Watch Out for Sparks

We live on a few heavily wooded acres that I call the Magic Forest. Part of life here involves picking up fallen sticks and eventually burning them. We’d hesitated to do anything with this year’s stack for fear that sparks might spread through the woods.

What made this year different, you ask? Well, conditions changed. A 100-year-old pine tree died suddenly on the edge of the clearing where we burn becoming a fire hazard. To be safe, we had a tree company out recently to remove it.     

Did you know that wildfires have already damaged nearly 1.9 million acres in America so far this year? Fire moves quickly and spreads rapidly anywhere conditions are hot, dry, and brittle, be it in forest, in grasses, or in human hearts...Read More

 

How to Find the Road Home

Traveling with my mom as a child, we often found ourselves lost or at least on the wrong road. She'd start the trip off fine, but frequently distracted, would miss an exit or a turn. She wouldn't stop and turn around, even if she noticed the error right away. Her mindset was that as long as we were going in the general direction we'd be fine. Instead of a few minutes to correct our course,  her approach was known to take an entire day or two of extra travel. It drove me crazy. Once I reached adulthood, she was my passenger on road trips. 

Are you someplace in life you don’t want to be, feeling lost and frustrated? Perhaps you’ve been thrown off course by circumstances outside of your control, or maybe it’s because of poor decisions you’ve made. Either way, it doesn’t much matter how you got there, what’s done is done. You can’t ever go back and change the past. What matters is what you do about it today. You have the power to change direction. The future is up to you.  

You can stay where you are, wandering in the wilderness of life—unhappy, angry, and, frustrated—far from your desired destination, or you can choose to make a change. The power is yours. You can determine to move forward each and every day.

Whenever you find yourself somewhere other than where your purest self should be, simply turn.

Turn away from the dark and towards the light. Turn away from the mire of self-loathing, turn back from the pit of acting out, and turn and run from the chains of temptation.

You won’t reach your destination immediately, but if you continue to take steps of faith in the right direction, you will end up on the sweet road to home.

—Ann Wilds

“Thus says the Lord: ‘Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.'”
‭‭Jeremiah‬ ‭6:16‬a ESV

The Key to Finding the Way Back Home

Circumstances have a way of derailing even our best laid plans.

A few years ago, a hurricane approached. Forecast estimated landfall would be direct to our city  which meant the probability was high that we would be significantly impacted.

To avoid any unnecessary risk, we decided that my husband would drive my aging mother to my sister’s house in another town outside of the danger zone while I remained home prepping for the pending emergency.

But a funny thing happened while they were on the road; the hurricane shifted. Instead of heading toward Texas, it was heading for Louisiana- exactly where they had intended to go. Local authorities began to close the roads and direct those evacuating further north. After hours of being routed many different ways, they ended up on back roads that he was not at all familiar with. They were also in a cell phone dead zone. Though he didn’t know exactly where he was, or really how he’d gotten there, he did know one thing- where he wanted to go. Eventually, an officer granted approval for him to turn a different way so that they could head back to Houston. Still unfamiliar with the roads, he kept making turns that took them in the right direction. In time, they reached a road that led home.

Has that ever happened to you? Have you found yourself someplace in life you didn’t want to be? Perhaps you were thrown off course by circumstances outside of your control or maybe it was caused by poor decisions you’ve made. Either way, what is done is done. You can’t ever go back and change the past. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have a choice about your future.

You can stay where you are wandering in the wilderness of life--unhappy, angry, and frustrated--far from your desired destination or you can make a change. You can determine to move forward each and every day. Whenever you find yourself somewhere other than where your purest self should be, simply turn. Turn away from the dark and towards the light. Turn away from the mire of self-loathing, turn back from the pit of acting out, and turn and run from the chains of temptation. You won’t reach your destination immediately, but if you continue to take steps of faith in the right direction, you will end up on the sweet road to home.   

Message for the Journey:

Stumbling over the past is a clear indicator that you’re facing the wrong way. You can’t move forward while looking over your shoulder. Accept the past for where it’s brought you today, but keep your eyes- and your feet- pointed in the direction you want to go. Not one of us can go back and make a brand new start of things, but we can each start today to make a brand new ending. 

“No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing. Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” Phil 3:13-14