Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
As is my habit, at the New Year I review the journal I am in working on and the one before it. It is easy to forget one’s life. I made entrances in the columns of the prayers that have been answered, and I enter into that full and replete feeling at the record of God’s interaction in my everyday life.

I came upon this chorus I had copied in case I needed it for my writing. I record it here because it was the prayer for last year and the year before and the year before that. I record it in case you need a prayer for 2012. It is a good prayer.

“We Are Hungry”

Lord, I want more of You.
Living water rain down on me.
Lord, I need more of You.
Living breath of life, come fill me up.

We are hungry, we are hungry,
We are hungry for more of You.
We are thirsty, Oh, Jesus,
We are thirsty for more of You.

Lord, I want more of You.
Holy Spirit, rain down on me.
Lord, I need more of You.
Living breath of life, come fill me up.

We are hungry, we are hungry,
We are hungry for more of You.
We are thirsty, Oh, Jesus,
We are thirsty for more of You.

We lift our holy hands up.
We want to touch You
We lift our vices, higher
And higher and higher to You.

We are hungry, we are hungry,
We are hungry for more of You.
We are thirsty, Oh, Jesus,
We are thirsty for more of You.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-115)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Last week the Chicago area had its first seasonal snowfall. This may be an absolute record in the annals of our particular geographic weather history. The reports on how much snow were variable—some said we had 3-4 inches; some said we had six to eight. After the snowplow cleared our circle driveway at 5:30 a.m. on Friday morning, I shoveled our seven-foot brick-walk that leads from the front door to the gravel drive. According to estimates made from thrusting my red snow shovel into a mound off by the front walk, we had from six to eight inches of snow for the first fall.

The weather here in the greater Chicago area has been, to use the parlance, unseasonably warm. Last year we had a snowfall mid-November, and more and more snowfalls until at least two feet of snow was piled upon itself. The snowplow cleared our driveway seven times last year, and the snow did not melt until April. Two days before our first snowfall, January 12, 2012, the thermometers read 47 degrees in the western suburbs.

So we began preparing ourselves as we Midwesterners are programmed to do with storm warnings. Is there enough provision in the house in case we can’t get to the store for a couple of days? Do we have the fold-up portable shovel in the back of the trunk? Have we made sure our house (driveway really) is on the snow-plowers’ list?

I had a funny phone call: “Paul,” I said to the man who owns the snowplow service up our lane, “the weather has been so good, I neglected to call you and ask you to put us on your list.” “Now, who are you?” he asked. “I’ve just had a hip operation. I’m in the hospital. They replaced my hip.” Nevertheless, he had arranged for a surrogate driver to cover the driveways in our little loop and somehow he did—groggy as he was—get our name on the list. Snowplowing is a serious commitment.

David and I had invited friends to go to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert on the 12th of January, and we made reservations for dinner at the Russian Tea Time restaurant before the eight o’clock performance. This restaurant is just around the corner from Orchestra Hall; on concert nights, it usually empties like clockwork at 7:45. First snow or not, this is an occasion hardy Chicagoans do not cancel simply because weather warnings are being broadcast on radio and on television.

Our only question was: Should we take the Metra into the city, or risk it and drive during the first snowfall, at rush hour? My call was to take the train. David, however, loves that when we drive, we can park in the underground parking, which shoots us up a stairway right in front of the Orchestra Hall doors. Driving means we also don’t have to get to and from the train station, some eight blocks away; nor do we have to wait an hour or so for the next-to-the last commuter train to the western suburbs.

So drive we did, and in driving, we noticed the snowplows already blowing mounds of snow beside driveways and sidewalks. Cautiously, our friend steered his four-wheel-drive SUV through back streets and by ways to quickly hook up to a major artery going into the city. Hm-m-m-m. The streets weren’t so bad—we’re all hardy Midwesterners, you know. Most of us know how to drive cautiously in new-fallen snow. And many workers, at news of snowfall, had left their offices early. The expressways moved fast and we actually arrived at the underground parking with plenty of spots to choose from, close to the Jackson Street exit, and right on the minute to honor our dinner reservation.

Br-r-r-r-r-r. Of course, the temperature had dropped below 20 degrees. We bundled ourselves up against the wet, soft, white snow falling in our hair, laughed about all the little kids out on the streets with their Christmas-gift sleds, noticed a darling young mother shoveling her walk and towing a little toddler stuffed in a snowsuit on a sled behind her. We had a wonderful dinner, shared stories, laughed at our own foibles. The Chicago Symphony sound was lush and wondrous and reached, as usual, parts of the soul in the listener it is hard to explain to people who don’t understand or love classical music.

“First snow,” we said to the volunteers who held the doors for us as we entered and exited the Hall. “Yep!” they said. “We knew it would eventually get here.”

“First snow,” I said to the homeless woman selling Streetwise, the paper they publish that helps to support their needs. “Yes,” she replied. “First snow. Have a good night.”

Instead of turning left out of the parking garage, we turned right, intending to cruise down Michigan Avenue and catch a glimpse of the Christmas lights still in the trees shining through the blanket that now covered the cement flower troughs the city has built in the middle of the Avenue. Snow piled on the bridge spanning the Chicago River, on the ledges of buildings, and spread itself all over the ground.

“Oh,” we all exclaimed. “Isn’t it beautiful?”

Yes, it is. Despite the discomforts. Despite the blowing cold. Despite the hazards of slippery, unexpected falls or of car crashes, it is beautiful. Indeed, it is.

Though your sins be like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. I remembered this Scripture from Isaiah 1:18. But even biblically illiterate people see what I see. Ugly holes are covered by the first snow. Bare branches and breaks in the cement are hidden. The world is wound together in a bundling of white.

Though we hasten to home and safety (and to those provisions of food), every single one of us is in a kind of celebratory mood. Everyone sees that the ugliness around is covered, not to be noticed for as long as the snow stays on the ground, on the fences, on the paths in the wintered forests. There is a common metaphor here that reaches into the heart even of the unbeliever, the cynical, the twisted pervert, or the neglectful, inward-obsessed narcissist.

The world is white again. God has breathed His breath to cover us. First snow!

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-114)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Turning 69 today, with a husband who is 75, has forced an unending round of discussions on the aging process. We are determined to traverse these years left to us as well as possible.

I do not want to bore people with a litany of aches and ills. I do not want to hear myself saying (as so many of my aged friends say), “It’s no fun growing old.”

David and I want to age with grace, laughing through the years that come, accepting the physical and mental disabilities as a gift to keep our human demise before our eyes in a way that is anticipatory, not morbid.

So when I self-diagnosed the numbness and pain in my feet that activates whenever I wear the wrong shoes as Morton’s neuroma, I acquiesced to the fact that aging inevitably brings its own physical limitations. “It is what it is,” I remind myself.

A day getting the house ready and cooking for guests causes me to hobble around like I have a couple of marbles taped to the pad of my foot beneath my second and third toes—on both feet. High heels, obviously, are out.

“Aren’t you ever going to wear heels again?” asked David. No, I explained, I would not be wearing heels probably ever again. “Just pray that I don’t end up wearing a pair of orthopedic shoes.”

Obviously, I am responsible for the care of my feet. So, I make sure that any shoe I wear is ultra-comfortable, and doesn’t—in any way—pinch my toes. I buy padded lifts and slip them into shoes and I never, never walk far unless I am wearing a good pair of walking shoes that absorbs the impact of flesh on pavement. I have learned to be careful when trekking over uneven terrain.

This summer, on a 50th Wedding Anniversary trip to Italy, observing all the above precautions, we walked miles every day without the Morton’s neuroma acting up, crippling me and forcing me to spend a day in a hotel room off-itinerary. Maybe the ugly orthopedic shoes aren’t such a sure thing after all.

The other morning, however, during a prayer time, I had a totally unexpected thought. Why didn’t I use the stepping-on-marbles like pain as a reminder of the wounds of Christ? Why, when I was forced to take off a shoe because of aching feet, didn’t I intentionally remember that nails were pounded through His feet as He was impaled to the Cross. Certainly, as He pressed down against them in order to force His torso upward so His cramped lungs could suck in air, the nail-holes tore and worried the flesh and ligaments. Why didn’t I transform this minor discomfort on my own aging process into an intercessory remembrance of how Christ suffered and of how others suffer in the world?

So I have been attempting to do this work. Unlike St. Francis and other remarkable saints, I have never prayed for the stigmata, actual wounds in the flesh that come from intense and close identification with His death and suffering, but I can do this. I can look at this sometime discomfort as a gift.

Perhaps I have discovered a path forward to deal better with the inevitable signs of old age that will bring me joy in the process of physical decline.

God is in all things, even these thoughts on my 69th birthday.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-113)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
I spent a couple of weeks putting together a letter asking for travel funds for three of us who plan to visit the Global Bag Project, our work where a handful of Kenyan women are lifting themselves out of poverty by sewing lovely, artisan African bags. The project is at a crucial growth stage, and although I would like just to apply the travel funds toward their fabric purchases and their salaries, ten days spent together hugely encourages them, generates all kinds of product ideas and business plans, and keeps the stateside crew pumped for about six months!

Since my husband and I and our Global Bag Project Director have traveled to Africa about 11 times in the last five years, we have drained our personal resources and do need to look to friends to contribute to the travel fund.

You can imagine our wonder when a film project David and I had been talking about with another organization actually came through for the exact time we were planning to be in Kenya for a shoot!

This means our airfare, and half of our land fee, will be covered, and now all I have to do is raise land expense for two for the weeks we aren’t shooting!

When we teach people how to go on the God Hunt, we recommend they look for unusual evidences of God’s care. This certainly is an immediate example of that out of our personal experience. Not only do we love this kind of work since we were in the media industries for over 20 years and regret that we are not able to use our expertise in that field much, but the provision of the budget means is always a sign to us of God’s green light to involve ourselves in a project. When He doesn’t want us heading in certain directions, He just closes down the financial means!

With full and grateful hearts, we will be in pre-production planning on this film adventure for the next two months—grateful to be chosen. In addition, the funds will allow us to visit the Global Bag Project sewing sites, interact with our friends, and make joint plans for the future growth of the GBP development project.

Thank you, God. I spy You!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-112)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
We had a cancellation in our schedule this week—a standing Wednesday-morning appointment. Generally, when this happens, (no matter who cancels), David and I are glad. People who cancel are often contrite and apologize, but I truthfully can’t remember when David and I felt insulted or shafted because someone canceled out on us. We generally tell them not to worry and David and I say to one another, “Yeah!” It means we have a free space in the day where there had been no free space the day before.

I had been dancing around the scheduling book of a hairdresser who goes to our church, trying to get my little four-year old granddaughter in for a haircut. Her parents had given her a beauty-parlor kit for Christmas, so like any four-year-old, she took some scissors (not from the kit, of course) and whacked off a chunk of her hair. Angela, my daughter-in-law and Eliana’s mother, did a pretty good job of shaping everything by turning the “whacko” job into a darling bob—but it still needed a professional’s touch to finesse it.

However, Eliana’s schedule didn’t match Nancy, the beautician’s, schedule. So we went into lengthy negotiations.

Tuesday evening, after David and I had received word of the next morning’s cancellation, Nancy called me and said, “Guess what! I had a cancellation for tomorrow morning. Can your granddaughter make that?” I realized Eliana would be at daycare, several towns west of us. But suddenly I had a thought—I needed to get into the beauty parlor myself since I was leaving town to spend my 69th birthday with my eldest son and his family in Phoenix.

“Oh, I’ve just had a cancellation in my schedule,” I thought out loud. “Why don’t I take that appointment? Give me your address and I’ll see you tomorrow morning.” I had wanted to get to know Nancy a little better, so we took care of my neglected hair and had a little chat at the same time.

Wednesday morning, as I was leaving with a great haircut (and $63 dollars less in my bank account), Nancy said, “Oh Pam (a mutual friend) will be in the shop this afternoon.”

“Say hi to her for me,” I replied chuckling, since it was Pam and her husband who had canceled the Wednesday morning appointment!

Sometimes it is hard to recognize that the cancellations in our lives are often the very means by which God gives us space, by which He intervenes in our behalf, by which He rearranges our overcrowded lives.

I’ve learned to never complain about unexpected cancellations. At this stage in my life, I think to myself, Hm-m-m-m-m, I wonder what God has up His sleeve? Generally, what follows after this inward reminder is a heightened curiosity that more than makes up for any potential disappointment.

Look for God in the cancellations.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-111)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
I have been reading John Stott’s beautiful book Life in Christ, which includes replications of many of the grand master’s paintings of Jesus. Stott, who died a few months ago, was a great theologian and an exemplary Christian leader. This book is an ongoing exposition of all the Scriptures that have to do with the topic of “life in Christ.” One quote, which I read New Year’s Eve day, struck me. It was written by J. C. Ryle, the Bishop of Liverpool from 1850-1900. Life in Christ consists of Christ saying to us, “Abide in me. Cling to me. Stick fast to me. Live the life of close and intimate communion with me. Get nearer and nearer to me. Roll every burden on me. Cast your whole weight on me. Never let go your hold on me for a moment.”

The next morning, early, I checked my e-mail to find a note from a good friend. We had been having an ongoing conversation about my not pursuing my creative writing at this stage in my life. He chided me on allowing the not-so-important to divert me from what was most important. I disagreed with him about what was important and what was not important. It was, if not a heated exchange, a warm one.

So I shot him an e-mail showing him what I was doing regarding what I felt was important and he felt was not-so-important and assured him I was writing quite a bit (although just not for publication).

My first e-mail early on New Year’s Day was from this friend. And the dialogue continued with him asking the often-discussed question of how multi-gifted folk decide exactly where they devote their energies. “I guess the only way to know is to live a life that grows increasingly closer and closer to Christ.”

These two “nudges” reminded me of the set of cassettes that is stored in my book shelf that holds lectures dedicated to the topic of spiritual growth. They are recordings of the teachings of an Indian Christian spiritual leader, Brother Zac Poonen, and are profound in their emphasis that we must live a life in Christ.

Three nudges is more than enough. Obviously, this is to be the theme of my spiritual journey for this New Year. Since we no longer have a cassette player in the car, I will have to be intentional about listening to these 15 cassette teachings. The only place we have a cassette player is the small study at home where I often read the Scripture, pray and write in my journal. I have dubbed this place “the listening room.”

I just pulled down the Zac Poonen cassettes, and after I send these blogs off to my editor, I will carry these tapes down to the listening room, where I suspect I will be spending much time this year. I have much to learn about a life in Christ.

I spy God!

 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-110)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Because one of the workers at St. Mary’s Catholic Church Food Pantry lives on the same block as my son and daughter-in-law, we are often the recipients of free food. New provisions are being delivered and the shelves have to be cleared of fresh produce before it goes bad and in order to make room for the new.

“We have a box of frozen food for you,” Angela reported last week. The freezers at St. Mary’s had to be cleared due to year-end cleanout requirements and also due to another imminent delivery.

So I gladly took the food, thawed the green beans and mashed potatoes, and David and I enjoyed a good sliced-ham dinner, compliments of the free-food pantry. Several packages of meat, some penne pasta dishes, additional vegetables and a few unmarked plastic bags are now safely parked in the freezer in our garage.

I am grateful for this rather amusing and unusual provision of provender. We are glad to make sure this food doesn’t go to waste. We honked at the truck that was going up and down our son’s street, Clairmont Avenue, distributing other boxes to grateful neighbors, all with large families.

However, this gift of food makes me think of those who regularly receive supplies that supplement their meager incomes. I think of the generosity of donors and of the graciousness of volunteers. I remember those in countries I have visited who literally have nothing to eat. I see visions of starving children in refugee camps and of the lines I have seen forming for milk distribution and tin cans of grain.

I remember that food prices are going up all over the world, causing agony for the poor who suffer so much already. I ask God to forgive us our waste—Americans throw away as much as 40% of all they purchase—and to make me a more thrifty housewife.

And I pray for those who are hungry this day, for those who are watching infants waste away. “Oh, God. Bring provender to all living things on this earth. Help me not to forget those who have nothing to eat while I throw away what has spoiled or what is distasteful to our palate. Help me to honor the gift of this box of frozen food in a way that is a reminder of your intentions for all humans—health and happiness and harmony—and enough to eat.”

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-109)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
“Randall said that Nathanael almost had a terrible car accident,” my husband reported about a phone call with our eldest son who lives in Phoenix. Nathanael is old enough to have a learner’s permit and can drive with a licensed adult present in the car.

“What happened?” Of course, grandmother that I am, I was eager for the near-miss details.

It appears they had been driving on an expressway, mounted a hill and realized that logs had torn loose from a flatbed semi and were now rolling across the road toward them. Our son yelled to Nathanael to brake, pulled the wheel to steer the car away from impact, then immediately worried about the cars coming up the same hill behind them. Somehow, they avoided what could have become a tragic highway accident.

This is one of those lessons in the rationale behind defensive driving that all teens need to learn and that seasoned adult drivers often forget. On the road, it is impossible to know what surprise in the lane ahead may turn into life-threatening danger for any of us.

“Oh, I was almost in a collision on New Year’s Day.” I had forgotten to report this near-accident to my husband. Driving home from an early trip to the grocery store, with hardly any cars on the road, I paused at a four-way stoplight, and then began to turn when the light showed green and the left-turn arrow flashed. Suddenly I realized the black SUV traveling in the intersecting lane, Route 59, was going exceedingly fast and not slowing down. Instead of accelerating, which I should have done, I braked, putting me directly in the line of impact. Fortunately, the driver of the black car screeched on the brakes. I checked the signal—yep! the light was still green, the left-turn arrow still showing. I was the one in compliance. I lifted my hands in a what-the-heck-do-you-think-you’re-doing gesture, then proceeded to complete my turn.

I realized as I drove home that I had been spared a collision that would have hit our car right at the driver’s side and would have been a really, really bad beginning for the New Year.

It is at these moments when we remember that a loving God protects us from advancing dangers; they are reminders of His constant loving protection at times we know nothing about.

So I lift my heart in thanksgiving for myself, for our new teen driver Nathanael Mains, and for our families to say, “Thank you God, for these unusual evidences of your care that poke through the fabric of our daily lives to remind us that your web of protection is ever cast over all our days—even when we don’t know it.”

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-108)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Last night I woke at 1:15 and got up to do a few little tasks around the house, popped a Tylenol so I would be sleepy again in an hour, and set the timer so I would remember to go outside in the frigid cold to see if I could spot the Quadrantids—meteors that streak across the sky for about two hours in each time zone. The astronomers estimated that with a clear sky, the stalwart viewer could see as many as up to 100 falling stars an hour.

This, I felt, was worth losing sleep over.

So, I finished cleaning up the kitchen, started a crock-pot for ham-and-lentil soup, soaked some garbanzo beans for a salad, fiddled with the stubborn rings on the new shower curtains in the guest bathroom, and hung up the wet shower-curtain to dry so it wouldn’t shrink in the dryer.

At 3:00, I stepped outside, eager to spot 100 falling stars. Unfortunately, the night sky was filled with clouds. The 3/4 (last-quarter) moon, which had shone brightly through our bedroom window when I awoke, was now hidden; the midnight blue canopy of heaven was hidden. There was not a star in sight.

Now, I could have concluded that such a wonder as the Quadrantids didn’t exist. But instead, I trusted the experts. Conrad Jung, an astronomer at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, CA, guaranteed the meteor showers would occur on Wednesday morning, January 4. Mark Ressler, the Weather Channel meteorologist, predicted: “Viewing should be great over most of the country.” Not, it seems, over West Chicago, Illinois. I kept squinting into the northeast part of the sky as recommended—nothing.

My conclusions, rightly so, were that the cloud cover had obscured my meteor-spotting vision. I could see nothing but gray clouds, no clear starry sky. The meteors existed and were falling through the sky at 100 per hour behind the nighttime clouds. I just couldn’t see them.

The same kind of conclusion would be profitable for those of us who look for God in puzzling, vision-dimming circumstances. Because we cannot see Him does not mean He is not working on our behalf. The experts, the spiritual meteorologists, tell us that His loving, benevolent actions are falling around us (100 per hour!) but we are simply in a life zone where the heavenly sky is covered.

During these times we would be much wiser to conclude, “Well, I can’t see what is happening, but I choose to trust that His love is falling all around me. The trouble is not with His intents on my behalf. Something is clouding my view. One day I will see the Quadrantids. I will become a witness to His wonders.”

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-107)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Because we had such a wonderful Christmas season with our extended family—adult offspring and grandchildren—I was sure I would be filled with wonderful memories of how God had met us during these holy days.

Why!—the house was all decorated three weeks before Christmas! I had time to enjoy the music and the Christmas lights and my beautiful Noel banner hung on the summer trellis outside our front door. We attended concerts in the city, shared a wonderful Christmas Eve dinner at my daughter’s, spent two days together in a timeshare in rural Illinois, went to Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago with the grandchildren, and ended our week with a sing-along around my son’s piano following an appetizer supper.

Even so, those specific details eluded me—why?—I hadn’t taken the time to journal. With everything going on, I had let the recording of God’s daily work in my life pass so when I sat down at the computer to recount His goodness for this blog, my recall—filled with Christmas and the start-up of this new year and the schemes crowding my mind of how to become more efficient (a lifelong pursuit)—was just flushed away. I could not remember the intricacies of God’s goodness over the past two weeks!

David, my husband, read this psalm yesterday in the morning office. It was a reminder to me that if I am going to be faithful in going on the daily God Hunt, I must keep a written record of all the ways He has intervened in my ordinary life. And, I must keep that record every day. The God Hunt must be an intentional action on my part, not just an “Oh, by-the-way…” byproduct of life.

Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name,
make known his deeds among the peoples.
Sing to him, sing praises to him, and speak of all his marvelous works.
Glory in his holy Name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Search for the Lord and his strength, continually seek his face.
Remember the marvels he has done,
his wonders and the judgments of his mouth.
He has always been mindful of his covenant,
the promise he made for a thousand generations.
The covenant he made with Abraham, the oath that he swore to Isaac,
Which he established as a statute for Jacob,
An everlasting covenant for Israel.

—Psalm 105:1-5, 8-10

A journal is key to remembering God’s marvelous works; when God works in your life (and in my life), write it down.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-106)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Christmas starts for different people at different points. Some don’t feel like Christmas has begun until they have attended a concert of Handel’s Messiah. Others feel that Christmas starts when the tree is up, decorated and the lights are plugged in.

For me Christmas starts when the house is decorated—all three floors—the trees are up and lit and the Christmas table is set. Doing all this is no small chore since David and I have traditionally divided the holiday chores between us. He does the gift-buying and wrapping, he plans and purchases tickets for outstanding events. I decorate the house and plan the menu. I shop and cook. My husband does the kitchen clean up after the meal.
Also, any cards that get sent to friends are taken care of by David also.

This is a pretty good division of Christmas labor—at least, it works for us. It does mean that what rooms get decorated or not depends completely upon my schedule, strength and gumption.

This year, after three or four days of straight work, the house looked and felt like December magazine photos. I cannot say how many times I went up and down the attic steps, but the charley-horse cramps I felt at night indicated I’d taxed my physical abilities.

However, all this work was made worth it when my granddaughter Eliana dropped past (along with her Mom and Dad and little brother). “WOW!” she exclaimed, looking at the tree lights, and the nativity sets. “WOW!” The basement also received her acclamation. Eliana “WOW”-ed her way through my entire house.

I have to admit that not only was this slightly funny—was she “WOW!”-ing because she thought that was the appropriate thing to do? Or, was it because this was really a “WOW!”-ful experience for her?—but it made me feel really good that I had gone to all the work of filling the house with all the traditional Christmas things I dragged from the attic boxes.

I wonder if, like Eliana, I have been saying “WOW!” enough to God. Have I really let the deepest meanings of Christmas penetrate my heart and psyche once again? Have I been overwhelmed, filled with awe and struck by the beauty of it all? There have been exquisite moments, but have I made a point of “WOW”-ing all over the place?

Christ has come. God is with us. Christ is coming again. WOW!

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-105)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Several years back, a fabric-artist friend made me a NOEL banner out of kite fabric. But, I’ve never had a place to hang it. The design was meant to hang perpendicularly. To hang the bright blue strip with its curlicue letters horizontally, like a flag, meant that no one could read the message, NOEL (the French word for Christmas; a jubilant expression of Christmas joy).

I once hung it flat against a wall in the basement, but somehow that didn’t seem to be the dramatic setting its design demanded. So, I folded the banner, stored it in a cedar chest and, sadly, forgot about it.

Last summer, Amy Casper, the Wheaton College student, lived with us for about eight weeks after her graduation. She was a delight to have in the house. One morning we tackled a project I had been determined to start (AND finish) that summer. We pounded and spray-painted and joined together a rather stunning trellis for the brick wall beside the front door.

“Did you see our trellis?” we asked everyone who came to the front door. “Amy and I made that. We are WOMAN?” You get the idea. We were gleefully gloating over our accomplishment.

This Christmas I dug deeply down into the cedar chest and pulled out the NOEL banner. “Where in the world could I hang it this year? Certainly, there must be some place for this beautiful artisan fabric.”

The trellis! … Could it possibly fit on the trellis?

I pushed an empty flagpole rod through the top header, took some twine and tied the banner snugly against the wooden slats. The weather was climate enough that I was able to press a spotlight holder into the ground, run an outdoor extension-cord around the garage to an inside outlet, and lo and behold! the banner hung in place as though Amy and I had designed the trellis to hold it and it alone. The spot illuminated the NOEL graphics. And, at dusk, or in the deep of night, or in the northern grey of a December morning, my banner proclaims, it sings! It announces this age-old, jubilant expression of Christmas joy: NOEL! NOEL! NOEL!

That, of course, could not happen when it was folded, hidden and forgotten, underneath seasonal blankets and spare pillows for guests, at the bottom of a cedar chest with the top shut. A banner needs to be hung if it is to be seen and its message read.

NOEL!

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-104)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
My four-year-old granddaughter, Eliana, is being raised bilingually. She actually has three languages—Spanish, English, and Eliana. When in doubt she resorts to babble. Consequently, I only catch about one-third of what she enthusiastically reports to me.

To five of my grandchildren (Caitlyn, Landis, Nathanael, Elias and Nehemiah), I am Nina. To two of my grandchildren (Joscelyn and Ayden), I am Nonnie. Eliana started out by calling me Meena. Frankly, I have enough trouble remembering which grandchild calls me what. So, I worked hard to teach Elle that my grandma nomenclature began with an N, not an M. “Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah Nina, “ I would demonstrate. And she would answer, “Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah Meena.” It was just hard getting that M out of her head once it had taken lodging there.

However, last weekend I noticed that Eliana was calling me Nina, emphasizing the N, to my great pleasure. “Yeahh!” I shouted. “Great job, Eliana!” And then to be sure, “Who am I?”

“Nina,” she replied.

I am learning that when I have the little ones over—Nehemiah, age two, and Eliana, age four—the better part of wisdom is to put everything away and just park myself in the same room and play with them. This is not the time for me to make progress with tasks at hand.

Nehemiah gets absorbed in his toys, but Eliana explores the house. Her great curiosity drives her to open doors, investigate cupboards, etc. She leaves a remarkable trail behind her wherever her explorations have led.

Take the downstairs bath, for instance. The water glass, the soap dish, and my dried arrangement above the toilet had all been plundered. Soggy water sat in the glass, which had been stirred with a stalk pulled from the basket. Some random toy animals guarded this mess. There were hydrangea droppings on the floor, on the toilet seat, and on the rug.

Or, take the Advent Calendar on the table in front of the fireplace. Where did she find the scissors and how did she cut up that cardboard cover? I decided to leave the clean up for the next morning.

Instead, I took Eliana downstairs and we began to play “Monster-Meena.” This is where the grandmother stretches out under a blanket among the pillows on the couch, then pulls the cover over her head. The child approaches, discovers the grandmother who swoops her up onto the couch, tickling and shoveling her gently and roughly (yes it can be done) against the cushion. Much whooping and giggling ensues.

Sometimes we can’t make our mind up whether or not God is Monster-God. Because of our language development, we go around misnaming Him “nah-nah-nah-nah-nah-nah Meena.” Other people know Him by other more correct names. But, we’re sort of stuck with a childlike mispronunciation. If the occasion warrants and we find time to roughhouse on the soft couch among the pillows, to get close to Him in a playful kind of way, we may discover that He is so much more than our feeble attempts to describe Him can possibly achieve.

“The chief end of man is to enjoy God and love him forever.” —Westminster Catechism.

Have you had time to play with God this season? Enjoying God enough leads to loving Him forever. You may not only begin calling Him by another name, you may even hear His pet name for you.

“Who am I?” is a questions we humans wrestle with most of our lives. It is been my experience that knowing God better helps me answer that question well.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-103)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Some friends gave us their annual gift of a CD-mix with Christmas music taken from various sources. Moving in and out of the reading study in our home where we also keep the music library, I kept hearing little pieces of this song. I finally took time to sit and listen to the whole thing. It pretty much says it all.

Zechariah and the Least-Expected Places

Jerusalem and the holy temple filled with smoke
Zechariah shuns the news from the angel of hope
Stuck behind an incense cloud of religion and disappointment

God keeps slipping out of underneath rocks
in alleys off the beaten path.
Open both your eyes.

Prophet and kings and poets can contribute their work
Just like the eggs in a nest are alive with the promise of birds
But the Lord of Creation will not be subjected to expectation

God keeps slipping out of underneath rocks
in alleys off the beaten path.
Open both your eyes.

Elizabeth, barren, her knees black and dirty like coal
her consistent prayers float to the sky and revive her soul
God we will wait though we don’t understand your redemptive story.

God keeps slipping out of underneath rocks
in alleys off the beaten path.
Open both your eyes.

—So Elated

We are at the beginning of the Twelve Days of Christmas. There is still time to open both your eyes.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-102)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
David ordered tickets to attend the Ballet Folklorico at the Paramount Theatre in Aurora, IL. This auditorium restoration has returned the theatre to its original art-deco style. It is gorgeous and has served the western suburbs with dance and theatre for the last couple of decades. My husband invited some of the Hispanic friends who serve us in the bank we frequent.

We were not prepared to be stunned by the sheer beauty of the traditional costumes. It felt like the majority of the hundreds of Hispanic Americans in the audience were friends and family of the performers on stage, a local dance troupe. Everyone—kids parents, grandparents—were all certainly boosters.

At the end of the evening, the dancers came down off the stage into the aisles, and I noticed one middle-aged man stepping out of the audience and moving to the traditional rhythm with a teenage girl between 13 and 16 years of age. It felt like the people around me, even with the music and the dance and the clapping, took special notice. They nodded to one another and fixed their attention on this man and his young partner.

The Cuban émigré sitting beside me, with whom I’d been chatting during the intermission whispered, “You see that man? He is a priest in town here.”

Suddenly the picture became enchanting. This was a local pastor, known and beloved by many, grabbing the opportunity to celebrate the music of his native country by dancing part of the ballet folklórico in the aisles!

That piece ended. The dancers proceeded back up to the stage for the curtain calls. One woman in front of me motioned to the man who had danced, who was across the aisle from her. He collapsed in fake exhaustion back into his seat, pounded his chest with his hand, then made the sign of the cross over his heart.

The Ballet Folklorico provided us with a lovely, lovely pre-Christmas evening. “We’ll have to do this every year,” whispered my husband.

Yes, I thought. We must celebrate the fact that the High Priest has edged into our human performance and is wanting to step beside us to the rhythm of life’s music. Those who have eyes to see understand that this Dancing One is the One whose birth and life we celebrate this Christmas season.

Olé!

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-101)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
It annoys me that every Christmas season, we are almost the only house on the block that does not hang Christmas lights outside. I believe the Scripture that says,

“All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all the people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:3-5.

It is my persuasion that despite the belief system (or more correctly, non-belief system) of house decorators, shining lights at Christmas, particularly in the darkening north where we live, are a symbol of that light coming into the darkness. So, I am miffed that something always prohibits us from lighting that symbol outside our doors. (We are, after all, one of the Christian families on our street!).

Now, I am not talking about “Griswolding.” As a tradition, our son Jeremy and his wife and children drive through the streets of our town of West Chicago, awarding “Griswolds” (which the city also awards, apparently without our knowing anything about this). “Griswolds” refer to the National Lampoon’s Vacation comedy-film series that were originally inspired by National Lampoon magazine. The series primarily features the misadventures of the Griswold family, whose attempts to enjoy vacations and holidays are plagued with continual disasters and strangely ridiculous predicaments.

In an attempt to make the perfect Christmas, for instance, Clark Griswold (played by Chevy Chase) decorates the outside of his house with 250 strands of lights with 100 bulbs on each strand for a total of 25,000 light bulbs, enough to make the power company turn on their auxiliary nuclear generator. Clark also annoys his snobby next-door neighbors, Todd Chester, and in all that resides the comedy.

I frankly don’t want a “Griswold” scheme. I just want some tastefully understated lights that lead the way to the front door (which I am generally able to make hospitable) and glow out toward the street.

This year, however, we had unseasonably warm weather for Chicago (in the 40s and 50s), so I was able to get outside and set the spotlights into the ground before it froze. A newly hung trellis allowed me to secure the bright Christmas blue NOEL banner, made by a fabric-artist friend, but stored in a trunk for the last five years. I placed two tabletop trees with their own lights in summer garden pots on either side of the step leading to the front porch. And, when I turned on the light switches—one in the garage and one in the front hall—the lights softly illuminated the outside. It was beautiful.

Could this really be the David R. Mains domicile? No fuses blew. No bulbs cracked. No spotlights tipped over to crash on their flat faces.

On Hawthorne Lane in West Chicago, light shines in the darkness.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.” 1 John 1:5.

I spy God!
 
 
 
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Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-100)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
Since we were home the whole month of December, since it was a Mains family Christmas year (our kids spend the even-numbered years with their in-laws), since this was the first time in nine years when I hadn’t been planning and leading the annual Advent Retreat of Silence, I decided to decorate the house from top to bottom.

Now there is some reason to this madness; I’ve spent the entire year knowing that both my parents died at age 69, which I will turn in January 2012. This is not a morbid consideration for me—I feel prepared to die and don’t fear it (a sign on my household desk reads, “I don’t fear tomorrow. I have seen yesterday and I love today”). It’s more a matter of wondering what my parents would have done differently (what would anyone do differently) if they knew they had only one more year to live.

I do not want to leave behind a mess that my family has to spend weeks wading through in order to settle the estate (such as it is). So, part of my decision to decorate from top to bottom is one that entails a process of purging, reorganizing and relabeling.

“I can’t believe you’re cleaning your attic during the weeks leading up to Christmas,” said a friend. Since I had already organized it three summers back, the task is not so monumental as it sounds. But, I’ve also discovered a lovely secret to tackling onerous tasks. The secret is this: You must learn to love the work.

Do I love filling the house with Christmas beauty, or don’t I? I love it.

Do I love having organized drawers, closets and attics, or not? I love it.

Do I love getting rid of extra strings of lights we no longer use, the old tree that has been in the box unused since 2004 (I always put the date on the label so I know if I am using whatever is in those green and red plastic storage bins)? Yes, I really love ridding the attic of extra boxes.

This year, in case of early forgetfulness setting in, or in case of my children having to sort through the attic, I thought I’d even put together a clipboard explaining that the attic is divided into four seasons: Summer is on the immediate right-hand side, Winter is on the immediate left-hand side, Spring is on the middle right-hand side, and Fall is behind that.
Down the middle of the attic are canning supplies, picnic hampers and fans. I do have one woebegone corner to the far-left back, but I’ll tackle that when the weather warms again.

The strange thing about doing what you do out of love is that everything changes. I’ve put Christmas music on the CD player and listened to the joyful melodies of well-loved hymns. A friend and I had a baking morning together, laughing and sharing recipe secrets. As I’ve decorated, I’ve repaired along the way. The hinge on my sewing box, for instance, had come unscrewed. I found those small screwdrivers with the quarter-inch heads and fixed the brass hinge to the wooden back. I moved the button and clasp on a too-small waistline.

Moreover, because I am choosing to love what I do, I am blissfully happy. An aesthetic being with a demanding eye, I am deeply and sweetly pleasured by harmony of line, by balance of forms, and in this pleasure, I experience God’s love and approval.

Don’t ask me why—I don’t really know. But choosing to love the work this season leading up to Christmas, tearing apart the attic, decorating every room in the house (I think I may pick up one of those small wreaths and fix it to the front of the car), I feel His pleasure. This may be one of the best Christmases ever!

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-099)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
The Christmas responsibilities in our family divide up this way: David does all the Christmas shopping and orders gifts for friends. I decorate the house and do the holiday baking and meals. David cleans up after Christmas dinner. He also oversees the December calendar and purchases tickets (with extras, so we can invite old or new friends).

This year he purchased tickets to see The Nativity at Goodman Theater in Chicago. I saw an advertisement on television and realized it was a black performance group (Congo Square Theatre Company), but I was not prepared to be next to the only white folk in the audience. However, for me, since we worked for ten years in the inner city of Chicago, and attended an African-American church in the suburbs for six years, it felt like we were coming home. And, guess what, the audience dresses up. No sloppy excuse for casual here. There were heels and furs and fancy clothes, suits and ties. I loved it.

Inspired by Langston Hughes, one of the most important writers and thinkers of the Harlem Renaissance, this performing troupe attempts to celebrate what is best in this black life and culture.

The music moved through traditional Christmas music rendered in jazz and soul began to announce that “Christmas is coming.” With little deviation from the scriptural storyline or even from the exact words of the biblical narrative, the artists danced and swayed across the stage, their voices soaring with the earthy and true-toned musicality of church-experienced musicians.

It felt so good to be in a place where the Gospel was unabashedly presented, where the artists were comfortable enough to let a really good story tell itself. Tears began to well up in my eyes. I wiped them from my cheeks. My granddaughter, Joscelyn, grabbed my hand and squeezed. I looked at David and his eyes were teary. We, as well as many in the audience, were raising their hands.

Then Gabriel began to preach. She quoted the Scripture verbatim and the crowd began to respond. “Yes,” they said. “Preach it.”

It may have been Goodman Theater in the heart of the theatre district in Chicago. But, as far as I was concerned, we had been to church with our dear sisters and brothers. Christmas was not only coming, it had arrived, baby. It was here.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-098)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
For years now, whenever I take a bath, the water turns a translucent grayish-black. This is most concerting, because I think of a warm bath as a kind of non-sacramental form of baptism—at least a reminder that as a Christian, I have willingly entered the waters of baptism as a living metaphor of my life, death and resurrection in Jesus Christ.

A bath washes away not only the dirt of gardening, the dust and cobwebs of rummaging in the attic or in the basement, it soothes away achiness, comforts a disordered soul, and eases a too-active mind into sleep—either for the night or for a nap in the afternoon.

So, a bath that leaves a residue in the tub after the water has drained offends my sensibilities regarding the sacred meaning of cleansing and purifying.

When we had the water heater replaced two summers back, the plumber disengaged the water softener. “This just ain’t doing nothing for you, ma’am. Might as well turn it off.”

Even though the blackened water had existed before he disconnected that tank, I was anxious to purchase a new unit. This December my husband gave me a new water softener as my Christmas gift—I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more!

And, since the water is still a little grey, I’m thinking we probably need to replace the inside well-pump—we have well water with a high iron content. But, my baths are much, much better (as well as the kitchen-sink dishwater). We have lived in our home for 37 years, after all.

When I think that all around the world, the poor often have trouble drawing water. When they find a water source that is not polluted or putrefied, someone has to haul it, often for miles. My grey-black water is nothing compared to what others face when clean water is needed to drink, or to wash their hands, to bathe their children or to scrub clothes.

God is a God of clean water: He created it, He sanctified it for bathing and employed it as a sign of purification from sins. He commands, “Wash your hands your sinners and purify your hearts.” But more than anything, water is used as imagery to help us humans understand that God not only is the source of clean and pure physical water, He is also the source of spiritual cleansing: “The water that I give will become … a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The assurance in all this is that God’s Spirit within is experienced as a mysterious ever-renewed source, upwelling in fullness of life.

This is a great Advent meditation, one that fits with John the Baptist’s cry, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!” Advent, the season before Christmas, is a time for bathing.

I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-097)

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the every day occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:
 
 
 
A Scripture reading from Morning Prayer last week gave me some pause: Why would the compiler include that reading in this second week of Advent?

“Near the cross of Jesus, stood his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdela. Seeing his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing near her, Jesus said to his mother, ‘Woman, this is your son.’ Then to the disciple he said, ‘This is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.” (John 19:25-27)

Don’t you think that’s an odd Scripture for the season leading up to Christmas? It seems to me it would be more suitable for the Lenten season, which leads to Easter. And yet, Christ Himself compares His death to a kind of birth:

“When a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour as come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.” (John 16:21-22)

In fact, this imagery is intertwined throughout much of the Old and the New Testament.

After years of ministry, I know the season of Christmas is often the hardest part of the year for many. That first holiday after the death of a loved one is filled with the angst of ragged emotional surprises. Instead of celebration, the season is laden with jugular attacks, then, to be reminded in Advent—as we look toward the celebration of the birth of the Christ Child—that there is an agony that accompanies love, the agony of giving birth, the puzzlement of raising an exceptional child, the sword that pierces a mother’s soul when she sees him die.

How fitting to be reminded in Advent—that Jesus, while enduring the torture of crucifixion, tenderly, tenderly remembered His mother, a woman who after His death would need protection and shelter and comfort. Birth and life—aren’t they always commingled? A woman faces near-death in order to give life. A Son enters death in order to provide everlasting life.

What a mystery it all is—and what a wonder! I spy God!
 
 
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Award-winning author Karen Mains has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk. She has written about the God Hunt in her book by the same name, The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase and the Wonder of Being Found. A hardback copy can be ordered from Mainstay Ministries for $10.00 plus $4.95 shipping and handling. Contact Karen at info@mainstayministries.org and she will be happy to autograph a copy for you.

Karen continues to write content for her Christian blog, "Thoughts-by-Karen-Mains." In so doing, she desires to touch the lives of Christian women and men and help them find ways to walk closer with the Lord Jesus Christ. In addition, through silent retreats, spiritual teaching, women’s retreats, Christian vacation opportunities, and other ministry activities, Karen helps each Christian woman and man receive vital spiritual food.

Through her Hungry Souls ministry, Karen serves as a spiritual coach to many Christian women and men, and teaches a mentor-writing class. And, through the Global Bag Project, she is working to develop a network of African women who sew exquisite cloth reusable shopping bags, Africa bags. This microfinance women opportunity helps provide a much-needed sustainable income for struggling African families. For more information on this critically important project, please click here.

For decades, Karen and her husband, David, have served God through religious communications—radio, television, and print publication. The are the co-authors of the Kingdom Tales Trilogy: Tales of the Kingdom, Tales of the Resistance, and Tales of the Restoration. To find many valuable resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries main website, please click here.

Likewise, pastors will find special resources to help them prepare effective, life-transforming Sunday sermons by visiting David Mains’ website by clicking here.
 
 
(GHS-096)