About a month ago I had to go into Tegucigalpa (Tegucigalpa: the capital city of Honduras and the main city where I do my shopping. Tegucigalpa is about and hour from the ranch.) for a meeting of sorts. I had to leave the Ranch around six in the morning in order to make my appointment. I rode in with a few of the teens who go to school in the city. The students happened to be in exams that same week, so on the way into the city most of them were getting some last minute studying in. I was enjoying the bumpy ride down the dirt road, thinking of nothing in particular. A few minutes later we came around a bend where a beautiful valley is nestled into the mountains. I really love this spot and my eyes quickly traveled to the valley, what I saw took my breath away. The clouds were still resting their sleepy heads on the sides of the mountains. It wasn't just "fog" that is like a large blanket, but it was like the clouds descended to have a slumber party. There were many clouds nestled cozily against the mountains and in the valley. It really was beautiful, I looked around the car, to get the others reaction to the beautiful landscape. They still had their heads bowed studying. That is when it hit me... how often was I like those teens? You know so busy with "life" that I missed the treasures that God placed before me. They were doing just what they "needed" to be doing. Most would agree that before a big test you should study, but yet they missed such an awesome moment. How do you balance that, living your life...and not missing out on life? How do you get the things done that you have to do, without neglecting the people who are important to you, or missing the little treasures given to you throughout the day? Even aside from missing out on stuff because of "duties" think how often we miss out on moments worrying about yesterday, tomorrow, 2 minutes from now. It was a great reminder to me that there really is more to life than deciding what I'm going to have for dinner, when I'm going to mow my grass, or how I'm going to spend the weekend. Jesus even talks about this in Matthew 6:19-34, He says,
"19 Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. 22 The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! 24 No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.25 Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 Therefore do not be anxious, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we wear? 32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble."
Wow, He said that so much better than me. Isn't it even funny how often I have read those verses, and yet it didn't truly sink in until that moment. God is very patient, he teaches us the same lessons that He has been teaching us, but when we don't get it He is so kind to speak to us in an other way so that we do get it. What a great God we serve!
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Island in the sun
I don’t thi
nk there could be a more magnificent place on earth than on a private island. Three of my fellow teachers and I had the privilege of escaping the everyday tasks to get a little R&R off the coast of La Ceiba. We traveled 6 hours by car and an hour and a half by b
oat to arrive at the most amazing beach I have ever been to. Words could not begin to describe the beauty I felt, pictures hardly do it justice. In a place like this, one comes face to face with the handy work of God like never before and wonders how anyone could ever question if there is a God. We were surrounded by nothing b
ut His glory. At night we looked into the sky and watched the stars sparkle; and because we were around NOTHING but the ocean the stars shined brighter and we saw a lot more than normal. The night sky was enough to sell me, but then morning broke and the most astonishing pinks and oranges appeared and I knew that it couldn’t get better than that, and yet it did. God can not be limited. Never have I seen such a blue ocean! The wat
er was crystal clear, clam and inviting. The water was so blue that it almost looked fake, in the pictures it looks like we are swimming in a pool, but there was no pool on the island. We snorkeled in the worlds second best coral reef, and I could not imagine there being a better one. There are NO WORDS! Really, I had no idea something like that existed. I have been to aquariums and thought it was cool, but I kind of thought that they just put a lot of really cool fish and things together and made it really big and stuff just so that you could see more fish and more types of coral. I guess I expected that stuff to be few and far between, but all of the that stuff was at our finger tips. The most marvelous fish swam easily as my jaw dropped, stunned by what I saw. If I had not seen it with my own eyes and don’t know that I would have believed it. We saw fish in every color imaginab
le
, fish that looked like they came straight out of a fairy tale land. Big fish and tiny fish, ugly fish and the most beautiful fish all swimming there in perfect harmony. I also saw a sea turtle, it was a perfect looking sea turtle, as if it were a stuffed animal. To say that everything was breath taking would be an understatement. Other cool things that we encountered would be the pelicans that hung out on the docks and the vast amounts of hermit crabs that try repeatedly to get into our house at night. One night we even had hermit crab races! I didn’t know that hermit crabs could get so big, or that they sta
red so small, the smallest one that I saw was about the size of a comma mark on your key board, the largest was bigger than my fist. We also played hide and go seek in the dark, and lots of card games and I think that it goes with out saying that we laid out a lot too. I couldn’t imagine a more relaxing vacation, or a more beautiful place. I will add it to my list of things that I will never forget.
nk there could be a more magnificent place on earth than on a private island. Three of my fellow teachers and I had the privilege of escaping the everyday tasks to get a little R&R off the coast of La Ceiba. We traveled 6 hours by car and an hour and a half by b
oat to arrive at the most amazing beach I have ever been to. Words could not begin to describe the beauty I felt, pictures hardly do it justice. In a place like this, one comes face to face with the handy work of God like never before and wonders how anyone could ever question if there is a God. We were surrounded by nothing b
ut His glory. At night we looked into the sky and watched the stars sparkle; and because we were around NOTHING but the ocean the stars shined brighter and we saw a lot more than normal. The night sky was enough to sell me, but then morning broke and the most astonishing pinks and oranges appeared and I knew that it couldn’t get better than that, and yet it did. God can not be limited. Never have I seen such a blue ocean! The wat
er was crystal clear, clam and inviting. The water was so blue that it almost looked fake, in the pictures it looks like we are swimming in a pool, but there was no pool on the island. We snorkeled in the worlds second best coral reef, and I could not imagine there being a better one. There are NO WORDS! Really, I had no idea something like that existed. I have been to aquariums and thought it was cool, but I kind of thought that they just put a lot of really cool fish and things together and made it really big and stuff just so that you could see more fish and more types of coral. I guess I expected that stuff to be few and far between, but all of the that stuff was at our finger tips. The most marvelous fish swam easily as my jaw dropped, stunned by what I saw. If I had not seen it with my own eyes and don’t know that I would have believed it. We saw fish in every color imaginab
le
, fish that looked like they came straight out of a fairy tale land. Big fish and tiny fish, ugly fish and the most beautiful fish all swimming there in perfect harmony. I also saw a sea turtle, it was a perfect looking sea turtle, as if it were a stuffed animal. To say that everything was breath taking would be an understatement. Other cool things that we encountered would be the pelicans that hung out on the docks and the vast amounts of hermit crabs that try repeatedly to get into our house at night. One night we even had hermit crab races! I didn’t know that hermit crabs could get so big, or that they sta
red so small, the smallest one that I saw was about the size of a comma mark on your key board, the largest was bigger than my fist. We also played hide and go seek in the dark, and lots of card games and I think that it goes with out saying that we laid out a lot too. I couldn’t imagine a more relaxing vacation, or a more beautiful place. I will add it to my list of things that I will never forget.
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