuff compared to tonight...
tonight's was maybe the best game ever.
E-VER.

On another occasion, you may see more scintillating offense.
Or more dominating defense.
Or improbable interceptions.
Or whatever.

But this win was all about context.
Meridian.
On their home field.
At their homecoming game.
Wet turf, rain, gusty breezes.
A 6-year drought against this opponent.
LC seniors who, in one player's words,
"Were sick of getting beaten by Meridian".

There was no question that the seniors
led this effort:
it was like watching a completely different team
than the first time LC met Meridian this fall.

And tonight, they WON.

The LC defense held,
and held,
and held...
for 6 interminable minutes at the end of the game.
They bent but never broke.
And with, literally, one second remaining,
the outcome was finally decided.

Props
To the O-line for protecting the quarterback
(amidst the mud, his jersey was still white at the end of the game),
and for busting Niels loose on those two awesome TD runs
to start the game.

To the D-line for tracking down the Trojan runners
with tenacity, and then wrapping them up.

To the D-backs for containing the Trojan receivers
and breaking up numerous pass plays.

To Special Teams for your best return coverage of the season.

To the coaches for some unbelievably gutsy play-calling
(namely the two-point conversion).

To Joey for being the gigantic target with soft hands
that made the two-pointer work.

To David G. for staying on his feet on the final kick-off return
and putting room between our offense's backsides and the end zone.

To all the offensive players that kept the ball moving up the field.

And to the LC fans who got on their feet
and made a whole bunch of noise
to cheer our boys on to give their all.
And that's just what they did;
they truly left it all on the field.
No regrets.

So, maybe instead of calling this the best game ever,
I should call it
"the best game...YET".
Who knows what could happen next week?!

I'm so happy for all of you guys.
WAY TO GO, fellas.

On the Road

Am writing from the lobby of a Hampton Inn.
Cami and I are having a wonderful adventure.

Wednesday night and this morning with the Wilkenings.
Shopping this afternoon.
Dinner at Cheesecake Factory.
More shopping.
THE dress found and purchased.
Now settled at the hotel...TV, magazines and a dip in the hot tub.

Good times. Girl times.
I'm surprised we still have our voices...
we've been talking almost non-stop.

Tomorrow, football.

Woo hoo!!!

My husband is awesome for holding down the fort while
we shop and explore and bond. Thanks a ton, sweetie.

(Practically) Counting the Hours

Less than two days from now, I'll be out of town.

No, I'm not going to Hawaii or Mexico or any other exotic locale.
I'm just heading south with my daughter;
driving down to Seattle to visit friends,
shop for Cami's dress for the winter dance,
and then hit an LC football game (in Friday Harbor, of all places) on the way home.

A long time ago, the fam marked these dates off for an outing,
but plans fell through, and Cami and I were able to
take advantage of the days off of school to have an adventure.

What a blessing that we ENJOY spending time together,
can't wait for it, in fact.
And knowing that two years from now,
she'll likely be away somewhere at college,
I'm just savoring every moment of mom-and-Cami time.

So, let's see...I think we're down to about 42 hours...
and 17 minutes...
and 38...37...36...35 seconds...
but who's counting?!

ME!!!!!