What Does One Do?

10/02/2004

What does one do while living five months in a small town with no friends, no family, no regular church fellowship, no mall, no twenty-one screen movie theater, to name just a few of things that have been “missing” from our lives as we lived out the summer months in Fallon, Nevada—a small town of 25,000 people about one and half hours east of Lake Tahoe.

Jim’s job brought us to Fallon in May, and as he would go off to work each day doing safety checks for gas leaks, I would spend my days in our RV. We have called our RV many things from Residential Vehicle, to Roving Vehicle, but perhaps the best name for it is Resting Vehicle. That’s what RV’s allow you to do. There is little upkeep and no yard maintenance. When the day is done, there is no garage to clean and no rooms to paint. There is only dinner to prepare and an evening of relaxation ahead. Jim surely needed that after a day of walking the gas lines--I wasn’t so sure about me. Having spent the entire day alone, in silence, how happy would I be if he only wanted to rest in the evenings when I was ready to see the sights! But as the months went on, this way of life became more and more suited to, “Just what the doctor ordered.”

How many people in today’s society get to enjoy such peace and quiet? There was no one knocking on my door, no errands to really run besides the grocery store once a week and perhaps a trip to Wal-Mart from time to time. There were no church duties to perform because each week we would attend a different church, enjoying a new group of fellow believers and their unique styles of worship. With the boys raised and on their own, laundry had dwindled to almost nothing considering each day was warm and sunny and shorts and a t-shirt were the clothing requirements six days out of seven. 

I had left behind the pool-side chats I enjoyed in Tucson and come to a place where there was no pool, no hot tub, only a large green lawn out our window where the campers passing through town would pitch their tent for the night. We had a few neighbors who stayed for more than a couple nights, sometimes months, as we did, but I can’t say that I really got to know them well. We did have an incident one evening that brought all the neighbors out to get “acquainted.” A young man had jumped over the back fence of the RV park and came down on a four foot metal bar sticking out of the ground. He got stuck on it, and had to yell for help. Jim and another neighbor ran over to lift him off of it and we all comforted him, called his mom and gathered around as we waited for the ambulance to come and give him some aid. He will be just fine, but I’m sure he will NEVER hop over any fence again without checking his landing spot on the other side!!

As we have now left Fallon and are spending our last week here in Nevada just a half hour from Lake Tahoe, just outside the town of Minden, I have been mulling over what Fallon was all about, what God taught me there and what He would have me write about from that whole experience.

Why? Because, that is what I do!
Mull, and write!
Interesting life God has called me to… actually, I love it!

I knew my time in Fallon was not to be wasted. Once I got used to the “aloneness,” I knew that instead of fighting it and desiring the “big city life,” I should cherish it and take away from that quiet time everything and anything I could that would bring me into a closer relationship with my Lord. One thing I did not want to do was to end up back in a life with a more hectic pace and long for the serenity of Fallon when I had not appreciated it while I was there. So I settled in and began to dive deeper into prayer and God’s Word, relishing that quiet time that so few are privy to these days. Ahhh, what a time it became. One, I believe, that will forever shape my life in a better way.

In reading through Colossians this morning, I began to see some things about what I had just experienced in the last five months—about what God was teaching me in my times with Him each day. In verse 2:19 it says, “For we are joined together in his (Christ’s) body by his strong sinews, and we grow only as we get our nourishment and strength from God.”

“We grow only as we get our nourishment and strengthfrom God”…

Fallon is a farming and ranching community. It is a green and lush land right out in the middle of the desert, and I mean, MIDDLE of the desert. When I would
go out for occasional rides on my motorcycle, I could ride for an hour only to come upon a small town with a couple of houses and a post office. In between Fallon and that “sprawling metropolis” was nothing but desert! Dry and dusty! Things grow in Fallon because they are watered, frequently! Otherwise, Fallon would be as dry and dusty as the deserts that surround it.

How dry and dusty are our lives if we are not getting our nourishment and our strength from God. Are we a desert wasteland, or are we an oasis like Fallon? Are we a breath of fresh air that walks through the door and enters a room, or are we so parched we drain any bit of strength that anyone else in the room might have? In Fallon, I drank in God as never before. He quenched my thirst each day. I was not lonely; I was fully satisfied in Him. My nourishment came from Him and I believe it has caused me to grow! To know Him more intimately!

Just the other night we were out to dinner with new friends and as we shared stories back and forth, one of our new friends began to tell us what the difference is between “believing” and “knowing.” This explanation comes from a British man named Barry McGuire. The way he described the difference in these two words was actually a longer story than what I share here, but in short he said that the difference between being a believer and a knower is that a believer sits by the fire and believes the fire is hot. A knower is the one who sat by the fire with a marshmallow on the end of his stick and when the marshmallow falls off the stick into the flames and he then reaches in with bare hands to grab the marshmallow, he then KNOWS the fire is hot!

My ears perked right up at this story and I could relate to it so well. I have been a believer for many years, probably 25 plus at this point, but I did not become a “knower” until I felt how hot the fire can be. In losing Phil, I got burned!! It hurt! It got my attention! I could no longer just be a believer; I had to know that the Truth was the Truth and cling to it with all my might. I had to search it out and find out for myself if I truly would see my son again or if this was just a nice story in some fictional book. I got burned because I had experienced the fire and then I had to get hold of the Truth for myself, not just from what someone else told me! I found out that the fire is hot, and you can get burned, but God will heal those burns and turn them into something magnificent if given time and devoted prayer that leads us into the peace of His presence.

He has done this through his death on the cross in his own
human body. As a result, he has brought you into the very
presence of God, and you are holy and blameless as you
stand before him without a single fault. But you must continue
to believe this truth and stand in it firmly. Colossians 1:22b-23a (NLT)

I realize as we have moved into a larger city now and things are starting to pick up pace, just how the human body can spin inside! That’s right, spin!! I have gotten so used to peace and quiet and being alone with God for the greater portion of my day that I have grown very sensitive to when the spinning starts, something I probably would not have noticed as much before because my life was just as busy as everyone else’s. When we start to “spin” in the busyness of life, we start to get uptight and agitated and off balance. To me, it feels uncomfortable to “spin” now. I don’t want to spin; my desire is to be in perfect harmony with God.

Colossian 3:14-15 (NLT)
And the most important piece of clothing you must wear
is love. Love is what binds us all together in perfect harmony.
And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.
For as members of one body you are all called to live in
peace. And always be thankful.

How do we live in peace in this hectic world? I truly think there is only one way, to find that time with God each day, first thing, so we can stand firm and not be spinning. If we crawl out of bed spinning, how much faster will our lives continue to spin as the day gets started and we come in contact with other people and confusing situations and daily frustrations? The problem is, we are so used to spinning that we don’t realize the peace of God we are missing!! It says above, “let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts.” What does that mean, exactly? Well, I think after five months in Fallon, I have a little better understanding of Christ’s peace in my heart and as we start these wheels on our RV moving again, I don’t want to leave it behind in Fallon. I want that peace to travel with us wherever we go!! I’ve had a taste of what Paul was talking about to the people in Colosse and I don’t want to be without it! Will it be possible? I wish I could just bottle up what I experienced each day in Fallon and open it up each morning of the rest of my life, breathing it in and tasting its fullness. There’s only one way that is possible, and that’s to spend time in God’s presence each day.

Some may say I didn’t leave anything behind in Fallon because there wasn’t much there to start with! We did end up finally finding a church that could have become our church home while we were there. It was filled with wonderful people that we could have spent time with and they probably had a good women’s Bible study that I could have become a part of, but we didn’t find that church until we were about ready to leave town. I said to Jim, “What is God thinking? Why didn’t He lead us to this church the first month we were here?” Jim sort of laughed at me and said, “God knew exactly what He was doing. If we had found this church earlier you would have made friends and gotten so busy you would have missed out on what He was calling you to do during this time.”

He was so right, so right! I love lunches out with friends and fellowshipping with women about all the things God is busy doing, and just having a fun time with them. I could have been booked up solid in no time, but I don’t believe that is what God wanted me to do this summer. He wanted me to be quiet and to get to know Him as never before. How grateful I am!

Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the
realities of heaven, where Christ sits at God’s right hand in the place of honor
and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts. Do not think only about things down
here on earth. For you died when Christ died, and your real life is hidden with
Christ in God. And when Christ, who is your real life, is revealed to the whole
world, you will share in all his glory. Colossians 3:1-4 (NLT)

Did you ever watch that old show, “This Is Your Life!” I used to love when they would bring out old friends, old teachers, whomever, and surprise the people as they brought back so many of their memories of past years and all the people who had been a part of it. I guess I always imagined being in their place and seeing my first grade teacher again, Miss Borine, I believe her name was, although now she is not in her 20’s and probably not a “Miss.” She is probably in her 60’s or 70’s, and a grandmother!

Yes, that would have been my life, but what is Paul saying in the verse above? He said our real lives are hidden with Christ in God. What does that mean? Could it be possible that we have lives that we are missing? That those lives are hidden? And if they are, how do we find them and start living them instead of living what we think are our lives?

Confused? Let’s try to break this down…

When we get up in the morning, we know the life we are living. It consists of what the day holds, where we must run our children to--the dentist, the soccer game, the band practice--then we have meals to prepare, and errands to run. We have clothes to wash and jobs we need to spend at least eight hours doing if we’d like to get our weekly paycheck. We have church duties to take care of, etc… the list could be endless. And we call this, “our lives.” For the most part, our lives look like everyone else’s lives, and we think that is just fine. They’re not bad, they’re just what they are, we’re used to them, and we’ll live this way until Jesus comes back or God calls us home, whichever comes first! We’re reasonably happy, and even though we’d like a bit more excitement, it’s just not to be right now because we’re pretty busy, doing all the things we need to do.

Is the enemy stealing anything from us in all of that? I believe so! He’s stealing the abundant life we could be living with Christ in God! We don’t even miss this hidden life, for the most part, because things feel so normal--but take a person out of the city, place them in “no man’s land” for a few months, have them slow down and find nothing much to do in their day except get to know their Lord, and watch what happens!!

Let the words of Christ, in all their richness, live in your hearts
and make you wise. Colossians 3:16 (NLT)

Now, I’m not saying I’ve suddenly grown wise, that remains to be seen as the years go on, but I’m beginning to realize how very rich my heart feels as I spend more and more time living in the Words of Christ. That’s real living! That’s real life! That’s the life that gets stolen in the busyness, in the large cities; in the socializing we do with others instead of spending time with our Father each day. I’m not against socializing, believe me, I love it, but if that is all we are doing, we are missing the very best thing about each day we live, our relationship with our Savior that opens up our blinded eyes to His light that shines around us at all times.

I can see mountains outside our window as I write this, they are the Sierra Nevada Mountain range. I love to look up to the tallest one I can see and think of a verse a friend reminded me of just this week, Psalm 121:1-2, 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the LORD , the Maker of heaven and earth.” (NIV)  Taking the time to look up to the hills and think of our Lord, that is real life. That is what makes a day great! That is why I could spend five months in a place with very little so called “excitement” and be excited about each day!

I know that some were not pleased with a recent message I sent out called, “The good, the bad, the ugly.” I hope you noticed that I ended that message with “Still pondering…” because I am. I’m still pondering God in the “Bad” of our lives, but one conclusion I have come to…If God is not in control of the bad, if He is not in control of what Satan is doing, then the bad is out of control and that would scare me more than anything! It comforts me to know that God is in control of the good, the bad, and the ugly!

I don’t have all the answers, never will, and don’t want to even begin to think that I’m getting close, but what I do have time for is to think about some of these things that God is helping me work through. I have had a lot to work through in losing Phil. There are a lot of unanswered questions when a child dies, a lot of guilt that can be associated with that, real and imaginary. There is a lot of healing that needs to be done. There is a lot of pondering that goes on, and I don’t want to bury all my ponderings under the carpet and hope it goes away. I want to lift up the carpet and shake it out, let the dust fly and not be afraid of it. That is what I got to do in a town like Fallon! And believe me, there can be a lot of dust in the desert!!

Devote yourself to prayer with an alert mind
and thankful heart. Colossians 4:2 (NLT)

That short verse says so much. How many of us have the time to devote ourselves to prayer? How many of us have a mind that is cluttered with the life we think we have while we miss out on the life Jesus is wanting for us? How many of us start each day with a thankful heart? There have certainly been times in my life when I would have had to answer “No” to all three of those questions. I was busy, I was confused and I was not so very thankful! There may come a time in the future when Jesus will get buried alive in me again—a time when I will forget He is there, living in me, directing me, guiding me, and blessing each day with the air I breathe. I know that is certainly a possibility but I also know that if I devote myself to prayer each day, there is much less chance of that happening quite so quickly. And I know that if I can look back and see what a simple life with God is like, the life I have enjoyed in Fallon, then I will be able to draw from that and hopefully bring that along into the future as a very firm foundation that God has poured in my life.

I can’t tell you how excited I am about what will happen now! I have no idea what the future will look like but I know that God is good! Jim and I have seen God’s hand on our lives in so many amazing ways it just leaves us shaking our heads and giving thanks. We know the life we live right now, many would not want. We know it is simple and quiet and has no real roots anywhere. We know that being away from family and friends can be difficult, and with a new grandchild on the way (YES!! Chris and Holly are expecting May 18th) we will have even more reasons to want to return home to California as often as possible, but we will not give up what God is doing right now, there’s just no way. Not until God says, “Enough” will it be enough. We will continue on this path until we get a clear signal that it is time to change directions! It is an awesome life, living in a Rest Vehicle, and going where God leads us!

Work hard and cheerfully at whatever you do, as though
you were working for the Lord rather than for people.
Colossians 3:23 (NLT)

I believe Jim has done just that on a hot, tiring job in the middle of the desert, in the middle of the summer, and it has not gone unnoticed by those he works for. That is an awesome thing to witness! God’s anointing is not just on what we view as “church work,” it is on anything that believers are sent to do, on any job, in any situation, as long as it is done for the Lord. Jim does what he does, for the most part, so that I can do what I am doing, and I have a deep appreciation for that. To see God using Jim and blessing him with “atta boys” along the way gives us very grateful hearts.

I’m just sharing a bit of our lives here, I hope you don’t mind. We are just like two kids out here watching the wonders of God unfold. We are watching our family expand with new daughters-in-law and our new little granddaughter Denell, as well as a baby on the way that we are thrilled about! We are finding that the joy of life is found in the simple things. We are finding that life is not boring when it is quiet, it is wondrous! We are finding our God to be more than we could possibly have imagined and we know that we haven’t seen anything yet!! The best is yet to come, here on earth and in heaven beyond that!

We will continue to let our roots grow down into God and draw up nourishment from Him so we will grow in faith, strong and vigorous in the truth we were taught. Our lives will overflow with thanksgiving for all God has done! (Colossians 2:7 NLT)

Praising Him each day,

Jim and Diane