the Treasure

My sister Kaley is at a discipleship training program this summer at Ellerslie. I am so excited for the opportunity she has, and have been very encouraged by the updates she has been sending out. She doesn't have much time for phone calls, but she has called me twice since she's been there. Twenty minute phone conversations really make you think about what is truly important to talk about - reminds me of getting phone calls from my dad when he was deployed.

Anyway, she sent me an email a few weeks ago that was encouraging and I thought I would post it on my blog. Ben, one of the staff at Ellerslie, was talking about the story of the man who sold everything he had to buy a field because he knew there was treasure buried there (Matthew 13:44)...

Ben was talking to us this afternoon, and he said something that made me think. You know that story where the guy finds a treasure in a field and then goes and sells all he has to buy the field? I have to admit, I always kinda thought he was a little crazy, but Ben said something that got me thinking. All the people around him must have thought he was absolutely crazy. Selling all he had to buy a field full of weeds? Who does that?!?

"That land isn't worth anything!" his grandparents probably said.

 

"That land has nothing (or no one) fun and interesting on it!" his aunts and uncles probably said.

 

"That land will be too much hard work!" all his peers and coworkers probably said.

 

"I bought a nicer field," his cousins probably could have said.

 

They looked at what he was so excited about, and all they saw was the weeds and dust.

 

Sound familiar?

 

But he had the treasure!!!

 

It didn't matter what any of them said. HE KNEW why he sold everything to buy the field. HE KNEW what was in that field. HE HAD THE TREASURE!!! Nothing else mattered.

 

Hope that encourages you. I'd never thought of that story quite like that before.

 

 

Bonus - here is an excerpt from my journal when I took Kaley out to start her summer internship. I'm posting it because I want to remember - I want to remember what God is doing in my life and what He has brought me through. Maybe there are others who can relate to these moments.

 

...I didn't want to leave Ellerslie, but when the airport shuttle came to pick me up, I said goodbye to Kaley and climbed in the van. As I buckled up and waited for the driver to give me my ticket, I was doing fine. But as the shuttle lurched forward away from the curb my heart suddenly jumped violently inside me as if it was trying to escape from the cruel human body that was taking it away from this blessed land and back to the hard labor camp of reality. It got as far as my throat and then stuck there as if trapped. I whirled around in the seat and saw my sister through the back window. She was sitting alone on the steps. I watched through the tears as she got smaller and smaller and then faded from view.

 

It was one of those moments in life when I wanted to stop the world. I didn't want to go through with it - I didn't want it to be happening.

 

Like tearing myself 400 miles away from my parents and siblings and experiencing the most difficult season of my life.

 

Like watching someone you love turn from God and turn to the ways of the world.

 

Like crying every time you return to a place because it hurts so much.

 

It was in that haunting moment that I turned from what was behind me and faced forward in the seat. It was in that moment that I tried to make small talk with the driver through my shaky voice. Tornadoes in Oklahoma. Wildfires in Colorado. The 13-hour shift that he started an hour and a half ago. There was a wreck on the interstate, we had to take a detour...

 

And yet my insides were like a wild animal - churning and fighting. The continuing and all-too-familiar battle with myself.

 

He dropped me off where the other shuttle would pick me up and take me on to the airport. Barely anytime had passed before it came careening up and halted in front of me. I picked up my bag, climbed on, sat down by the window, and lost all control. As the tears rolled down, I turned and stared out the window like the typical unsocial traveler. My chin quivered as it always does when I'm trying not to cry. I fixed my gaze on the Rockies until I could no longer see them. The harsh reality of what I was going back to seemed to taunt me...

 

a prayer

"Father, I want to know Thee, but my cowardly heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but I do come. Please root from my heart all those things which I have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' name. Amen."

by A.W. Tozer
The Pursuit of God
(free kindle edition is available from Amazon)

a few pictures from summer travels

I know I have been absent on here lately. This summer has been quite challenging and intense. I wanted to share a few pictures from last weekend. I got to go visit some friends, meet a precious little boy, and go to a wedding. I'm so grateful that God put these friends in my life and that we can still get together even though our lives have taken different paths. I wish I had gotten pictures with Julie and Melissa!

 

 

 

Kerr Wedding - Grand Finale

Over 300 people attended the wedding

 

 

There were five of us bridesmaids, but unfortunately, one of them wasn't able to be in this picture.

 

One of my favorite memories from the wedding happened when it was all over. The bride and groom and most of the guests were gone, and we were cleaning up. It was dark and all of us bridesmaids decided to jump in the pool together...in our dresses (after asking permission from the owner and gathering sufficient towels, of course). I wasn't really excited about the idea at first, but looking back now, I am glad I did it! It was a bonding moment and I will remember it for a very long time! :) Such a good memory and a fun way to end a great wedding.

Kerr Wedding - getting ready

my very first shellac manicure :)

 

 beautiful bride



more to come!

Kerr Wedding

My good friend Taylor got married a couple weeks ago and I will be posting photos soon! Here are a few from the rehearsal dinner...

Freedom Trail, Part 2

 

Pictured above is the Old South Meeting House, and below is a view from inside the Old State House.

 

 

This is the Old State House, where the Boston Massacre occured in 1770. There is a gift shop inside, and I found some cool souvenirs for my family!

I am in the picture below - pink scarf!

 

 

And finally, the home of Paul Revere! This is where our Freedom Trail adventure ended since we didn't have time to continue on to the Old North Church, USS Constitution, and Bunker Hill. We also didn't get to go inside his house since they weren't open for tours at the time. Something to save for another trip!

 

 

Newer buildings had been built adjoining his house, so it was different than what I expected. For some reason, I had pictured his house out in the middle of a quiet field in the country...I suppose it may have been at one time. Here is the view looking north from his home.

 

The streets were amazing, I couldn't imagine trying to driving a carriage on those rough stones, but I could imagine the sound of horses' tramping hooves and soldier's marching boots...Paul Revere across the river, waiting for a light from the Old North Church...

 



Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere

On the 18th of April in '75, hardly a man is now alive,

Who remembers that famous day and year.

 

He said to his friend, "If the British march by land or sea from the town tonight,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea; and I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

 

Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oar silently rowed to the Charlestown shore,
Just as the moon rose over the bay, where swinging wide at her moorings lay
The Somerset, British man-of-war; a phantom ship, with each mast and spar
Across the moon like a prison bar, and a huge black hulk, that was magnified
By its own reflection in the tide.

 

Meanwhile, his friend through alley and street wanders and watches, with eager ears,
Till in the silence around him he hears the muster of men at the barrack door,
The sound of arms, and the tramp of feet, and the measured tread of the grenadiers,
Marching down to their boats on the shore.

 

Then he climbed the tower of the Old North Church,

By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread,
To the belfry chamber overhead, and startled the pigeons from their perch
On the sombre rafters, that round him made masses and moving shapes of shade,--
By the trembling ladder, steep and tall, to the highest window in the wall,
Where he paused to listen and look down a moment on the roofs of the town
And the moonlight flowing over all.

 

Beneath, in the churchyard, lay the dead, in their night encampment on the hill,
Wrapped in silence so deep and still that he could hear, like a sentinel's tread,
The watchful night-wind, as it went creeping along from tent to tent,
And seeming to whisper, "All is well!"

A moment only he feels the spell of the place and the hour, and the secret dread
Of the lonely belfry and the dead; for suddenly all his thoughts are bent
On a shadowy something far away, where the river widens to meet the bay,--
A line of black that bends and floats on the rising tide like a bridge of boats.

 

Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride, booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.

Now he patted his horse's side, now he gazed at the landscape far and near,
Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, and turned and tightened his saddle girth;
But mostly he watched with eager search the belfry tower of the Old North Church,
As it rose above the graves on the hill, lonely and spectral and sombre and still.

And lo! as he looks, on the belfry's height a glimmer, and then a gleam of light!
He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns, but lingers and gazes, till full on his sight
A second lamp in the belfry burns.

 

A hurry of hoofs in a village street, a shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark,
And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing,

A spark struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet;
That was all! And yet, through the gloom and the light,

The fate of a nation was riding that night;
And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight, k

Kndled the land into flame with its heat.
He has left the village and mounted the steep,

And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep,
Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides;

And under the alders that skirt its edge,
Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge,

Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides...

 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

 

History - come to life. Boston 2013.