Day Twenty-Nine - April 29, 2020
Today I awoke just before the sun… freezing cold - we forgot to turn the heat back on last night before we went to bed!
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This morning I awoke to a flood alert on my phone for 2pm - Thursday. Delirious, I, then skipped over the fact that it is only Wednesday and moved straight onto Thursday. So I suggested to Andrei that we take the dog to the river so she could get a bit more exercise before the bad weather…
Within the first 60 seconds of arriving at the side of the pristine, quiet river... the dog shot into the woods, treed a squirrel - managed to kill it, cut her paw and dashed off to find another victim. I hate this! It makes me crazy… I cry, I scream, I beg her to leave them alone… She literally gets herself into such a state of triumph and euphoria that her prey instincts literally take over completely.
I left Andrei and “that dog” in the dust and walked alone along the side of the river… trying to tune out the continual barking and excited yelping from the other side of the river. The sun was warm and bright, casting shadows along the path, and the dew had not yet dried. It was a classic springtime morning.
I spent my day listening to two of our kids flush out their thoughts regarding their final term papers due in the next week. Many of their professors have given similar assignments in that they wish for their students to discuss at length their perspective regarding this current virus and how it pertains to their subject content.
Truth be told - they are worn out from having to continually integrate the topic of the virus into their conversations and assignments for the past 6-7 weeks. Kat is a supply chain major - so this assignment has a double-edged sword.
Dan perceived his assignment as being overly vague and broad… two major hurdles for our concrete abstract learner! Leah - ever the practical one - took the assignment and just handed the professor a detailed factual report and moved on. (She and Dan are in the same English class.)
“What did you learn during this time? What did you take from this pandemic? Were any pieces of literature impactful for you? How did this time affect you as a student? What can you take into your future to help you?” Dan was literally climbing the walls…
How do you explain something that is ongoing? How do you explain something when you’re not sure what to believe? How do you write about the future, when we can barely figure out the present? Piece, by piece, by piece, by piece... we pulled this thing apart from top to bottom.
A few years ago, my sister and I went on a hunt to find a new math teacher. At the time, we had an excellent academically sound teacher who came to our home three times a week - but the synergy was off. After turning over what we thought was every stone… we found ourselves stuck. We let the current teacher go and believed that somehow God was going to provide. It wasn’t euphoric - it was downright terrifying.
After a relatively short time, we were introduced to a man who was proficient (a genius we later discovered) and had taught all the mathematical levels we needed at that time. He was a pastor of a small congregation and had time during the day to come and have regular lessons with the kids. Soon after coming, he offered to stay later after class to hold a Bible study with the kids and me. We soon affectionately called him, “Pastor Math.”
What began as simply math, soon turned into one of the greatest spiritual climate changes in our home. There were no books - only the Bible… very few opinions - just Scripture - and he patiently taught hour after hour after hour. We brought questions, he brought Scripture. We brought trouble - he opened Scripture. We sought answers - he brought Scripture. Not dead words on a page - but a living and breathing message to the sons and daughters of a living Creator.
One day I asked a driving question - “How do I understand how to navigate through trouble… to take the lessons learned and apply them to my future…?” These were questions so similar to Daniel’s English assignment today.
Patiently, as always, he opened Scripture.
2 Peter 1…
“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.
The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
A growing faith begins as the first rung of the ladder and finishes off at the top. Faith.
It is alive and growing within us. It offers HOPE for every situation. It takes our eyes off of ourselves as being ultimate and immortal and places them on the eternal.... The everlasting.
We understand troubles of all kinds will come and go. We understand not all questions will be answered. We understand we are ever-changing because of a growing faith. We understand that the future that sits in front of us may be unstable, volatile, hostile, frustrating and even evil. But we look beyond these realities to the Cross which sits gloriously firm and secure. We set our hearts on things above - the ultimate things.
Not every assignment is best answered with generous faith-based references… in fact, often if a superior religious tone creeps in - it generally discredits most of the content.
But if you keep asking the same question and you really want to know ... We will have to say with great confidence - “Faith.”
HEBREWS 11
“Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.
By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” [The writer then lists story after story of men and women of faith.]
“All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. Obviously people who say such things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back.
But they were looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.”
And so ended our day… complete with a crazy snake along the path during our evening walk - causing me to scream and cry. I am terrified of snakes! I want to bail on tomorrow’s walks - but I know that little Miss will give me those eyes… and she will always win.