Water

Water water everywhere.....  One of the little stories that lives within the bigger story of my life has to do with water.  When I was a Youth Pastor in Silverton, I spent a day at Silver Falls State park (would highly recommend this if you get the chance).  In the evening I was sitting down by the base of the North Falls the spray from the falls was billowing up in my face, and oddly enough, the mist that is ever present in the air around Silverton was falling from the sky.  I watched the relentless fall of water pouring over the falls and I got lost somewhere in those moments.

Sometimes I wonder why God gives us these times of deeper understanding.  Seems like they come and go, sometimes I feel like I get it, other times I feel like I completely wasted an opportunity to learn more about God.

This morning I was reading "My Utmost for His Highest" by Oswald Chambers.  He was talking about the relationship between "mountain top" experiences and the ordinary "gray" days of life.  How do we take  the things that we learn on the mountain tops and apply it to the ordinary lives that we live everyday?  I doubt that God gives us those glimpses of Himself just for us to forget and return to our distracted lives.

Anyway, while I was watching water fall, watching water rise, watching water drip, pour, mist, puddle, stream, I thought about just how prevalent water is.  I was impressed by how similar that is to Gods love.  It is everywhere, it never stops, it breaks us down, it lifts us up, it helps us grow, it sustains us, it sneaks into places we never intended, it knocks us down, it warms us up.

Like all analogies, this one has its limits.  But for me, as a Water Engineer, it serves to make me stop and think every time I see, feel or hear water (which is often).  As an engineer, there is a part of me that is wired to try to take the natural world and harness, control, focus, and use it.  Looking back at mans attempts to harness, control, focus, and use water, I see successes and failures.  How is it that we try to harness, control focus and use Gods love?  Are we supposed to? or is Gods love supposed to be left alone?

Toady is the 16th of April, and water is falling on Central Oregon in the form of Snow.  Sometimes Gods love does not come in the form that we think it should.  Sometimes we don't recognize God's love for what it is.  It is cold and hard.  Sometimes I need reminded that it is still Gods love even if I don't like it......

Beginnings

I call this post beginnings because, while this isn't the beginning of the story, it is the beginning of the telling of the story.

God works in very interesting ways.  Through the years, as Wanda (my wife) and I look back, we see where God has moved through out lives. We see that even though we feel like we are stumbling around with blinders on, somehow God leads us to where He uses us.

This started happening very early in our marriage.  We had been married about 6 months.  I was at Colorado State University trying to finish my Master Degree in Civil Engineering.  Wanda was working through her Bachelor Degree in Social Work.  One night I couldn't sleep, isn't that where the trouble always starts?  I ended up on the couch in the living room praying.  It was there, in our little apartment that I heard/felt God call me to full time Youth Ministry.  My first thought was "Cool, I can stop writing my thesis!"  But that wasn't God's plan.

I ended up finishing my degree and started sending out resumes for both engineering and youth ministry.  There were many opportunities, and many closed doors.  It often felt like I was being led down a path following bread crumbs.  Eventually, I had an interview with a small engineering company, and the Interviewer asked me "So, Jon, where do you see yourself in 5 years?"  This used to be the cool question to ask during the interview process.  Back then I am sure I had some sort of clever response.  However, for this interview I said something like "I don't really expect you to understand, but I believe that God has a plan for be to me doing full time Youth Work in the near future."  Oddly enough, they hired me.  Interesting how God works.

Two years later, my wife and I were finally called to be Youth Minister at a little church in the corn fields of south central Iowa.  From there it was five years in Silverton, Oregon.  Then, while everything seemed to be going fine, God made it clear to us that it was time to move on.  We let our Church know that we would be leaving in a few months and then started to look for Engineering jobs again (since that is the other thing I know how to do).  God led our now growing family of four to Lakeview, OR where we added another member to our family and then on to Redmond, OR where we have been waiting for the past 7 years.

We feel strongly that God continually leads us through life always using where we are at and always preparing us for what is ahead. He has ALWAYS been faithful, however, sometimes we have a very hard time waiting.

So, now it seems that God is getting us ready for whatever the next thing might be.  For quite a few years we have felt that God would eventually use us in an International setting.  We have never know where or how or when, but that has always been in the back of our minds.