Archives for June 2011

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 frankly admit that I am dependent upon the immigrant community. Cirilo, who lives with us, gives an hour or so a week in return for a basement room free of charge. And because he is a Master Gardener, has a huge work ethic, and is fast, he accomplishes more in that short time than I can in a day of labor—I promise you this is no exaggeration.

Willie Lopez takes on freelance painting jobs and dropped past after work one afternoon to see if we were ready to have the exterior of the house painted as we had talked about last summer. We agreed on a very fair price and set the date for the job to start. David informed me last week that he had been able to put aside enough to pay Willie, which is a gift to us, seeing as we have a very limited income with funds coming from freelance work—welcome, to be sure, but not regular. He is thorough, cleans up after himself, works efficiently and quickly.

Then, Isaac Chavez is my upholsterer. I love the pride he takes in his work, and his wife, Laura, is also a mistress at their trade. “This is a good piece of furniture,” he will say. “It is well-made.” I bring fabric samples in for him to approve. Isaac does not like to work with shoddy material and advises me on upholstering choices that will save me money.

God, we are told in Sunday School, made the world and all the people in it. When the lawn is mowed between the time I run to the grocery store and return, when the bedroom (including the ceiling) is painted in a morning, when my old, run-down chairs are returned gloriously restored (with some pillows covered in the same fabric thrown in for good measure), I am convinced that something divine is occurring through these people in my life.

I am grateful to them for the superior quality of their ideals. I am grateful for them that their prices for this good work are not so high that I can’t afford them. I am amazed that they keep us in mind and drop past to see if we are ready to have the work done this season. I am filled with high appreciation.

There is goodness in all of this. Though there is monetary exchange in this, I, nevertheless feel loved, comforted, and cared for. That has to be a work of 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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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:

One of the great gifts in a mature garden is that there is plenty to share—and deep joy that comes from giving away the plants that you have nurtured.

So, last week I dug out filipendula, Lady’s mantle, a flaming bush, mint, and false anemone for Marissa’s garden beds. Then, I potted up more of the same for my pastor’s wife, who has a beautifully seeded lawn and is ready to put in perennial beds. Pam went happily off with an SUV filled with black pots of freshly divided plants—she took all the Japanese iris we had dug out.

I remember the feeling. One spring, and for several summers after, a new friend planted a perennial garden with me, using all the divisions from her garden. What a gift! So, I know well what it means to have things given to you freely that you do not have the means to purchase for yourself.

But, more than the memory of having been a beneficiary of the generous bounty of someone else, there is simply joy—deep, deep satisfaction—in being able to give away the beauty of the garden: Lady’s mantle, with its pleated leaves that cup the raindrops; Canadian ginger, which forms the most satisfactory ground cover and that has tiny purple flowers that hide under the green leaves; the early spring purple flags of the Japanese iris. All these greening gifts that remind me continually of the infinite capacities of God’s creative nature, and that have delighted my eye morning after morning, season after season, year after year, are wondrous to me to share. I feel as though I had a pile of money and have given half it away. I feel as though I’ve had vegetables and shared it with the hungry.

This must be how God feels when He lavishes His gifts on us—joy that it is there to give, that it is beautiful, and that someone, one of His children, is thrilled to receive it. Thank You, God, that I have plenty from the garden to share. Thank You that I see You in the giving and receiving of it all.

Don’t let any skeptic ever tell you that hoarding is the rule and that there is no joy in giving it away. They lie.

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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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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’ve talked about the garden boxes in a previous blog post. Sometimes God appears in several ways during the same experience. So, I want to expand a bit on my previous post.

As David and I were building the last box for the vegetable garden just across the driveway from our front door, it occurred to me that these raised beds were a metaphor for what kind of dependency exists in “doing life”—no matter how individualistic we might pride ourselves on being, we simply can’t get through most of living without one another.

I’ve had the article on building raised beds for years, but when Cirilo, who lives with us and works on the estates along our road, cleared out what had become a weed bed and tilled the soil, then shoveled in half a truckload of good, clean topsoil, I knew it was time to make good on my plans.

Early this spring, my son Joel carved a few moments out of his schedule to translate the plans in the article into an actual box—so I had a wooden, three-dimensional template.

David and I carried it into the allotted space, I dug out dirt, centered it, lined the bottom with cardboard, replaced the dirt and planted various kinds of bean seeds. A lot of work for one garden box, to say the least.

I literally prayed for help. Lord, I am going to need help getting the other three boxes made, in the ground and planted.

At Book Club a couple days later, a younger friend, as we were chatting together, just said, “If there is anything I can do to help you, let me know.” Three days later, he and his wife dropped past after work, and in an hour and a half, two more boxes had been knocked together. (This despite buckets of sweat and swarms of mosquitoes.) A literal answer to prayer. Two 4 ft. X 4 ft. boxes had been built.

I dug out the box, set it, covered the bottom with some of my ubiquitous cardboard, replaced the dirt and planted it with tomatoes (the non-determinate kind).

Then, taking pity on me and because he had watched our friend, John, slap together two boxes, David built the last box—this one eight feet by four feet. We maneuvered it onto a dolly, eased it out of the garage, across the driveway, and lowered it into its appointed spot edging the strawberry bed.

Cirilo, Joel, Crilly, Karen, David—this is one clear example that illustrates a philosophy I firmly adhere to: The best way to do life is with teams. The solo stuff runs pretty thin pretty fast, but a committee can make big jobs doable. Moreover, what one doesn’t know, the other one will. And what the other one doesn’t know, another will.

My God Hunt journal listed the members of my raised-bed-box team—and I thanked God for each of them.

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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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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 thought about my granddaughter Joscelyn Timberlake when I looked at the row of Knock Out rose bushes. They needed trimming and fertilizing. I wonder if Josie would like to help me with that. Maybe I’ll give her a call this afternoon and see if she’ll spend part of a gardening day with me.

Josie is a teenager and her social calendar is full, with friends and school and play rehearsals. Since I don’t send text messages or check our Facebook pages frequently, we can lose touch in the busy schedule of both our lives. But, I needed help and Josie had loved working with me one morning in the garden. Besides, I am a great believer in mentoring by working with one another. It is my experience that competence and confidence are built when children, teens, and young adults achieve aptitudes in cooking, for instance, driving cars, or helping grandmothers in their gardens.

Lo and behold, when I arrived home, the phone rang, and it was Joscelyn calling to ask, “Nonnie, can I help you in the garden some day this week?” (I know from decades of living that sometimes we just grow a little tired of all our good friends, and sensed that maybe Joscelyn just needed to be with another age set.)

So Josie came past (arriving chauffeured by her father in the red convertible; she isn’t old enough to have a license). She ran the Rototiller for me in the front kitchen garden—a first. She deadheaded geraniums and irises, cut back the chives, trimmed the fading jonquil spears—all those little tasks that keep offending the passionate gardener’s eye, but take second stage to more demanding projects (like building four boxes for raised beds in the vegetable garden and getting them set in the dirt).

Then, because I had been working all morning and was reaching a point of exhaustion, Josie and I went bumping around doing errands, running to the nursery (she may be 14, but she loved the delightful “fairy gardens” the staff had created at my favorite growers), dropping past and saying “Hi!” to her toddler cousins, watching the Emmy Award-winning HBO production Temple Grandin (which she loved, as I suspected she might), and throwing a dinner together in the kitchen to share with Papa before he took her home.

In short, it was a perfectly enchanting day.

Time with those we love, no matter their age, are gifts from God. And so, I thank Him that Josie and my thoughts about one another crossed in that place, wherever it is, where love pauses to pay attention and think, Hm-m-m-m, I’d like to see Josie/Nonnie. I wonder what she’s doing today.

In these seemingly little, but really profound pleasures, I find His love.

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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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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:

This is our 50th wedding anniversary. It is amazing to us, given the completely different temperaments we have, that we have not only endured this many years of marriage, but that we have thrived.

Some friends are going to all the work of putting together a combination celebration and church reunion. Over 200 people are gathering this Sunday, June 26th, to worship God, catch up with one another, and say, “Good job in sticking together, you Mainses.”

All our children and grandchildren are coming, and we will go away to the summer home of our son-in-law’s brother, not too far away, in Michigan. All of this, of course, is gift enough for David and me. We’ve never been people to make much of birthdays or anniversaries—sometimes, I’m afraid, observing them in quasi-special ways only to have something sufficient to tell to friends who inquired, “So, how did you celebrate?”

But, as we were in the midst of gathering addresses and making sure our kids had this date down on all their calendars, I realized that God had given us an amazing 50th-anniversary present.

Last year, at the Stratford Festival, which we have attended for over 35 years each summer, some friends who have traveled with us overseas in the past mentioned that they would like to take the trip to Italy we had talked about for seven years. One of the small ministries I have undertaken has been to set up “pilgrimages” overseas. Journeying anywhere can be used as an incredible metaphor for the spiritual life. Some inheritance money had come their way they said, and we could use some toward this trip as a site visit for other pilgrimages with more people in the future.

These friends didn’t know that this summer, a year later, we would be celebrating our 50th anniversary, but God did. I am working on a journey to Italy for this fall—our anniversary year.

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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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 collecting cardboard for “lasagna gardening”—the technique of layering discarded decomposable material, that mixed with bags of soil or clay dug out of the garden beds, then replaced with good loam—eventually becomes friable, that golden mean of all gardener’s longings. Nothing grows well without a good growing medium.

So, I have been collecting collapsed cardboard boxes from my neighbor’s garbage piles and only needed a handful more to complete the first layer for the garden bed I am extending.

I was supposed to drop off my chandelier that needed rewiring, but the electrician’s shop didn’t open until 1:00 p.m., and I was 15 minutes early. I grabbed the 30-minutes-only parking space on the street and waited until I could carry the rather heavy chandelier around the corner to Rehm’s Electric.

I was parked beside the Home Brew Shop’s side entrance, where a crew of teens was hauling boxes that had been delivered into the store and breaking apart the cardboard that they wished to discard and stuffing it neatly into one large box.

Something inside me nudged, Don’t you need more cardboard? Well, here it is.

My deal with God is this: I have proven over the years that I am an inadequate botanist. So, I have promised to try to do better by taking care of the part of the good world He has entrusted to me to steward if He will function as the Master Gardener of our property.

Ask that kid if you can have that box stuffed with good biodegradable cardboard.

OK. OK, already—I don’t mind hauling things out of people’s garbage early in the morning when no one is around, but this was midday, on the street, and these young kids would probably think I was some kind of bag lady. (Which, when I think about it, I guess I am in a way.)

I hopped out of the car and made a deal: “Hey, you need to get rid of that cardboard and I would like to have it. Is it all right if I just put it in the back of my car?”

That box is now off the street, out of the car, and waiting for me to spread it in what will eventually become my west-side sun garden.

Master Gardener, indeed. He is the One who has taught me that everything is reusable, mostly repairable. Recycling is part of His redemptive plan for Earth and the humans who inhabit it. A box stuffed with cardboard was the great gift He could give me in that moment.

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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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:

There definitely is a disconnect between the paradise that is in my mind and the yard and garden that I see out my windows! The difficulty with artistic ideals for me is that I can live in them, not actualize them, for all kinds of reasons. Then I can settle into a state of what threatens to be terminal discontent.

Years back, I decided that for my own health’s sake I needed to express what I saw in my mind’s eye in concrete ways—on paper, with mixed media, or in the soil outside in my own yard.

Last summer, we made so much progress in the yard that I was convinced we could put in a vegetable garden this spring. Because the only space with enough sun is outside the front door, the garden would have to have some architectural design or it could easily degenerate into a weedy sprawl with scraggly, worm-bitten tomatoes, yellowing beans, and decomposing zucchini—which has been the state of most of the family gardens in my history.

We needed to put in raised beds. And, being given to grandiose plans beyond my capabilities—Paradise, after all, is in my mind’s eye—one week when David was in California, I bought and hauled enough wood and nails to make four (count them—four!) raised beds.

One week passed. David came home. Another week passed. A son took pity on me and, in the middle of a crunched production schedule, found time one Saturday afternoon to pound together the first box (according to the plan for making raised planting boxes, which I had torn from a magazine). Now we had a concrete template.

Another week passed. We were out of the planting month of May and into June. This was a two-person job—someone has to apply pressure on the boards while someone else pounds nails. I began to sense that I could have wood lying around for months—an all-too-familiar pattern of another idea going to rot. “Lord,” I prayed. “I’m going to need some help with this.”

On the second Sunday night of each month, we have a “Read and Intercede” book group. I mentioned to one of my young friends that this would be a good week to come and get whatever divisions from my garden she wanted to claim (the weather was in the cool 60s—perfect for transplanting). Her husband piped up, “Well, if you ever need any help with anything, let me know.” What was he thinking?

We laughed about my frequent “needing-help” dilemmas, and I told him about my boxes. “You don’t need to come and give me a hand, but don’t say you will and not fit it in. That will send me into my state of terminal disappointment.”

Well, he came on Tuesday night. He knocked two garden boxes together despite the swarms of mosquitoes and the high humidity, gave me a sweaty kiss and left with the last of the June night light.

Some prayers we pray take a long time to come to satisfactory fruition. Sometimes we even forget that we have prayed them. But there are others—often the ones we breathe into the atmosphere, desperate prayers that originate in the needy soul—that God seems to delight in answering. This was one.

David watched our friend slap the two boxes together and said, “Oh, now I know what to do. I can finish the last one for you.” Two answers for one prayer.

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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

Share this Article

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 people coming for dinner on Friday night, and because we live on a less-than-lavish-but-surprisingly-adequate income, I always check our cupboards and freezer to see what’s on hand before I rush out to the grocery store.

Ah, yes. There is a full frozen fish (head and all). It will make a dramatic presentation on my large white ironstone plate.

Then I remembered a casual conversation with a daughter-in-law who has been discovering the joys of home-cooking this summer. She and my son have been experimenting with okra (even planted some in the garden). “We love okra,” she said. Well, I’ll have to try that, I thought, making a note to get her recipe. I have been garnering raves over Angela’s black bean and mango salsa salad. The bowl holding a double recipe disappeared during the Monday-night company dinner. There were no leftovers for the staff lunch on Tuesday as I had planned!

Then I remembered that Angela also had raved about serving sweet potatoes. “People just love them. “‘What are these?’ they ask. ‘Are they a kind of squash?’ I just peel, boil and serve them with butter,” she informed me.

Sure enough, there they were—the sweet potatoes I had purchased on a shopping foray—and had forgotten were still in the potato and onion basket.

Let’s see, broiled fish AND sweet potatoes. Add rhubarb from the garden with strawberries for cobbler. Fresh mint iced tea—I was halfway to a completed menu without even stepping out the front door.

We often think God is not interested in the minor details of our lives. I DON’T think that way. For 38 years I’ve written down God’s provisions in the minimal essentials of daily life. A daughter-in-law’s casual comment served as a divine reminder that I needed to use up those sweet potatoes, and that they would be perfect for company on Friday night.

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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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:

This past May in Budapest (of all places), I had dinner with the couple who had organized our conference, which was examining church health ministry in Europe. The event was winding down, people were taking off for the airport and we just grabbed the evening to have dinner to get to know one another better.

In time my new friends mentioned that Catherine, among her many credentials, had been the past vice-president of the American Diabetes Association. This intrigued me because I have a daughter-in-law who has suffered with diabetes since she was four years old, and my grandson, their only child, came down with childhood-onset diabetes last year. He is now 11.

Our conversation was extremely informative—I realized there is so much about diabetes, including the long-range, cumulative impact of living with a chronic disease (from which there is no “vacation”), that I was not equipped to understand.

It “just so happened” that my new friends were coming to Chicago in June for the graduation of a son-in-law from the University of Chicago’s Ph.D. program. It “just so happened” they had some time and could have dinner in our home. It “just so happened” that my son and my grandson were free to join us. It “just so happened” we all got together last Monday night for cold cantaloupe soup, broiled salmon, braised asparagus, black bean mango salad, and dessert.

The more we talked, the more convinced I became that God had divinely appointed this meeting—Budapest to Chicago. David and I realized we really did not know what our adult kids were coping with in living with this interminable, “mean” disease. We needed to be more proactive and empathetic. Our son felt like he was having a discussion with one of the top experts on diabetes in the country, which he was—what a comfort.

At the end of the evening, Catherine and her husband urged our son to set up a support team to “do life” with this condition and gave specific suggestions as to how to go about this. Then Catherine leaned across the table and said, “One of the joys I have is being available to people who are struggling with the inevitable crunches a disease like diabetes can bring into their lives. If you ever need to talk to someone, ask a question, or if you ever just need an understanding friend, I want to be there for you.”

We teach people that one of the ways God intervenes in our daily lives is through unusual incidents of linkage and timing—those amazing circumstances about which we are inclined to say, “What an amazing coincidence!” But for those who walk with God, nothing is coincidental. Nothing is outside the circle of God’s loving care. He is the Circle whose Center is everywhere (even at dinner in Budapest) and whose Perimeter is nowhere.

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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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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’m a little overwhelmed these days with office work, garden projects I want to finish (and that I’ve been planning for years), a small group that meets at our home many weeks, work for an international board that I feel privileged to serve on, and an incredibly active and creative mind that keeps thinking up things I would still love to do.

So when the small group came to our home this Wednesday night for our dinner-together evening, I kept saying to myself, Keep it simple, keep it simple. Everyone was bringing salad or sauces, since we were trying out the resale pasta machine I bought for $5 at our nearby Goodwill store.

However, when I learned that we could have as many as 15 people at a sit-down dinner, I decided to move the dining locale to our backyard, which is in the glorious height of its spring bloom—a miracle in itself!

This meant hauling and borrowing tables, setting up chairs, filling canning jars with random cuttings from the yard for centerpieces, figuring out that “umbrella assemblage” I wanted to create for alfresco dining, and climbing up to the attic, then down again, with the basket of summer tablecloths, napkins, rattan paper-plate holders, etc. It meant running to World Market and seeing if there were any mosquito repellents made of lemongrass or citronella (one of our members has had mercury poisoning, and many of the chemical repellents are made with mercury as an ingredient). It meant finding a set of beach chairs—bright red with matching umbrellas—and buying them for summer backyard activities. It meant setting up a serving table with crocks for drinks and a large bouquet. It meant finding a way to run electric cords so we could put crock-pots with pasta sauces outside.

By the time our group began to arrive, I had been on my feet going since 4:30 and the Morton’s neuroma (a condition where the nerve endings become inflamed and the sufferer walks as though there are marbles beneath the skin of the third and fourth toe!) had activated, threatening to cripple me.

However, one of our small-group members has just graduated from college and needed a place to stay while she works to gather some funds and finds a place to intern, using her degree in anthropology, somewhere in the far distant world. Amy found a place with us.

She pitched in upon returning home from work, wrestled with the pasta machine, helped to carry serving dishes out in the yard, carried the dishes back in (as did everyone) after dinner, and stayed up to clean up all the serving dishes and the pots and pans while I went to bed with waves of muscle spasms attacking my legs. Usually, I can stamp away Charley horses, but not tonight.

I woke up the next morning, fairly well-rested and without muscle spasms, and headed down to what I discovered was a really, really cleaned-up kitchen!

One of the categories where we tell people to search for God’s intervention is this one: Help to do God’s work in the world. Amy was my answer to that prayer—just when I had about reached my limit in extending hospitality to our friends, just when I had pressed myself too far in gathering everything I would need for this first of what I hope will become many garden breakfasts or lunches or dinners, a helping hand with a strong back and a willing spirit came home from work. Perfect timing. Great gal.

An older friend once taught me that helping hands are all around. The helping hands on this night are certain evidence to me that God is in communities of friends who not only care for one another but who pitch when we get ourselves into pickles, when we try to do too much, or when we forget our limitations.

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 micro-finance 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. They 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.

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