Kingdom Tales Trilogy

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I decided that there was not enough continuous sun for annual vegetables in the raised beds a son, a husband, and a friend worked to make for me in the front garden.

Last year drought took the tenuous vegetables and though a house guest worked to put in an irrigation system, a series of hoses and drip nozzles joined all together by lengths of black tubing, by the time all was ready, most of my annual vegetables had died.

This year, I am planting perennial vegetables. Due to the clay soil, it takes a few growing seasons for the roots of returning plants to find firm footing and if they do, then they begin to flourish. Clay soil, as difficult as it is to cultivate, also holds moisture better than the black loam I’ve been determined to create over these three decades of mostly frustrated gardening history.

A friend’s son who was interested in gardening, came with his mother one Sunday afternoon, and we did plant three rows of bush beans of the green variety. This morning I noticed that many were pushing up their heads and discarding the little cap that seems to sit atop each sprout. Well, I thought, at least the beans are up.

Rhubarb is in another box (with spinach seeds interspersed in the empty four corners) as is asparagus in another. I’ll probably trim the fern leaf tops of the asparagus, just to balance the work of their roots, and I’m eager to find horseradish to plant; it grows almost six feet high with strong architectural leaves—an unusual specimen for the vegetable plot. Angelica, another strong tall herb-grower, would also be excellent to discover.

Curiosity drives all this activity—how will they grow (if they grow)? Can they thrive?

“Oh, Lord,” I pray:

 “With all this scheming and dreaming, don’t let me forget that You are the Master Gardener. I am a lowly assistant. This garden is a collaboration between your divine design and my human intent.

Help me to remember that you delighted to walk and talk with your original earthlings in the ‘cool of the day’. Help me to work and walk with you in the same way. Amen.”

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

It’s rather ironic that the only windows that show the whole glorious vista of the back yard are the double windows in David’s study. If I want to check and see what is in new bloom, I run to my husband’s study and settle into exalted exultation.

“Oh, look the spring flocks are blooming. The irises are out. The peonies are popping. Look, David, look.”

The irony in this is that I am the family gardener. David puts in maybe an hour or so every two weeks, but I am the architect, the hauler, the digger, the composter, the delighter-in-the beauty and in the wonder of it all. Sometimes, I suspect, that if I weren’t always taking my husband by the hand, suggesting a garden walk, inviting him to sit with me on the patio, this dear, focused and concentrated man would not notice the panoply of life that is going on in our garden (and which I have worked so hard to achieve, wept and cried in frustration over—literally—and consequently been absolutely amazed by things growing as they are designed to grow.)

Perhaps there is a design in this fact that the only windows that look out over the whole back yard are those in David’s study. Perhaps he looks up more than I know and glances at the movable eye-feast that begins in early spring and advances in continual bloom all through the summer. Perhaps that design draws me into his study with the double windows, just to check again, so that I might say, “Oh, David, look, look!”

We need each other: I to see what focused intention accomplishes and David to have me continually demanding that he open his eyes and see. (“See, see, the roses in the front garden hedge are beginning to bloom. Oh, isn’t it all beautiful!”)

The additional irony is that God put this man and this woman together in this shared life and the greater miracle is that I have become a focused gardener and David is learning to notice (particularly since all he has to do is look up and out.)

Ironies aside, a glance out David’s window, a walk on the paths he has mostly laid out for me, the smell of the lilacs which languorously droop over the driveway glider, these beauties evoke prayer—pure prayer. My heart is joined. Selah!

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

 The evening after I had finally wrestled with the front patio garden making it spring clean, I invited my husband to sit in the cool of the dark. The weeds had been hoed, the bricks raked of fallen limbs and twigs. The planters had been filled with bright red geraniums, the red benches hosed and scrubbed. David had repaired the broken brace of the red umbrella. My unwieldy fountain (which is now leaking; last summer it was not bubbling) was plashing and splashing. The pillows a friend helped me sew were plumped and inviting. The night air was cool and comforting.

Suddenly, I started to laugh. The “Poston” antique bricks at our feet had been hauled from our home in Oak Park, Illinois some almost forty years ago. What besides deprivation had possessed me?

“Why are you laughing?” asked my husband.

“I can’t believe I made you haul all those bricks from Oak Park.”

Everything is possible, even the improbable, when you are in the twenties and thirties. But I am grateful for this touch of absurd madness, because I love the old brick rose of the patio and the walk leading to our front door. These bricks have been the key to our outdoor color scheme, deep rich brown on the house accented by shocking spots of red and maroon and wine.

In fact, when we moved to this house, which was three years old at the time, stacks of grey cement bricks and Chicago-style bricks were piled by the outside chimney. Through the years I have snitched them time after time. David laid a small brick square so I wouldn’t have to stand in mud while working at a potting table. I’m forever propping wood table-legs up on bricks to keep them from moldering in wet earth or piling bricks to elevate a large pot above the grasses or hosta, which will eventually hide them without this intervention.

The brick pile has been an unending gift to me through these years. I’ve neither paid for the bricks nor been wanting when their services were required.

I have plans for the grey cement bricks, of which we have quite a few. One of the back garden borders would look great with some edging, and this pile has been appointed for and assigned to that task. Hopefully, we’ll complete it during this growing season.

In nothing else I do, do I feel so completely inhabited by God.

 “Sing to the Lord with thanksgiving;
make music to our God upon the harp.
He covers the heavens with clouds and
prepares rain for the earth;
He makes grass to grow upon the mountains and
green plants to serve mankind.
He provides food for flocks and herds and
for the young ravens when they cry.
He is not impressed by the might of a horse,
he has no pleasure in the strength of a man;
But the Lord has pleasure in those who fear him,
in those who await his gracious favor.”

—Psalm 147:7-13

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:

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I had never heard before of the “reticular activating system,” but the women of my small Hungry Souls planning team seemed to be familiar with it. An Internet search informed me that the RAS is one of the most important parts of the brain. Neuroscience has revealed that this part of the brain, located near the stem, the thalamus (I am still learning, so pardon me, any neuroscientists reading my blog).

It performs various important functions, one of which is the regulation of transition between sleep and wakefulness, but the function of the reticular activating system that most intrigues me is its capacity to filter out information, once a person has programmed himself to achieve a certain goal—like writing a book on listening, as I am now doing. Having experienced this in other situations, such as when pregnant, noticing that the world is full of other pregnant women—something I had not noticed when I was not pregnant (the goal, of course, was to deliver a healthy baby), I am totally psyched for the quotes, conversations, books, testimonies to the physiological impact of the a regular practice of listening to others in a small-group setting.

Of course, one cannot scientifically measure the work of the Holy Spirit in laboratories set up to study the brain. Neurosurgeons think the brain is the most fascinating and complex organism on earth—naturally, they would. And I am prepared to give a nod to the RAS and to give praise to a Creator who could design such a complicated physiognomy that brilliant scientists can scarcely fathom its function.

For now, and because it is the habit of decades, I will give credit to the Holy Spirit who moves in mystery and brings to light truths we didn’t know we should know, and who displays beauty of thing or idea or of substance that we can scarcely apprehend; yet we do!

I trust that the RAS and the Holy Spirit, working in conjunction somehow, will focus my attention on the task at hand—and assist me in the learning I need in order to write the book I am impelled to write.

Amen.

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

Every morning during the growing season, I step out my back door to see what in the garden surprises me. At this time in May, it is the velvety wine-colored clematis that is thriving on the wall by my back door. Beyond it, the blue delphinium is in bloom, the purple iris is beginning to unfold, and the blue columbine that have self-planted are thriving small bushes in the patio garden.

This beauty causes me to catch my breath and praise my Creator for the sheer grace of it all. I give thanks that I am here to see the exquisite creatureliness of created things. For this morning moment, I am absolutely present. “To be present where we are,” says one writer, “is to wake up to this place.” I smell the earth, and the rain that has come and is gone; I want to yearn to fold my hands into the soil.

But I press my fingertips lightly against the velvet flower on the vine; I bless it and in turn am blessed by the beauty of it.

“We need to stay alert for moments of inspiration. The word inspiration means literally “in-breathing.” I breath in the world and know more of the God who has made it so unbearably lovely. I breath out again. I am still alive.

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

I wrote a list in my prayer journal, the one I had lost then found again. These are all projects I have finally figured out that would complete the admittedly idealized garden I want to complete after having lived in this house for the last 36 years.

Here is my list:

1. Sheds for the side yard as a privacy fence and for storage.
2. Crude structure for east side by house with fallen tree limbs attached. (I’d seen something like this at a Renaissance Faire and coveted something similar.)
3. Privacy fencing to fend this east side from eyes on the street.
4. Huge plants—acanthus; angelica; rhubarb—hard to find at local nurseries.
5. A matching outdoor light (bought on sale and stored in attic) hung by the back door.
6. Something stunning-looking in the cold frame garden that I haven’t been able to solve. A garden house? A play area for grandchildren? A miniature apple-tree orchard?

About this time, I began to hear that still, small voice saying, Now, wait a minute, dear; wait a minute.

I looked at the list again—my list—my list in which I am telling the God of the Universe what I want for my garden (after all, this has been a collaborative project from the start, some 36 years ago; a good portion of this garden is His garden).

OK. OK. Time to re-calibrate. Didn’t mean to tell You what I wanted You to do, God (Master Gardener). I’m sorry—I need to work myself into a place where I accept all these things as a gift from Your hand.

Still, small voice: Now, wait a minute, dear; wait a minute.

Whoops!—further re-calibration. Self-examination, a turning inward. Yep—too much attachment here: What I want. What I want. “The obstacle which we must overcome is attachment, even attachment to our own effort.” (Quote written in prayer journal.)

Resignation: Detachment is the cure. Detachment decreases our needs. I pray.

Lord, Master Designer, forgive me for running lustfully ahead of You. Just give me the gifts for the garden that You want me to have. Help me go forget my grand schemes (even backyard gardens can be conceived with grand schemes), and just toss it away to You. You design and provide what You want me to have to finish up the garden design. Just, please, help me to see the gifts that come my way. Amen.

 “Most loving Father, whose will it I for us to give thanks for all things, to fear nothing but the loss of you, and to cast all our care on you who cares for us. Preserve me from faithless fears and worldly anxieties, that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from me the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.” (Morning Office, The Divine Hours, Spring)

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.

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

It feels as though I did nothing but hunt for lost and misplaced things all last week. First, I misplaced my black leather satchel I haul to and from work. Securely tucked inside was my irreplaceable prayer journal. I searched the house high and low, checked the corners of my writing study, under the bed, in the closet, the downstairs listening room, the back seat of the car, the trunk of the car—well, you get the idea—a satchel-hunt search yielded nothing. Where could I have left my bag?

I discovered when time came to write these blogs that I am keeping as a spiritual discipline—to record God’s interventions in my everyday life—that I was having trouble remembering where I had seen His hand in the days. Usually, I list in the mornings all these wonderful, funny and amazing interludes that have convinced me in the almost four decades of recording that God is intimately involved in my life.

Oh, Lord, I prayed. You are the finder of lost things; help me to find that satchel—most of all help me to recover my prayer journal.

Even more proof for me that journal-keeping, a formal kind of list-making, is essential if we are to detect and remember the divine interactions with our all-too-human existence.

I lost the blue cash bag from a presentation I had made last Saturday and where I had a table of Global Bag Project products for sale. When I unloaded the car on Saturday afternoon, I remember thinking, I don’t want to leave this cash bag in the open on our office administrator’s desk… And I thought I remembered putting it somewhere—but after that, my memory was just blank. I opened desk drawers, looked on shelves, went through all the speaking folders; nothing. How could it just disappear? There hadn’t been a whole lot of sales—but it held pencils, a small desk calculator—it couldn’t just fall between some crack, could it?

Again the prayer of finding: Oh, Lord, You are the finder of lost things, people and places. What have I done with that money bag?

By now, I was suspecting that there was a theme of sorts developing here. Mains was losing things. So what?

Last week was the week I started to write the book on listening groups, Listening With My Fingertips. I could not find the book that first gave me the idea for that title, and I wanted to include it in my first chapter. I checked the spiritual-growth-books shelves in my writing study, hunted through the bookcases at the office, checked more carefully my books—those piled on surfaces and those stacked at the back of the shelves—nothing.

Lord, maybe I’m not supposed to be writing. If You want me to begin this week in this way, help me to find that resource.

On the way out the back door, one cool morning last week, heading out to do a quick job in the garden, I grabbed a hoodie off a hook in the hall. Lo and behold—there was my satchel. Oh and the journal—the prayer journal was inside. I never hang my work tote on those hooks, but there had been lots of people in the house, and I’d stored it there just to get it out of the way.

One lost thing found.

As I was checking to find the resource for the title Listening With My Fingertips, I decided to search through the library in the little first-floor listening room. There, sitting on a stool, totally nonchalantly as though it had nothing to do but gaze at the ceiling, was my blue cash bag. In plain sight. On top of the pile. Why had I not seen it there before? I had certainly passed by the study; one glance would have revealed its location.

“Oh by the way,” I informed my daughter. “I found the blue cash bag. It was on the stool in the downstairs library. Why on earth did I put it there?”

“Maybe you didn’t,” said my irrepressible Melissa. “Maybe some angel took pity on your always losing things and placed it where you couldn’t ignore it.”

At any rate, with relief that was proportional to replacing thousands of dollars, I turned the $180 over to our office manager this morning.

Finally, while sitting at my writing desk, I realized that a few of the binders of the books in the left-hand pile were facing the window. Turning these right-side out, sure enough, I found the book by Brother David Steindl-Rast, A Listening Heart. The writing proceeds as planned.

So what was the theme, the message important for me to understand, heard through the venue of these three lost things—satchel and cash bag and book? Now that I have time to stop hunting, with the found items in place; now that I have time to listen, the question comes, spoken quietly yet forthrightly, Haven’t you misplaced something important about yourself? Haven’t you lost your way a little? Haven’t you forgotten who it is I have created and expect you to be?

Whoops—with all the activity, the business, the responsibilities, the programs and the plans—I have lost me. I have lost me.

 “Almighty and merciful God, in your goodness keep me I pray, from all the things that may hurt me, that I, being ready both in mind and body, may accomplish with a free heart those things which belong to your purpose, through Jesus Christ my Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.”(Morning Office, The Divine Hours, Spring)

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 everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:

What pleasure $10 brings!
Catnaps after gardening. Swinging at night and looking up at the stars.

 Looking out my dining-room window on the barren March backyard, I saw the string hammock we purchased some 20 years ago, swinging forlornly between the two trees to which it is attached. Through the decades it has gone grey, but today I thought, Oh, I should really get a new hammock. That one looks pretty used.

Believe me, it has been used. Nine grandchildren, the oldest of whom is now 21 and the youngest of whom is now six months, have all swung to and fro in the hammock in the backyard.

I didn’t think about it any more. Come summer when the trees, bushes, grass and flowering plants are all green, when the four bright-blue pillows are bouncing on the string hammock, I’ll forget how forlorn and worn it looked in March. Because notes in my own grandmother’s hand, written to record some of the history of her family, indicated that her mother—my great-grandmother—had died after a fall from a hammock, I always check to make sure the hammock is solid. This grey hammock is sturdily attached to the two trees that guard it; not a string is frayed, not a knot untied.

It would probably serve us well for the next decade.

However, when I popped into St. Vincent’s, the closest resale shop I frequent, there in the back hall where odd items are stored, was a bright, new, white-as-white-could-be string hammock. “How much?” I inquired of my friend who manages the shop. “Oh, how ’bout $10?” I almost didn’t get it, thinking it was a frivolous purchase since the graying hammock would probably last for quite some time. Yet, I am trying to learn to pick up bargains at impulse (they are often gifts to me). I’ve regretted many of the purchases I’ve passed on—the latest being a big red sun umbrella that would have been PERFECT for the outside color scheme in our yard—Oh, well.

I bought the hammock, assured by the guarantee that if I unrolled it and discovered holes, I could return it in the morning. It was in perfect condition, and the hooks stretched the exact length to the two fasteners embedded in the trunks of the guardian trees. More than that, the clean, crisps white really looks beautiful. I can’t wait to pull out the blue outdoors pillows that are stored in the attic.

My question about all this is: Did God put the desire in my heart so that I would be open to hauling home a $10 resale hammock because He knew it would delight me? Or did He catch that thought and steer me within a month to walk into the resale shop when a nice new hammock was stored in the back hall, meaning it had just been delivered and wasn’t even priced yet?

I don’t know. I really don’t know. I just know that I am embarrassed by the lavish love of a divine process I can’t fathom or understand. I’m like a little child chanting, “Jesus loves me, this I know…” Perhaps the intricacies and mysteries of how God works are beyond my capacities. I just need to know that Jesus loves me. Yes, He does.

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.

Share this Article