II. the first

January 18, 2019 By Mary Fichtinger

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the deep. Then God said, “Let there be light,”
and there was light.
Genesis 1:1-2

We can go all the way back, waaaaaaaay back.

If we just stopped there, it would be enough. God said… and there was.

He brings the dead to life and speaks of things that are not as if they were.

Now go back to the beginning of little you.

When You send Your breath, they are created, and You renew the face of the earth. -Psalm 104:30

It was You who created my inward parts; You knit me together in my mother’s womb… Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began. -Psalm 139:13, 16

Then, perhaps, as a spiritual child of Abraham, you “believed God, and it was credited to [you] as righteousness.” -Gen 13

Now you are in Christ, a new creation. The old has passed away, and the new has come. Walk as children of the light. In Him you are complete. Blessed with every spiritual blessing. Heirs of God. Fully known, and fully loved. Fully redeemed.

Behold, what kind of love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are. -1 John

Things are what God says they are. We may not understand it a lick, but He’s the Creator, Author, and Completer. The Beginning and the End.

“Now I know that You can do anything, and no plan of Yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel with ignorance?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. When I question you, you will inform Me.’ I had heard rumors about You, but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I take by my words and repent in dust and ashes.” -Job 42:1-6

III. embryo

January 18, 2019 By Mary Fichtinger

This is probably what we still are, as much as we wish were more. We are just getting started.

He sent forth His Spirit, sent for His Savior, birthed us of water and Spirit. (John 3)

We exist.

7 week gestation Annabelle

But we remain tightly bound in the womb of the world. So much happening all around us, in us, beyond us. We’re growing our senses, our ability to comprehend what is. We’re affected by the nutrition and toxins that flow through our space. Our hearts are beating, our ears are hearing, our bones are lengthening, and our nerves are signaling, but we don’t yet have the capacity for what’s out there. Some days it begins to feel awfully tight in here. We realize that for all the amazing provision growing and sustaining us in this place, we can’t stay here forever. We won’t. We don’t really want to.

15 weeks

Eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, nor has it entered into the hearts of man the things God has prepared for those who love Him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (And how I anticipate the wonder at our “delivery” out of this world, where we see as not through a glass… just like a wide-eyed newborn staring at all the incomprehensible that was there all along.

Just like my children that I carried knew me from the inside, we can know the Father. My children were all born with a taste for green veggies and for coffee, a love for movement and music, an inherent need to be with me. And my eyes, or ears, or something. They were in me, and my genetics were in them.

But I no longer live (as independent); Christ lives in me. And Jesus walked atop water and through walls. We’re not limited to the physical universe anymore. (Please don’t get silly and go jump off the roof. Read the Gospels and pay attention.)

So we already bear the image of the Father, we are in the Son, we are alive by the Spirit. And we are acquiring His tastes:
We love justice.
We draw near the brokenhearted.
We care for the widow and the orphan, and join Him placing the lonely in families.
We give to the poor as to the Lord, and He will provide all we need.
The Lord opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble… so we choose humble.
We understand that the meek will inherit the earth.
He comes to serve and not be served; to give His life… and we join Him.
We learn to rejoice in the truth, even if it hurts.
We weep with those who weep.
In His strength we love in a way that covers a multitude of sin.
We forgive as we have been forgiven.

Only by grace do we understand the truth. Only because He made us to know it, and has not withheld Himself from us. He who seeks will find; to him who knocks the door will be opened.

reduced

January 10, 2019 By Mary Fichtinger

humility (n.)

early 14c. from Latin humilitatem (nominative humilitas) “lowness, small stature; insignificance; baseness, littleness of mind,” in Church Latin “meekness,” from humilis “lowly, humble,” literally “on the ground,” from humus “earth.”

“Basically, humility is the attitude of one who stands constantly under the judgement of God. It is the attitude of one who is like soil. “Humility” comes from the Latin word “humus”: fertile ground. The fertile ground is there, unnoticed, taken for granted, always there to be trodden upon. It is silent, inconspicuous, dark, and yet always ready to receive any seed, ready to give it substance and life. The more lowly, the more fruitful, because it becomes really fertile when it accepts all the refuse of the earth. It is so low that nothing can soil it, abase it, humiliate it; it has accepted the last place and cannot go any lower. In that position nothing can shatter the soul’s serenity, its peace, and joy.”

Living Prayer, Anthony Bloom

– – –

There is a tree that stands at exactly one half mile from our home. It was our first landmark on most all of our runs with the boys this summer. We’d stop to stretch, and the faster ones would get a little break and wait for the others of us (those of “us” most recently entitled “granny legs”…. cheeky little monkeys) to catch up. It was actually a tight cluster of three trees, trunks basically merged at the base. Then there was a windstorm at the end of summer and two thirds of the tree came down. It was such a sad sight, the bulk of those big, strong trunks lying flat on the ground, splintered and jagged at the base. Abased. The honeybees had fled their hive in a hollow of the trunk 10 feet up, and someone had already come to carve it out and harvest the sweet secret it held. We watched the branches and pieces of wood slowly be chopped up and removed over the following weeks. It felt odd to stop there again… it felt like the tree was just gone.

It’s been a hard season. Autumn is my favorite for its captivating beauty and the relief from the heat of summer, for the clarity with which it announces that change and season are beautiful, even if it means a season of cold, darkness, and death is included in the mix. I’m trying not to miss the joy of this particular time, but life has in many ways been a bit brutal. Part of it is just within myself.

I was running with the boys yesterday afternoon, preparing for the Evansville Rescue Mission’s Drumstick Dash on Saturday. We turned south and ran (some of us on granny legs) toward that tree, and deep in my soul it felt like a reflection of me. There it was, still standing tall, stark against a gorgeous early-evening sky. To one who hadn’t known it before it may have looked like a tall and handsome tree, sturdy and sheltering, a landmark. To me it looked like a skinny fragment of itself, an image of vulnerability and reduction. It wasn’t what it used to be. It’s almost painful to stop and all share one slender trunk to stretch against. It is a picture of loss and bears those feelings.

I believe there is value in my being vulnerable with you all, and so don’t shy from that. John told us explicitly of the tremendous value of walking in the light, and our Light has overcome all darkness; He is glorious even in the grave, so I am unafraid to find Him anywhere. In many ways the past several years have been a dramatic reduction. Let me be clear: it’s been my less-preferred type of reduction, where it is not in my desired way, timing, or idealized goal. Obviously the key word there was “my”.

I had tried reducing myself before, removing unwholesome food, excess stuff, wasteful entertainment habits (time the greatest victim), distractions from what is of eternal worth, toxic things in my home, laziness/apathy/ignorance, (inches from my waistline…). I have pursued Christ with fervency, walked with Him in growing intimacy for 19 years. I allowed Him to replace my set of passions for His, redirect my achievement goals from self-advancing ones to others-serving ones.

He is faithful, and He did all of that. I’ve never performed perfectly, but He loves and redeems perfectly, so there has been a beautiful story full of adventure and revelation and God’s power as it unfolds. He wrote into the little story of me a heart of worship, a love for His Word and for His image-bearers, a cross-cultural call to the unseen and voiceless. Things from Heaven, for Heaven-on-earth, things that I could never produce. Then He wrote in medicine, then a husband and two sons, and then adoption…

The bigger the assignment became, the more insufficient I became. I tried so hard to do it right, to be faithful to God, to join Jesus where He was in the hard places on earth, to parent traumatized children with evidence-based and Spirit-directed wisdom, to serve His people in crisis (or not) with excellence in the ER. I’d told Him at the beginning to spend me, to maximize His opportunity with my life. He did. He was worthy, and there was so much I loved about all He’d done in my life.

So in His “yes” to my offering, He spent me. Took my best and invested it in given-ness to others that He loved. Isn’t that the only way to live, after all? Spent on someone else? Isn’t that what Jesus did when He spent His time in flesh, given… to a mother, to shepherds, to kings, to disciples, to the blind and unclean, to cruel men? (Let me confirm the obvious: I still take more than I give. I still receive far more than I could deliver, despite my best earth-and-sin-defiled intentions, whether it be love, kindness, justice, food & shelter, dollars. The practice of receiving with humble and amazed gratitude the lavish gifts of God in balance with loving even my “Samaritan” neighbor as myself is a life-long journey of wrestling to learn what’s right and freely rejoicing in life continually lived on both sides of the coin.)

So the creating and giving God creates and gives us, too. Because we’re not isolated or autonomous, it is a constant way of being human. Our happy participation and surrender to His wisest strategy is our chief joy in life. Nothing really can compare to knowing the investment is made for something imperishable and eternally lovely and valuable. Obedience, regardless its earthly appearance, is of great worth and glory in God’s economy, which is the one that will stand when all of this is gone.

I say this feeling like that tree on the backside of the summer storm. It’s such a paradox that I can’t grasp even though I live. I wanted Him to use me: grow me big and strong and sturdy, to offer shelter and shade, landmark and encouragement, house the little things and provide sweet nourishment from hidden places to the world. Then He blew me down.

You could argue nature or nurture, but I think both play their role under the wise hand of a kind Father. Genetics, physical injuries, general life wear & tear… then absorbing children with a compiled 24 years of early trauma, sustained abuse, a high-stress job, poor self-care, isolation, and ultimately sinful bitterness and pride… finally blew me right down. I know major depression, PTSD, chronic pain (though mild compared to what I often treat) and fatigue, a new physical/mental/emotional weakness that leaves me feeling a sliver of what I thought God had made me to be still here in my mid-thirties.

But when I see what fell, I see so much contaminant. Self-sufficiency: that He would give me the strength and then I would use what He gave to do what He said, as I understood it. But it’s so easy to become prideful and self-reliant; so limiting to be constrained by my perception of strength. Entitlement: that obedience in one thing would protect me from temptation in another. That walking by supernatural faith would somehow save me from human frailty. That God’s promise of faithfulness would mean always seeing it, and that when suffering came it would be strategically brief (don’t you want to laugh out loud at that one?). I wasn’t expecting Him to crush me, to lay me down in the dark. For a long time. But it was necessary for so many reasons, and good for so many more.

It’s been a few years in this position, and I know it better now: I can’t help you, but I know Jesus will. He cut me down so He can actually do something in the space I take up, with the fleeting time He’s written me in. And I’ll give whatever paradoxically little-much He gives me, but having been ground up and mixed up in manure, I know it so much better now: my greater value is in being the soil, not the tree.

– – –

Maybe, now in the darkening winter, you’re feeling the smallness and the cold, even the death of many joys. Maybe the weather reflects your soul some days, and you feel dormant, waiting for something. Rest your heart in Jesus. He is near, and so tender toward the weak. Our proper response to everything, even our own sin or brokenness, is to draw near and worship. To be nothing so that He can be everything is precisely how it belongs. He is Life, so our open invitation to Him will always bring Life, even as we wait to understand it.

Let us not trouble ourselves about the cause of our earthliness, except that we know it to be some unrighteousness in us, but go at once to Life… God is all right – why should we mind standing in the dark for a minute outside His window? Of course we miss the “inness”, but there is a bliss of its own in waiting…. Let us think to ourselves, or say to our friend, “God is; Jesus is alive. Nothing can be going wrong, however it may look so to hearts unfinished in childness.” -George McDonald

Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has given us a new birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that is imperishable, uncorrupted, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. You are being protected by God’s power through faith for a salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to struggle in various trials so that the genuineness of your faith – more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You love Him, though you have not seen Him. And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:3-9

Changing Seasons

October 31, 2018 By Mary Fichtinger

We’re so thankful. God is so good, and none of us deserve to receive Him the way He offers Himself to us. But He is love, and so love is the constant mark of His presence. We are thankful, because Love covers a multitude of sin at its own expense, welcomes the undeserving, extends forgiveness and provision, creates hope for the hopeless. Love remains when all the rest of all of this goes away. It is the greatest gift. It never fails. It drives out fear. God is love, and God is light. He calls us continually to walk in the light as He is in the light. To be exposed in truth so that He can wash away our sin, strengthen our weakness, remind us that we are small and wretchedly failing, but He is GOD. He does all of this in love, that we can live what it means to be a child of God.

In September, Mary visited a women’s group in Indianapolis to encourage them in the sufficiency of God’s strength and faithfulness in our weaknesses. She shared many “chapters” of the redemptive story He has written in her life, and of His powerful work of always overcoming evil with good. What a privilege, to tell the story of a real and personal Savior who is fiercely faithful, absolutely pure, and overwhelmingly kind.

The family (most of us, anyway) were also blessed to share at another Indy church and tell of what God has been up to in our lives and work, and what He is calling us further into. We loved spending time with friends who have loved and prayed for us from a distance. We felt so welcomed and encouraged, and were so thankful to worship together with these congregations. These are people we’ll spend eternity with and then have the joy of getting to know without the constraints of time. What a great thing to anticipate, even as we only get to brush up against each other very occasionally on earth!

The last full week of September, everyone except the older two girls (who stayed with friends to attend school and their sporting events) traveled to Charlotte to spend a few days in annual planning meetings with Sports Friends’ International Support Services team at SIM Int’l Office. What a joy it was be in the same physical space with our colleagues, to pray and seek the Lord together, to plan and communicate face-to-face instead of through a screen! We spent each day accomplishing the necessary school work, then building relationships with old and new friends Yahweh has already prepared in the area.

One of Abe’s best friends and “brothers” from his orphanage in Ethiopia lives within a few miles of where we expect to land. What a gift to see him and his family again, and share a few days of play and reconnecting. We have so much to look forward to, and it is always a challenge to wait through the necessary times, trusting the rightness and goodness of God in all the things He gives. But how thankful we are, for safe travel, for both refreshed and brand new relationships, for team unity and realization of new things God is doing in and through this particular ministry.

There is much going on in the Sports Friends world. Or, rather, in the world through the ministry of Sports Friends. God is so specific and wise. Please pray for the international, national, and local leadership levels to have discernment and diligence to obey the Lord, that He will have His way fully in all of these locations where He is continually bringing light into darkness. Pray for people of peace in regions of expansion, who are willing to receive what He offers in community strengthening, direction and mentorship for struggling young people, and the hope of Messiah: Immanuel come to save us all. Pray for wisdom and courage for the missionaries, pastors, and coaches who are experiencing harsh persecution for their representation of the Gospel in hostile regions. Pray for the ongoing spiritual growth and discipleship of (all of us, but especially) the roughly 10,000 SF coaches: believers who are volunteering to reach out to youth in their communities in the name of Jesus. They need all the grace of working with a group of kids and young adults, while seeking to unite and disciple them in the setting of sports. Obviously, competition and pride thrive in this age group and activity, as highly strategic as sport is to connect with so many youth (we’re working with around 240,000 currently, in 14 nations).

We carry on with home school and high school (pray for both!). Cross country and soccer have wrapped up for the season, and we’re ready for a little respite from the flurry of practices/events for five kids. We’ve been enjoying fall-ish activities, though it’s been hovering around 80-90 until this mid-October. Bob is working with the ISS team to be as strategic as possible in his part-time availability to SF right now, as he continues in study, team-building, and participating in local ministry. Mary continues to work the ER once or twice a week. Please pray for the colleagues and patients she interacts with there. Please pray also for her slow but steady Arabic study, and the strength and diligence to be faithful in precisely how God calls her to spend this short time.

As Jesus said, the poor are always with us, the harvest is plentiful but workers are few, and if we seek Him and His kingdom first, everything we need will be added. We are incredibly grateful for you who are partnering with us in this particular work of God’s kingdom. We encourage you still to keep your eyes open for whom and what He places before you as you walk with Him. There is so much opportunity to live the light and love of Messiah in our daily activities. When He prompts you to a new relationship, conversation, act of service, gift to give, or especially the call to spend more of your time simply with Him and listening to Him and doing the work of prayer, we couldn’t encourage you enough to act with an eager yes. He’s always right and always good. Above all, He is always worthy.

Grace and peace to you, our dear friends.

Official Start

September 12, 2018 By Mary Fichtinger

If you read our general family update you know our days have been full. It’s been hard to arrange one on one meetings with individuals, as schedules are all so varying in the summer months, but God has faithfully led us on. His Word says He will direct our steps and He will provide. He has.

We’ve been privileged to visit four new churches and share what God has done in our family over the last few years, and the the work He is doing through Sports Friends. It always encourages our hearts when we meet brothers and sisters who are so eager to introduce more young people to Jesus Christ. It remains amazing to us how interconnected the global church is; how we can each play critical roles in building God’s kingdom in some really dark places, just by doing our specific parts. Some work secular jobs but invest generously in what is eternal. Some spend hours of their time commodity in intercession, doing work that no dollar, program, or person can accomplish. Some are on the ground in Asia, Africa, North and South America, training coaches, running teams, and bringing the light of Christ to each of these 240,000 youth in Sports Friends. What a privilege to work right in the middle of it all, to be a connection point between them all as part of International Support Services. We get to see and serve both sides of the equation, stay abreast of events and needs in many fields, and watch new doors opening. Please continue to be in prayer for our growing work with refugees in Sacramento. The opportunities to reach out are huge, and effective logistics and manpower must be supplied by God.

Bob has begun to work part time from his office space kindly provided in our home church, and loves the feel of officially beginning. We still have some significant support raising to do, however, so our time remains divided until we reach our financial goals. We have been so eager to get to work within the Sports Friends ministry, and are so thankful for this step forward!

Mary’s work has been to develop the boys’ education system and establish a new rhythm according to God’s wisdom for this season. The ER always affords opportunity for good conversations, and settings to look for the move of God in. I’m ever intrigued by the ebbs and flows in types of emergencies as I am constantly learning about the triune us, as interconnected spirit-soul-body. The spiritual impact on physical (and obviously psychological) wellness is such a real but poorly discerned thing in western care. I’m beginning to look ahead, also, toward short medical-oriented trips perhaps for next year. I would so appreciate your prayer for the Father to direct this intricately. I have well learned better than to let my zeal or limited understanding lead the way to anywhere. He knows with precision, and as I take one step at a time I trust Him to unfold the path.

In the meantime, He gifts with all sorts of surprises that are perfectly constructed to bless in multiple dimensions. Just a few weeks ago I was introduced to a precious new sister: a Middle Eastern single mom, who was recently baptized as a follower of Jesus. This is a woman I had begun praying for specifically after God had led her into the path of other friends who serve among Mslm populations in the States. In the powerful goodness of Yahweh, she has secured a good job and moved in amidst the quiet cornfields, just a few miles from here. We have begun to meet weekly to read the Bible and pray, and she is beginning to teach me Arabic. How it blesses my heart for God to so gently but powerfully (if only you knew the story) place a sister like her right here, where I have longings to love and learn from Mslm women and discover Jesus with them… but there aren’t so many such women around here to befriend, and I am not in the setting to go hunting for them! Further, three years ago I felt prompted to learn Arabic, but had no idea when and how that was going to happen in real life. What freedom there is in believing Him when He says something, and waiting for the details to come forth.

What is Lovely

September 4, 2018 By Mary Fichtinger

Sing for joy in the Lord, o you righteous ones, for praise is becoming to the upright. – Psalm 33:1

I find it best to share updates in a voice of praise. Like each of you, our days are filled with challenges and pains of many different kinds, but they are so filled with the goodness of YAHWEH and His presence among us (in us!) that praising Him before you is the very most appropriate thing. And while gratitude is our abundance, and joy is our strength, and trust-filled thanksgiving brings our peace, praise is lovely.

Ever wanted to dress up beautiful for your beloved?
Ever wanted to impress someone not in pride, but in given-ness to them?
Ever wanted to make GOD smile, not in fear or earned security, but because you adore your Abba and see the worthiness of your Almighty?
Here’s the key, folks.
Praise befits the upright.
It is lovely.
It’s like receiving the gown, the jersey, the crown- as much as you can comprehend of the every-good-thing He’s given to you in Himself, and putting it on. It bears His name, and you identify Him as the One ultimate thing, the One it is all from and for.
Joy in Him. He loves it even more than you do.
Who couldn’t use a bit of daily celebration on top of your freedom?

In May my mother had a major abdominal surgery followed by a very difficult, months-long course of recovery. The Father faithfully carried and is gently healing her. She faithfully clings to Him and finds her help as He restores her strength.

In May I took my ten-year Physician Assistant national re-certification exam. Having been out of full-time practice for a couple of years it was more of a challenge this time, but the Lord honored our investment of heavy study and I was grateful for the refresher.

In May we grieved the tragic death of one of Bob’s longest and dearest friends. His rapid decline was so painful to watch, and again we felt the helplessness of not being able to fix anything as we waited, prayed, loved. Seeing death come to peers always speaks loudly and calls us to greater urgency in making known the God of eternity and hope.

The school year ended, and with thanks to God for big goals to reach and great summer job opportunities, we had our best-yet season of unstructured family time. The boys completed their goal to run 100 miles, though they didn’t all quite read 100 hours (unless you count all our read-alouds at night – we’re working our way through the Little House series and loving it!). We celebrated at Holiday World, and they have a huge milestone of accomplishment in their books. Running and reading are not always easy, but are very easily taken for granted. We are thankful for all the physical and mental pieces that are working together to make these two activities possible for us.

In June, Anna had surgery on her hand to remove two benign tumors that were rapidly growing on her fingers. It’s always hard to see your baby in pain and tied up in protective devices, but God gave her so much grace, patience, and happiness amidst it all. Her skin grafts struggled to heal, but by end of July she was able to enjoy some water play. There is so much to be thankful for surrounding her procedure.

My sister got married in Hong Kong, where she lives, on June 30, then they came to the States for a July 4 reception & celebration. We are thrilled to welcome Nathan, the new Aussie uncle, to our family!

In July four of the kids went to Shakamak Bible Camp. It was Abe’s first year (he had a BLAST), and they all heard from the Lord and made new friends, as well as refreshing relationships from past years. What a joy to have this opportunity.

August is now over. I am so thankful for your prayer as I prepared for the home school year with the boys (5th, 4th, 3rd grades). We have a new and much more involved curriculum, but we have felt so much grace over our first four weeks. We are learning so much together, and most of all learning together. Our theme verse is, of course, Matthew 6:33. We seek to know GOD, to learn love, humility, unity, peace, kindness; to grow in understanding the Words that endure forever, to pray for many we’ll never see this side of Heaven, many who are suffering. We seek to anchor ourselves in the eternal, then move into our day trusting Him to add all the rest to us: we discover Him in all the places and stories of this earth, the workings of ecosystems and languages and art forms, the mathematical systems and earth-absolutes. It is so much work and the kids know all my buttons, but God is knitting together our family unit in a new way and gifting these three boys with a unity that is changing us all. He only knows what all He is preparing them for as He works, growing them in a thousand ways every day.

The girls are both in public high school, senior and freshman years. One is really enjoying her last year in this chapter of life, and by the power of the Holy Spirit is spending her days choosing gratitude, humility, and kindness. The joy and peace that our good Father pours into her as she seeks His ways have been a profound gift for her mother to observe and enjoy. Pray for her as she walks out her last year and sorts out what comes next. Our precious freshman has entered the chaos of hundreds of adolescent peers that live in a deeply deceived world. She’s faced daily with countless challenges, temptations, obstacles, decisions; for all the grief they can bring, I’m thankful that God gave her a bold spirit and a hard head. Pray for her as she navigates these difficult waters, and continues to grow in understanding of who God is and what is true about her.

Thank you for sharing life with us and praising our great God with us. What a priceless gift, to rejoice with each other and grieve with each other. In all things we give thanks. Take a breath and a break. Grab some coffee and come back for a more external ministry update!

Summer Strength

May 29, 2018 By Mary Fichtinger

We’ve been praying for years for unity within our home, and we continue to (and shamelessly call on you over and over to present this request to God with us). Unity in love and holiness is the heart of Jesus (John 17). Even the Psalms talk about about how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell together in unity…. for there the Lord commands His blessing. (Ps 133). Unity is what we are called to. In the image of the Trinity God, we are distinct individuals, but fashioned to be one in love and purpose.

But as you well know, getting people really united can be a challenge. Especially we living in an individualistic society know that our flesh’s default tends to be grossly self-serving. I do mean gross. It’s hard to bring together adults with the same goal but personal differences; uniting a large and diverse family in an age- and racially-divided, morally-relative, entitled and independent culture is hard. It is a slow work of growth, and one that God does in hearts.

Common goals build unity, and challenging goals make it stronger. This summer our family’s goal is to accomplish 100 hours read, and 100 miles run. (Here’s hoping we keep fit in mind and body!) We’ve signed up for reading programs through the local library and Barnes & Noble. Half of their hours come from a recommended reading list and biographies, and half can be whatever they choose (i.e. Peanuts comics, superheros, Legos, and the Warriors series). The boys are logging 2-3 miles together most days, and look forward to the junior cross country team conditioning that begins next month. We see them sharing the camaraderie of pushing through side-stitch, splashing through every puddle on rainy days, dodging geese when we run near lakes, and finishing the course in the 90-something heat of the day. (They begged me one afternoon around 2:00 to take them right then… and learned for themselves that running in the morning was definitely a better idea). We are still early in the process, but they are already growing in the character that hard team sport develops, and we’re doing it together. It’s a big goal for 10-, 9-, and 7-year-olds, but they are excited to accomplish it (and obviously feel really good after a long run and a chocolate milk recovery drink)! The big prize at the end is a trip to Holiday World, and we’re definitely looking forward to that!

Do you have goals for the summer? How do you incorporate rest, motivation, accomplishment, and celebration in this season?

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