Happy Thursday! The butterfly count is 15! You know the vacation we all got for a week during this month has made a wonderful difference in the attitudes at school. We all seem to be a lot calmer and taking more things in stride. Even though there is still much work to be done before the end of the year I think we are all not quite as stressed as we usually are. Several of us are practicing the breathing activity of breathing in the Holy Spirit and exhaling the love of God on whomever or whatever is in our path. Not a bad way to end the year. Also, Geni came home today. All finals completed and will begin summer school just after Travis graduates! Way to go Geni!!

Luke 6: 12 “Now during those days [Jesus] went out to the mountain to pray…”

Many years ago I was the youth director for a large church in west Texas. I went to a youth directors’ convention in Estes Park, Colorado. This week long experience in the mountains had a profound effect in my life. First, I fell in love with the mountains. I came so close to calling the pastor I was working for and telling him to pack my office and the apartment and ship it to me. I was ready to work at Jack-in-the Box if it meant I could stay there. There was something about those mountains that made me feel so protected; like as long as I was there nothing bad could ever happen to me. It was also during that week that I realized that I was not meant to follow the path of being a youth director as a profession. The mountains allowed me to look out of the window in our cabin and see God’s handiwork each day. The handiwork I saw was the changing of the aspens each day. It was as if a new splash of color was added to the mountain side each day and it was a breathtaking experience.

I loved the quiet peace the mountains afforded. That is most likely why Jesus went to the mountains when He needed some quiet time with the Father. When Jesus went to the mountains He could just talk to His Father like I talk to Bruce or my daddy. He did not need to say anything but what was on His heart. Maybe Jesus walked and talked as if His Father was walking bodily beside Him. Maybe Jesus did not bow His head and fold His hands and say anything poetic or fancy. Maybe Jesus just said, “Hey Dad, it’s Me. You know those disciples still don’t get it. What can I do to explain Your love better to them? And about Peter…? And about that woman that had been sick for so long…thanks.”

How do you pray? Do you think you have to use fancy, poetic language and speak in a mighty voice to try and impress God? I don’t think Jesus tried to impress His Father. I simply think He walked in obedience and stayed in constant contact with the Father. It is rare that I pray with my hands folded and eyes closed. I most often pray with my hands open, my eyes looking up and talking to God like I would talk to someone I loved and trusted with my very soul. And sometimes when the words don’t come or my soul feels like there are blisters where there was once smoothness; I just sit with Jesus and know He is there and sharing my heartache and brokenness for He knows my heart, my needs, my desires even when I do not speak them aloud.

Take some time each day and spend with God in prayer. Find your quiet mountain. Walk to a place that brings you inner peace and sit with the Father and begin. “Hey Dad, it’s me…”

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.