Where Is Your Happy Place?

When I was a eleven years old, I lived in the front half of a small house with my mother.  Off of the bedroom was a small storage closet area with a window and attic access.  I kept my dolls and doll bed in that attic area and when I was home alone I would often go upstairs into the bedroom storage space and pull my dolls out of the attic to play with.  I loved the sunshine filling the cozy space with light, and I loved talking and playing with my dolls when I felt lonely.  I had seven of different shapes and sizes.  I still have one of those dolls and recently Joel pulled the doll bed out of our attic over the garage. Seeing it once again brought back memories of me in my "happy place".  

One of our children talks about a happy place they go to.. it is a bit bigger than the small storage space of my childhood,  it is a relaxing place that brings into the atmosphere a sense of peace, joy, and "all good things".  We visited there in May, and the sense of peace and contentment we felt there gave more definition to their description of this "happy place".  It could be felt by both Joel and myself.

One of our children lives in the country and Joel and I love sitting on their porch any time of the day or night.  There is such a sense of history and generations of the past that comes through.  It is quiet and nature is at it's best when we sit on this porch.  Another "happy place" that brings a sense of calm and peace to quiet the soul.

I expect that Heaven will be such a place.  Recently I watched a brief teaching by a philosopher that mentioned that those people who believe they will go to Heaven really DON'T believe that they will...they just use that to comfort themselves about what happens after they die.  At first it angered me and then it saddened me that this great "mind" was so lost.  Certainly when I think of my sister Jo now, I see her smiling, laughing and healthy with her bright blue eyes sparkling.  She is in a "happy place".  

I am not so sure that our secular world understands what is slowly ebbing away.  I just read that the chief chaplain at Harvard is an atheist.  That cannot even compute in my brain...chaplain....and atheist?  Something is so wrong about that......he would not be who I would turn to in time of need.

Getting back to happy places, I expect you all can think of one or two.  And if you cannot I suggest you create them in your imagination.....or right in your home.  God invites us into His "happy place" as He dwells in our hearts.  That peace that passes understanding.........or that Heavenly realm that awaits. We used to sing a song as a family called, "Heaven is a Wonderful Place"...........

Heaven is a wonderful place.............filled with glory and grace

I'm gonna see my Savior's face.....Heaven is a wonderful place.

I'm going there!

I am learning to quiet my soul by going back in my mind to places that bring me calm and peace.  That front porch, or that cabin, etc.  Places where my soul is quieted down and God's presence sustains.  I am hoping to create more of those places!  So, I ask again, Where is your happy place/

Welcome Home!

I was reading a post written by my favorite columnist, Sharon Randall, and she asked questions that she asks of many she meets, "Where are you from?"....and...."How do you define home?  It set me thinking.  It has been on my mind in this senior season of our lives, a time of wanting roots while hungering for the more.  Desiring something new while making the effort to embrace what is.  Where is home?  What is home?  Randall defines home as where her people and land co-exist.....so I pondered.

Joel grew up on the family farm, 1/8 mile from their country church.  Surrounding him were family and friends as far as the eye could see.  Yet at his mother's suggestion he left home at age 20 and headed down to The Lutheran Bible Institute smack in the middle of a big city.  We met there, graduated, married and headed out and away from anything or anyone we knew.

I moved a lot as a child, from house to house, town to town, state to state.  When I was three I called the car "home".  I expect it was a familiar place for me.  From age 12-18 I lived in a small three bedroom 1950's house with my newly defined family.  I moved in with my older sister and her husband in 6th grade and her children became my siblings while my two sisters remained my sisters. Complicated?  Not for me.  Even though I left home at 18 and have not lived there is 51 years, I can visualize every room, every closet, every corner of that house where I felt safe, loved, and happy. More than a few years ago now, that house was demolished along with many others that stood in a flood zone.  It rests in my memories.

After Joel and I married the Air Force sent us around the country and across the world.  When Joel became an ordained minister we continued to travel to new houses, new churches, new towns.  We enjoyed friends and congregations very much, but always put down shallow roots because we knew what the future held ~ another move.

Our children endured many moves with their parents.  I am not sure where our children call home, since none of them live where we reside.    Is it when we gather as a family once a year, or is is where they live and where each of them has put down roots, bypassing childhood visions of "home", for their people and land where roots run deep?   It makes sense.   Home is where the heart is............

And where does that put us?  We are coming up this month on the 21st year we have lived in this town. Joel has preached in 24 of the churches in the synod.  We have lived in three houses here, the last one for nearly 13 years.  Yet, our roots are still not very deep.  If a stranger asks us where we are from, my reply is "We are from Minnesota, but we live in Iowa for now."  No offense to those we know well here, but we have never felt this was a permanent place for us.

If you read my writings here, you know that this topic of where to call home, defining home, and seeking roots has pulled and tugged on us for awhile now.  Sharon Randall's questions stirred the waters, although to be honest our friends who, too soon for us, will venture out into a new definition of home, have inadvertently got us thinking again.  It does not take much.

So how do we define home?  Familiar land take us back to our hometowns, but we have been gone for over 50 years, only visiting briefly at times.  Mostly for us, home is defined with the people we love and care about.  Remember the siblings that came into my life at age 12?   "Home" has come with texting.  Crazy?  Maybe not so much.  When my older sister broke her back she was isolated often at home.  We all began texting to get information, but it continued on long after with a way to connect. We share pics, talk politics (we all lean one way), pass on information, and just chat.  A way to connect that has given me a feeling of "going home".   Roots run deep with them and my sisters who helped raise me.  Doubly blessed.

Joel and I talked yesterday about Randall's question, "Where do you call home?"  We both feel that home is where we both are.  Together.  There are always family roots that draw us in, on the farm, and in houses that reside now only in our memories.  There is always our family that brings a definition of who we are, and yet with circumstances and miles between,  in this season of our lives we are most drawn to each other.

I visited with the massage therapist today about her story.  I asked here if she has always lived here and she told me yes.  She even bought the house she grew up in and has lived there nearly 65 years.  I tried to fathom that.  I cannot, and honestly, it would not be on my bucket list.  Even thought it is not all roses by any means, I prefer a life of new adventures.  I guess we are all unique in the way we do life and where we live, but are we unique in how we define home?   I think my favorite columnist has it right.....home is mostly about the people we love and for some the land beneath our feet.

Where are you from?  How do you define "home"?  For some it may be an easy answer....for others complicated.  Whether you are are well rooted, or feel the pull and tug of desiring more,  we know without doubt our final home will be a place of continual joy, rest, glory, and Presence.  And when we arrive we will hear our Papa God say....."welcome home!"

What We Are Called To Do

Today Joel and I sat together on our loveseat and watched the funeral service live stream for Sgt. Anthony Beminio, which was held at Lutheran Church of Hope in West Des Moines IA.  It was a moving ceremony, not only as we watched over 1,500 officers file in and salute the casket when they walked by, but as the Chief of Police, Dana Wingert, spoke about Tony Beminio and the fine officer he was.  As the Chief held back tears and spoke of everyone being heartbroken.   The sermon by Senior Pastor Michael Householder was one of the most powerful sermons Joel and I have ever heard.  E.v.e.r.  It was a beautiful combination of what this mega church is founded on.  Sharing the story of Jesus and obeying His commandment to love one another.  Householder began this mission church in 1993 and it has grown in leaps and bounds to encompass satellite churches in 3 other areas, while serving 10,000 members in their own suburb.  Only God.

It is difficult to understand why any 39 year old man dies, but especially someone who served his community well as an officer, worked with kids, encouraged others, and loved on his own family. People look for answers and too often believe God took him.  It was God's will he died.  Today Pastor Householder spoke what Joel and I both stand strongly on in our beliefs.  This was not God.  God did not take Sgt. Householder.  Satan did.  The actions of another did.  Sin did.  A broken world did. Jesus did not come to kill, steal or destroy.  Satan did that.  Pastor Householder spoke of the shortest scripture in the Bible....."Jesus wept" and that Jesus wept along with us over the senseless death of Tony Beminio.  As the Son of God and the Son of man, He wept.  And He continues to do so as He watches the sin and suffering, the hate spoken, the continual atrocities taking place in word and action by His creation.



So today we weep as we mourn the loss of yet another officer, as we mourn the death of a child of God, whether white, black, brown, or wearing blue.  We are saddened by another life that ended too soon. We weep for those left behind, the children.  Oh, how difficult it is for the children.

Still, we grieve with hope.  It is what we are called to do.  With the understanding that when someone we love dies we will see them again, that this is not all there is.  We grieve with hope and we move forward in hope and pray that something like this will not happen again. That some how some way hate and brokenness will not end in death and destruction.  Until then we stand firm in knowing that death is not the end.  It is a new beginning for those who believe in eternal life.

And those who are left behind pick up the pace, carry the shield of Sgt. Beminio and others in their hearts and take on his desire to be an outstanding officer...........outstanding citizen...........parent, son, husband, family member, neighbor, friend. We all step in to make where we do life a better place.  It is what we are called to do.

They Didn't Make It?

Yesterday Joel and I watched, via the internet, the funeral service of Officer Susan Farrell held at a church we have attended with our son and his family in the southern part of our state.  It was packed with officers from Iowa, surrounding states, and a few around the country and from Canada.  Officers honoring one of their sisters in blue. (Her partner who died in the crash will be laid to rest on Friday.)

The chief of police, Dana Wingert, gave a powerful and moving speech.  He began with these words....
"They didn't make it."  The words spoken  to him when he was informed of the horrific crash that killed  two of his officers.  He went on in his talk to speak about officer Farrell and her calling, and addressed her husband, a fellow officer, and the family.   At the end of his talk he brought it back to the words he first spoke...."They didn't make it."  And then he said, "I stand here before you to argue that statement because they did make it and now they reside in God's house.  And they will watch over us the rest of our days.  Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God."

Later one of Susan and her husband Jesse's friends spoke.  He is a friend, pastor, and police officer who was asked to talk about Susan,  and he also spoke to her husband and little daughter, the love they shared, and how God will continue to be with them.  I loved hearing these respected men in blue speak about our Lord, reading scriptures, praying, declaring faith.  Thank you Jesus.

"They didn't make it?"  No, they did make it......they made it to a life eternal and now reside in Heaven with our Jesus.....

Life is unpredictable at best.  Life is what happens while we are making other plans.  The man who hit them head on while going the wrong direction on the Interstate, was drunk and driving at an estimated 100 mph......  Yes, life is unpredictable, so it is very very important to be right with God....to not put off what God is asking of us......We think we have all the tomorrows before us so we often put off those things we know that we know that we know.  Maybe we need to commit to studying God's Word....to praying more......getting to church........speaking to that someone we have been angry at.  Seek to heal that relationship......lose that weight.......love that neighbor........forgive that person......spend time listening to our Lord.  Say yes to our Papa God at any cost.

God is always waiting to hear from us.  He never turns us away, but waits patiently for us to live the life he has planned for us.   Sometimes life gets in the way of that plan.  Sometimes death.  Bad choices result in bad consequences.  This 25 year old young man made a bad decision that ended innocent lives and his own, and changed the lives of so many others.  Lord have mercy.  Let us not put off listening to God's voice beckoning us to a life filled with His presence here on earth and in Heaven.

Heaven Is For Real

Last night Joel and I watched "Heaven is for Real" on DVD.  We had both read the book a couple of years ago and we were looking forward to seeing the movie.  It is the true story of a young boy named Colton Burpo who visits heaven during an emergency surgery to save his life.  He has what is called a "near death" experience without being near death.  What he sees and who he encounters in Heaven makes the book and the movie very powerful and thought provoking.  After watching the movie I have taken the book back off the shelf to read again.

I have seen in the cyber world, skeptics  that question whether this story is authentic or not.  They question whether Colton Burop is telling the truth or whether his dad, Pastor Todd Burpo is making it all up for reasons they are eager to list.  Maybe, like members of pastor Todd's church believed at the beginning, Colton just had a vivid imagination at age 4.  Even his parents were unsure until he spoke to them about information only they knew, that was revealed to him while he was in Heaven.  Amazing.  This kind of story deepens our faith and widens our understanding of God, or.....it brings in:  Skepticism.  Questioning.  Unbelief.

We have all been there, I expect,  in one circumstance or another.  Experiencing something that shakes up our faith or brings God out of the comfortable box we have put Him into.  This may induce unbelief or skepticism based often from fear or lack of knowledge.  Hopefully it challenges us to grow in our faith. (Today I am only speaking of God's Spiritual realm.  Unfortunately the devil and his legions are also part of that mysterious world we cannot see.)

We hear about people who see angels, go through near death experiences, are overcome by the presence of God, or hear God's voice speaking to them.  All these and more encompass the Spiritual realm which takes trust more than understanding to embrace.  My first encounter with the spiritual realm goes back to 1972.  I was kneeling at the altar of the Tabernacle church in Duluth Mn, praying with my eyes closed and hands folded.  As I felt someone take my hands and unfold them lifting them up in praise, I smiled, opening my eyes to see who was there.  My eyes found no one.  There was not anyone nearby.  I could still feel the warmth of someone's hands on mine, but that someone was invisible to me in this world.  This encounter inspired me more times than I can count.   In the past several months I have once again been connecting with God from the Spiritual realm, with the Holy Spirit overpowering me.  I call it Holy Spirit hugs.  Again, this is not really understood, and certainly cannot be reasoned out, but we know what we know...and it has changed my life and deepened my relationship with Jesus.  For that I am grateful.

Joel has his own stories to share, like feeling the presence of angels so strong as a protection that it overwhelmed him and brought him to tears.  Each time God opens the door just a small crack to the Spiritual realm beyond, we are so, so blessed.

I am sure you have your own stories to share of how God has made Himself known in your lives.  Just like in the movie we watched, we don't always understand or even welcome it.  But God is God and He delights in us, wanting to have an intimate relationship with us.  He also wants to use us for His purpose and for His glory.  The movie certainly stirred up conversation with each other and with God.  There is so much we do not understand, but that is where trust comes in.  Nothing is impossible with God, and that includes a four year olds visit to Heaven where he sat on Jesus' lap,  talked with his great grandpa and met his sister who had died long before he was born.