First of all, I’m still blogging in my heart and in my journal, even when I travel to more remote locations with limited internet capabilities. This time, I found myself on the back porch of a cabin in the mountains of North Carolina at my beloved Camp Greystone. Since the weekend reunion request involved going “tech-free,” I thought I’d send another 3-in-1 blog post for you. I’m so sorry for the missed Friday-Sunday blogs! Here you go:
- One day, you’ll find yourself so settled in your heart that you don’t need any more attention or affirmation. You’re part of the scenery, needing nothing, and only wanting to create joy for others. I returned to Camp Greystone 30 years after I was a needy, emotionally up and down, spiritually immature college girl. Now, I could see all the ways God grew me up. Remember how I prayed for that “missionary spirit?” Well, I arrived to camp ready to make up my bunk with blankets to survive the cold mountain air. I arrived ready for whatever would come my way. I loved walking the same paths I did as a young woman. This time, I felt so full of God’s love and abundant living, that the girl who once cried out for so many things now just walked by the tall pines and said, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”
- I found four snapping turtles, including an ancient one that I’m told was over 100 years old. This felt like a special gift from God. I don’t need fancy things; seeing a turtle sunning on a log will do.
- I read a quote during a morning devotion from Hannah Whitall Smith’s book, The Christian Secret of a Happy Life, that deepy resonated with many people. Here it is:
“Ye have not passed this way heretofore,” it may be; but today it is your happy
privilege to prove, as never before, your loyal confidence in the Lord by starting out
with Him on a life and walk of faith, lived moment by moment in absolute and childlike
trust in Him. You have trusted Him in a few things, and He has not failed you. Trust Him now
for everything, and see if He does not do for you exceeding abundantly above all that
you could ever have asked or thought; not according to your power or capacity, but
according to His own mighty power, that will work in you all the good pleasure of His
most blessed will. You find no difficulty in trusting the Lord with the management of the universe
and all the outward creation, and can your case be any more complex or difficult than
these, that you need to be anxious or troubled about his management of it.
Can your case be any more complex or difficult? The former campers and staff laughed at the truth of it.
The Lord can manage your life.