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:

David and I have really high expectations for how churches should function—and most white, suburban middle-class churches don’t reach them.

They’re filled with good people with good intents who are sincere about their Christian journeys, but philosophically, we have been unable to find a match. This is partly because we’ve spent much, if not most, of our lives considering, carving out and embracing principles of church renewal, which we have seen bring exceptional spiritual life to local churches.

We’ve often realized that for whatever reasons, we are like two 600-pound gorillas sitting in a congregation. We want to serve; we want to be cooperative and affirming. We try to make friends with the pastor and the staff, but for some reason the two of us are just two too much.

I’m guessing that over the last 15 years, we’ve tried to be part of just about six local congregations—one of which was the second-oldest Baptist Church in DuPage County, an African-American church.

One young woman was attending a gathering of people interested in or working in the arts communities nearby. David asked her, “Where are you going to church?” When she replied, “Oh, we love our local church,” David and I thought we’d check it out. And when we discovered they met in the local school where I had been a student from 4th through 6th grade, we were even more intrigued. On top of that, half the people in attendance were college students, and since many churches are losing their young adults, David and I decided we needed to figure out what was attracting so many twenty-somethings to this church. It didn’t hurt that the first Sunday we attended was a potluck Sunday and our new friends (who loved their church) invited us to stay (we were by far the oldest people present). They even introduced us to some of their friends.

This is not a perfect church—the ideal of church they are attempting to achieve outstretches their capacities to achieve it. There has been a recent staffing crisis that has divided and dismayed, as such crises are apt to do. But after several months of attendance, we no longer feel we’re considered to be like two 600-pound gorillas that no one knows what to do with.

Our small group meets weekly, and we are coming to love and enjoy these new friends—an inter-generational mix to be sure—something we have always loved.

Everyone wants a place (or places) where they belong, are welcomed and affirmed. We are just grateful that for this present moment we seem to have found a spot on Earth where there is a fit.

A dysfunctional church can do incredible damage to people that corrodes their psyches for years, and sometimes, if they will let it, for the rest of their lives. A good church, however, one that reflects on Earth the nature of God in heaven—even when that church is not perfect—can give people a taste of that heavenly Kingdom we all long for—even when we say we do not believe.

How intriguing that a casual conversation in a gathering of artists has set us on a path toward finding a place where we belong.

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:

The nutrition class our daughter strongly recommended we enroll in cost $500 for the two of us—a lot of money for folks living on a somewhat limited income. But Melissa’s enthusiasm and strong recommendations influenced us to join—we would be introduced to which foods were healthy, which were loaded with dubious chemicals, a professional trainer would be provided for three sessions, and we would be assigned certain books to read and certain DVDs to watch. In addition, the nutrition teacher would take us to a nearby healthy-food market and walk us through the aisles.

Then the class was cancelled due to low registration.

We hadn’t really considered what we would do with the $500 we hadn’t spent on learning about good nutrition, when Willie Martinez knocked on our front door. He has done painting for us in the past. He is an excellent worker, affordable, and last year, I had asked him to give us an estimate on the cost to paint the outside of our house—a job that badly needs to be done.

“Karen,” my husband called. I was in the basement. When I reached the living room, there were Willie and David. “Willie wants to know if you still want the house painted. He has time and could schedule something in the weekend before July 4.”

“Absolutely,” I replied. And then we were both quiet—how were we going to pay for Willie’s reasonable fee? “Well,” Willie suggested. “You could pay me $500 to begin, and another $500 later…”

Our unspent $500 from the cancelled nutrition class!—David and I both took this as a sign that since we had the first installment, God would certainly provide for us and for Willie with the last two.

We told him to go ahead and start, and thanked God for this unexpected promissory payment.

This God Hunt Sighting is an answer to prayers made last summer when we had some unexpected funds come our way to do much-needed repairs on our neglected home. We just didn’t have quite enough to include Willie’s most needed skills. This summer, however, it looks as though that prayer is going to be answered.

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’ve often wondered if people realize what a gift it is when they give us unexpected chunks of time. Since earlier in my life I learned to recognize that God is often in the annoying interruptions, it has seemed only natural to give Him credit for those spaces that suddenly open and allow our schedules to breath.

There were actually two cancellations in this busy, busy week—our standing Wednesday morning mentoring appointment collapsed under incredible end-of-school complications, and the nutrition class our daughter insisted we needed to take didn’t have enough registrations to justify six weeks of meetings.

One Wednesday morning was cleared so we could get to the office early, and six weeks of Monday nights suddenly opened up in one swoop of non-registrations.

What a gift given during a week when we were struggling to get everything in.

Thank You, God. We see You working in the world on our behalf.

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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:

Before my daughter’s family left for a vacation in the southern part of France (compliments of her most generous father-in-law), she left me their return flight information. Since I had use of their Suburban for the week to haul the material for those ubiquitous house and garden spring projects, I had become the designated pick-up driver.

The flight schedule informed me that they would arrive at O’Hare on Swiss International Air Lines, Flight 8, at 3:45 on Saturday, June 4. Since it normally takes about an hour to pass the immigration check, pick up bags, then go through customs, I figured that if I left our house about 3:45, I would arrive at terminal 5—the International Terminal—about the same time Melissa, her husband, Doug, and their children, Josie and Ayden, would be stepping to the curb.

One small complication was that my husband, David, had also spent that week in California and would be arriving the same evening on Virgin Airlines. “So what time does your flight get in?” I asked him on one of our daily phone chats. “Let’s see,” he said, checking his flight itinerary. “Looks like I reach O’Hare at 10:45.”

I groaned: I’d have to turn around after picking up the France arrivals and head back by 10:15 to meet my husband at the arrival gate at 11:00. “You know what, when you get to San Francisco, why don’t you just see if Virgin Air has an earlier flight and room for you to fly home on it.”

Sure enough, David phoned just before boarding and said, “Well, I’m the last one they’ve called, but there is room for me to fly, so I should be into O’Hare by 4:30.”

It was a perfectly sunny morning when he contacted me. But by the time I checked to see if the Swiss Air flight was on time (it was ahead of time, flashed the computer notice), a huge rainstorm had hit the Chicago area. Oh-oh, it’ll be a miracle if both flights aren’t delayed and if I don’t spend the evening parked somewhere waiting for airplanes to land.

Did I mention that I had a new iPhone and really didn’t know how to use it, that the battery was down and I couldn’t answer incoming calls, and that I picked up the car charger but dropped it somewhere between the pelting rain off the front porch and the parked van? I was truly out of communication.

“How many times did you go around?” asked my son-in-law after we had loaded everyone and all the suitcases into the Suburban. “Just twice,” I answered.

I told them about David’s planned arrival and about my doubts as to whether he would get in. The weather had now cleared above our heads. “Yeah. They said the airport was closed for a while, but we slipped in before that call.”

Melissa tried to check for David’s flight arrival on her smart phone. I thought, Oh, well. If his flight is delayed, I’ll just have my family go ahead, wait for David and we’ll take a limo home. Nothing could be worse than having traveled for 18 hours, being exhausted and cranky and jet-lagged, and having to wait for Papa several hours for his plane to land.

“Does David have his cell phone?” asked Doug.

“Oh, you know David. He has it, but it probably isn’t turned on.”

From the back seat I heard Melissa: “Dad? Dad, where are you?” Then: “Dad’s at baggage. His plane just got in.” And in the next ten minutes, he was in the Suburban and we were all on our way home.

People often think God doesn’t care about the little details of our lives, but this perfect timing was way beyond airline schedules or massive storm systems. And I have sat for hours waiting for a delayed plane to take off or to arrive, so the question is: Where is God when things don’t work out so well? But this afternoon, we were all aware—kids included—that this timing was way beyond circumstantial. Something benevolent and good was working on our behalf.

I sight God who delights in intervening in the everyday circumstances of our complicated modern lives.

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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 don’t like to think of myself as an insomniac, but getting a good 7-8 hours of sleep per night is rare. My average is more around the 4-5 hour capacity.

People who study sleep say we need 7-8 hours to be healthy, and a friend, who is a doctor, emphasized to me recently that the less we sleep, the more years we take off our lives. Now, that’s a thought for someone who wakes regularly between 12:30 and 3:00 a.m. and who normally finds it impossible to get back to sleep.

Instead of wasting the time tossing and turning, I try to spend at least an hour of that wakeful period in bed in prayer. These have been precious moments but sometimes the prayer fills my mind with things of concern or with items I hope to accomplish when I get up. I do not find prayer to be a soporific.

Sometimes, I just give up and get up and have a profitable couple of hours straightening the house, working at my e-mail messages, or taking on neglected projects. When people ask, “How do you get so much done?”, I don’t answer, “Well, I just don’t sleep much.”

Of course, I begin dragging about 2 o’clock in the afternoon, and sometimes functionality is wasted for me. Not much is accomplished after that hour. Short naps do help and I try to keep myself from going to bed before 9:00. My prayer journal unfortunately begins each morning with an account of how much sleep I got the night before.

Recently, however, I have experienced a personal miracle. Last night, for instance, I slept—without waking—for eight full hours of sleep. And this has been happening more nights than not. I’m no longer beginning my morning prayers with an account of my lack of sleep!

The shift began when I read a book titled My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor. This is a gripping autobiographical account of Taylor’s personal observations as she recovered from a massive stroke in her brain.

One of the points the book makes is that our left brain is the center of all the chatter that often keeps us from centering in a place of peace (particularly during those wakeful nighttime hours) and that we need to learn to “step to the right of our left brains.” Using a cue from her book, I actually began imagining a black switch on the left side of my brain that I could turn off. Be quiet now, I would say to the left side of my inner workings. Be still. I’m turning you off.

Deliberately, I would step to the right (in my head) and concentrate on the now-ness of my present wakeful state. I would think of how pleasant it was to sleep in the velour sheets, to lie still beside my sleeping (and healthy) husband. I would hear the train whistle and rejoice that I could hear its exquisite moan in the nighttime hours—and then suddenly it would be morning! This took a couple of months, practicing the “switch-off-the-left-brain technique.

I don’t know how, exactly, but I am sleeping. I no longer record the hours in my journal. It is, simply, a remarkable answer to prayer.

The God who loves me is a God of the wakeful hours as well the One who is concerned about the hours I spend sleeping. He is also the One who created the brains we are just beginning to really understand.

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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:

Some rules of thumb that are working for me during this time of limited funds are:

Rule Number One: Don’t spend any money if you can help it.

Rule Number Two: Remember to pray about what you need.

Rule Number Three: Before purchasing, check to see if there is anything at hand you can use.

Let me illustrate:

I like to change the bedroom from a winter bedroom, with its heavy dark-paisley bedspread, assorted mound of throw pillows and contrasting cloth on the bedside table, to a lighter summer look. The winter scheme is terrific for our cold Chicago winters (we even crawl into the comfort of velour sheets, sparing the use of an electric blanket). But summers need something lighter, something cooler. I started to gather summer items three years ago. I found a white percale, flounced dust ruffle. My daughter-in-law passed along a quilted coverlet that served perfectly as a bedspread. I even broke my Limited Funds First Rule and ordered some pillow covers out of the Pottery Barn catalog.

The room looked much better though it wasn’t quite done, but I headed into this summer determined not to put any more money into seasonal change décor.

This summer a Wheaton College student, who is in between graduation and her next step, will be moving into our guest room. I spent a morning emptying closets, clearing out under the bathroom sink and making sure she would have enough drawer space.

In the process, I opened several boxes since I couldn’t remember what I had stored inside them. I found two beautiful pieces of lace cut work, mementos I had brought back from a trip to France, particularly from the Montmartre district of Paris.

One was a white tablecloth that fit the bedside table perfectly (protected from dust by the Pier 1 Imports round glass covering its top). The other was a cut work pillow cover, which I am running today to find a pillow to fill (hopefully at the nearby resale shop). These two fabric pieces finish the room perfectly, match the dust ruffle on the bed and have already been paid for! I consider them good gifts.

And I thank God, again in my prayer journal, for giving me an excuse to rummage and to find the lovely forgotten things waiting patiently all these years to be called into service.

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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 proudly took satisfaction in my handywoman’s electrical abilities and bragged about it to friends. For instance, when the wires in the set of chandeliers above our dining-room table started to fray, I decided (using my Electrical Wiring 101 book) that I could rewire them myself.

The shop where I had taken my re-wiring projects (garage-sale lamps that were so cheap to purchase, I could justify having them repaired) had closed, and try as I might, I couldn’t find another local tradesperson that would take on these small household tasks. So I learned to rewire the table lamps myself, installed an outdoor replacement front-door lamp, changed ordinary light switches into dimmer switches and finally, took on the chandeliers.

My pride at this accomplishment was overweening, to say the least. “I did them myself” was a favorite mantra. Until … until one of the chandeliers fell, almost on my husband’s head as he was working at the dining-room table. Thankfully his briefcase broke the fall, or else the glass chandelier would have shattered the glass table beneath it and been shattered as well—not to mention David’s pate!

Considering my electrical gifts a little more cautiously these days, I packed up the parts in a box labeled “Chandelier Parts” and hid the glass shade under one of the antique church pews that serve as benches on either side of our living-room fireplace.

There the shade has languished, gathering dust, waiting for some foot to kick it or for some grandchild to hit it with a hammer-like toy.

Yesterday, I was driving home from an errand using a route I frequently take and noticed a small shop with the sign Electrical Repairs in the window. Parking, I ran inside, quickly told my story of the self-repaired chandeliers and asked if the tradesman did those kind of repairs. “Sure do,” he replied.

Today, the chandelier glass shade and the box of parts are in the back seat of my car, and I will run them into the shop after work.

I have driven that street countless times and I have passed that sort of nondescript shop and never once noticed it, my eye being drawn to the more flashy boutiques nearby.

Thank you, God, I wrote in this morning’s prayer journal entry. Thank you for helping me to see. No more chandeliers threatening to fall on my husband’s head!

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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 self-diagnosed (using the Internet, of course) myself with a foot condition called Morton’s neuroma. Some writers have described it as walking with two marbles lodged under the skin beneath the third and fourth toe. Essentially the nerves that intertwine at this point in the foot have developed what I call, to describe the condition to family and friends, an inner callous. This then becomes inflamed.

Symptoms are numbness, soreness and radiating foot pain (hobbling around in the morning after a night’s sleep also—sometimes restless sleep caused by throbbing feet).  The medical prognosis is not too encouraging. Surgery is no guarantee, the Internet articles informed me, and sometimes even makes the condition worse.

Well, no more cheap resale shop-shoes for me, I thought. I had visions of ending up wearing those ugly orthopedic shoes with the clunky heels—black or that wretched dun color. One of my friends (she is a pastor with a theological degree) once said, “I just love sexy shoes.” I agree. I love to wear attractive and good-looking shoes.

However, I was hit with another idea when I tried on some walkers an acquaintance gave me last year. “Here,” she said. “I’m not wearing these. Are they your size?” They have a rocker arch, a Mary Jane strap, and really rounded toes—and they fit me. I wore them around some after my self-diagnosis and my feet felt really better.

During my weekly scan of the local resale shop—St. Vincent’s—I glanced at the shoe racks just to see if there were any attractive shoes with rounded toes and low heels. There were two black patent-leather pairs—one a flat with an open toe, the other with a one-and-a-half-inch heel and a strap. But they were 8½-size wide. I’ve only just advanced to wearing size 8, medium. Something inside me seemed to whisper, Try them on. I did, and lo and behold, they fit. There was no wear on the soles. The inner lining was not soiled, and there were no marks or scratches on the body of the shoe. I purchased both pairs, as good as new, for $4 each.

Better still, after I wear them, the Morton’s neuroma doesn’t act up. Maybe I just needed to buy a larger shoe size. How much pain does it take to overcome a woman’s vanity?

Every day, I write in my prayer journal the ways I have seen God work in my life the day before. I have done this, almost every day, for over 38 years. Yesterday I wrote: Thank you God for my new shoes. Thank you for showing me that maybe I was my own foot’s worst enemy—that I simply needed to find shoes that liked my feet. I believe in a God who is concerned if our feet hurt.

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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 year’s “lasagna” bed with last year’s dried hydrangeas
being sprayed a bright green for summer bouquets.

I am a passionate gardener with a mostly negative gardening budget ($0 to spend) and a 3/4-acre yard that is mostly clay—clay in Illinois! Who would have thought it? What an ugly juxtaposition of desire and reality! I can’t recount all the wailing and moaning that has resulted from my frustrated attempts to recreate a little paradise in West Chicago, IL.

Through the years, though, I have learned that even with no funds to pay for dirt to be hauled and dumped, there is a cheap, effective (albeit much slower) way to make good black topsoil. This technique is called lasagna gardening.

Basically, it is composting right on top of the grass, the weeds (or the clay) where you desire to put a garden bed. Admittedly, it creates an unsightly pile, which keeps growing bigger and bigger the more garden waste that gets heaped on it.

This is how you begin: Find enough cardboard to lay on top of the bed that you want to create or expand. Cover that area with the first layer. (I garbage-pick flattened cardboard boxes from other people’s discards heaps—in back alleys or on garbage pickup day, in roadside piles. I figure I am really helping the recycling program in my neighborhood.)

Then add a layer of fallen leaves and spread over the cardboard. The next layer can be some of that clay I’ve dug out of a garden bed and replaced with more workable loam. Then I toss weeds, shredded newspaper (which I tear in strips), some more fallen leaves, grass clippings, etc. When I’ve got a good pile, I might dump in some bags of cured manure, top everything off with mulch from the mulch dump, and cover with garden fabric (not plastic) so it can all steep in the rains and warm in the sun over the season (a whole spring, or summer, fall, or winter). When the pile has had a few months to disintegrate, I plant right on top of the decomposing mess. It is rapidly becoming, or soon will be, good black earth.

Amazingly, this is the recipe God has used for eons to create good earth—layer upon layer—leaf mold on the forest floor, for instance, or black loam growing beneath cycles of burgeoning, then dying, plants, anchored by grass roots long enough for it to return its profligate abundance! Mother Earth News has reported about this kind of convenient composting for the last 20 years. I discovered it ten years ago but am only beginning to go wild about it this summer. I’ve got lasagna beds starting all over the yard.

God is everywhere. We see His hand when we hunt for Him. Right now, I am fully aware that He is the Master Gardener who is teaching me that a good garden always begins with rich, black soil. He is also teaching me that everything is useful, that Resurrection can be seen in the compost piles all over my own back yard.

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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:

Checkbooks and I are not always on the very best of terms!

My husband, who balances his to the penny, as an act of enormous consideration and constant mercy, balances mine monthly. Not only are my checkbook notations often undecipherable, I have numlexia (number dyslexia), so the figures get twisted. AND—I do not remember phone numbers, hotel-room numbers, street addresses or cash-register totals from the moment I hear them to the next.

My husband, a Sudoku aficionado, calls my monthly bank statement “the ultimate Suduko puzzle”!

He’s kind about it, saying things like, “Well, if you didn’t have this numbers problem, you’d be a perfect woman. Then what would I have to help you with?” The man is a saint.

I do a little bit better with the Hungry Souls statements, the small division I manage at our ministry. However, in the middle of transferring this account to a closer bank, I took a trip to Budapest, and when I came back, I could find all the transfer papers—but no checkbook. Our accountant as well as our office manager were waiting to reconcile the bank statement, but no one had the checkbook.

“Do you know where the Hungry Souls checkbook is?” asked our office manager.

So I started searching—for a whole week. I looked in files, I looked in drawers, I looked in the satchels I lug to the office. No checkbook. Finally, I couldn’t bear the thought of inconveniencing everyone and went to sleep praying,Dear Lord, You are the Finder of all lost things; can you please help me locate that checkbook?

That inner nudge, which has become so familiar, prodded me, Have you searched your purses? I hadn’t, because I always clean out my purses, empty them actually before I place them on the closet shelf.

But this morning, I searched my purses, and in the black one with the black lining, in a black pocket, there was the black Hungry Souls checkbook.

We find God in our worlds when He answers our prayers—our silly prayers about miniature concerns as well as our profound prayers about huge overwhelming matters. I wrote this little incident down today in my prayer journal: “Thank You so much—Found HS Checkbook in black purse.”

And then I made a little notation at each point where I had written: “Help to find: 1. Hungry Souls bank record.”

I have recorded my prayers for over 38 years. No wonder I spy God daily.

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Award-winning author Karen Mains 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. 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.

Karen has long had an interest in spiritual formation and the obedient Christian walk and is the author of The God Hunt: The Delightful Chase & the Wonder of Being Found.

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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