Ahhhhhh.........

Garage Sale Weekend is now behind us.  MUCH has left this household for good.  Windows have been washed, floors mopped, furniture polished.  Order restored and then some.  It's a good feeling.  No, it's a GREAT feeling.
I am not one to function at optimal capacity in the midst of disorder.  Even if the disorder is relegated to the closets and drawers, it mocks me from those pent up places.  I hear it call my name and it becomes the itch I can't quite reach.  I don't like this about myself.  It's a weakness, really.  Life is messy, and we need to learn to not be distracted by that fact.

In my frenzy to declutter, simplify, and restore order I learned some things:

1.  We have too much stuff.

2.  Garage sales don't make you money.

3.  They do make you crazy.

4.  They are a great reminder of how awful it is to have too much stuff.

5.  Simplicity (which in my mind includes organization) is a lifestyle, not a once a year or so event.

6.  I don't want to waste one fleeting moment with my children (this reminder came as I wept over little, tiny clothes they used to wear and the remembering that goes with the sorting and weeding and the realization of number 7......).

7.  Time flies.

8.  I love that we still play with toys in our house.

9.  I need a system to stay balanced.... I'm a system-needer.

10.  It needs to be simple (read:  NOT flylady)

11.  Less is more.... in a BIG way.

So, there it is.  I totally recommend this kind of deep cleaning/purging.  There is a lot more I learned from it, but some of it's personal and I won't bore you.  Suffice it to say... it's worth it and makes for some cheap, but highly effective therapy!  :)

And now getting on with giving thanks:

~the canopy of green surrounding the back of the house filling with bird and other creatures

~the ultra muzzle for a pup too anxious to protect his peeps

~having what I need and knowing where it's at

~God stoking a fire

~toaster

~free musicals

~my precious and words-can't-describe-how-awesome husband

~how the Lord leads us and makes us of one mind

~how he submits and I submit and we submit to Him and to each other, and...

~how nobody but the Lord taught us how to do that, and

~how that is a gift I do not take for granted

~being called into something bigger than we can figure out

~knowing we can trust Him

When I Want to Break Away

There is a restlessness around here.  I hate it because it's the antithesis of contentment.  Contentment with godliness is great gain.... I believe it.  I know it to be true.  But what do you do when it slips from your grasp?

Two things I do.  Remember I am not made for this world.  It cannot satisfy my longings.  It will never be enough.  Grasping for more of it does not get me closer to any arrival.  In Kingdom speak:  this is not my home.  I'm here on assignment and I'm a gypsy.  To try to shed my cloak of otherworldly oddity would not only be futile, but very disappointing.   Because, underneath the cloak, I'm still a gypsy.  This place doesn't have what I'm looking for.  No need to pretend it does.

But then, sometimes it does have what I am looking for.  When I look for Him, I can find Him.  Even here.
He is here.  He is here on assignment, too.  I'm part of His clan, and He gives His own special powers.... yes supernaturally special powers.  And so the second thing I do in my restlessness?

By His power I see, hear, taste and know.

Ears to hear and eyes to see--both are gifts from the LORD. Proverbs 20:12 Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8A and    more counting: Good Friday worship all in black... falling out of sight, out of notice for the cross set before us with roses red hammered violent into the rough wood like the Rose of Sharon and there we received body and blood and we remembered as the hammer fell,  we remembered so we will not forget warmth out-of-doors sun on skin shoulders dropping short sleeves kids playing... really playing  a screen-less day home-made chili and cornbread made by 9 year old hands Coach Ally at dinner, because the boy and girl invited her to come and she did sharing Easter lunch at Famous Dave's with friends congregating at a park with friends, kids and dogs friendly chats with strangers sitting at table communing with good friends 'leftover friends':  friends you can eat left-overs with sharing troubles, thoughts, dreams and possibilities cross and candle put away but not forgotten yellow tulips on the table the boy baking brownies living resurrection life because we can because He did. He is Risen Indeed!

I will seek His face

"Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, and be gracious to me and answer me.  When Thou didst say, 'Seek My face,' my heart said to Thee,

'Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek."  David---Psalm 26:7-8

Sometimes I find myself asking, 'Why did we come here?'.  Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad place.  The people are nice and the air is fresh.  There is no want for cool places to go and things to do.  It's not hard to find great music teachers...they are everywhere!  We've got great neighbors who love the Lord and have kids to boot.  Greg goes to a job where he earns a paycheck for doing what he likes to do and he gets to come home before 4:00 most days and sometimes even earlier. I don't have to tell you, that ain't no small thing!  Life is good here and I am not complaining.

I still wonder why we are here though.  See, it has to do with more than just the job.  From our fleshly perspective, that is what brought us here, but there is more to it than that.  Our country is in economic crisis.  Job security doesn't exist.  The housing markets are so bad, it is very likely we will not sell our house in North Carolina.  That means we will not buy a house here.  We will not be putting down roots here in that way.  That's a new thing for us.  The truth is, we don't know where we will be living a year from now, or who we will be working for.

So, we have a home in NC and we have a transplanted, possibly temporal life here in OR.   

Well, of course our lives anywhere on the Earth are temporal, but you know what I mean.

To top all of this off:  God is sovereign.

That is what I believe,  which means I believe that none of this is outside of His will.  How 'bout that!?

This is our story.  Anyone reading this is going through his or her own story.  I know for a fact that many of you (my friends) are dealing with illness, relationship issues, job loss, financial crises, and other life changes in your own lives.  When you are going through something and the Lord is doing a new thing in you, have you ever noticed the coincidences that mysteriously start cropping up everywhere?  You know, where it seems like life starts taking on a theme.  It's the kind of thing we later call a season.  There are seasons for ministry, seasons of happiness, seasons of sadness...seasons of pruning.  

Speaking of pruning, it's hard work you know.  Especially if you have neglected to do it for some time.  The last time I pruned my rose bushes, it ended up being a monster of a job.  I had scrapes, scratches and punctures all over me.  See, I had not done it the year before (I wanted to see what would happen).  So the branches were very thick and thorny and unruly.  It was a mess.  They had looked so full and thick before I pruned them, but I knew I had to do it, because they stopped producing roses like they used to.  When I was finished they were ugly and bare and cold looking.  Sad little rose bushes that just hours before had been big, green and bushy...though wayward.  

It was not easy work for me, but it's my job to take care of them and that is what they needed.  It was stressful for them too.  You have to be careful when you prune a plant back.  It's got to be the right season.

And so it is with God and us.  

Pruning is hard and some seasons are more fun than others.  

I don't know what we will be calling this season once it's in the past.  As for the pruning, I don't know how deep the cuts will go.  It's anybody's guess, but the Lord knows.  For now, I know there is to be a singular focus in the Liechty family.  We are to raise up our eyes above the unanswered questions to the One who deserves our undivided attention.

"When Thou didst say, 'Seek My face', my heart said to Thee, "Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek".

By the way, the roses looked great this spring!

LYMYWY,

Kara,