Seasons greetings. Feliz navidad. Congratulations on completing 2013. Not everyone that I know did. One of my dear friends is gone to heaven.
She was a devout Christian and I don't think she feared death, but she left this earth way too early. She left behind a wonderful family and she will be dearly missed. We became friends while living in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, though both of us grew up in Oregon. I am grateful that I got to spend time with her this last January. I believed that God would heal her cancer, but in August, the day before her 52nd birthday, she went home to the Lord. Shelly is gone to heaven. I mean "is gone", not "has gone."
I share this story because it gives context to my year. It has been my best year and yet one of my more difficult ones. Romans chapter 5 explains that we who believe in Jesus as our Savior are justified in God's eyes because of what Jesus did. He gave His life up, dying on the cross, so that God's justice would be satisfied. Our sins must be paid for. God would not be righteous if He just looked the other way and did not demand punishment for them. But knowing we could never meet the requirements of the Law, He sent His only begotten son, Jesus. And because Jesus bore all our diseases and iniquities on the cross, God was satisfied and because we are now justified, Jesus Christ rose from the dead.
Now we have peace with God. He is not mad at us, but He loves us. He will never be mad at us again, because we believe in Him. And we have received His grace, His Son. Grace and truth came. That was Jesus. And we are in Him. We exalt in hope and yet, we also exalt in our tribulations. We do so because we know that tribulation brings about perseverance, and perseverance brings proven character, and this brings hope. And hope does not disappoint because God gave us the Holy Spirit and poured His love into our hearts. And better yet, God did this while we were still helpless and in an ungodly state.
This year I have been confronted with these words. I've pondered this passage before, but this year I felt like I lived it in more understanding. It is one thing to read and say, ya, ya, I get it. It is another thing to go through situations where truly believing this, will make the difference as to whether I go through my day in worry and fear, and then stay awake half the night because I can't shut these voices down, or whether I can rest my mind in knowing that God does love me and that He has not deserted me. When the rubber meets the road in life situations, that is when I get to test my true beliefs. I believe that is why we should rejoice in tribulations. I do not seek them out, but I am learning to rejoice when they come my way.
In situations like these, my beliefs are tested. When my friend died, what did I now think about God and healing? Or did I just try not to think about it? No, I thought about it, because I don't want my relationship with God to be lived in mediocrity. I want the full benefits of what Jesus paid the costly and agonizing price for. He gave us His peace, here on this side of death. He told us to labor to enter into His rest, on this side of death. He said He was the bread of life, the light of the world, the way, the truth, the life. For this side of death. And I want to receive what He has freely given. So when life doesn't follow my scripted plan, when possessions are lost, when relationships are stretched and tested, do I blame God, do I turn my back on Him and decide He doesn't love me, or that I haven't done enough to deserve whatever, or do I go to Him for comfort and hope? And do I continue to discover how much I am forgiven, how much I am loved, and that though I may not understand, He can always be trusted. He is my protection, my provision, my health, my joy and my delight.
2 Peter 1 says, "According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue...But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.
I leave my reflections without further detail. I realize that most of you keep your walk with God to yourselves, but it is my passion to talk about and is so much a part of who I am and what motivates me. Several years ago I invited the Jehovah's Witness ladies who stopped by, to come in and visit. Their visits challenged me to learn how to share my beliefs. Could I explain my faith as well as they explained theirs. It was a good thing for me.
If you have spent much time at all with Tim and I and our family, you know that we love nothing better than a healthy discussion of what we deem meaningful issues. Now I realize the word "meaningful" is a very individual thing, but can also be an abstract idea. And I recognize that each of us gets to decide what it means for ourselves. We read a lot, we watch movies and we enjoy talking.
I want to take a moment to thank everyone one of you who take the time to send cards, letters and pictures. They are always enjoyed and appreciated. I have not been as diligent in my communication, so let me continue to be long winded and make up for that with this letter. I so enjoyed the Shetler family reunion last summer. It was wonderful to see those who could attend. As I get older, I appreciate it more, especially since we do not live close to most of you.
In May I retired from working outside the home and have joined Tim, becoming his right hand gal in all his adventures. It has been very enjoyable for us. We do a lot of writing, and since Tim thinks out loud, we do a lot of talking. He does the creating, I do the editing. I also keep him from throwing the computer through the window when he grows too many thumbs and accidentally deletes things. I can usually find what got lost and I seem to be good enough to keep the computer working smoothly.
I realized that I was going to have to make some adjustments, staying at home after seven years. The girls have all gone their own ways, and all that is left is Tim, myself and the two faithful dogs. They are high maintenance, or so they would have me think. They want to walk, be brushed, eat all the time if I would let them, etc. But unlike the girls, they refuse to grow up and leave home. Georgia, the bigger of the two, learned how to climb our fence. Usually she came back, but there was one time when we were away and the local dog catcher could not reach us, so they took her to doggy jail. Which was an hour away. Bad dog. Now, she has to be tied up inside our completely fenced in yard.
I have acquainted myself again with my kitchen. Tim is a very good cook, so he spent more time than I did cooking. But it was fun to once again bake bread, make strawberry jam, deep clean and putter. And I dug a big hole in my back yard, for fun, and I started a patio area that someone more expert than myself will need to finish. Tim just shakes his head at me sometimes. I also still enjoy cutting brush and making stacks of firewood. I have a nice fire pit where I satisfy the arsonist side of me. I love a fire. But I do behave and keep the hose handy.
I also started playing my guitar again. I enjoy singing and playing and my audience of two, the dogs, don't seem to mind. But they refuse to sing along. I am also brushing up on my Spanish. We live a a bilingual area and it can come in handy. Many people around here do not speak English.
Back to the writing. Tim and I were talking about when we were young and I started thinking of things I did back on the "farm." I ended up writing some poetry, one about a cow having a calf. Then I thought it would be nice to have it illustrated. So I checked a drawing book out of the library. One thing led to another and if you read to the end, you can see one of my attempts at faces. Let me know if you recognize anyone.
We enjoyed the beautiful summer and fall weather. We have a lot of paved walking trails and Tim and I both became serious walkers this year. I sent a couple photos I took while walking the neighborhood trails.
Let me leave you with a few quotes and thoughts that I had or came across this year.
--I lend voice to thought and that was my mistake." Toby Zeiglar on West Wing. Boy that sounds like a case of hoof and mouth disease.
--Health is the greatest wealth." Joseph Prince, pastor of New Creation Church, Singapore.
--"...he could never have attained greatness because he was already great in his own eyes." I can't remember where I saw this, but it struck me as a great description.
--"We are responsible for life, not for rituals." Tim Honan
"Is the test for true life what is left after the walls come down?" Ruby Honan
--"Resentment is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemies." Nelson Mandela
--"Everyone is to blame, so no one is guilty." West Wing
--"Oh taste and see that the Lord is good." King David
--"Courage needs to be a perspective, not an emotion." Ruby Honan
--"Success has many fathers and failure is an orphan." Unknown
--"Drawing is thinking...Art makes us attentive. It is linked to survival...Art can't induce a state of mindful repose in an unmindful beholder...Every object contains the energy of its maker...We develop immunity to experience, because we have to, because if we responded to everything in life, we could not tolerate it. Most of our lives we spend deflecting most of the information we receive." All this is from Milton Glaser.
Well if you read this far, I thank you and hope that you enjoyed my little one sided conversation. I would love to have a two sided conversation but that takes your participation. I may be reached at trunnerup@gmail.com or if you would rather, write me a letter.
Dee, our dog.
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