It’s been a long short weekend.

Between yesterday and today, about 15 hours of it was spent at the office, coding, trying to get a web project ready for presentation to a state agency tomorrow morning. It’s been a little stressful, but the site is a good demonstration of what we can do in our little web group (Tim and I), and for that I am proud. And I am also thankful for a job, doing something I can enjoy when it is completed and used.

Actually, this has dominated a lot of my waking time the last two weeks. And I realized this weekend I miss my family.

Another large part of the weekend has been spent thinking and praying about the small group I am in at church. What has been a significant circle of new and valued friendships the last two months came under assault last week when a few members mentioned an interest and need to be somewhere else where they could get more scripture teaching. Another friend, a guy who has been a co-pastor of the church after Jim left last fall, is leaving the church with his family because of pressure from somewhere in the leadership circles above. They will keep coming to our group, but he was the leader, and he is now viewed with some caution by leaders in the church, and it’s awkward for them. So, in some ways, it’s felt like the group is being hammered on. Still, we all communicate, and we all still trust God is in the picture, and that He can and will use us as a group if we just trust Him. Trust Him we must.

It was suitable that this morning’s sermon was on the importance of small groups in our church’s life. If after that sermon, other people in the church don’t get excited to join a small group, I don’t know what can get them going. Sagebrush Highland currently has two small groups. By the end of the year, the pastor’s goal is that we have six.

Maybe it’s just my emotional makeup. I miss people a lot. I long for old friends here and there. My heart reaches out for people I’ve lost somewhere behind me in the wake of life, and sorrow easily steers me here and there, until something insistent in present life brings me to. It’s a challenge for me to stay “here and now” sometimes. But it’s where we are supposed to be.

I got a twilight run in around the loop. I hit the downhill leg just as the sun was dropping behind the Western horizon and the sky burned orange and pink. The air was cool and my body felt an even rhythm as I slogged on down Academy. It felt good to go out and move and sweat after a day of sitting- and to see the sun burn out at day’s end. The end of the run left me to sit in cool air, feeling light breezes cross my face. It was delightful.

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Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for a job, and the ability to get work done when it has to be done. Thank you for fair and kind bosses that keep me around and value what I do. Thanks for a place to live, and a family that is full of kindness and compassion and encouragement. They are always kind to me, even when I am aloof and lost within. Thank your for colors and cool breezes and hugs from friends, and for the courage that comes from being around people who love you. Thank you for mercy and tenderness, and the proud muscular stance of a horse and the elation that comes when I hear a loved song. Thank you for a bed, and a car, and a Bible and even cats. And people who quietly help others along in life. Thank you that I can still jog, Lord, and I can still think, and that I say your Name on my lips more than I swear with it (although some days I am so, so less than holy). Thank you for second chances and healing hearts and hope outside of ourselves, and for your goodness. Thanks for close friends who have been around for years, and for close friends who have been around for just months. Thank you for close friends who have grown up in the same house as us. And thank you for close friends lost. You have blessed me through them. Please bless that one immensely. I really, really miss her.

Lord, I thank you that even though I am a fool, I am Yours.

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So much for a Quick Hit. Oh well, that’s okay. It was a good weekend. Tomorrow the show starts all over again.

Have a good week, friend.

The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you. ”
~ Numbers 11:23