Stuff That Matters in Life

It was a privilege to lead the caring team to visit Muiha today. I am on the “bench” and only asked to lead if none of the other pastors can go 🙂 What a joy to see God’s faithful care on this family. When I asked for one word character of God that you experience, Muiha said – peace! For the devo, I told the story in 1Kings 22, the death of Ahab. It’s hilarious. Ahab is such a comical evil king. God has a great sense of humor.

I wanted to visit a friend who just had a baby, but she was too tired to see people after C-section.

Submitted my Perspectives homework, instead of waiting till Saturday night! That’s because we spent most of the day Monday reading.

Have you had those moments when the Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin? And it’s one of those sins that you know is a sin, and have confessed it, but only on the surface. And the Holy Spirit convicts you of it again when he opens your eyes to see the gravity of it in a different light. And the light bulb comes on…oh the effects of my sin is awful. God showed it to me at prayer meeting tonight.

I am grateful for Psalm 32:3-5

My day yesterday, 2/5/2019

We try to stack all office meetings on Tuesdays so that other days will be open for us to plan for whatever we need to do.

Had English team meeting in the morning, and staff meeting in the afternoon with an hour in between for lunch. By 3pm, with another hour to go at staff meeting, my heart wasn’t in it. My mind was engaged but I felt like I wasn’t in tune with God. It was just a meeting. I want to work on this. No matter what kind of meeting I’m in, I want to be aware of what God is saying, what he’s doing, what he’s saying through our team. The opposite is I insert my opinions, my preferences, and I get critical. That’s not the way I want to be.

I need to rein in my own agenda, and be more sensitive to what God is doing. He already knows what He’s going to do. In John 6:6 Jesus tested Philip but in fact he already knew that he would do a miracle of feeding the 5,000. God doesn’t need my opinions. He will do far more than I can propose or can even imagine.

For Lunar New Year today, we wanted to get a fresh chicken, but the place for that was closed for New Year 😛 Grandma got an organic chicken form Vons instead, without the head and tail. Not very traditional but that’s as close as we can get!

Ikea was the perfect work space today. There’s underground parking so we don’t have to get wet, I get free coffee or tea as an Ikea member, we sat next to the window in the cafe with an open view of the rain. Read my Perspectives book and felt productive. And of course we got meatballs for lunch. And when we get tired, we can choose a bedroom to take a nap…no we didn’t do that. But we did buy a mirror in the clearance section, it was exactly what I was looking for.

We did nothing to celebrate Lunar New Year’s eve. I, in general am not a big fan of cultural traditions, and only do it if it suits me. I’ll go watch fireworks on July 4 because it’s fun. I don’t even do much to celebrate birthdays or anniversaries. But I do believe in celebrating Christian traditions by going to church – Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, and weekly Sabbath is pretty important to me.

So tonight we had steaks for Lunar New Year’s eve, and tomorrow we’ll probably have the traditional chicken with the head and tail intact. Only because we happen to remember.

Did a lot of reading for Perspectives, my brain is so full and tired.

This is my post for Friday, 2/1/2019.

Highlights –

Finished scripting, recording and sending out my annual new year update to all who serve in Children Ministry.

Bought fried chicken at 168 Market to have lunch with my friend Janis. We’ve known each other since junior high, she’s my oldest friend. The chicken was good and the fellowship was good. She is an inspiration to me not because she did anything great according to the world’s valuation. She inspires me with her courage and faith after her husband die suddenly of a heart attack about 6 years ago. We are the same age…giving me pause to think that can easily happen to me. Seeing her go through this and coming out of it ready to remarry reminded me that it’s not my our own strength, but by God’s strength alone that we live each day. However, I don’t know if I would want to remarry if I were to be single again. But that’s what Elizabeth Elliot said too, and she married 2 more times after being widowed again after Jim Elliot.

I think this is the record of staying late at church after Awana – I left church at 11pm! Amy and I drove together to church, so while she’s talking to her friends, I started catching up with JH. Hanging out with the young people late at church reminded me of how I used to do that too. Church is great. Grateful to be a part of it.

My sister texted me – her husband, my brother in law, drove himself to ER for the same issue that occurred over a year ago. His leg lost strength. Last time they diagnosed it as a blood clot. And he missed my son’s wedding. Now they are doing more tests. He’s been waiting for 5 hours! If he’s not sick before he’s certainly sick now! Please, if you can avoid it, stay away from Kaiser Baldwin Park. If anything happens to me, take me to Kaiser Anaheim ER.

My aging issues are aches and pains, particularly my neck. I shouldn’t blame it on age, really, it’s due to inactivity. I don’t exercise to keep limber. And being on the computer like I am now doesn’t help…I’m going to go stretch now.

I’ve not felt this emotional watching an ultrasound of a baby before today.

When ultrasounds were taken when my children were in utero, it was quite matter of fact. I already felt the baby, so listening to the heartbeat from the ultrasound was not a surprise. It was amazing but I don’t remember it being emotional.

But today was different.

I went with a friend to an urgent care appointment because she was experiencing signs of a possible miscarriage. She was early in the pregnancy, so the probability of miscarriage was higher. We didn’t know if we would hear a heartbeat. When the doctor started the ultrasound, we held each other’s hands, praying for God’s will be done.

When we heard the heart beat, nice and loud and even, I burst out crying! We saw a shadow of the baby, the measurements of the size matched the estimated weeks of pregnancy. Feeling so thankful to God for his mercy, for his awesome creative powers, for giving us joy though we deserve nothing.

Amy and I went to our favorite place – Goodwill! Came away with a book and some Christmas gift tags. We also had a good time at Brea Mall and Trader Joe’s.

PTL for a satisfying day.